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One of the hallmarks of Adam Silver's tenure as NBA commissioner is his relentless pursuit of parity.
"As a league, you’re constantly looking to design systems that help to achieve parity, but the notion in this league is parity of opportunity," Silver told reporters ahead of the 2018 NBA Finals, which marked the fourth straight Finals matchup between LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers and Stephen Curry's Golden State Warriors.
"… You could do more to achieve parity, but you also don't want parity of mediocrity either. So you look to find the right balance as a league."
Eight years later, Silver and the NBA are still striving to find that right balance.
Turning the NBA into the NFL
In one regard, the NBA has achieved the parity that Silver desired. The league has had eight different champions over the past eight years. Prior to this stretch, the NBA had never gone more than six years without a repeat champion.
The current collective bargaining agreement was designed with that in mind.
"I think this increased parity we’re seeing around the league is fantastic," Silver told reporters ahead of the 2023 NBA Finals. It’s part by design, too. Through successive collective bargaining agreements and the one we just negotiated, there’s some new provisions in that one, as well, that we hope will help even the playing field to a certain extent."
The current CBA introduced a second apron, which was designed to "make the high taxpayers feel the pain of losing roster flexibility," as one league source told longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein at the time. Teams that cross the second apron lose access to any mid-level exception and can't aggregate two smaller contracts to acquire a larger one, among other restrictions. Teams that finish a season over the second apron also can't trade their first-round pick seven years in the future.
The CBA made it more punishing for teams to cross the first apron, too. Under the previous CBA, teams above the first apron couldn't acquire players via sign-and-trade and only had the taxpayer mid-level exception, but they were still allowed to take back 125 percent of the salary they sent out in trades, plus $100,000. The current CBA prohibits first-apron teams from taking back more salary than they send out in trades, which hampers their trade options.
That combination of restrictions has caused teams to make more moves that are financially driven rather than basketball-driven. Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens openly admitted that Jaylen Brown's contract was the main reason why they traded him this offseason.
During a recent appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, Silver said that having eight different champions over the past eight years wasn't necessarily the league's goal.
"The goal over time has been, I've said it, to be more NFL-like, where you believe your team has a shot," he said. "Maybe not every single season, but regardless of the market size, if your team is well-managed, if you have a little bit of luck in there, you have a good chance to be in the playoffs and potentially be the champion."
Silver added that the league also wanted a "better distribution of the players, and we're seeing that." He credited the second apron for that development.
The Celtics were one of the eight teams to win a championship over the last eight years. Two years after winning theirs, only two of their six core players from that title team remain. Finances blew the team apart.
"I just think that fans want a sense that it's not top-heavy as it was historically in the NBA," Silver told Patrick. "Remember, three teams won 60 percent of the championships over the first 65 years of this league. And, you know, David Stern used to joke, you know, when he first became commissioner, you were just going back and forth from Boston to L.A. That was the job.
"And I think, you know, as much as—and I get that question all the time like, 'Oh, aren't dynasties great?' They're great, I think, depending on how they're formed."
The current CBA does everything its power to prevent dynasties no matter how they're formed.
Is there a happier medium?
Since the second apron fully went into effect ahead of the 2024-25 season, only four teams have finished a season above that line. Most teams wind up hard-capped at either the first or second apron courtesy of a transaction that they make.
The hard caps are a way to prevent the league's richest owners from bankrolling massive luxury-tax bills to give their teams an advantage on the court. The side effect is making it far more difficult to sustain a dynasty-level team.
The Oklahoma City Thunder won the 2025 NBA championship and appeared poised to repeat this past season until Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell went down with injuries in the playoffs. They still managed to push the San Antonio Spurs to Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals before coming up short.
In theory, that's the exact type of roster that a franchise should aim to keep together as long as possible. Instead, the Thunder have traded away Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe and Lu Dort this offseason for seven second-round picks, all so they could get under the second apron.
"This was a financial decision," Thunder general manager Sam Presti told Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman about the Dort trade. "The impression I have been given is that the savings generated this summer, and from being out of the tax the last several years, will be re-allocated to future teams."
Despite losing that trio, the Thunder still might not skip a beat. They still have two-time reining MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way, and Cason Wallace, Ajay Mitchell, Alex Caruso, Jared McCain, Nikola Topić and rookie Bennett Stirtz will round out the backcourt around him. Dort started all 69 games in which he appeared with OKC this past season, but he shot a career-worst 38.5 percent from the field and was a clear offensive liability in the Western Conference Finals.
Still, those trades are reflective of how the apron era is forcing teams into more financially driven decisions. The league wants a wider distribution of talent—even if those moves are difficult to justify basketball-wise—but is that what's best for the game?
Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma is among the skeptics in that regard.
So too is David Kelly, the new executive director of the National Basketball Players Association.
"It's not good for fans," Kelly told Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic about the second apron.
"Not good for players. I don’t think the (general managers) love it, although they may not say it on the record. Coaches don’t love it. The only people who really seem to really love it are the owners. Then, I think it's gone too far."
Kelly pledged that the players union "will do a better job fighting back" against the second apron moving forward, as "we're seeing [the apron system] decimate teams and force decisions to be made that are not basketball decisions."
This problem isn't unique to the NBA, to be fair. In the NFL, productive players routinely get cut or traded for financial reasons, and the league hasn't suffered popularity-wise.
Granted, NFL teams have 53-man rosters, not 15. Will the same hold true in the NBA given how important certain players are to their respective teams?
One way or another, Silver's push for NFL-style parity is a gamble that very well could define his tenure as commissioner.
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This article was originally published on fansided.com as Is Adam Silver's push for parity what's best for the NBA?.
