New CBA affected Magic's haul for Redick

There has been plenty of complaining in the days after Thursday's trade deadline about how disappointing it was.

Everyone expected some crazy big move with some major pieces flying around the league and changing the shape of the league. Perhaps the disappointment over the trade deadline is more a disappointment in the buildup social media causes and the wild flying around of rumors that happens at everyt rade deadline. Information spreads so quickly.

J.J. Redick was the biggest name moved at the deadline and what Orlando got in return for him — Tobias Harris, Beno Udrih and Doron Lamb — was probably not as much as the team could have gotten in the past.

That seemed to be the biggest shock coming out of the trade deadline.

Orlando was looking for young players and first round picks. The fact that the Bucks did not offer that first round pick is what puzzled many out of the trade deadline.

Zach Lowe of Grantland concludes that the new collective bargaining agreement and its mechanics are changing what teams like the Magic can get for a sought-after player like J.J. Redick:

"The new CBA indeed carries scary penalties — a more punishing luxury tax that kicks in next season, catastrophic penalties for repeat payers, and roster-building restrictions for teams that even approach the tax threshold. Executives around the league agree those changes have teams clinging more tightly to first-round picks, a hoarding mentality that even extends to pseudo contenders with picks slated for the end of the first round — a place where the expected return is a borderline rotation player. That’s what the anonymous GM in Berger’s piece is getting at: How could a team that might view itself as 'one player away' — the Pacers, perhaps — turn up its nose at surrendering the annual equivalent of Miles Plumlee for a shooter, such as Redick, who might be the missing piece? Only one future first-round pick changed hands around the trade deadline (a pick Memphis sent to Cleveland in a salary dump ahead of the Rudy Gay deal), after four or five changed hands on average over the last couple of trade deadlines."

Indeed, Kevin Berger of CBS cited a source telling him that the Redick deal was what it was because of the uncertainty over the CBA and that in the past there was no doubt that Redick would get a first round pick. Perhaps this means that the trading season will really be during the offseason when draft picks have already been taken and their value is a little bit more known.

There certainly appears to be a transition period for the new collective bargaining agreement to set in. The contract lengths and amounts will be adjusting in the next few summers.

That did not help the Magic in this trade market. What they got were the young players they wanted and some cap relief. I will go into that aspect of the deal in a future post.

What became clear though as Thursday dragged on, Orlando was not going to get exactly what it was searching for. The team though had to make a decision about whether the team would be able to afford Redick this summer and whether there was not an asset that could help the team out in the future at a much cheaper option. Tobias Harris appeared to fit that mold and Orlando will still get cap relief from Beno Udrih's expiring deal.

Certainly though, Orlando did not get what it could have even last year and the CBA may have played a role.