How were this offseason's biggest moves, including the Phoenix Suns trading for Bradley Beal, shaped by the new NBA collective bargaining agreement?
Three months have passed since the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association reached the framework on a new CBA. In that time, teams digested a comprehensive term sheet examining the new rules, eventually leading to a 676-page CBA that was finalized days before the start of free agency.
Teams would spend a record-breaking $4.6 billion in player salaries in the first month of free agency. However, at the same time, multiple franchises made financial decisions based not only on the new rules for this season but also for 2024-25 and beyond. That's when teams over the new second luxury tax apron face more severe roster restrictions and penalties.
Those penalties, though, didn't dissuade the Suns from putting together a superteam, taking a different approach to roster building in light of the new rules.
To help unpack the implications of the CBA, Tim Bontemps, Bobby Marks and Kevin Pelton discuss their biggest takeaways from the first month of free agency and how the new CBA has impacted both sides.
The Suns load up, others shed salary
Bobby Marks: Two weeks before the new CBA took effect, Phoenix traded for Beal and the $200 million left on his contract. The Suns doubled down on February's trade for Kevin Durant and solidified themselves as a second apron team not only in 2023-24 but the foreseeable future. Still, by finalizing the move in June, the Suns were able to operate under the rules of the old CBA. Under the new terms, the traded player exception rule to acquire players decreased from 125% of matching salary to 110% -- meaning the deal Phoenix made to get Beal for Chris Paul and Landry Shamet would not have worked after July 1.
A month after the Beal trade, the Suns have strengthened their bench at a low cost, which was necessary because this year's second apron rules prevented them from using the taxpayer midlevel exception. Eric Gordon, Damion Lee, Keita Bates-Diop, Chimezie Metu, Yuta Watanabe, Bol Bol and Drew Eubanks were all signed for the minimum, while Josh Okogie re-signed the largest possible contract using non-Bird rights.
After trading away every future second-round pick available in the Beal move, Phoenix replenished its stockpile in two unprecedented trades. The Suns took the unique method of acquiring six second-round picks at the cost of three first-round pick swaps with the Memphis Grizzlies (2024 and 2030) and Orlando Magic (2026), even though Phoenix had already agreed to swaps in those years with Washington in the Beal trade (under the complex terms of the moves, Phoenix will end up with the worst pick of the three teams involved). If the league truly wanted a tougher system for how high-spending teams can build their roster, this pick-swap loophole should have been eliminated.
The Suns' offseason was the direct opposite of how the NBA believed the new CBA would curb roster movement for high-spending teams. What the NBA did not take into account is Phoenix taking advantage of a one-year window to maximize all of its resources before the more stringent rules next offseason took place.
For example, Phoenix has sent out $10.3 million in two separate trades. Starting after the last day of the 2023-24 regular season, teams over the second apron are not allowed to trade cash and acquire a player into a trade exception.
Bradley Beal discusses his excitement to be with the Phoenix Suns and the challenges ahead.
Tim Bontemps: Not surprisingly, it hasn't taken long to see immediate impact from the dramatic changes made from the prior collective bargaining agreement to the current one surrounding spending at the highest levels. Yes, the Suns blew through the second apron, but Phoenix also made fairly significant maneuvers to trim salary. The Suns chose not to re-sign Torrey Craig and Jock Landale using early Bird rights, two players who could have been useful in future trades. Phoenix also saved money by trading Cameron Payne to the San Antonio Spurs, albeit with the benefit of creating a trade exception for Payne's $6.5 million salary.
What's more noteworthy is the number of teams that sought to save money. The LA Clippers saved over $100 million by cutting Gordon, rather than guaranteeing his contract. Steve Ballmer had not made such a move at any point during his decade in charge of the franchise. Similarly, the Warriors traded Jordan Poole -- along with a first-round pick -- before his four-year contract extension even kicked in. And while Paul was better than Poole last season, he's making less money in 2023-24, and his 2024-25 salary is non-guaranteed.
And then there's Boston, which let Grant Williams go in what can only be considered a cost-saving move, sending him to the Dallas Mavericks in a sign-and-trade deal for multiple second-round picks and a large trade exception.
This is precisely the system the NBA wanted, one where top teams from a spending standpoint are forced into difficult decisions financially that curb their ability to compete. And while the NBPA will argue that the Suns' moves show there will still be teams willing and able to spend whatever they feel like moving forward, there's little doubt the effect the NBA was rooting for has already begun to set in.
Kevin Pelton: Bobby mentioned this in passing, but I think the quality of players signing minimum contracts was an interesting aspect of the offseason.
Consider that in the summer of 2022, two unrestricted free agents who had played at least 1,500 minutes the previous season signed for the minimum: Montrezl Harrell and Dennis Schroder. This season, there have been seven. The Suns alone signed three such players (Eubanks, Gordon and Lee).
These kinds of veterans want to play for winning teams, many of whom no longer have access to the taxpayer midlevel and can now offer only the minimum. One executive from a taxpaying team I talked to at summer league mentioned that actually made negotiations easier because players weren't holding out for a larger offer.
