The only reason I think it has an outside chance of happening is I believe the teams have or will soon have a good idea of the parameters of the next CBA. They may not know all the final details but the league has to have a pretty good idea of where it needs salaries to be in order for all teams to remain financially viable. If there's likely to be a significant reduction in salaries it won't be long before that information filters out to the agents and players.
I disagree. Players always talk about how they want to go someplace they can win titles, but it's rarely true. They want money.
This whole thing about how Stoudemire wants the Suns to convince him that they're serious about competing is a farce. The conversation should go like this:
Stoudemire: So, are you guys going to keep contending if I stay?
Kerr: I don't know, Amar'e, you tell me. Are you going to learn to rebound? Are you going to bring your best effort in the playoffs? Are you going to fix your free-throw shooting? Those things are up to you, not me. If you do those, we have a good shot. Otherwise, probably not.
Stoudemire: Oh, uh, duh, leadership, Wikipedia, um ... okay. Tell me again how much money you can pay me?
Duncan took a below-market extension in order to help the Spurs, but cases like that are extremely rare, and it's worth noting that Duncan did it after he'd already won four titles with his team. I can't think of a single case where a max-level player in the prime of his career took less money in the name of winning.
As for the upcoming changes to the CBA, that doesn't affect what a player can be paid now, which is all they and their agents care about. Players don't want "the max" because it's some particular number; they want it because it's the most they can get.
The question of how
the league will implement salary reductions with the next CBA is a fascinating one. Unless they go to a hard cap, team with high payrolls will be able to keep everyone around, at least until their current contracts expire. So that will
widen the gap between the teams that are spending freely now and those that are more budget-conscious. It's going to take some clever minds to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't make a joke of the transition.