Did The NBA’s New Labor Deal Ruin Free Agency?

The start of NBA free agency used to be an unofficial holiday for basketball fans. They would eagerly await a barrage of reports from the league’s major news-breakers and would lose their minds accordingly once said deluge began. However, the 2025 offseason has been largely light on free-agent fireworks, which came as no surprise to those who were paying attention.

The Brooklyn Nets were the only team that entered free agency with significant salary-cap space, although the Milwaukee Bucks later joined them after they unexpectedly waive-and-stretched injured All-Star point guard Damian Lillard. That move set the stage for the Bucks to sign former Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner to a four-year, $108.9 million contract.

Thus far, Turner and Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving are the only two players to receive nine-figure deals in free agency. (Irving declined his $43.0 million player option and re-signed with the Mavs on a three-year, $118.5 million deal.) Aside from Turner, Nickeil Alexander-Walker landed the highest contract of anyone else who changed teams. The Atlanta Hawks gave him a four-year, $60.6 million deal as part of a sign-and-trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

This offseason has been an outlier in that regard. While not every summer is like 2019, when teams handed out 12 nine-figure deals in total, there are typically at least 10 or so deals worth north of $70 million. This year, Irving, Turner and James Harden—who re-signed with the Los Angeles Clippers on a partially guaranteed two-year, $81.5 million contract—are the only three free agents to cross that threshold thus far.

That caused Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green to bemoan the state of free agency on Monday night.

Is Green right? Did the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement put an end to free agency? Or will it bounce back in future years if more teams enter the offseason with cap space? The answers aren’t as cut-and-dried as Green makes it out to be.

How The New CBA Ruined Free Agency

To some extent, Green is correct. The league’s latest CBA did contain several changes that have impacted free agency. The biggest one, as he mentioned, is the new second apron.

The previous CBA had only one apron. Teams that went above that line had the smaller taxpayer mid-level exception rather than the larger non-taxpayer mid-level exception, and they couldn’t receive players via sign-and-trade. However, they were still allowed to aggregate contracts in trades and could take back 125% of the salary they send out in a trade. That isn’t the case anymore.

Under this CBA, teams that go above the first apron but stay below the second apron are still allowed to aggregate two smaller salaries for a bigger contract, but they can’t take back more salary than they send out in a trade. Teams that go above the second apron also can’t aggregate contracts or trade a first-round draft pick that’s seven years in the future. Those that stay above the second apron twice in a four-year span have that seven-years-from-now pick automatically dropped to the bottom of the first round.

Boston Celtics president Brad Stevens recently told reporters that he thought “the second-apron basketball penalties are real, and I’m not sure I understood how real until they were staring me in the face.” The Celtics, who won the championship in 2023-24, have spent the offseason stripping their team for spare parts in the wake of Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear, as they could no longer bear the brunt of the second apron’s punishing restrictions.

With that backdrop in mind, teams do appear to be approaching most contract negotiations more cautiously. Stars like Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero are still receiving full max contracts, but many lower-level starters and role players are having to scratch and claw for their paydays. Green alluded to that tension when he said players are overplaying the market because they don’t “understand what they are up against with the new rules.”

While the second apron is by far the biggest change in the new CBA, it wasn’t the only one that has negatively impacted free agency. The new extension rules, which allow teams to offer players a starting salary of 140% of what they were previously earning rather than 120%, have facilitated an increase in extensions before players can even test free agency. As more high-profile players sign extensions and further whittle down the potential free-agent class, teams also begin to pivot since they have less incentive to preserve cap space.

The new CBA also changed when teams are allowed to legally begin negotiating with their own free agents. (And as we all know, teams and agents would never dare to break those rules and negotiate ahead of time.) Whereas teams previously had to wait to contact even their own players until free agency began—which might have contributed to Harden’s schism with the Philadelphia 76ers two summers ago—they can now begin hashing out new contracts one day after the NBA Finals end.

Irving and the Mavericks took advantage of that negotiating window this offseason. The two sides reportedly agreed to their new deal on June 24, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, which was six days before free agency officially began. The following day, Fred VanVleet and the Houston Rockets came to terms on a two-year, $50 million contract, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic.

Neither Irving nor VanVleet were perceived to be legitimate flight risks this offseason. Still, they were two of the top potential free agents, and other teams never even got a chance to pitch them before they agreed to terms with their current clubs.

Lastly, the new CBA also allowed teams to use their mid-level exceptions as trade exceptions for the first time. According to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line Substack, seven teams used their MLEs in trades this past season, which one team strategist predicted would become “a new trend” around the league.

A handful of teams have already spent their respective mid-level exceptions this summer, including the Los Angeles Lakers (Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia), Los Angeles Clippers (Brook Lopez) and Detroit Pistons (Caris LeVert). However, most teams still have some or all of their MLEs as their disposal. That may further choke off free agents who have yet to settle on a landing spot.

Is Free Agency Gone Forever?

All of those changes have had an undeniable impact on free agency this offseason. The increased extension limits and early negotiation window annihilated the high-end options before free agency even opened. Fear of the second apron and the ability to use MLEs as trade exceptions may have ended the game of free-agent musical chairs early. From here on out, most players (other than a handful of notable restricted free agents) will likely be forced to settle for veteran-minimum or near-minimum contracts.

So, is Green right? Is free agency gone forever? Or was this offseason an outlier because of how few teams entered it with cap space?

It’s too early to say definitively either way. However, market dynamics could swing back in the players’ favor in 2026.

The Washington Wizards currently have nearly $100 million in expiring contracts on their books between Khris Middleton, CJ McCollum, Marcus Smart and Richaun Holmes. The latest CBA contains a new rule that forces teams to reach the league’s salary floor (90% of the salary cap) by the first day of the regular season. If the Wizards don’t flip some of their expiring deals for longer-term contracts this year, they’ll have a ton of money that they’ll have to burn next summer. (Granted, they could use some of it by taking unwanted contracts into their cap space.)

While Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. agreed to a five-year, $240 million renegotiation-and-extension that preemptively kept him off the 2026 free-agent market, that wasn’t the case for Lakers guard Austin Reaves. The Lakers were only allowed to offer him a four-year, $89.2 million extension this offseason, which he unsurprisingly rejected, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic. Unless he changes his mind, he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, so some teams could try to line up cap space to take a shot at him.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić has reportedly informed his team that he also won’t be signing an extension this offseason, according to Bennett Durando of the Denver Post, although that’s purely a financial move. He stands to add an extra year and tack on an additional $77 million by waiting until next summer to sign an extension, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. However, there will be an unprecedented feeding frenzy if Jokić decides not to sign an extension again next offseason.

So, the days of being bombarded with reports about brain-busting agreements in the opening hours of free agency might no longer exist the same way it once did. The new CBA did have an undeniable impact this summer in that regard. But before declaring free agency officially dead and buried, let’s see how the next offseason or two play out first.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

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