With any negotiation there comes a point where you need to cut your losses, look at the big picture, and realize you’re probably looking at the best deal you’re going to get.

Which is the point the owners and NBA players currently find themselves.

Are both sides happy with the current proposed split in revenue? No, but I think both sides have given as much as they are willing to give and if no deal is made by this afternoon then we’re in for a long, nasty lockout.

The key to any good negotiation is having both sides leaving a bit on the table and walking away wanting a bit more than they got, which is exactly the point where the owners and players find themselves.

Look, I know the players don’t want to sign a new CBA after a year which saw the NBA’s popularity rise to new levels, but the time has come for the players to swallow their pride and look at the big picture.

Who walks into their bosses office after one of their best years with the company and asks to a deduction in pay instead of a raise?

Nobody.

But, with the economy being what it is, combined with NBA teams losing money last season, it only stands to reason that the players would take some sort of a hit with the new CBA.

When the last CBA expired this past July, it was expected the owners would fight tooth and nail for a hard cap, non-guaranteed contracts and that players would never see anywhere close to 50% of Basketball Related Income (BRI).

Now? The hard cap is ditched, players will have guaranteed contracts and both sides are now left fighting over the BRI.

Which is exactly why the players need to ditch their demands for 53% and “settle” for 50%. Why? Because the players stand to lose around $2.1 billion in salaries if there’s no 2011-12 season. That works out to around $360 million per month, yet they’re holding out for $80 million.

Sorry, but the math just doesn’t add up.

Or, to look at things a different way, according to Larry Coon, “The players are holding out for an additional $120 million in 2011-12, but holding out costs them $82.4 million per week. They would lose everything they stand to gain this season in less than two weeks. On Monday the league is expected to announce the cancellation of the first two weeks of the season, which will cost the players $164.8 million.”

Not only that, but David Stern has threatened to walk away from the current concessions made and play hard ball once games are lost. If the players don’t like the current offer, it will only get worse once games are lost, as well as the money that would have been made on them.

As Stern joked last month, he “knows where the bodies are buried” from the last CBA battle. And with Stern running things, it will just be a matter of how messy this gets for the players if they don’t come to an agreement by tonight.

I understand the egos of the players are hurt because the owners feel they can “bully” them into inking a new deal. But, at the end of the day, is this about making more money or protecting your ego? Because if the players don’t sign something soon and games are lost then the owners will win by saving the money they desperately wanted to save.

Players can stomp their feet and pout about owners not playing fair until they are blue in the face, but the reality of the situation is the owners have made concessions on things they haven’t wanted to such as the hard cap and non-guaranteed contracts. By holding out the players will just cost themselves money and there is the chance fans may turn on them, which in turn would cost them endorsement money as well as money they will lose during missed games.

You can argue the owners haven’t made any real concessions, but entering the owners talk the past few months it has become painfully clear that real changes need to be made from a financial perspective. In my humble opinion, I’m shocked the owners have strayed away from their hard stance on those two topics as well as their desire for the BRI for players to be under 45%.

Because, after all, the owners will determine if there is a sell, and if they don’t like the terms there will be no CBA until they are happy with the framework of it.

It doesn’t matter if their offer doesn’t possess any real concessions from the last CBA, because the owners don’t need to sign a new CBA until they are happy with the terms. By losing this seasons they will be able to get out from under yet another year of bad contracts and save some much needed money.

If players don’t cut their losses today, things will spiral out of control pretty quickly for the players since they will no longer have any real leverage.