The NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement is roughly 600 pages long. It covers a wide variety of topics, from pension benefits to hotel arrangements and the use of wearable technology, though for armchair GMs its most notable provisions are those governing the salary cap, free agency, and trades. These provisions largely appear in Article VII, which itself is 140 pages.
To help you make sense of the CBA’s terms and how they affect decision-making, here are a bunch of articles I’ve written over the years. They range from straightforward observations of team behavior and cap management to more technical discussions of CBA language, forecasts, and strategies.
Lessons from the Trade Deadline (#3): Bulls are Financial Champs, But New CBA Limits Profitability (February 2018)
Lessons from the Trade Deadline (#2): Unwanted Contract Market Heating Up (February 2018)
Lessons from the Trade Deadline (#1): Everyone Trusts the Process; Won’t Deal Pick for ‘Just a Guy’ (February 2018)
My Proposed Changes to the 2011 CBA (December 2016)
Taking Advantage of the CBA: The Importance of Minimum Salary Contracts in Structuring & Executing Trades (August 2016)
Projecting 2016 Free Agent Salaries: How Much Inflation Should We Expect? (June 2016)
Understanding Contract Renegotiations & Extensions (featuring George Hill & Jeff Teague) (June 2016)