The NBA and its players union have made “significant progress” toward reaching a new collective bargaining agreement in recent weeks and are finding common ground on several important issues, writes Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Both sides are motivated to get a CBA in place before the March 31 deadline, which has been extended twice already after originally being set for December 15. That’s the deadline for either side to opt out of the current arrangement, which is set to expire after the 2023/24 season.
Sources tell Charania that the NBPA has notified the league office that it hopes to finalize a new CBA sometime in March.
“We want to finish this deal soon and certainly want this wrapped up before the (March 31) deadline,” said a high-ranking source involved in negotiations. “It’s close — we need to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.”
According to Charania, the league and the union are negotiating a new luxury tax system that would increase the lower tier and lessen the penalties for teams that are barely above the threshold. With salaries rapidly increasing, Charania states that a new bracket tier will allow teams to keep pace without incurring a heavy tax bill.
Charania notes that the current system imposes a tax rate of $1.50 for every dollar over the cap for teams that exceed the tax threshold by less than $5MM. That rises to $1.75 per each dollar for teams that are over by $5MM but less than $10MM. The NBA and the union want to redefine those brackets without getting rid of the punitive penalties for teams at the upper tax levels.
There’s more from Charania on the state of negotiations:
- The NBA wants language in the new CBA regarding load management and the frequent resting of star players. Charania states that the league is also concerned about whether Diamond Sports’ Regional Sports Network is able to continue broadcasting games for 16 of the 30 teams.
- Charania cites “momentum” for lowering the draft age to 18 and eliminating the current “one-and-done” system in college basketball, but he adds that the NBPA wants to include conditions that would protect veteran players.
- Contract extension limits, which are currently 120% in the first year of a new extension, may be raised to 140% or 150%. That allows players with contracts that have become below market value to lock down significant raises moving forward. Charania notes that players who could benefit immediately include Toronto’s OG Anunoby, Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis and Utah’s Lauri Markkanen.
- The league also wants to smooth out upcoming increases in the salary cap and hopes to avoid a repeat of the sudden spike that happened in 2016.
i also liked what the owner of the warriors said about how theyre taxed but its mostly homegrown talent. i thought that woulda became a bigger topic
Load management is the biggest issue for me.
As a fan, some of these bums collecting pay checks and giving up is an issue. Non-guaranteed contracts would fix that…but the NBA is a player driven league and that will never happen.
However, I think they should get rid of the 5-year max. 4-yr max for home team, 3-yr max for signing with a different team. A lot of max and super max deals look bad or didn’t work out for the teams that signed them.
Blake Griffin, Ben Simmons, Kevin Love, Otto Porter, Gordon Hayward, Drummond, John Wall, Westbrook, Bradley Beal. You could even make arguments about KD, Kyrie, Harden, and Kawhi due to injuries/wanting out.
100% agree. These dogs make 50 mil a year and then decide to sit out or request a trade. Its never enough for these bums
Appears no real issue is going to be addressed in a significant way. Fully expected, with a lackey like Silver in charge; but its still disappointing. Apparently, tanking, the dying free agent market, and the increasingly irrelevant regular season, were either not addressed at all, or made worse.
My chief concern is competitive.
In order to allow teams to be more competitive, nba would have to increase salary cap amount and decrease luxury tax line amount.
Example – next season
Cap increases from $134MM to 154MM
Tax decreases from $162MM to 154MM
Sadly your probably correct-
When everybody’s pockets are getting filled nobody wants to rock the boat
I’m still keeping my fingers crossed tho
They’d better work something out. I don’t have any patience…
In East
Bucks and 76ers trade away all the future picks to defeat other teams
Other teams can’t compete
My suggestion
CBA should not allow the teams to trade away picks from 2027, 2028, 2029.
And when Giannis and Embiid are old, then those picks may be worth a lot to a team that nabbed them. Every team plays with the same cap. I think it should be a lot stricter for those in the third and higher tier but I’m not sure they’re going to do that.
I hate the 140-150% spike from 120%
This gives players more (unfound imo) current leverage over existing team played for- Can hurt the small market teams on the ledger who either need to maintain/overpay a quasi star player or entertain letting him walk (on an overpay) and have to deal with (ill-sighted) fan remorse
Even as a Big market team fan I’m rooting for small market this CBA. You just get so much of a better product at the end of the day. I think the last CBA tried to help small markets but agents/player power circumvented that afterwards inorganically. Hope they tighten up some of those areas
**Tanking NEEDS to be addressed 100% – Don’t encourage ping pong ball chasing moving forward
Strangely, though, it’s been the gang of small market owners (at least in the past 3 CBAs) that have pushed for “the right” to pay their existing players more and sooner. They, not the players, authored early RSC extensions, the super-max, etc. Even though, it’s now clear, that “the right” to pay more and sooner, means “the obligation” to do so (or be accused of disrespect), they still seem more focused on keeping their best players from getting to free agency, even if they have to overpay them and a few others to do it.
I wonder why large market owners – or any owners of teams that might aspire to sign elite players in their prime in the free agent market – don’t push back against at least some of this. And I wonder why all owners (and their Commish) can’t see that paying these players more and sooner no longer means they’re committed longer. They take the security then demand a trade.