{"id":3161,"date":"2016-12-29T12:46:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T17:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=3161"},"modified":"2016-12-29T12:46:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T17:46:48","slug":"nba-cba-completed-labor-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2016\/12\/29\/nba-cba-completed-labor-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA CBA Completed: Labor Peace Reigns in the Association"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>NBA<\/strong> and its <strong>Players\u2019 Association<\/strong> recently came to an agreement on a new <strong>Collective Bargaining Agreement<\/strong> (<strong>CBA<\/strong>). Though the full agreement has not resulted in an ironclad contract just yet, both parties have agreed in principle. There is a blueprint moving forward. This new deal is expected to last through the 2023-24 season, with an opt out option following the penultimate year. For the next seven years, labor peace will reign in the association.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>NBA CBA Completed: Labor Peace Reigns in the Association<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>On\u00a0Wednesday December 14th, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/2016\/12\/23\/nba-players-ratify-cba\/95810018\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the NBA and the Players&#8217; Association struck an agreement, pending ratification<\/a>. The NBA then released another statement saying that they had, in fact, ratified the new agreement.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The CBA has officially been ratified: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1FpzZol6nL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/1FpzZol6nL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jeremy Woo (@JeremyWoo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeremyWoo\/status\/812445999201456128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 23, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In a previous article, the team at <strong>Last Word On Pro Basketball<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/2016\/12\/14\/breaking-nba-nbpa-reach-collective-bargaining-agreement\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">covered the revelation of the agreement<\/a>. This article seeks to examine proposed highlights and changes to previous agreements.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Preventing the Composition of Super-teams<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Since 2010, there has been a consistent exodus of players leaving their incumbent \u201csmaller market\u201d teams to join forces with other stars, forming \u2018super-teams\u2019. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a><\/strong> left\u00a0the <strong>Cleveland Cavaliers<\/strong>. James joined the <strong>Miami Heat<\/strong>, along with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/boshch01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Bosh<\/a><\/strong>, to play with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wadedw01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwyane Wade<\/a><\/strong>. <strong>Amare Stoudemire<\/strong> made a similar move, leaving the <strong>Phoenix Suns<\/strong> to join the <strong>New York Knicks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Perennial <strong>All-Stars<\/strong> like <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulch01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Paul<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/anthoca01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carmelo Anthony<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/howardw01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwight Howard<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/loveke01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Love<\/a><\/strong> all engineered trades to destinations of their choosing. This effectively meant that players were becoming more aware of their strengths, in terms of possible choices of teammates and organizations.\u00a0The proposal of a \u201cDesignated Veteran Player Exception\u201d\u00a0is offered as an alternative.<\/p>\n<p>Through the off-season moves of 2016, it was evident that money &#8211; or lack thereof &#8211; was not an issue. Players moved from team to team without fear of lost earnings. Superstar\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Durant<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheVertical\/status\/811751941877284865\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">departure from the <strong>Oklahoma City\u00a0Thunder<\/strong> was in part because the Thunder could not match the <strong>Golden State\u00a0Warriors<\/strong>\u2019 <\/a>offer on a short-term contract.\u00a0The Thunder, by rule, could have offered Durant only 107 percent\u00a0of his current salary.\u00a0This amounted to $21 million in the first year of the 2016 deal, whereas Golden State could offer him north of $25 million.<\/p>\n<p>One may ask why Durant was only interested in a short-term deal. The answer is\u00a0that Durant was about to enter his tenth season in the NBA. A veteran of ten years has the ability to sign the most lucrative contract that a team can offer under the then-CBA. This was a financial move as well as a basketball move for Durant. Great for Durant, great for the Warriors, but disastrous for the Thunder.<\/p>\n<p>To combat this issue, the league and players proposed an incentive structure for the upper-echelon players. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/18317693\/nba-answering-your-questions-new-nba-collective-bargaining-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">According to <strong>Brian Windhorst<\/strong> of <strong>ESPN<\/strong>, the new max-level contract will be different in how teams can offer it.<\/a> In other words, the incumbent team now has a huge monetary advantage to aid in retaining the top talent. Professional basketball is a business conglomeration, and the players are individual businesses. Bearing that in mind, please note that the primary goal of any business is to maximize profit. If the disparity in salary offers is so vast, then, more often than not, the players will stay with their home teams.<\/p>\n<p>Windhorst illustrated the case of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryst01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Curry<\/a><\/strong>, who is going to enter free agency after this season. All 30 teams in the league would love to be able to acquire the two-time league <strong>MVP<\/strong>. However, under this new proposal, the<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Warriors can offer Curry approximately $76 million more than other teams over the five-year period. Curry may be a humble man, but will he turn down that much money? It&#8217;s not very likely.