The NBA’s recently agreed upon collective bargaining agreement will begin ahead of the 2023-24 season, which means new rules that will affect how teams operate their payrolls.
In his latest podcast, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons expressed concern over how the new CBA could hurt the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Simmons said the Thunder might reach a point where they have to decide which of their young core to keep long term — reminiscent of OKC’s previous core, where it had to deal James Harden for a multiple reasons, including the luxury tax.
“I look at a team like OKC and I just don’t know how they’re ever going to build it. They’re trying to build it the old fashion way and be smart and through the draft. And Giddey is gonna be a max guy. Shai is gonna be underpaid eventually. … What if Holmgren is awesome? Jalen Williams is going to be a borderline max guy. You can’t have all those guys. I don’t like when teams are smart and get penalized for it,”
It seems as though the new CBA is actually more Thunder-friendly because it encourages teams to draft well and extend their own players. If the Thunder go over the second tax apron, it’ll only hurt their ability to acquire outside talent — something OKC already historically struggles with.
The new CBA eliminated the restriction that only two players on a roster could be signed to a super-max deal. This means that if the four Thunder players Simmons mentions truly hit their ceiling, then OKC would theoretically be able to extend all four of them if ownership has the stomach to do so.
Under the previous CBA, teams weren’t able to sign a third player to a super-max extension.
Regardless, if the Thunder eventually end up with the problem of having too many good players on their roster, that’s a good problem to have and can help solve other areas on the roster if need be.
Bill Simmons has some concerns about how the new CBA will impact team building, highlights OKC as an example of a team that gets hurt given their future firsts and core group of guys needing max money. His pod today starting at the one hour mark highlights the CBA. pic.twitter.com/KgYUqOz95w
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) May 29, 2023
