New CBA throws major curveball at the Golden State Warriors

It’s well known that rival owners and executives have been left frustrated by the Golden State Warriors’ exorbitant payroll in recent years, and that’s now been addressed in the latest collective bargaining agreement between the league and Players Association.

The seven-year agreement will see a range of new initiatives brought in, along with a limit on high-spending teams, such as the Warriors, that seeks to bring greater parity to the league.

The Golden State Warriors will be heavily impacted by a new rule that prohibits high-spending teams from having access to the taxpayer mid-level exception.

As reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday, the Warriors are to be one of the teams most impacted by the removal of a critical element to their roster construction.

"“The NBA is curbing the ability of the highest-spending teams, such as the Golden State Warriors and the LA Clippers, to continue running up salary and luxury tax spending while still maintaining mechanisms to add talent to the roster…Those teams will no longer have access to the taxpayer mid-level in free agency”, Wojnarowski wrote."

He went on to detail its impact, outlining how, under the new rules, Golden State wouldn’t have been able to sign Donte DiVincenzo last offseason — that is unless the fifth-year guard were to accept a minimum contract. The “changes will be eased into the salary cap over a period of years” according to Wojnarowski.

The new rule falls under the creation of a second tax apron that removes the mid-level exception from teams $17.5 million over the tax line. Before the exorbitant luxury tax bill that comes with the territory, the Warriors have a league-high cap totalling just over $200 million this season. That’s estimated to rise to over $230 million next season, with the defending champions predicted to be nearly $50 million over the luxury tax threshold in 2023.

So, moving forward, instead of having access to someone like DiVincenzo, Golden State will need to be better at identifying and attracting players on minimum contracts. Their current roster is already greatly divided between those on $25+ million dollars and those on less than $5 million, and that will become even more the case unless their willing to offload one of their high-end players.

In fairness, this isn’t the worst result — some other legality could have been introduced that further restricts the Warriors’ ability to spend big. However, should Bob Myers remain in the role of general manager beyond this season, he’ll have even greater responsibility in trying to maximise the lower end of the roster moving forward.