The majority of the big moves of the 2024 NBA offseason have been made, but for the most part, the action has been fairly tame to this point. Commissioner Adam Silver has heard the complaints about the league's offseason being boring, but he recently took a second to fire back at that narrative.
With the NBA's new salary cap rules going into place next offseason, teams across the league are being far more conservative with their spending in an effort to avoid the dreaded second apron. Silver claimed he didn't see this offseason as boring, while restating his goal of ensuring all 30 teams are as competitive as possible on a yearly basis.
“What I'm hearing from teams, even as the second apron is moving to kick in, the teams are realizing there are real teeth in those provisions. I don't know how to view this, but I know reports have come out that the summer was boring from a fan standpoint. I don't certainly think it was. We still saw a lot of critically important players moving from one team to another as free agents.”
“But at the same time, I think this new system, while I don't want it to be boring, I want to put teams in a position, 30 teams, to better compete. I think we're on our way to doing that. As long as we can create something close to a level playing field in terms of the tools available to teams to compete, I'm absolutely fine with dynasties and I'm fine with new teams emerging every year.” – Adam Silver, ESPN
Adam Silver, NBA adjusting to new second apron fears
While there were some big name players, such as Paul George and DeMar DeRozan, who ended up being on the move in free agency, they didn't have nearly as many suitors as usual because of the salary cap situations teams found themselves in. Even on the trade market, stars like Lauri Markkanen and Zach LaVine aren't drawing a ton of interest because of these cap concerns.
Fans believe that the league's new strict salary cap rules have led to teams becoming less aggressive in building their roster up in order to avoid those penalties. Silver disagrees with that notion, though, noting that several big moves have been made, while also reiterating that this is being done in an effort to promote parity throughout the league.
We won't truly see the impact of these salary cap changes until next offseason, but it's clear that teams are already becoming very aware of them. Silver doesn't have to worry about this lackluster offseason yet, but if teams continue to be wary of the salary cap, fans are going to continue becoming more and more disgruntled.
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