New CBA agreement

[DanSchwartzgan]

Clearly, there's a huge premium on value contracts.  Players who can produce at a moderate-to-high level with only a moderate cost.  Rookies who significantly over-produce.

Maybe a bias in the draft towards more polished 4-year players who can contribute sooner than 19-year-old prospects with potentially high upsides?

Ring-chasing vets who negotiate buyouts, then sign minimum contracts with contenders will have a smaller pool of teams to choose from.

Greater motivation for high-priced superstars to take less salary in order to help their teams assemble championship rosters.  Dirk would be even more valuable under this CBA. Kobe not so much.

i wonder if Kyrie will take less than the max.

Interestingly, the penalty for the first $10mm over the tax has been reduced.  Also, with these restrictions in place, future tax distributions won’t be nearly the $12.5mm projected for the current season.  Hollinger theorizes that teams who are traditionally staying just under the tax, might be willing to go a little over in the right situation.

Teams have to meet the minimum salary at the beginning of the season going forward.  So, even bad teams have to take on salary they might not have otherwise.  Those are the trade offs that balance out some of the draconian restrictions for the top spending teams.  I think it will mean more competitive balance with smart teams doing really well.

As to Kyrie, I’ve long thought we should try to make him a hero for ‘giving up’ some of the dollars he’s eligible for.  I’m hoping for the $38-$40mm range instead of $47mm.  It makes a huge difference to what we can/can’t do.  I think that kind of thing (Harden was an example last summer) will be more common going forward.  Max deals are designed for near MVP types and have been given out like candy.  Siakam is another example.  Barely making the top 15 in the league should qualify you for great money.  But, the default shouldn’t automatically be the same money Luka, Giannis and Jokic qualify for.  Smart teams will figure out how to convince players and agents that there is an in-between that can work.  It probably starts with people who are on the downside of their careers and have already made a ton of money.  So, the Kyrie money is interesting in more ways than just how it impacts Dallas.