Kevin Durant, who joined the Golden State Warriors in 2016, ultimately led to a new revision to the NBA salary cap.
After all, the yearly salary cap increased formed the Golden State Warriors Dynasty in 2016. For reference, the NBA salary cap jumped from $70 million to $94.1 million.
This has led Dove to add Kevin Durant to the team that won a record 73 games in the regular season. Clearly, change was necessary, and occurred in a new collective bargaining agreement that took effect in the 2023-24 NBA season.
The new CBA will have a more severe, luxurious tax impact on the second apron. This could have stopped the team from forming super teams like the Warriors Dynasty, but that also has negative implications.
The way the Boston Celtics traded Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis is a perfect example of this because they wanted this team not to pay large taxes. Speaking of the situation, many people are blaming CJ McCollum for how things turned out.
With the new CBA enabled, it’s really difficult for teams to keep free agents as teams don’t want to pay large amounts of luxury taxes.
This maintains better parity in the league, but many fans are angry when they see their favorite players leaving the franchise because of this.
One NBA fan on X blamed NBPA president CJ McCollum for this, saying “It’s not been spoken well enough that CJ McCollum ruined the NBA free agency market like crazy because KD went to Warriors.”
The tweet reached a veteran security guard, who denounced the fans for making that “filthy statement.”
“I think I have enough strength to do that lol. It’s a dirty statement and I want you to tag me. But I hope you have the best. What is that doing for your living?”
There is no doubt that only McCollum did not convince the league to sign a new CBA. However, he is the president of the NBPA, so he always faces fan rage.
Before clapping the fans, McCollum had already made headlines, but for another reason. The reason is that the Pelicans in New Orleans replaced CJ with the Washington Wizard.
- Washington Wizard received: CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk and future second round draft picks
- New Orleans Pelican received: Jordan Pool, Sadiq Bay, and 40 picks from the 2025 NBA Draft
McCollum will begin a new chapter in Washington, at least for now, where there is little pressure to win the NBA championship.
The deal may have been shocking to fans, but it appears that McCollum predicted this few months ago before the actual movements diminished.