Biggest winners and losers in the NBA's new CBA
— -- The NBA and its players association have a new collective bargaining agreement. Hours before the deadline for either side to opt out of the current agreement next summer, they announced an agreement that now must be approved by owners and players.
The CBA governs the salary cap and other rules that determine how teams build their rosters, so changes to it could have an important impact on the floor in future seasons.
Who wins and who loses, given what we know about the new CBA?
Let's take a look, based on the? reporting by ESPN's Marc Stein and Ian Begley.
Winner: Teams with stars on their roster
Instead, the stars who got to free agency rather than signing extensions often chose to sign elsewhere -- including? LaMarcus Aldridge, Dwight Howard and, most recently,? Kevin Durant?-- leaving their teams with nothing in return.
So veteran extensions are back in favor. Stein reports that the CBA has added an exception (the "designated veteran player exception," per David Aldridge of NBA.com) allowing teams to choose one qualifying player to extend so their contracts run a total of six years in some circumstances -- similar to the exception that allows each team to designate one player for a five-year extension of their rookie contract.
That change is particularly good news for teams trying to retain their stars. The Sacramento Kings?can offer a competitive extension to DeMarcus Cousins before his contract ends after next season, as long as Cousins meets the criteria, which will include making the All-NBA team,? according to a report by ESPN's Zach Lowe. The same goes for the Indiana Pacers?and? Paul George.
Loser: Teams that want to become super teams
The indirect target of the new extension rules are the kind of "super teams" we've seen form via free agency, including this season's Golden State Warriors. Obviously, the Warriors wouldn't have been able to sign Durant had he previously signed an extension in Oklahoma City. Owners aim to make the decision Durant made to hit free agency more difficult.
For a variety of reasons, including the way the CBA will now tie minimum salaries and cap exceptions to the growth of the cap, the scenario that allowed Golden State to add Durant to a core of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson is unlikely to recur again. Still, the fewer the players that actually get to free agency, the less likely super teams are to form. And that makes the other 29 teams happy, except in the rare cases they are trying to form such a team.
The same issue applies to teams trying to trade for stars. According to a report by Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post, players who have recently been acquired via trade won't be eligible for the designated extension, preventing the aforementioned Anthony situation and forcing teams to re-sign players they acquire as free agents.
Winner: Restricted free agents
Under the old CBA, restricted free agency had been a boom-or-bust proposition for young players. A lucky handful, such as? Allen Crabbe and Tyler Johnson last year, cashed in with lavish deals designed to make matching difficult for their former teams. Others, such as Donatas Motiejunas, languished waiting for an offer to come in.
Changes should mean more offer sheets for restricted free agents. Per Stein's report, the time teams have to match will be reduced from three days to two, meaning teams can provide offer sheets to restricted free agents while lessening the risk of tying up their cap space.
Winner: Common sense
According to Stein's report, the minimum salary and cap exceptions will now be tied to the cap, as maximum salaries have long been. That's important in cases like the sudden, unexpected growth we saw in the cap when the league's new TV deals kicked in. While another jump would be surprising with TV revenue locked in for years to come, if something unforeseen causes NBA revenues to rise, the CBA will handle it better.
Loser: Critics of the "one-and-done" rule
The NBA and the players association decided to table discussions on the age limit for a later date. If that sounds familiar, it's because the same thing happened when the two sides finalized the previous CBA after the lockout in 2011. At that point, waiting to work on the age limit made sense, given the rush to get more pressing aspects of a deal done in time to begin the season on Christmas Day.
Five years later, however, "one-and-done" -- the rule requiring American players to be a year removed from high school before entering the draft -- remains in place. And if the two sides couldn't agree on any changes during these relatively leisurely CBA discussions, consider me skeptical the age limit is going to change over the length of this deal. Most likely, one-and-done will remain the status quo.
