u/TheRealPdGaming

Originally responding to Sam Esfandiari

> Part of the reason there is a tanking problem in the NBA is through multiple CBA’s, they’ve made it near impossible to build teams through any route other than draft accrual.

Sam Quinn

> I’ve been yelling about this for months now. It fundamentally comes down to one structural CBA change: contract extensions are way too accessible now. > > 2011 CBA: no supermax, 7.5% max raise on veteran extension.

> 2017 CBA: supermax added, 20% max raise.

> 2023 CBA: 40% max raise. > > This is all it took. With extensions more readily available, very good players stopped reaching free agency. The free agent talent pool was drained, so teams stopped preserving cap space. It became a feedback loop. Less free agents led to less cap space led to more fear about a barren market which led to less free agents. And since teams knew getting starters through free agency was barely possible anymore, that raised the trade prices on basically everyone. That’s how we live in a world in which non-All-Stars regularly get traded for three, four, five first-round picks. The entire balance of the player movement ecosystem is broken. The draft was the last reliable tool teams had and the NBA is about to take it away. > > I don’t know what to do about this. Neither the players (who want easier access to money) or the teams (who don’t want to lose assets for nothing) want to change this system. But it’s causing all sorts of downstream issues. > Quote >