Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[F Gump]

Looks that way 2 weeks into the new CBA. Not convinced the market won’t adjust. And even if the trend continues for awhile, how long before these now-under-control costs lead to massive profits that likely precipitate another spending-spree era? 

Cycles, man. Cycles.

CBA.

It's a hard cap landscape, and bigger spending teams being forced to divide a limited pie among their players, that will be here until the CBA expires in 2030. There are mechanisms that apply only to over-apron teams that essentially work to force them to lower their payroll, mandating into the rules some literal inability to spend, and those are combined with tiered incentives that gives teams reasons to spend "just a bit less" to gain rewards that ensue by being below the next tier.

I agree that teams will be smarter in how they approach cuts, as they move forward. But there's no payroll point in which the bigger spenders aren't considerably incentivized to get their payroll a bit lower, and then another step lower, until you get below the tax line.

It's not a profit issue. It's a competitive balance thing, where teams start losing the ability to add talent. Each team has to figure out a way to navigate that, and "we'll just pay some tax" isn't a very good solution because of the roster-improving limits you start to face as you pass one apron, then another.