I don't think the new collective bargaining agreement is to blame, for the most part. The biggest issue, I think, is that the NBA is business now more than ever. Revenues are huge but so is the desire to win. Indeed, the new collective bargaining agreement has a number of things in place to try and keep teams together.
If we had a situation where teams could pay what they wanted, and removed the luxury tax penalties (for example), we'd still have a similar situation because teams with great players would still be bidding against the entire league for their great players, making salaries skyrocket and making it difficult for teams to stay together.
Is there was a hard cap, again, teams would not be able to stay together because they'd get to their limit and other teams would space would take them.
So I understand being upset and yearning for the old days but you're blame is misplaced.