The Nets dodged a bullet.
The Washington Wizards agreed to a deal that sends three-time NBA All-Star Bradley Beal to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for senescent point guard Chris Paul, streak shooter Landry Shamet and the remainder of the Suns’ scarce draft capital in the aftermath of the Kevin Durant trade with Brooklyn.
That’s an extra six second-round picks and two first-round pick swaps in 2024 and 2026 that effectively erases any semblance of Phoenix’s control over its own draft future.
Yet due to the rules of the second apron — a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) financial provision designed to discourage excessive spending by the league’s wealthiest franchises — the Suns are approaching a stiff penalty as it pertains to their furthest-possible first-round draft pick in 2032.
The Nets, luckily, acquired the Suns’ first-round picks in 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029 as part of the Durant deal, whereas the harsh penalty kick in three years after the final pick they are owed.
That’s because beginning next season, taxpaying NBA teams will need to observe the unique rules that come in place via the newly incorporated second apron. The second apron is set at $17.5M above the luxury tax threshold ($162M). The Suns are already at $168M in salary spread across just five players: Beal, Durant, Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton and Cameron Payne.
Teams that exceed the second apron are unable to use the taxpayer’s mid-level exception to sign free agents. They are unable to use a traded player exception with an incoming salary of greater than 110% of the outgoing player’s salary and are also unable to sign a player that had an original salary worth $12.2M or more before he was bought out of his contract.
That’s only in Year 1 of exceeding the second apron.
The restrictions double, for example, for a team like the Suns at the conclusion of the 2023-24 regular season. Phoenix will be unable to trade one player for multiple players. The Suns will be unable to use cash considerations as part of any trade, will remain unable to use their taxpayer’s mid-level exception and their first-round pick seven years out (2032) becomes frozen. They will be unable to use that draft pick in a deal.
And if they continue to be a second apron team in at least two of the four years after first exceeding it, that frozen first-round pick in 2032 will automatically be moved to the end of the first round.
That means the ramifications for striking the Beal deal could continue plaguing the Suns long after their core four is gone.
Unless they find a way to trade Deandre Ayton, the embattled yet talented center set to earn $32M in salary this upcoming season. The Suns can’t deal Beal and aren’t going to trade Durant or Booker, making Ayton and his four-year deal worth $133M the only movable contract on the payroll. The Nets have several veteran role players who both fit on championship-contending teams like the Suns and play on team-friendly contracts.
The Nets’ appetite for Ayton, however, remains unclear, and they already have a starting center in Nic Claxton, who has already established himself as one of the premier defensive big men in basketball due to his ability to defend all five positions.
What’s clear is the Nets and Suns have traded places, and now it’s the Suns who have a star-studded roster with little other resources to build a contender.
Meanwhile the Nets have all the draft picks in the world — the majority coming via Phoenix in the Durant deal — and they, too, are eager to strike a deal that improves their roster entering the 2023-24 NBA season.