The current Collective Bargaining Agreement came into effect in 2023, and the National Basketball Players Association has come under a whole lot of criticism for signing off on it. The CBA is not kind to the middle class, and former NBA player Markieff Morris spoke about how teams handing out big deals affects it during an appearance on The Big Podcast with Shaq.
“I wish they could disperse it out a little bit better than what that is,” Morris said. “‘Cause you’re gonna see teams where OKC you going to have three players making 50, 50, 50… I mean, it’s more players on the team that’s giving stuff to help to win. You going to see that, and you going to see the big drop off of 8, 7, 3. So in that aspect, I think it should be more mixed.”
Now, the Oklahoma City Thunder do have players in that middle range in Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Lu Dort. There is talk, though, about how they have to trade Dort as they’d otherwise be a second apron team. We have already seen the Thunder give up Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe for second-round picks because they couldn’t afford to keep them around in this apron era.
If you’ve got three players on max contracts like the Thunder do in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren, they have to fill out a lot of the remaining roster spots with players on rookie deals or who don’t make a whole lot more than the minimum. Even if you want to spend as an owner, you’re incentivized not to, because of the crippling penalties that come with being a second apron team for too long.
You’re talking about freezing of draft picks, not being able to aggregate salaries in trades, not having access to the midlevel exception, and more. The Cleveland Cavaliers were the only second-apron team last season, and the Thunder right now are the only ones for next season. Teams are trying to avoid it like the plague.
Now, co-host Adam Lefkoe mentioned how the top-tier players are going to get paid regardless of this. They got the big bucks in the previous CBA, and nothing has changed in this one. Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry will be the highest-paid player in 2026-27 at $62.6 million.
Lefkoe then expressed disappointment over the middle class disappearing, and Morris agreed that it is ceasing to exist. While the latter didn’t go too hard there, one of his former teammates sure did recently.
Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma shredded the current CBA on X on Friday. Kuzma stated it was sold as parity, but the aprons are starting to function as a hard cap.
“Teams are no longer making pure basketball decisions,” Kuzma wrote. “They’re making fear-based apron decisions. That means good players get squeezed, homegrown cores get broken up, fan-favorite teams lose their identity, and the overall product loses some of the nostalgia and continuity that made people fall in love with the NBA in the first place.”
Kuzma thinks the next CBA is a do-or-die moment for the players. He believes the owners and the league keep running circles around the players, and wants the NBPA to do better.
This current CBA expires at the end of the 2029-30 season, though, so we’re a long way away at this point. Things will remain the way they are for a while.
