Dude hell no. Curtain and Hyatt were awesome. Would love to know the reason why but I doubt we ever will.
The “second apron” that gets phased in over a couple of years is going to change the landscape of the league by severely punishing big spenders. It’s set at $17.5M above the LT: “Penalties for exceeding the second apron include the loss of the mid-level exception, a ban on including cash as part of trades and the inability to accept more salary in a trade than the team sends out. A team in the second apron will also be unable to aggregate salary in trades and cannot trade its first-round pick seven years in the future (ie. its 2030 pick in 2023/24) or sign players on the buyout market. Also, if a team exceeds the second apron and remains there in two of the four subsequent years, its frozen draft pick (the one that was initially seven years out) will get moved to the end of the first round, regardless of the team’s record in that season.” https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2023/04... that's,by the league's wealthiest franchises.
I rank the significance of these penalties as: No MLE No salary aggregation in trades No increasing salary via trades No buyout market No cash in trades Frozen 7th-year FRP
How would #3 be possible. It's not likely that any trade could happen because one team would always have a little more salary coming in than going out.
ok...I don't really agree it will have some giant impact. I may be wrong, but... if the projection of the salary cap of 134M next year is correct, that would make the luxury tax line about 164M. Call it 162.5M to make some easy math. So, 17.5M above sets the 2nd apron at 180M. If it would have been in effect his season, the 2nd apron would have been around 168M so then, this season, 7 teams would have been above the 168M 2nd apron: and next season, 2 teams are scheduled to be above the 2nd apron of 180M: obviously, the Clippers and Warriors are the big sinners * the Clippers would have had easy solutions: letting Covington walk last summer and not adding Eric Gordon. They didn't have to trade for Plumlee's 9M salary either. (and maybe they would have been real reluctant to trade for Powell 15 months ago). And they have the easy out next season as Gordon's salary is not guaranteed ************************************ * Milwaukee would have a problem with their big-3: Giannis Antetokounmpo $42,492,492 Khris Middleton $37,948,276 Jrue Holiday $33,665,040 Brook Lopez $13,906,976 Bobby Portis $10,843,350 Jae Crowder $10,183,800 Grayson Allen $8,500,000 Joe Ingles $6,479,000 the 'bloat' is in Middleton and Holiday so they may have had to cut one loose in some fashion. They did have some margin in Crowder and Ingles because neither really did that much for the Bucks ******************************************************** * the Warriors are the team most impacted because they are actually paying 4 big contracts this year, and will be paying 5 next season: the easy-out for them though is to bite the bullet next season, suffer the restrictions of being over the 2nd apron, then letting Draymond walk in July, 2024. ******************************************************** I actually don't think this will restrict teams from hogging stars. I think it will impact the high level role players. Guys like Anfernee Simons (25M/year), Norm Powell (18M/year), CJ (33M/year), Michael Porter Jr (36M/year), Aaron Gordon (2oM/year), D'Angelo Russell (30M/year), John Collins (25M/year), Tyler Herro (30M/year), Deandre Ayton (33M/year)...those are the kinds of players that will likely get squeezed in contract negotiations. Those are the types of player that will be looked at as excess salary and unnecessary luxuries; not the elite players and perennial all-stars. Those guys will still get paid of course, every time I think the NBA has finally enforced some discipline on their front offices in terms of payroll excess, the teams find ways around the restrictions and still spend like drunken sailors
The team above this second luxury tax apron penalty could not add any salary via trade. They could obviously send out more salary via trade but could not accept any additional salary back. So they would either have to match incoming salaries exactly (very hard to do) or send out less. They would no longer get to use the 125% +100k rule, for them it would be equal or lower salaries coming back in any trade. I would assume this would also cancel out any TPEs for teams in this designation.
one other impact of this 2nd apron MAY be increasing the value of draft picks. Rookie scale contracts are cheap and give teams 4 years of maneuverability. And, rookie extensions will have max annual salaries 10-20M lower than veteran max salaries.
I think overall we will see players salaries stagnate a bit. Some players might even decide to take a little less to stay on with a team. I mean look at Steph in 25-26. He's going to make $60 million for one year. Some players that's their entire 4 year contract. You have to admit these guys are making an insane amount of money. Got to figure the owners are as well.
Can Brooks be signed for much cheaper? Will Thybulle agree to resign at a reasonable rate? Will Thybulle contract be better used in a sign and trade for a starter? We don't know a lot of what will take place in the summer, so while its a good point you bring up, I'd still look into signing Brooks. If it becomes certain the depth chart won't have room for Brooks then maybe the Blazers shouldn't sign him even for the minimum; I just find that unlikely.
