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Sports May 14, 2025
Ian Stonebrook
Ian Stonebrook

How a Hated CBA Rule Fixed the NBA Playoffs

Elsa / Getty Images
NBA gameplay, ratings, and discourse are on fire this postseason. The secret ingredient? An ice-cold luxury tax that’s turning up the heat on competition.

Stricter rules are rarely a cause for celebration. But such was the case in April 2023 when the NBA announced its new collective bargaining agreement, headlined by a war against load management and harsher penalties for owners who spent money liberally in the name of Larry O’Brien.

In its inaugural year, the new CBA appeared ugly. All-NBA candidates mortgaged playoff health in hopes of securing a supermax, while would-be dynasties disintegrated due to a new set of rules, referred to as the second apron, that strictly governs finance and contract rules by punishing big spenders. For fans, little seemed to change. The NBA All-Star Game still sucked and the Playoffs often dragged, ending in an anti-climactic championship and a slow start to free agency.

And just when fans thought the NBA couldn’t be more about stat math and upset superstars, the discourse grew worse. Would smartly built contenders now have to trade talent just to avoid the luxury tax? Could teams burnt on one bad move be stuck in basketball purgatory forever? Was the top-of-the-year dialogue around NBA ratings positioning the league’s $76 billion TV product at an all-time low?

Then it happened.

In the wee hours of February 1st, the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers. Basketball’s brightest minds and loudest talking heads couldn’t make sense of the move when it happened. However, a four-time NBA champion quickly claimed a thesis.

“You see Luka Dončić getting traded?” Draymond Green asked on his podcast. “Don’t for one second think that’s also not a byproduct of that dumbass CBA we signed.”

For Green, a four-time NBA All-Star and Day 1 critic of the new CBA, the second apron –– or “Grim Reaper” as ESPN analyst and former GM Bobby Marks calls it –– is exactly why there will never be another Golden State Warriors superteam and precisely why the Mavs would punt on Luka.

It’s also why the NBA product is hotter than ever. The second apron is making the NBA more fun and competitive than it’s been in years. 

For those uninterested in the numbers and nuances of the second apron, it’s essentially a mechanism that punishes NBA owners who max out their budgets. If a team like Boston, Denver, or Phoenix exceeds the salary cap, they’re hit with an account freeze of sorts that halts future transactions.

Essentially, it’s a hard cap on buying a championship, meant to give every franchise a fighting chance. It’s the reason Karl-Anthony Towns is a New York Knick and Nikola Jokic has become a player-coach. It’s why Jalen Brunson signed a team-friendly contract last summer, leaving $113 million on the table, and is now the man at Madison Square Garden this spring.

Somehow, someway, the second apron has become an unforeseen ally. It has helped build more depth in the league, ensured parity in the playoffs, and brought about endless trade talks among fans and consumers. Simply put, the chaos created by the second apron has raised the stakes for all stakeholders. 

There’s no better example than the early returns on the 2025 NBA Playoffs. The opening weekend was the most-watched in 25 years. ESPN, an integral partner in the NBA’s new 11-year media deal valued at $76 billion, set viewership records led by Game 1 of Knicks vs Pistons. On ABC, momentum mounted on Game 4 of the Timberwolves vs. Lakers – two teams headlined by generational talent and affected greatly by the second apron – as 7.4 million fans tuned in. Days later, Game 7 of the Rockets vs. Warriors drew 6.6 million viewers to TNT.

The numbers highlight a well-received product that Bob Iger and Adam Silver can high-five over, but the play itself is better than it’s been in years. Narratives around physicality or lack thereof have been put to rest by slugfests between New York and Detroit or Oklahoma City and Denver. 

In the 2010s, the NBA Playoffs at times felt both drawn out and predictable. This year, six- and seven-game series on both sides of the bracket have proved riveting. An element of a strong and sustained series is the spread of talent that the second apron has forced. On the backend, the implications of exiting the playoffs feeling legitimately explosive in a financial era where most teams of championship pedigree simply can’t afford to run it back.

Because of this, every franchise is either on the fritz or on the come-up. Each NBA champion of the 2020s is operating on a razor’s edge of adding a banner or having to trade a fan-favorite. Conversely, castaway franchises like Orlando, Detroit, and Houston suddenly hold all the cards. Purgatory is only reserved for high spenders who flew too close to the sun or the lottery losers who can’t win for tanking.

For the first time in forever, the NBA Playoffs are delivering drama on all fronts. Gen Z stars such as Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton are arriving in real time, and the Knicks are the best they’ve been in a quarter-century. Trade talks surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant, and a loaded NBA Draft will own the offseason, but not at the expense of the on-court action.

And most of this was made possible by a strict set of rules that have resulted in more intense play and higher-stakes transactions. What was once called “blasphemous” has, to many, restored the competitive spirit of the game and made the NBA something it hasn’t been in years: must-see TV.

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Ian Stonebrook

Ian Stonebrook is a Staff Writer covering culture, sports, and fashion for Boardroom. Prior to signing on, Ian spent a decade at Nice Kicks as a writer and editor. Over the course of his career, he's been published by the likes of Complex, Jordan Brand, GOAT, Cali BBQ Media, SoleSavy, and 19Nine. Ian spends all his free time hooping and he's heard on multiple occasions that Drake and Nas have read his work, so that's pretty tight.