5 changes to the NBA’s CBA the Orlando Magic need to watch

The NBA had what felt like a fairly normal summer.

Players signed new contracts. Lots of money was thrown around. Teams made deals. It felt like a normal summer.

It was made even more normal by the labor peace that came with it.

With the NBA gearing up for a massive new TV rights deal due to be signed after the 2025 season, the league was not about to derail their good thing. The league quickly negotiated and agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement that will be effective until July 2030 (with an opt-out option after the conclusion of the 2029 season).

The nearly 700-page document outlines the rules and procedures by which the league, teams and players must adhere to when operating their business.

While there are not a lot of changes to the new CBA, there are always changes. The league is trying to reign in runaway spending by a few select teams at the high end and reinvigorate the regular season.

The NBA is operating under a new CBA that will govern what the Orlando Magic will do and what the Magic can do moving forward. What changes? We explore what the new CBA means for the Magic.

The Orlando Magic are not so concerned with the CBA yet. The team spent its offseason mainly keeping its roster intact, only spending it seems to get to the payroll floor.

The new CBA though is an ever-present thing even for a team like the Magic.

They are probably weighing and measuring the teams that are bumping up against the new payroll and salary cap restrictions. Just as they are probably weighing what they might have to one day pay their star players in Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero.

They are probably also eyeing the new In-Season Tournament and the possibilities that brings to the team.

This article takes a high-level exploration of the CBA and compiles some of the more notable and impactful changes coming this season and beyond – as well as discusses what it means for the Orlando Magic now and moving forward.

5 changes to the NBA’s CBA the Orlando Magic need to watch

Roster Changes

One of the most obvious rule changes under the new CBA that fans will notice next season are the changes to the roster size and two-way contracts.

Under the new CBA, teams will now be able to add a third two-way contract player to their roster- increasing the in-season roster cap from 17 players to 18. Additionally, NBA teams will also be able to retain the rights to up to 21 players (previously 20) during the offseason.

This change is one that benefits both organizations and players as the teams can hold more roster flexibility throughout the season and offseason. While the creation of 30 extra roster spots across the league helps give jobs to athletes that would have been fringe two-way players in seasons prior.

Barring any trades or unexpected changes, the Magic’s roster at the moment probably reflects what it will look like on opening night.

One change you can expect is the Magic to sign a player to their third and final two-way contract slot.

While Orlando understandably has been more focused on developing some of its younger and higher drafted talent rather than the current two-way players Kevon Harris and Admiral Schofield- the lack of shooting and rim protection depth on the team allows them to take advantage of this spot with a potential project player.

For a team with roster deficiencies such as Orlando, this is a low-risk tool the CBA allows that should absolutely be used.

5 changes to the NBA’s CBA the Orlando Magic need to watch

In-Season Tournament

Hoping to add some extra excitement and relevance to the regular season — the CBA also brings us the long-discussed In-season NBA tournament.

In what seems to be an attempt to capitalize off the exciting tournament format of March Madness as well as multiple soccer leagues — the NBA will unveil its inaugural group play rounds in November and then conclude in early December after the completion of the eight-team, single elimination, knockout round.

The tournament will feature payouts of $500,000 for each player on the tournament-winning team, $200,000 for the runners-up, $100,000 for third place and $50,000 for fourth place. In addition to the games, at the tournament’s conclusion, an “All-Tournament Team” and “Tournament MVP” will be named, creating more potential accolades for players to achieve.

Interestingly however, the reviews of the new tournament from the players and former players have been a bit of a mixed bag.

Many players are confused about why they should care about the tournament when their ultimate goal is still to win an NBA Title. Others on teams without title hopes may embrace the opportunity to win something during a season they do not anticipate making a deep playoff run.

As the inaugural In-Season tournament this year unfolds, it will be interesting to see the type of audience it garners as well as how the players themselves treat it.

For the Magic specifically – this tournament is absolutely something they should lay it all on the line for.

The team has not made the playoffs since 2020 and they have not won a playoff series since 2010 when they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals.

This lack of expectation is exactly why the Magic should seize the opportunity of the In-Season Tournament. The chance to gain not only exposure, but additional relevance as well as building a winning culture are invaluable to the Magic Organization, its players, and fans.

Orlando got a favorable draw for the tournament too. They will have to contend with the Boston Celtics but the other teams in their group are a manageable group of the Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls. There is an opportunity for the team to be a surprise team in this tournament.

5 changes to the NBA’s CBA the Orlando Magic need to watch

League Awards

Another change as part of the new CBA is one the players are probably not happy about.

Now in order to be eligible for any end-of-season award or accolade (MVP, All-NBA, Most Improve Player, etc.) players must appear in at least 65 of 82 regular season games. Additionally, the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams will now be positionless rather than voting for guards, forwards and centers.

This means every year there will likely be All-NBA Team/All-Defensive team snubs due to injury and load management.

While many fans are tired of the load management era, one could wonder if the downstream implications of this change will have unintended consequences. For example, seeing a situation like Stephen Curry being ineligible for an All-NBA team and passed up for a lesser player because he missed the games played criteria by one or two games would be hard to stomach as an NBA fan.

Making it even harder to stomach is knowing these accolades affect a player’s ability to obtain super-max deals or other high-value contracts that require prerequisite accomplishments first. That is something the media have been uncomfortable with for a long time anyway.

Maybe it will only encourage players to stop sitting for load management – but maybe it leads to some of the best players in the league missing accolades and losing out on long-term money or long-term legacy discussions.

