NBA Insider: Teams Will Look to Shed Good Players' Contracts Before CBA Rules Change

The NBA's richest teams are about to face a cap reckoning—and it could come as a major benefit to smaller markets.

ESPN's Zach Lowe said NBA executives are anticipating the league's most expensive teams will slash salary to duck under the second tax apron in the new collective bargaining agreement.

"Everyone now knows what the new CBA is," Lowe said (h/t RealGM). "That it's looming. And some of the teams with cap room or in the middle, or just some executives who study this stuff and try to game plan it out, the anticipation is some of the expensive teams, not all of them, some of them, in anticipation of the crunch that's coming when all the new rules kick in, that there will be a couple, a few gettable good players that those teams shed just to get off money. And if you have cap room and flexibility, you might be able to get them for cheap.

"I think a team like Orlando, San Antonio even. They can look to pick off a player like that for very low cost instead of going whole hog with these picks. I think there's a lot of optionality in play."

The NBA's CBA includes a restrictive second tax apron that's set to be phased in over the next two seasons. In its initial incarnation, any team more than $17.5 over the tax apron will be restricted to minimum-salary contracts in free agency and be prohibited from signing players in the buyout market, sending cash in trades or sending out more salary than they receive in trades.

Moreover, teams over that $17.5 million threshold twice in four seasons will have their first-round pick seven years in the future dropped to the end of the round.

The new CBA is set to create major issues for teams such as the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, who are both set for massive luxury-tax bills in the immediate future. The Clippers have over $200 million in salary on their roster for next season alone, and the Warriors will also top that number if Draymond Green re-signs and they retain their current roster.

It's possible, if not likely, the Warriors and Clippers look to make foundational moves to their roster for cap savings. Warriors guard Jordan Poole is by far the most obvious trade chip on either roster, while the Clippers could look to shed Eric Gordon's non-guaranteed $20.9 million salary, along with exploring trades for expensive role players (Norman Powell, Marcus Morris Sr.).

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Salary-cap numbers via Spotrac unless otherwise noted.