The details of the next NBA collective agreement, which will come into effect next season, are gradually being revealed, and we can say that the league wanted to strike hard against the overspending teams!
We knew that there would be no more “mid-level exceptions” for the highest-spending teams, i.e. those that exceed the “luxury tax” threshold of more than $17.5 million. We also knew that these teams could not no longer position yourself on a player left free by a “buy-out” or that, in an exchange, these franchises could not no longer receive “packages” whose salaries are higher than outgoing salaries.
We knew the NBA was also going to ban these franchises from trading a first-round Draft for seven years.
But ESPN also teaches us that if a deductible exceeds this limit (17.5 million dollars above the luxury tax) two years in a row, his first-round Draft pick would then fall at the very end of this one!
Overall, the league is thus blocking all recruitment for these franchises, which will not have the possibility of improving their workforce until they have cleaned up their finances.
In return, the NBA will also punish teams that don’t spend enough. Indeed, from the 2024/25 season, franchises that do not reach 90% of the minimum salary cap at the start of the season will not be able to receive the dividends from the taxes paid by the most expensive teams. For example, the Spurs would have had to write off more than $15 million this year.