Regardless of how it plays out, this is one of the more interesting CBA changes to keep track of during the season and moving forward.

For the Orlando Magic, these rule changes could affect the looming contract extensions of several young players in the coming years. Players are eligible for the super-max and a base salary of 30 percent of the salary cap if they make an All-NBA team in two of the previous three years or win MVP in one of the three previous years.

If there are players who are suddenly ineligible to make the All-NBA team, that could open a path for a player like Paolo Banchero or Franz Wagner to be an All-NBA team. Or they could suddenly become ineligible because they missed too much time.

These new changes to the NBA League Awards have to be monitored for the possible financial implications they may have to Orlando’s roster.

5 changes to the NBA’s CBA the Orlando Magic need to watch

Contract Extensions

Speaking of extensions — of course, the new CBA has some changes to max and supermax deals.

The old CBA typically only allowed for a max increase to a veteran player’s salary by 20 percent in the initial season of a new deal. In practice, this effectively punished teams and players for offering/taking discounted deals. Jaylen Brown was a prime example of this issue before the new CBA went live and his subsequent signing of the current largest contract in NBA history.

With the new CBA, the threshold doubles from 20 percent to 40 percent — allowing players to maximize their financial income by staying with a team rather than entering free agency to obtain more than a 20 percnet jump. In order to do this in a previous year, the player would have had to have been eligible for a supermax deal.

There are going to be major changes to how contracts are going to get doled out. Including the future contracts for Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Both could easily get the max of 25 percent of the salary cap. And a supermax cannot be completely ruled out.

With the prerequisites necessary to obtain a supermax, no one on the Magic’s roster is currently on watch to receive one. But as the roster currently stands, Wagner and Banchero look to be the top contenders for max extensions in 2025 and 2026 respectively.

If they continue to progress and perform as expected, receiving max deals or close to it would account for a good portion of Orlando’s salary cap. Knowing this is important for the Magic as they try to round out the roster each year to have the best possible team, while also trying to maintain the cap flexibility needed to pay and retain their young stars.

To be sure once Wagner hits free agency in the summer of 2025, a lot of things will change with how the Magic will act.

5 changes to the NBA’s CBA the Orlando Magic need to watch

Salary Cap and the second apron restrictions

In previous years when a team has crossed the NBA salary cap by a certain amount, they would have to pay the luxury tax — a dollar-for-dollar tax every amount over that certain amount that could become more if a team is repeatedly over that luxury tax line.

After the luxury tax amount, there was an apron a team could hit that would restrict how that team can operate moving forward under its current financial obligations.

Under the new CBA effective this year, there is now a second apron that restricts the teams who hit it even further. In the 2024 season, the benchmarks are as follows:

• Salary Cap = $136 million
• Luxury Tax = $165 million
• First Apron = $172 million
• Second Apron – $182.5 million

Teams under the second apron will not be able to include cash in trades as an asset, their first-round picks will be placed at the end of the draft order if they are above the second-apron in three of the previous five seasons, they cannot use a trade exception from the previous year, they cannot trade first-round picks seven years out and beyond and they cannot create a trade exception by aggregating multiple players’ salaries.

To the average NBA fan, this is probably a lot to digest. So for some real-world context, Keith Smith of Spotrac explains it well:

Trades will be different because of teams being above the second apron now.

Additionally, signings last summer such as the Jon Wall or Joe Ingles signings with teh LA Clippers or Milwaukee Bucks would not have been possible under the new rules. These examples show how handcuffed second-apron teams will be compared to previous years.

While at the moment the Orlando Magic are far away from being a second-apron team, it is still very important for their front office to familiarize themself with the new landscape.

According to Spotrac.com, with Orlando’s roster as currently situated, they are at a cap number of $139.4 million (About $3 million over the new cap). They do have about $7 million cap room available for a mid-leve exception contract but it remains to be seen whether or not the Magic will use it (not likely considering the roster is full).

Orlando’s roster momentarily is pretty flexible and relatively cheap and you can expect it to remain that way over the next couple of seasons. But if the Magic are ever going to be buyers or big movers for multiple stars, they need to make sure that money is spent wisely because the second apron will not be an easy place for front offices to maneuver if they do indeed land there.

Only time will tell how these new rules will ultimately shape the league through the 2030 season and beyond.

In some ways, it seems the players benefited from a base pay and benefits point of view. But in other ways, it feels they sacrificed a good amount of power they have taken from the teams and league over the past several years.

How do the players feel about the new rules now? How will they feel after a few seasons playing under them? Will it be as easy for a disgruntled superstar to force his way out of a bad situation?

What about load management? Is that a thing of the past or will superstars sacrifice the accolades and money in order to keep that trend alive?

Are teams in the second apron effectively handcuffed to their roster for the year?

These are some of the questions that should have been asked before the NBAPA and the owners agreed to the deal. But whether they did or not, both sides signed, and the new CBA is officially live.

Now everyone is just anticipating the new TV rights deal in a few years that could double or triple the money coming to the NBA — do not worry, one more change to the CBA: the salary cap cannot spike by more than 10 percent in any year.

Just like every other team in the league, Orlando’s front office has the responsibility of learning and deciphering how to best use and navigate these new rules. Factors like a new CBA and contractual changes to a multi-billion dollar league are one of the things that make professional sports truly unique and fascinating.

Building a future championship contender under these rules will be difficult, but it will not be Magic — it’s just business.