Ira Winderman

The guaranteed contract has become such a bane in the NBA's salary-cap and luxury-tax economy that it likely will be among the prime agenda items addressed before a new collective-bargaining agreement is reached for the 2011-12 season.

For now, the issue is guaranteed playing time, and whether that, too, should be an inalienable NBA right.

It is the issue that is at the heart of the two most visible cases on the NBA's off-court docket:

McGrady v. Rockets.

And Robinson v. Knicks.

Tracy McGrady wants to play. He wants to play the type of role he believes he has earned, now that he seemingly is past his latest health crisis.

Nate Robinson wants to play. He wants to play the frenetic style that makes him so marketable, because he needs to be marketable next summer when he again becomes a free agent.

Their teams? They just want to win, and have been winning at such surprisingly resilient paces that they see no need to alter the current chemistry.

So Robinson's agent dares lobby for a trade, and Robinson is whacked with a $25,000 fine.

As for McGrady, he simply is told to wait until a trade can be made that maximizes his value as an expiring contract, even if that opening doesn't coming until far closer to the Feb. 18 trading deadline.

Oh, and both will continue to be paid every dollar they have been contracted for (likely including the $25,000 Robinson will regain upon appeal, because, after all, agents talk, it's what they do).

If Robinson didn't want this type of situation, he could have found a longer-term deal from another team as a restricted free agent last summer, when the Knicks hardly were willing to pay anyone or anything beyond this coming June.

If McGrady truly merits more exposure, he could have maximized his minimal minutes, made the coaching staff take notice during practice. Greatness, as they say, finds a way.

When lesser players are told to sit and wait, they sit, get paid and wait. While their skill set might be more advanced, Robinson and McGrady are enduring what those sports-coat duos and trios at the ends of benches endure on a nightly basis.

If David Stern's goal with the Robinson fine was to cease the chatter, good.

The Knicks, at least until recently, were winning. That's a good thing.

Ditto for the Rockets, with Rick Adelman moving toward a Coach of the Year award.

Knicks fans have Danilo Gallinari. And hope.

Rockets fans have the best ensemble this side of the Entourage crew.

And Robinson and McGrady still have their paychecks.

Which, at worst, should be considered hush money.

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Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.