NBA, NBPA Reach Tentative Agreement on New 7-Year CBA

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association announced early Saturday morning that a tentative agreement was reached on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement. 

The joint release didn’t specify any details on the deal that will require ratification by players and approval by team owners before it goes into place ahead of the 2023-24 season, the final season under the existing seven-year CBA. 

The new CBA seeks to curb spending by teams like the Golden State Warriors, which is currently more than $70 million over the NBA’s soft cap. The Warriors’ luxury tax is projected to be around $500 million next season. 

While the luxury tax system will remain, the new CBA has put a secondary cap that limits a team’s ability to sign free-agent players with the mid-level exception. 

ESPN reported that teams surpassing the new second salary cap apron by more than $17.5 million would be unable to add free agents via the mid-level exception. Under the existing CBA allowed teams, to sign new players via the mid-level exception no matter how much over the cap they were. 

The other changes include: 

• Already one of the most lenient marijuana policies will effectively disappear in the new CBA. The Athletic reported that marijuana had been removed from the test protocol. 
• The in-season tournament will debut next season and will pay each player on the winning team $500,000. 
• Players must play at least 65 games to be eligible for postseason awards. 
• Veteran contract extensions limits will increase to 140% from their current contracts, up from 120%.