I think you may be misinterpreting this. They aren't talking about a 40% rollback of current salaries. They are talking about the owners proposal of a hard cap at around $45 million (which would not be for several years).
And of course owners are going to have to come off that number, but that is not going to happen until the owners feel enough pressure to compromise among themselves on how to subsidize the smaller market teams, who can't afford a cap above $45 million.