The tradeoff came in terms of player options. In 2022, just five free agents with more than two years of experience got player options, which increase their cap (and tax) hit because the league reimburses part of the salary for minimum players with additional experience on one-year contracts. Phoenix matched that total this year, while the Lakers (Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish) and Heat (Thomas Bryant and Josh Richardson) also signed multiple minimum players to contracts with player options.
Marks: Kevin, you make a good point on the quality of players signing for the veteran minimum exception in order to contend for a championship.
This is not a result of money drying up in free agency. Atlanta, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Memphis, Portland and Washington all have their $12.4 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception available. In addition, Indiana still has $7.5 million in room and Detroit, Houston, Orlando, San Antonio and Utah have the $7.7 million room midlevel exception available.
Murray and Sabonis sign extensions
Bontemps: If there is a criticism of the way past collective bargaining agreements have been hammered out, it's been the reactionary nature to which they've gone back and forth when it comes to veteran players. This has been most evident in the rules regarding contract extensions, which have changed significantly from one agreement to the next to account for the way the system has evolved. This time, the changes made sense. The increased flexibility to give a raise to a player who previously signed what became a below-market extension fixed a flaw in the system that essentially penalized a team that had signed a good player to a favorable contract.
That increased flexibility has already seen two players who all but certainly would not have agreed to extensions under the old rules do so: Domantas Sabonis with the Sacramento Kings and Dejounte Murray with the Atlanta Hawks. This continues to fall under a dominant theme of this CBA: teams being granted more tools to build out their rosters and smart management being prioritized and rewarded.
Pelton: The Sabonis deal was especially interesting because we've never seen a renegotiation and extension quite like this. To the extent we've seen them at all in the past 25 years, they've typically been more similar to what we saw the Indiana Pacers do with Myles Turner in February and the Utah Jazz with Jordan Clarkson this month: Teams use extra cap space to give a player an immediate salary bump in exchange for more favorable terms in future years.
By contrast, the Kings used the renegotiation to get Sabonis' salary high enough that they could utilize the higher 40% raises in an extension allowed by the new CBA to nearly max out his salary. Sabonis has a $41.8 million cap hit in 2024-25, close to his projected $42.6 max. Sacramento did get some benefit by carrying over $2.6 million annual incentives for Sabonis being chosen an All-Star and voted to the All-NBA team and striking a deal that doesn't include a player option.
Marks: Sabonis is clearly the winner with the new extension rules as mentioned above. We are still trending at only two players taking advantage of the new rule (Sabonis and Murray) and the number should increase. The next in line could be New York Knicks forward Josh Hart. By opting in to his $12.9 million contract, Hart created financial flexibility for the Knicks to sign his former Villanova teammate Donte DiVincenzo. The Knicks remain below the $165.3 million luxury tax line while also improving their bench. Hart is in line now to sign an extension for up to four years and $81 million. What is still unknown is if the new extension rules are enough to keep O.G. Anunoby in a Toronto Raptors uniform for the foreseeable future. Anunoby is eligible to sign an extension up to $116 million over four years, a $16 million increase from the prior rule.
Cavaliers and Kings use new tools
Bontemps: As the two sides were hammering out the final aspects of the new CBA, one thing the union kept emphasizing was that while the top-end teams might be more restricted in their spending, the vast majority of teams would have a lot more flexibility.
The most obvious example? The Cleveland Cavaliers, who were able to turn Cedi Osman and Lamar Stevens into Max Strus via a sign-and-trade, giving Strus a deal for more than the midlevel exception in a maneuver that wouldn't have been legal under the prior CBA. In doing so, the Cavs added the kind of 3-point shooting wing they desperately needed in attempting to take a step forward.
This is exactly the kind of flexibility the NBPA was hoping to create with the new CBA. The union's goal, naturally, is to get as many players paid as possible. By giving teams increased avenues to acquire players -- be it through having the ability to use the various salary cap exceptions as trade exceptions instead of just using them to sign players and by making the rules governing salary matching in trades more malleable -- they've taken a significant step toward doing so.
Pelton: Part of the reason Sacramento had enough cap room after trading Richaun Holmes to renegotiate Sabonis' contract was that the team's big addition, EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov, fit into the larger room exception on a three-year, $20 million deal.
Under the old rules, teams like the Kings had a difficult choice between staying over the cap and having access to their non-taxpayer midlevel exception or using cap space. Increasing the value of the room exception by 30% to $7.7 million and allowing contracts up to three years instead of two makes it easier for them to first use cap space, then continue adding with the room exception.
Remarkably, Sacramento and Oklahoma City ended up as the only teams using the room exception. In future years, teams adding stars via free agency -- if the stars ever get there by passing up extensions -- will have more flexibility to build around them.
