Once NBA players digest all the details of the owners' new contract proposal -- including a clause that opens a way for more player demotions to the D-League -- it's hard to imagine even those desperate to play would be willing to ratify it, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher.

The D-League clause, which previously had not been disclosed, is one of several elements in the owners' proposal to the locked-out players that prompted one agent to describe the proposal as "draconian."

The clause would give teams the right to send a player down to the NBA Development League at any time during his first five years, paying him a reduced contract while he's there, a source who has examined the proposal told Bucher.

The owners' new proposal also would prohibit luxury tax-paying teams from sign-and-trade deals after a two-year "phase-in" period, according to sources.

Non-tax-paying teams also would be prohibited from using the mid-level exception if doing so would take them over the salary cap, sources said.

"They don't want to do a deal," one agent said of the owners' proposals. "And what they've underestimated is the resolve of the players."

The owners also proposed offseason drug testing and raising the age limit to 20 years old to enter the league, sources said.

A league official qualified both those issues and the NBDL clause as "B List" items that are still open to negotiation and not among the main points commissioner David Stern said are no longer up for discussion.

That D-League clause would only affect the 14th and 15th men on each team, sources said. It is also one of the B List issues that is not in the proposal the owners gave players last night.

Stern on Thursday offered players a deal that would, if approved, allow for 72-game season that would start Dec. 15.

"We both recognize the seriousness of what we're facing," Stern said. "I think both sides would like to begin the season on Dec. 15th, if that's possible. I think our teams want to start playing. That desire is matched by our players. We've done the best we can to cause that to happen. I think the events of the week and the offer that we presented had the desired impact of causing us both to focus intensely on whether there was a deal here to be done. We very much want to make the deal that's on the table that would get our players into training camp and to begin the 2011-12 season.

"I don't have a crystal ball. I just have the ability to hope that it will come to that and that our players will accept this revised proposal from the NBA."

Yet the league's latest pitch, according to sources briefed on its contents after adjustments were made Thursday night, contained what the union regards as minuscule financial inducements for the players after nearly 24 hours of negotiations this week.

That disappointed union leaders, who were expecting more after they made a commitment earlier in the week, for the first time since the lockout began, to accept a 50-50 split of annual Basketball Related Income.