The NBA officially agreed to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on Saturday, reaching a seven-year contract with the Players Association. This agreement will take effect starting with the 2023-24 season, but some players, like Draymond Green, are already voicing their great displeasure with some of the changes made.
The four-time NBA Champion is never afraid to share his opinion on basketball matters, but this one might be one of his worst takes in recent memory. Specifically, Green doesn’t appreciate the additional salary cap spending limit, which has long been rumored, done as an attempt to prevent teams who can afford to spare no expense in the pursuit of a championship.
Starting next season, teams will only be able to go $17.5 million over the tax line, but any organization that wishes to push past the tax line won’t be able to use their mid-level exception to sign free agents as a result of this. In the case of the Warriors, this means they wouldn’t have been able to land Donte DiVincenzo this past season under the new rules.
Here was Green’s response to the latest CBA changes, which, personally, I find to be an absolutely horrible take.
“Players lose again…. Smh! Middle and Lower spectrum teams don’t spend because they don’t want to. They want to lose. So increase their spending capabilities, just to increase them. They continue to cut out the middle. And this is what we rushed into a deal for? Smdh! Never fails”
Draymond Green criticizes latest CBA agreement
Basically, this was done to prevent big-spending, large-market teams from dominating the basketball landscape. How could that possibly be seen as a negative? Don’t they already benefit from being an attractive landing spot as is?
Instead, Green argues that “teams don’t spend because they don’t want to.” Is that really true? Or do we just have a scenario where most teams feel spending above and beyond the normal limits is hopeless unless they’re a piece away from serious contention? This is much more likely.
But no, Green says the teams “want to lose.” If that were the case, would we still have 25 of the 30 NBA teams still contending for the playoffs? No. They’d all be embracing a tanking effort for otherworldly draft prospect Victor Wembanyama.
While it’s great for an individual fanbase of that team to see their organization reach deep into their pockets to go over the typical spending limit, it hurts the rest of the Association. Consider that the biggest-market teams will always have more spending flexibility thanks to their large following around the world, and it’s not hard to see how this hurts smaller-market teams who already struggle to compete.
The NBA will always have its legendary franchises, such as the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, to rely on, and it’s true the league thrives when many of its most popular teams are successful. But it’s also true that fans appreciate seeing ‘fresh blood’ in the playoffs each season instead of the same puppets from recent years.
It doesn’t do the NBA any good to have superstars stuck on losing teams, trying to be loyal, with bigger markets constantly trying to poach them away. Instead, the league would be much better off with more parity, with every team actually feeling they have a chance to compete each and every season until learning otherwise, yet Green seems to think it’s a spending problem, not talent.
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Draymond Green isn’t completely wrong
One area where we do agree with Green is his larger point, the fact that the players should be getting more out of these contract negotiations with the league. That’s essentially what he’s upset about.
Here’s a fine example.
Sure, those figures look massive to most (they certainly do to me), but at the same time, it’s Green and his teammates who are the biggest reason why NBA values continue to soar. It’s not the owners. It’s not the commissioner or anything else. It’s the product on the floor.
Ultimately, Green seems to feel NBAPA rep C.J. McCollum and Co. botched negotiations once again. In some aspects, he may be right. But to think the NBA is worse off without teams being able to spend nearly as much as they want? That’s complete BS.
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