Marks: The Houston Rockets and Dillon Brooks benefited from the traded player exception brackets widening. Houston entered free agency with $68 million in cap space, then spent $80 million in one season on Brooks, Fred VanVleet, Jeff Green and Jock Landale. The Rockets were able to pull this off by getting VanVleet, Green and Landale signed to go over the cap, then orchestrating a complicated five-team sign-and-trade. Because the Rockets were over the cap, they were allowed to use the $7.5 million trade allowance on matching outgoing salaries. Under the 2017 CBA, the allowance was $5 million.
The second-round exception benefits the player and protects the team
Bontemps: For all of the changes made in the CBA, this was the cleanest and least controversial one. The need to use a salary cap exception to sign second-round picks to deals longer than two years in the past didn't do anything to benefit either teams or players. Now, by being able to give second-round picks up to four guaranteed years at the minimum, both sides can invest in each other over the long term without any cost to either side. Not surprisingly, we saw teams immediately take advantage of this, and start giving out three-year deals to second-round picks to ensure they would have their fully-restricted rights upon reaching free agency. And, for these players getting an extra year of guaranteed money is certainly a positive, as well.
Pelton: I'd say the impact here has been modest. All 13 second-round picks who have signed full NBA contracts have gotten deals longer than two years, up from nine of 13 last year. However, we've still seen eight second-round picks and counting signed to two-way contracts rather than full NBA deals, so that trend hasn't changed.
Marks: There was skepticism among agents that the addition of a third two-way spot would negate teams utilizing the new second-round exception. Instead, the total amount of guaranteed money for second-round picks increased from $36.4 million in the 2022 draft to $47.1 million in the 2023 draft, which is a positive for the players. For the teams using the exception, the risk of losing a second-round pick to unrestricted free agency is all but eliminated. Remember back in 2018 when the Mavericks signed Jalen Brunson to a four-year contract that did not contain a team option in Year 4? That no longer exists because every player signed to a four-year contract using the second-round exception has a team option included. This allows a player to enter restricted free agency if the team option is declined.
Pacers sign Brown, Jazz deal for Collins
Bontemps: Because of the teams involved, and the more obvious nature of it, there's been a ton of attention paid to the teams at the top of the spending pyramid. But, in the opening weeks of the new CBA, perhaps the most impactful new rule is one that has gotten hardly any attention: that teams at the bottom of the spending pyramid can no longer hoard cap space.
In past years, teams like Indiana and San Antonio have gone into the regular season with tens of millions of salary cap space sitting and unused. Because teams only had to eventually get to the salary cap floor at some point during the season -- and, if they didn't, the only "penalty" was cutting a check to the players on their roster -- there was no need to spend money teams didn't want to.
Now, though, the rules are far different. Fail to reach the salary floor by the start of the regular season and the money teams receive in luxury tax payments is impacted. Therefore, we saw all of the cap space teams this summer make aggressive moves to take on money. Some of them, like Houston and Indiana, spent big on free agents. Utah took a flier on John Collins, a talented player in need of a change in scenery. Still, others like Oklahoma City and San Antonio rented their space to acquire future draft capital. Whatever the reason, though, the point was that we saw all of these teams use their money, which opened up other activity around the league.
Pelton: When it comes to decreasing the spread of salaries, you could say the minimum team salary changes were more effective than the second apron restrictions. Now, the standard deviation of team payrolls is about $20 million, down from $24 million at the start of the 2022-23 regular season. Nearly that entire difference is due to the two teams that were sitting on cap space this time last year.
In particular, the Pacers signing Bruce Brown stands out as an interesting way to use cap space. A team option on the second year means Indiana could go back into free agency next summer if Brown doesn't fit. Alternatively, the Pacers could pick up Brown's option and include him in a trade as an expiring contract.
Certainly, Brown was a winner too. After settling for the $6.5 million taxpayer midlevel exception last year, Brown was expected to get offers in the $12.4 million non-taxpayer midlevel range this summer. Instead, he'll make nearly double that on a deal that makes him Indiana's highest-paid player at $22 million this season.
Marks: As part of the CBA, teams were required to spend 90% of the $136 million salary cap by the first day of the regular season. If the threshold was not met, teams would then forfeit 50% of their luxury tax distribution they receive. Eight teams (Detroit, Houston, Indiana, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Sacramento, San Antonio and Utah) were below the minimum salary floor before free agency started.
At the end of July, all eight teams had already met the spending criteria.
But does that mean the rule benefited free agents?
The answer isn't as cut and dry as it might seem. Yes, the Rockets and Pacers committed more than $100 million in 2023-24 salary to free agents this summer, but teams like Detroit and Oklahoma City used their cap space to acquire players like Joe Harris, Monte Morris and Davis Bertans. They were all already under contract and have deals that are either expiring or have small guarantees in 2024-25, meaning the Pistons and Thunder essentially just kicked their cap space down the road.
As explained above, the Kings and Jazz used their cap space to reward players already on the roster.
So while the new salary floor rules appear to have helped, they didn't have a massive impact on the free agent market -- a market that continues to shrink annually as players sign extensions before even reaching free agency (as Sabonis, Murray and Jaylen Brown have already done, taking them out of the mix for 2024).