How The NBA's New Salary Cap Actually Works (and why Adam Silver changed it)
Seven NBA champions in seven years. That’s not luck; it’s by design. The NBA quietly introduced new rules that make repeat titles nearly impossible. But will increased parity come at a bigger cost?
With the Oklahoma City Thunder beating the Indiana Pacers in this year’s NBA Finals, there have now been seven different NBA champions over the last seven years.
This is the first time that has ever happened in NBA history. But it didn’t happen by accident. After watching the Lakers, Spurs, Heat, and Warriors go on multi-year title runs this century, Commissioner Adam Silver worked with the league’s 30 owners to overhaul the NBA’s salary cap system in its Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Adam Silver is essentially betting his legacy on this move. After watching superteams with huge payrolls dominate the NBA during the early part of his tenure, Silver has implemented a set of rules designed to increase parity. The NBA’s salary cap and luxury tax still exist, but new layers of competitive guardrails have been added. Teams like the Boston Celtics are already paying the price, dismantling their roster just 13 months after winning the NBA Championship. And modern general managers with deep-pocketed owners now have to navigate the cap landscape more carefully, with the margin of error to build a consistent championship contender thinner than ever.
Today’s newsletter will explain exactly what Adam Silver changed in the NBA’s most recent CBA, how it influences roster construction, what teams will be forced to do instead, and how it could potentially impact the NBA’s popularity. Let’s get into it.