The NBA season is less than two weeks away from kicking off, with the Oklahoma City Thunder set to host the Houston Rockets after getting their championship rings from a season ago. The Thunder shelled out some major cash this offseason, signing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams to massive contract extensions that will keep them with the franchise long term.
These contracts immediately brought up concerns about the second apron, the newly implemented financial threshold that severely punishes teams who spend the most, and recently forced the Boston Celtics to trade both Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzinigs.
Recently, the league conducted a survey of its general managers, and they listed these financial constraints as the thing that most needs to change going into this year.
“Roster construction – Apron rules too harsh, add a cap discount for own drafted players, allow trading partial salaries, make all minimum contracts the same,” wrote the description for the category, which garnered 26% of the votes.
A controversial topic in the NBA
The second apron has long been viewed as unfairly punishing teams who have built sustainable success with their rosters. While it certainly helps prevent teams from being able to buy championships, like organizations such as the Los Angeles Dodgers are able to do in the MLB, it also unfairly punishes squads, especially smaller market teams like Oklahoma City, who have done things the right way, cultivating their talent through good drafting and smart trades.
The fact that the Thunder will likely have to part with a good chunk of their home grown talent in the coming years in order to keep Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, and Holmgren around doesn't necessarily make sense, and is clearly something that the league executives want to see changed. The cap discount for players drafted by an organization that the general managers mentioned is certainly something that could help the league alleviate this problem.
In any case, the NBA season will kick off on October 21 with games between the Thunder and Rockets, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors.
