How the New NBA CBA Could Potentially Affect the NBADL Going Forward

The most connected man in the professional basketball sphere, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, broke significant updates on the progress of recent collective bargaining agreement negotiations between the National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Players’ Association.

Wojnarowski’s article on The Vertical here not only reported optimism of a finalized CBA deal before the current CBA’s opt-out deadline of December 15^th, but Wojnarowski also posited amendments to expect in the new CBA: a raise in the rookie contract scale to align with the salary cap spike and two-way contracts between the NBA and the NBADL that will allow for inclusion into the NBPA labor union.

In regards to how transformative these amendments may be for the NBADL, the heightened salaries of the rookie contracts would likely compel teams to remain even more deeply wedded to their signed 1st round pick selections for the entirety of the contract tenures. Such a situation may have given pause to the Minnesota Timberwolves in terms of waiving Anthony Bennett out of his rookie deal as a 1^st overall pick last year.

The potential of even more exorbitant immediate financial gain could also encourage even more international and NCAA basketball prospects to leave early for the draft or negotiate earlier contract buyouts with their international teams for the NBA.

There are no indications thus far of 2^nd round NBA draft selections getting included into the rookie contract scale. With more prospects fighting for the 30 1st round picks per season, an uptick in players trying out for NBADL teams would seem likely as many undrafted prospects would still look to show their skills in the NBADL on their own. The uptick may even inspire many more NBADL expansion teams to be founded to utilize the talent surplus.

As for the two-way contract option, NBPA union membership may offer security that makes the NBADL more tantalizing to fringe NBA players who previously concerned playing ball overseas as the more agreeable option. The two-way contract clause also allows organizations to keep surplus players within their control without requiring contract buyouts due to NBA roster limits. The NBADL may experience a higher influx of veteran pros than ever before. For NBADL fans, expect your games to play at a quality higher than ever in the near future.