John Collins trade shows new CBA's negative effect on free agency
Atlanta tried to trade John Collins for years. They settled for a salary dump.
The Hawks dealt their 25-year-old forward to the Utah Jazz for 17-year veteran Rudy Gay and a second-round pick. In other words, they ditched the three years and $78M remaining on his deal for almost nothing.
The Jazz are the third team this week to use their salary cap space to take another team's unwanted contracts.
The Washington Wizards traded Chris Paul and his large expiring contract for Jordan Poole's large four-year deal, picking up two future picks and both of Golden State's draft picks from last year, Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Ryan Rollins.
Oklahoma City took on Davis Bertans' remaining $22M in salary to move up two spots from No. 12 to No. 10 in Thursday's NBA Draft.
Both the Warriors and Hawks were dumping long-term money in anticipation of the harsher penalties for going over the luxury tax in the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement, while the Mavericks were getting under the tax to use a larger salary cap exception.
But what these moves have done is close off over $40M in available cap space for free agents.
Utah used $25M in cap space and Oklahoma City used $17M, all before free agency even began. They were two of only seven teams estimated to have cap space this summer, and now there's effectively only five.
That's bad news for 2023 free agents, including stars like James Harden and Kyrie Irving, who need multiple suitors to max out their contracts.
The fear for players is that the new CBA and its "second apron" will function as a de facto hard cap, with teams unwilling to exceed that level of spending ($179.5M in 2023-24, $17 million above the luxury tax line.).
Perhaps the market will level out after big-spending teams get their books in order next season, but for free agents this summer, the new CBA could really cost them.
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