Day: April 3, 2023

In 2016, the NBA saw the salary cap spike from $70 million to $94.1 million as new TV rights deals kicked in. That caused a scenario where the 2016 free agent class received contracts that were out of balance with the rest of the league.

With the NBA set to sign new media rights deals in 2025, another cap spike was looming. In order to avoid another spike, the NBA and NBPA have agreed to cap smoothing in the new CBA.

The smoothing agreement will see cap increases limited to 10%, while pushing any additional percentage increase into subsequent years. By smoothing out the increases, that should provide more balance to free agent classes over multiple years.

It had already been reported that in the new CBA that teams above the newly created second luxury tax apron would have restrictions on acquiring players. Those teams will lose the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception and will be restricted to re-signing their own players, draft picks and players via the minimum exception.

In addition, there will be further restrictions on the NBA’s most expensive teams. Those teams will not be able to send cash out in trades, trade first-round picks within a seven-year window and will not be able to sign players on the buyout market.

In addition, trade rules will be tweaked for those teams. Teams that are above the second tax apron, set at $17.5 million above the tax line, will not be able to receive more money in a trade than they send out.

That trade restriction could have impacted several recent high-profile deals. That includes Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns, Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks and James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets.

The NBA and NBPA have created a second salary cap apron as part of their new collective bargaining agreement.

Once a team is $17.5 million over the tax line, they will no longer have access to the taxpayer mid-level in free agency. This change will be eased into the salary cap over a period of years.

Under these changes, Golden State’s Donte DiVincenzo, Milwaukee’s Joe Ingles, Boston’s Danilo Gallinari and former Clippers guard John Wall wouldn’t have been able to sign with those teams last summer.

As a countermeasure to the second salary cap apron, there will be more spending and trade opportunities for teams at the middle and lower tiers of spending.

The league initially sought a hard cap, euphemistically called an Upper Spending Limit, which the NBPA was prepared to fight all the way to a work stoppage.