NBA Pushing for Hard Cap, Players Union Resists, as CBA Opt-Out Date Looms

The NBA is pursuing an upper salary limit, or a hard cap, as part of the next collective bargaining agreement, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line.

The players union, however, has significantly resisted the idea, Stein added. 

Interestingly, Stein wrote that the NBA is not using the phrase “hard cap,” given its perceived negative connotations. Instead, the NBA is calling it an “upper spending limit.” But the purpose would be the same — to keep teams from exceeding the salary cap.

The league currently allows teams to spend above the cap, though they are fined, or “taxed,” for doing so. A hard cap would prohibit teams from going above a certainly salary for any reason but to re-sign their own players.

Again, this would not be viewed by the players as a favorable arrangement, given it would limit what teams could spend, and therefore, what players can earn in salary.

“There will be a lockout before there’s a hard cap,” a source from the players’ side told Stein.

Not all 30 team owners are in favor of a hard cap, Stein reported, and the idea at this point could merely be on the league’s wish list — as opposed to a major bargaining point in the next round of collective bargaining.

“In the NBA’s current labor deal with the NBPA, there are only three scenarios in which a team becomes hard-capped: 1. Acquiring a free agent via sign-and-trade; 2. Signing a free agent with the non-taxpayer mid-level exception; 3. Signing a free agent with the bi-annual exception,” Stein wrote.

Either side can opt out of the current CBA on Dec. 15, which would terminate the current agreement at the start of free agency on June 30. As Stein noted, that would be one year sooner than the current agreement’s set expiration date.