I mean the aprons exist cause the warriors said fuck your luxury tax, here’s the money

On the flip side, there’d be absolutely nothing stopping OKC and SA from dominating the league for the next decade

If the Celtics actually thought Brown was a superstar he’d still be on the team

Zach Lowe had the most balanced suggestion I have heard, and that was about 5 years ago (in one of the Giannis discussions).

Allow the “super” part of that 27yo+ Max (the last 5% of the 35%) to be outside the Tax, but only on a player you have drafted, and only one player per team. And it goes back on the moment they are traded.

5% is a little help, but nothing league breaking. (As opposed to Stevens wanting 20% off their total cap number - that’s bullshit. Imagine the outcry if the Spurs got 10% off with all of Wemby, Castle and Harper).

And it would lead to teams (hopefully) being a little more careful when deciding which player is worth 35% and which isn’t

I mean the Wolves blew their load on Gobert. The Celtics dipped into the veteran market multiple times with Horford, Holiday, White, and Porzingis. Teams don’t get to spend $50 million on “supplemental” pieces then cry when they move off of homegrown guys.

Same thing for Klay in Golden State. The Warriors preferred to preserve the KD cap slot turning KD->D’lo->Wiggins->Butler.

Magic are in this predicament too. Franz and Paolo will almost certainly need to be blown up bc it’s too much of a hit

As great as a Knicks repeat would be, is it in the best interest of the players union if players keep leaving money on the table to chase a chip?

It is just one of many. Several rosters have attempted to run it back and simply failed because there are too many good teams now, and even one untimely injury usually means the end of your chances. If JDub wasn”t hurt this year it is extremely possible OKC repeats.

It’s not why OKC didn’t repeat though and largely shouldn’t be a factor for next season either

I don’t like the consequences of it. It would be way too OP to draft a star. Nobody would trade and everybody would tank

They have lawyers on staff and / or retainer.

Of course not, lawyers do that for him, give him the cliff notes, and he can give input based on that from the player’s perspective

The second apron isn’t affecting how much players in the aggregate are making - even without the second apron only a few teams were going that deep into the luxury tax

If anything as the value of guys like JB go down more of the mid star players will start to get paid more accordingly

Coming in to remind people that the players get 51% of revenue no matter what. Harsher tax penalties also came with harsher penalties for not hitting the salary floor.

The 2nd apron was a win for “middle class” owners. It makes it hard for relatively rich owners to outspend them significantly to create an advantage, and also prevents the cheap owners from keeping a low payroll while collecting shared revenue.

Yall give CJ way too much credit/discredit for everything

They will have a team of lawyers working for the players union whose entire job is to review all of this and break it down into layman’s terms for the players.

They eliminated you from the playoffs largely because Paul George shit on Jaylen Brown the entire series.

I like it. Good trade drama. I think the bigger problem is teams giving maxes and super maxes to players who don’t deserve it. Duran would have had a max 2 years ago and now he won’t. If brown was up for a super max this year he wouldn’t get it. We’re just in a weird era where teams are getting screwed by previous overpays

The worst part is even if they reverse course, it doesn’t help the teams that have already gutted their rosters to get under the apron

I personally prefer a different champion every year instead of 1 team 3-peating, just me tho

I disliked it way more before when big markets could just build super teams whenever they wanted

The first one might get a slap on the wrist. The next one won’t.

Well, let’s revisit this in 2-3 years and see how successful they are.

Yeah the famously successful sixers

75% of the cap for 3 players vs 70% for 2

Philly has yet to bust a nut with their roster.

Conversely, Boston has post-nut clarity.

Lotta good that’s done them in the past

And thank god Brad found a team that cared less

It isn’t 88%. It’s basically 95% for those 3. 70% for Embiid and Brown as well.

They seemed to care when they didn’t give Jimmy his big contract or when it was time to pay Harden what was promised

Difference between already winning a championship recently and desperately swinging for the fences to get near one with Embiid

More like 95%

The point of the aprons is to prevent a team from just going out and paying a bunch of dudes super maxes. They were attempting to prevent the formation of super teams through free agency, and ended up punishing teams for growing rewarding and paying their homegrown talent

Players getting 51% of revenue is all that matters to the union really. Also the second apron is actually good for most of the league because it leads to guys like duren/JB not getting max deals anymore which leaves more for everyone else. When you remember player salary is a fixed pie all the players union decisions make sense.

Zach Lowe has been saying this forever too. It’s also dumb that teams wind up rooting for their guys to miss All NBA so that they can pay them less. There are a million good ways to implement it

I think bill went too far with the 1 percent every year you on the team but a super max should be 30-25 percent of the cap imo

Yes, they knew they weren’t going to keep guys like Pozingus/Jrue but Brad is talking specifically about Tatum+Brown

Well given it was over half a BILLION in penalties+ salary nobody other than maybe Steve Balmer was paying that. Their tax bill was so high it literally was unsustainable.

If I have the right numbers the highest paid team ever in Luxury Tax alone was 21-22 GS and they paid 170 million. The Celtics were on pace to pay 360 million in tax, more than double the record.

That exists. Jaylen got 2nd team All-NBA the year before his extension so he qualified for the 35% supermax

From Wikipedia:

For a veteran player to qualify for such an extension, he must be entering his eighth or ninth season in the NBA, and have either:

• made the All-NBA team (at any level) in either the season immediately before signing the extension, or two of the three previous seasons;

• been named NBA Defensive Player of the Year in either the season immediately before signing the extension, or two of the three previous seasons; or

• been named NBA MVP at least once in the previous three seasons.

Additionally, the team offering the extension must have originally drafted the player, or obtained him in a trade while he was on his rookie contract.

I dont understand this idea of they’re being penalized? They have the same cap everyone else does. Altering it to accommodate who you drafted is picking winners and losers

Did the Celtics not do that? They drafted Tatum, Brown and Pritchard, Walsh, Scheierman, and Hugo, signed Sam Hauser as an UDFA, and signed guys like Queta, Garza, and Ron Harper when they were on their way out of the league

They knew exactly what would happen. These cap rules have lead to both a Celtics title and near unprecedented parity in the league. But now the org wants to complain since it no longer benefits them.

Nobody in the front offices are surprised. It’s the fans who don’t really understand the labyrinth of capology who are.

They’re still thinking about team building the old way.

Yes, he said PG’s deal is a year shorter and came with picks so it gives them more options to make moves

I’m sure the fact that Jaylen Brown would have been eligible for a 2 year, $140m extension in a few weeks also played a role

A year shorter

It’s not rocket science, less years plus no extension for PG

That was the follow-up question and Brad said it’s less years + got the draft picks. “Optionality” was used. 

They did, and he gave an insightful answer