When free agency formally begins at 6 p.m. ET on Friday, the landscape will look decidedly different. That’s because the new collective bargaining agreement, a 676-page document formally ratified this week, has fundamentally changed the way teams operate. The newly negotiated second tax apron—which punishes teams that cross it with both financial penalties and the loss of valuable flexibility critical to roster building—has become the closest thing to a hard cap the NBA has ever seen.
It’s already had an impact: The Clippers cut Eric Gordon to save $110 million in luxury tax payments. Golden State dumped Jordan Poole to avoid future issues with the second apron. Atlanta offloaded John Collins for largely the same reasons.
The result will be a transaction period with a lot of uncertainty. Let’s examine five of the more interesting questions headed into free agency.
