Details On New Collective Bargaining Agreement

The NBA and the NBPA have agreed in principle to a new seven-year Collective Bargaining Agreement, according to a league press release. The league also announced that both parties have agreed to extend the mutual deadline to opt out of the current CBA from December 15, 2016 to January 13, 2017 in order to give both sides enough time to review the terms of the agreement and vote on them. Details of the agreement are trickling out. Here’s the latest:

9:42pm: 

• Luxury tax penalties will be “softened” for some teams and trade rules will be “liberalized,” according to Sports Illustrated. Free agency terms will become more favorable for players in general with fewer restrictions on first-round picks and a shorter moratorium.
• A “comprehensive” program to deal with domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse will be established. The program will offer resources for players and their families. It will also contain a defined process for investigations.

9:10pm:

• In regards to the designated player rule for veteran extensions, only players who meet certain performance criteria, such as All-NBA team appearances, will be eligible for an extension, Zach Lowe of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). Lowe adds that the first year of a players extension can be worth up to 35% of the salary cap regardless of whether the team has the cap room or not.
• Teams will not be able to give a six-year extension to a player it just traded for, Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post relays (Twitter link).
• The window for teams to match offers during restricted free agency will be reduced from three days to two days, Stein tweets.

8:00pm:

• The 36-and-over rule, which removes the incentive for teams to sign players to long-term deals if their 36th birthday falls during the life of the deal, has been altered to a 38-and-under rule, sources tell Wojnarowski.

7:33pm:

• The deal is for seven years, but contains an opt-out after the sixth season, David Aldridge of NBA.com tweets.
• Minimum salaries will rise by about 45% beginning in the 2017/18 season, Scott Soshnick Of Bloomberg reports. The average player salary will also grow to $8.5MM, which is up from $5MM, and retired players are expected to get better benefits than in previous deals.
• The split in BRI is expected to be roughly the same as it was in the previous CBA with the players receiving 51%, Soshnick adds.
• Teams will be allowed to expand rosters by at least one and at most two players if additional players are sent to the D-League, Soshnick reports. These additional roster spots would be for the highly anticipated two-way contracts between the NBA and the D-League.
• The players union will take control of group marketing rights, Soshnick adds.
• The players union and the league will form a committee to decide how the NBA will use wearable technology and the data it produces, Soshnick relays.
• Teams will now be able to choose a designated veteran for a lengthy new contract, similar to how teams can use the designation player rookie extensions, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Extensions could  include up to six seasons once the player is entering the final year of his current deal.
• The league will shorten the preseason to a maximum of six games and start the regular season a week sooner in an effort to spread out games, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports (Twitter link).
• The league will keep the one-and-done draft rule for now, but the players union and the league will continue to research the issue and possibly change the rule during the life of the new CBA, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter link). Neither side is committed to keeping the rule, but the parties decided to table the issue for now.