<\/p>\n<p>Other stars in line for the Designated Veteran Player Exception include\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/griffbl01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Griffin<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/couside01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DeMarcus Cousins<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Amendment to Salary Extension Rule<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Under the present CBA, teams are allowed to offer a maximum increase of 7.5 percent for the first year of the extension &#8211; similar to\u00a0the case of OKC and Durant. With this new agreement, a new rule is put in place. This will allow an increase\u00a0to move to 120\u00a0percent of the last year of the player\u2019s contract. The new rule is catered to players who signed their extensions prior to last off-season\u2019s money grab.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Adjusted Salaries<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>According to <strong>The Vertical<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Bobby Marks<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/news\/how-the-new-cba-will-affect-cap-space-this-summer-173518563.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">current players with multiple year minimum contracts will receive the adjusted salary increases beginning in July 2017<\/a>. This is significant, as this increase will count against their team\u2019s salary cap number and impact cap space.<\/p>\n<p>Also of note, players who signed a three-year deal under the current CBA were unable to negotiate an extension.\u00a0Players\u00a0will now\u00a0enter negotiations with their teams following the second anniversary of the current contract.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Special Provisions for Russell Westbrook and James Harden<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Superstars\u00a0and\u00a0MVP candidates <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westbru01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Russell Westbrook<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Harden<\/a><\/strong> are in line for huge contract offers from their respective teams this off-season. Both players signed multi-year extensions during the past off-season. These proposed new deals place Harden and Westbrook in line to make roughly $36 million annually over five years. The\u00a0special provision\u00a0is an amendment to the Designated Veteran Player Exception mentioned earlier.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sources on @TheVertical: New CBA will allow Russell Westbrook and James Harden to sign super-max extensions in 2017. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/29Zb0QHcNh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/29Zb0QHcNh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/811392419753328641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 21, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Vertical&#8217;s <strong>Adrian Wojnarowski<\/strong> mentioned another nugget:<\/p>\n<p class=\"canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm canvas-atom\">&#8220;The NBA\u2019s 36-and-over rule that prohibits players from signing a five-year maximum contract if their 36th birthday falls during the life of the deal has changed to a 38-and-under rule, league sources said. Several members of the union\u2019s executive committee, including president <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulch01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Paul<\/a><\/strong>, vice president <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a><\/strong>, and executive committee member <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/anthoca01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carmelo Anthony<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>could benefit financially from the rule. Under this change, Paul, a perennial All-Star, is eligible for a five-year, $207 million deal to stay with <strong>Los Angeles<\/strong> this summer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm canvas-atom\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nba.com\/article\/2016\/12\/14\/nba-and-nbpa-reach-tentative-labor-deal\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The percentage of <strong>Basketball Related Income<\/strong> (<strong>BRI<\/strong>)<\/a>\u00a0distributed to the players will remain the same as the current CBA. However, the players have negotiated to extend the definition of BRI.\u00a0Therefore, they\u00a0successfully lobbied to increase the size of the proverbial pie. In turn, this increases the total dollar amount of revenue the players will receive, though not the percentage of it.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NBA, NBPA continue discussing group licensing issue to complete the CBA deal. &quot;Still working at it, still close,&quot; a source in talks says.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/808700352107253760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 13, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It is often said that &#8216;money cannot purchase happiness&#8217;. That may very well be true. However, money can purchase contentment and comfort. This new deal appears to be a compromise for both players and owners alike, although the owners may have lost some ground.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/461579136\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 65.488215% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/461579136?et=cDn-w__DS_VL_uC5uepCRw&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=7ZCrgSL8Bq2hoqLGRJJ9IObFF0wQbBdW72knxQKkJbU=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"389\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NBA and its Players\u2019 Association recently came to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. This new NBA CBA guarantees labor peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":3170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,2,3],"tags":[65,226,229,614,444,96,202,53,48],"class_list":["post-3161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-featured","category-news","tag-basketball","tag-blake-griffin","tag-chris-paul","tag-collective-bargaining-agreement","tag-james-harden","tag-nba","tag-nba-news","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Lior Kozai (Managing Editor)","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}