I really think Silver screw up last year by not smoothing the salary cap.
On top of that, this year salary cap is 8 millions less than expected.
As a result, not only it favors GS last year but now handicap the rest of the teams.
KD, Curry can take pay-cut with champions endorsements they will receive.
Meanwhile other team have to max out any all star or great starter and overpay for role players.
The nets even struggle to overpay players.
There is obviously something wrong with the system... since NBA wants so much "parity" and failed miserably.
People compare this situation with the Heat, Lakers and Celtics super-teams. I'm sorry, they are wrong. During that time, there was competition with many 7 game series.
Now it's sweeping time. Such a joke.
As a basketball fan, I'm sad to see that. I love this sport for the competitive side of it, not the dominance of any team.
It's not Silver's fault. The player's union didn't want "smoothing" and I can understand that. Unfortunately this has been the result.
The best players are always going to be able to take pay cuts due to their endorsements. Some stars (like the Spurs stars) just take discounts even though they don't have any endorsements. Tom Brady's cheap deal has been a big benefit to the Patriots in maintaining depth.
Due to the timing of their rebuild, the Celtics didn't really have any stars besides Isaiah signed up long term to "old cap" cheap deals. They were keeping players on short-term deals, saving their future flexibility for when a star became available. When the spike hit it helped the good teams who already had stars on long-term deals signed up because they could add another piece. The teams that were pinching pennies and saving cap space for a run at a top guy like Durant were hurt by the spike.
Even if Golden State wasn't in the picture, I think the timing was a little off. Last year's team didn't have Isaiah jumping to 29 ppg. It didn't get the no 1 seed. It didn't make it out of the first round. It didn't have the first overall pick, it had the 3rd pick in a draft where the first two players were considered a tier above the rest. I can totally understand, even with the addition of Horford, Durant looking at that team and thinking it wasn't an upgrade from staying an extra year with the Thunder.
Anyway, that was our chance at contending the next few years. Durant is a step above anybody else we could acquire, and now he's on the team that was already much better than us.