How the NBA's newest CBA impacts the Nuggets

On December 14th, it was announced the National Basketball Association and the Players Association have “tentatively” come to terms on a collective bargaining agreement that would extend through the 2023-24 season with a mutual opt-out opportunity in 2022. There are many moving parts and the official agreement has not been released, being that it still needs to be ratified, but some major changes have already been conveyed.

The new CBA is a seven-year agreement that, barring an unforeseen setback, should be completed on January 13th, the extension date placed to fully ratify the agreement, and will go into effect on July 1st, 2017. The new CBA contains many differences that directly affect the Nuggets as well as the NBA in a league-wide sense.

First and foremost the NBA preseason will finally be shortened while the regular season will begin earlier. It has been reported that the regular season will begin around October 15th but the exact time has yet to be determined. This will result in fewer back-to-backs and four-games-in-five-nights type of situations that affect the overall fatigue and health of players.

Salaries will increase across the board. There will be big boosts to veteran minimum deals, rookie deals, the mid-level exception, bi-annual exception as well as max contracts for players with seven to nine or ten years of NBA experience, which will be discussed later in regards to Danilo Gallinari. The over-arching ideology for the changes in how players sign is directly connected to allowing teams to more easily hold onto their respective stars.

There are also updates to the overall handling of the NBA’s Development league. The new CBA allows for two additional NBA roster spots that are considered “two-way” contracts that directly coincide with a D-League affiliate. The platform for how the NBA allows players to enter the draft may also be altered. All of these differences directly affect how the Nuggets continue to fight back into relevance. Here are four ways the CBA will effect the Denver Nuggets.

Free Agency

The biggest impact the new CBA will make is on the salaries going forward. First and foremost all contracts can only be agreed upon verbally until July 1st when the agreement goes into effect. So whatever contract talks the Nuggets have with their own players will not be set in stone.

Secondly, there has been changes to max contracts as well as extensions of deals. Max contracts for a player who has 10 or more years of experience will be raided to a whopping $36 million a year and for players with 7-9 years of experience that max number is $31 million a season.

Extensions of players get fairly convoluted. The new designated veteran player extension will help teams hold onto their respective star players by being able to extend a singular star-caliber veteran player for five additional years as opposed to the current four years extension. To be considered for a five-year extension it requires being voted onto an All-NBA team, among other receivable accolades. Otherwise, any player can be re-signed to a four-year extension as long as they are eligible. One stipulation in respect to the new rules for player extensions is a player that is traded for cannot be extended as the designated veteran player.

The changes to max contracts for players with seven to nine years of NBA experience will affect the Nuggets potentially sooner rather than later. Gallinari has the opportunity to choose if he wants to opt into his current contract or cash in on what could be a possible max contract offer in free agency. Being that Gallinari is currently in the midst of his eighth season, that would make a max deal worth somewhere in the area of five years and $155 million.

Draft implications

While the new CBA currently has left the “one-and-done” rule in effect the NBA Players’ Association and NBA are still continuing talks on if they want to extend the rule of entering the NBA draft one year removed from high school or to push for a longer two-years of college basketball or play two years playing professionally overseas. This rule can reportedly be changed at any point in the life of the new CBA.

Tim Connelly has shown proficiency in the draft and his prowess will have to continue if the Nuggets hope to acquire star talent. Free agency has been made easier for teams to retain their star and if the Nuggets hope to acquire and hold onto talent it will be through the draft. Connelly will have to be adaptive if the draft entrance prerequisites change.

On the other hand, if the Nuggets do draft the next major superstar they will have a much easier time retaining them long-term. Per the new CBA, teams can give rookie extensions up to five years ultimately locking up the hypothetical star for six seasons. This will come into play for the current Nuggets players, who will still be on rookie scale contracts by the time July 1st comes around.

D-League

Denver Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke had alluded to the Nuggets adding their own individual D-League affiliate franchise on NBA Media Day this past offseason. With the newest changes to the CBA, including significant shifts to how the overall set-up of the D-League, it will play a big role in how the Nuggets proceed with their plans.

The new CBA says NBA rosters will expand to 17 players with the two additional slots being dedicated to what is being called “two-way” contracts. These deals will bounce between the NBA franchise and its D-League affiliate, with payment being dictated by which level the player competes at. This becomes significantly more useful for teams who have their affiliate close by and can take advantage of bringing up players when they need whether it is based on matchup or when direly in need of an additional player due to injuries.

When talking directly about the Nuggets, they could use these changes to their advantage. The Budweiser Event Center in Loveland, Colorado, which is just 45 minutes north of Denver, could serve well as an arena for a D-League team and is close enough for the Nuggets to take full advantage of “two-way” contracts. Malik Beasley could be getting live-game playing time in the D-League while getting a chance to practice with the Nuggets roster when they have extended practice time and still being available to be called up to the Nuggets roster at any time if needed for any reason.

Having this type of player control allows teams to dictate the way athletes develop while also giving overseas prospects more incentive to come over to the states. Being that the D-League salaries are also expected to jump, reportedly from $26,000 a year to a much more competitive $50,000-$75,000 a year, it will more closely resemble the type of contracts players receive overseas. This allows NBA franchises to easily access the development of more players in a quicker and more efficient way while limiting the stashing of players overseas.