The change to the CBA clears the way for new salary cap and financial rules to start the 2020-2021 NBA season.
The National Basketball Association's board of governors voted Tuesday to approve an amended agreement to the collective bargaining agreement, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
The change to the CBA, according to Wojnarowski, clears the way for new salary cap and financial rules to start the 2020-2021 NBA season. The league's deal, in conjunction with the National Basketball Players Association, allows for a 72-game season that would begin on Dec. 22.
With the change to the CBA, NBA free agency would begin two days after the NBA Draft starting at 6 p.m. on Nov. 20. The salary cap will be 109.1 million and the luxury tax will be $132.6 million.
According to Wojnarowski, the salary cap is guaranteed to go up by a minimum of three percent and a maximum of 10 percent through the remainder of the CBA. The amended CBA also calls for a compromise on the escrow system to spread the losses out across multiple seasons.
The typical escrow withholding is 10 percent and it will remain in place. If there is a need to reduce player salaries by more than 10 percent, the loss will be spread out over that season and the following two seasons. Players will also not be allowed to have more than 20 percent of their salary withheld in a single season.
Also, the NBA will reduce the luxury tax bill for teams at the end of the 2021 season by the percentage amount that the league's basketball-related income (BRI) declines from initial projections as a way to limit tax burdens of teams that have been planning on the salary cap and luxury tax to continue rising.