Adam Silver defends new tax apron - Helps all teams compete - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — Soon after the LA Clippers lost star forward Paul George to the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency, the team cited «the constraints of the new CBA.»

In short, the team was referencing the rules in the agreed-upon 2023 collective bargaining agreement that aimed to level the playing field by creating team-building restrictions for franchises that spent far into the luxury tax — blowing past the so-called «second apron.»

That phrase came to define much of the conversation around the league during the July free agency period as the Clippers lost George, the Denver Nuggets lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and other teams maneuvered to manage their books.

«We're now in the apron world,» Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said in early July. «We've seen contending teams or championship-level teams have to lose players. That's a result of the apron world we're living in. So, does it make trades more challenging? Yes. Does it make good trades impossible? No.»

On Tuesday, after the league's board of governors meetings held in Las Vegas, NBA commissioner Adam Silver defended the new rules and their impact on team-building.

«What I'm hearing from teams, even as the second apron is moving to kick in, the teams are realizing there are real teeth in those provisions,» he said. «I don't know how to view this, but I know reports have come out that the summer was boring from a fan standpoint. I don't certainly think it was. We still saw a lot of critically important players moving from one team to another as free agents.

»But at the same time, I think this new system, while I don't want it to be boring, I want to put teams in a position, 30 teams, to better compete. I think we're on our way to doing that."

The league has had six