Players union won't agree to NBA cap smoothing

The National Basketball Players Association informed the NBA that it will not agree to "smoothing in" of salary cap increases that are the results of the league's new TV/media deal starting in 2016-17.

"Smoothing would have avoided a substantialSalary Cap spike in 2016-17," NBA executive vice president of communications Mike Bass said in a statement. "Under the league's smoothing approach, the salary shortfall resulting from more gradual Cap increases would have been paid directly to the Players Association for distribution to all players, and thus the total compensation paid to players in any given season would not have been impacted."

At the All-Star game last month, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts said the players were against any method that artificially suppressed the salary cap even though players would get the shortfall due to them under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement. Players will receive 51% of basketball-related income when the new TV kicks in.

What does this mean? The salary cap is going jump substantially from 2015-16 to 2016-17. The salary cap projections for next seasons is about $67.4 million, up from 63.065 this season, and it could jump almost $23 million to $90 million in 2016-17 without smoothing