[Must read article](https://www.theringer.com/nba/2023/8/15/23830832/houston-rockets-fred-vanvleet-2023-free-agency-cap-space-new-cba) by Rob Mahoney about the other side of the new CBA.
**TLDR: no team can afford to hoard cap space and the trade/free agent market is going to change because hoarding is now punished.**
> Under the previous CBA, teams were gently encouraged to spend up to 90 percent of the cap (a line known as the salary floor) by the very last day of the regular season, without any meaningful repercussions if they failed to. The new CBA moves that deadline to the first day of the season and gives it real teeth—erasing any unused cap space up to the salary floor, withholding luxury tax payouts for teams that fall short, and preventing them from making any transactions throughout the season that would decrease their total team salary. There’s no longer a point to those sorts of austerity measures. Not only will every organization have to spend up to the salary floor one way or another, but those that fail to reach that ledge will cost themselves more money and real team-building opportunities in the process.
DET is set to lead the league with cap space this season at 315 thousand. The Spurs started last year 30 MILLION under.
From a Celtics perspective this means making trades – and precisely matching salaries – is just a little bit harder. Contenders (in general) can no longer dump Player X on Team B while buying upgrade from Team C – unless the salaries match.
For rebuilding teams, the consequences might be harsher:
> The younger and cheaper a team is now, the more it will have to add—and the messier things might become.
HOU’s enforced spending spree has ramifications for Chicago, Toronto, or any team’s interest in a “full rebuild”.
Also, the best FA next offseason are James Harden and DeMar DeRozan. The FA market the past few seasons has been sparse and it will only get worse as teams prioritize extensions and “floor spending”.
New CBA makes building a contender much harder, in addition to making retaining our core more difficult. It is a PITA for everyone.
by PebblyJackGlasscock
