LAS VEGAS — Perhaps the most pivotal leverage point among the NBA’s latest round of collective bargaining with the players association was the league’s urging for some form of upper spending limit — a hard stance on salary intent on kneecapping high-spending teams such as Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers and Brooklyn. It was clear, with this new CBA, the league wanted “to ensure that every team was in a position to compete for championships,” commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday, “and had the resources available to do so,” which has come by eliminating resources from the game’s giants.
The union, as expected, viewed anything resembling a full hard-cap as a non-starter, league sources told Yahoo Sports, and the ultimate result has so far produced a new “apron era” for the NBA’s transaction market, which has left team strategists and player representatives significantly handcuffed while attempting to conduct their business during this first offseason operating by the 2023 CBA. When the Clippers released a stunning statement before this free agency even opened early in the evening of June 30, Los Angeles made three pointed references at these sudden limitations “under the constraints of the new CBA” before the Clippers further detailed how an opt-in-and-trade scenario dealing Paul George “would have left us in a similar position under the new CBA, with very little asset value to justify the restrictions.” Instead, the Clippers were already suspecting they’d lose George on the open market, thanks to an eventual four-year maximum contract offer from Philadelphia. “At the same time, we’re excited by the opportunities we’ve now been afforded,” the Clippers’ statement read, “including greater flexibility under the new CBA.”
Lawrence Frank met with reporters this week at Summer League and Los Angeles’ chief executive doubled down on that stance. “Team building for each team is going to be different with this new CBA,” Frank said. “The ages of your best players and what they’re making impacts what you do. So we’ll look at everything, but we’re not going to be reckless.” And so, there was no trade for George, not even to the Warriors — who still appear willing to brave any apron penalties if it means truly contending as long as 34-year-old Stephen Curry laces his shoes. But once Golden State and Klay Thompson fully decided to part ways, even the Warriors pivoted out of the tax to open the full mid-level exception.
Through that lens, maybe it should be no surprise when Silver stepped to the podium inside Thomas & Mack Center on Tuesday evening, as the commissioner nodded, wearing a typical dark suit, white shirt but no tie, and revealed he was more than satisfied by the early returns of the NBA’s change in governing rules. Make no mistake: Silver and the league have relished the last six championships being claimed by six different teams. It’s become an undeniable trend. The NBA is wide open, and all 30 teams have a chance to claim the final crown.
“The early feedback is that the system appears to be working in that we are very clear that we set out to put more pressure on the high end,” Silver said. Later, he added, “Again, from what we want to see happen, we’re pretty happy.”
That is a stark contrast to reviews from team salary-cap staffers and player agents, but Silver does serve the 30 owners responsible for financing the nearly $200 million payrolls that are coming, thanks to the NBA’s incoming media rights deal that added Amazon and NBC as broadcast partners. Silver acknowledged the more challenging tax landscape has thus far made it more challenging for front offices to build and balance rosters, even if this should help the Sacramentos compete with the San Franciscos.
“I think what we’re seeing in the new deal is it’s going above the second apron, for example, doesn’t just have financial consequences. Those financial consequences are pretty severe, but they have impact on your ability to sign players and draft players,” Silver said. “What I’m hearing from teams, even as the second apron is moving to kick in, the teams are realizing there are real teeth in those provisions.”
Those realizations haven’t exactly helped smaller markets like Denver and Milwaukee benefit from this change of circumstances. The provisions have so far proved they have no prejudice on limiting the have-nots as well as the haves. It’s becoming harder, in some circumstances near impossible, for any good team to retain its homegrown, drafted and developed players — not just sign free agents because of a brazen billionaire or residing in an attractive destination. Denver made stealth acquisitions of Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, won a title, and the Nuggets were all but forced to lose both only two summers later. George-to-Philadelphia is a massive move, but after a relatively swift conclusion to its first fireworks, the free-agent market quickly shifted into a slower cycle, as veterans like Gary Trent Jr. are taking veteran minimums and Tyus Jones would likely require another sign-and-trade like DeMar DeRozan before him in order to claim a starter’s salary.
“I don’t know how to view this, but I know reports have come out that the summer was boring from a fan standpoint. I don’t certainly think it was,” Silver said. “We still saw a lot of critically important players moving from one team to another as free agents.
“But at the same time, I think this new system, while I don’t want it to be boring, I want to put teams in a position, 30 teams, to better compete. I think we’re on our way to doing that.”
Some team strategists have even suggested the first apron stands more disruptive than the public discussion has yet considered. That the restriction barring first apron teams from taking back a dollar more than they send out in trades could become as punitive as any penalty that comes with paying into the tax. How that impacts next February’s trade deadline, the first under this CBA, will be the next case study of these fresh rules. It seems the majority of agents these days now prefer clients to sign extensions with their incumbent clubs — avoiding free agency all together — and if that deal can’t come to fruition, attempt to steer that player to a team that is willing to reward him with a new contract. That’s why Lauri Markkanen, two weeks from becoming extension-eligible and entering the final year of his discount contract, is such a tantalizing trade candidate for so many.
Does that mean we’ll see even more midseason moves, like how Toronto sent Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby to the happy-to-pay-them Pacers and Knicks, respectively? In hindsight, would the Clippers have been better served by proactively working with George’s representation at CAA and looked to deal George at the trade deadline? Maybe Brandon Ingram has a wider range of trade suitors at that juncture of this cyclical calendar. Maybe that proves the best time for Miami and Jimmy Butler to truly explore his options elsewhere. But these are all theories that could simply prove futile if the salary matching rules prove too limiting. The state of contending rosters and the trajectories of many players’ careers will depend on that outcome.
“What I’ve learned over the years of having been part of the negotiation of many different deals,” Silver said, “is sometimes the impact is difficult to project and anticipate because ultimately it’s hard to model precisely how teams and players will respond to certain systems.”
