Computer scientist Larry Coon is probably the foremost expert on the NBA's collective bargaining agreement among those who've never worked for the league or a team. Today, he updated his CBA FAQ website with the details of the latest CBA. We've heard plenty about the agreement over the past several months, including Coon's summary of the changes for ESPN.com. Some components of the new CBA haven't been widely reported until Coon's update today, though, so let's check out the highlights:
- Teams can now rid themselves of the cap hold for a first-round draft pick if the player and team agree in writing not to sign a contract for the season. This applies mostly to European players that teams sometimes draft before they're ready to play in the league.
- There is a new formula used for calculating whether teams are eligible for mid-level exceptions or eligible to receive a player in a sign and trade.
- While the salary cap is set at 44.74% of basketball related income, maximum salaries are based on 42.14% of BRI, meaning that max deals will be slightly lower than 25%, 30% or 35% of the cap, depending on the player's years of service.
- Players will receive their yearly salary over a 12-month period unless they request to have it doled out in larger chunks over six months or smaller payments over 18 months.
- Teams may defer up to 25% of a player's salary, down from 30% in the last CBA.
- Cap holds are as much as 50% larger, depending on whether the player is coming off a rookie scale contract.
- Certain criteria related to playing time will affect the size of the qualifying offers for players coming off their rookie contracts.
- Teams can now only load contracts with unlikely bonuses that total as much as 15% of the base salary, instead of 25%.
- A larger amount of money can be used to buy out a player's contract from overseas without counting against the cap.
- Non-taxpaying teams can trade for as much as 150% of the salaries they send out, plus $100K, when trading $0 to $9.8MM worth of salary. The amount is 100% plus $5MM when trading $9.8MM to $19.6MM, and 125% plus $100K when trading more than $19.6MM. This rule is more nuanced than previously reported.
- Teams can't do sign-and-trade deals once the season starts.
- Trade kickers are paid by the team trading the player, and not the other way around as it was in the old CBA.