After a meeting this week "failed to produce a compromise, the NBA is now preparing itself for the largest salary-cap jump in league history" for the '16-17 season, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. It is a move that "could have significant implications" for potential '16 free agents such as Thunder F Kevin Durant and Cavaliers F LeBron James, as well as teams that have "positioned themselves to have cap space, most notably" the Lakers and Knicks. The NBA yesterday announced that the NBPA "formally rejected a so-called 'cap-smoothing' proposal that would pay players" the same 51% of basketball-related income they get under the current CBA, while "artificially lowering the cap over several years." The plan was "put forth to manage the influx of revenue" that is coming with the $24B TV deal that begins after next season. Sources said that NBA teams are "projecting the salary cap to jump" to between $88-92M per team. To compare, this season the cap is set at $63M and next season it is "projected to land" at about $66M. Owners have been "trying to avoid such a spike because it would dramatically raise salary levels for free agents that season." The "largest salary-cap jump in NBA history, until now," was $7M in one season. Sources said that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA Exec Dir Michele Roberts "met Tuesday to talk about a compromise, their first formal negotiating session since Roberts was hired last summer." But the league "had little incentive to make a deal" (ESPN.com, 3/11). In N.Y., Andrew Keh notes the league yesterday "emphasized that the players, as a group, would not have lost any money" in the smoothing proposal, and that the "difference could have been paid out." The move by the union "could lead to players becoming free agents this summer to push for one-year contracts, so they could negotiate new deals after more money was available" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/12).
JUMP BALL: CBSSPORTS.com's Ken Berger wrote negotiations between the league and union "have not gone smoothly, to say the least." Some small- and mid-market teams "fear such a massive spike in the salary cap and luxury-tax levels could provide big-spending teams with an unfair reprieve." Also, among the "unintended consequences of a massive, one-year jump in the cap, some executives fear, would be that teams would find it more difficult to retain their own free agents" in '16 (CBSSPORTS.com, 3/11). SI.com's Ben Golliver noted the "'open the floodgates in 2016' approach sets up what could prove to be the wildest NBA offseason ever." That summer, "more money is going to be burning more holes into more pockets than the league has ever seen" (SI.com, 3/11).
