The decision by the NBPA to reject cap smoothing created a spike in 2016 that the free agency class that offseason benefited from tremendously to the detriment of subsequent classes. 

Teams in the 2017 offseason had less cap space due to the types of multi-year contracts that were agreed upon in 2016 as well as fewer playoff games.

Many front offices recklessly signed players assuming the cap would continue to climb at its projected rate.

The cap spiked from $70 million in 15-16 to $94 million in 16-17.

"If you're a team, you're sitting there saying, 'Well, I'm not going to negotiate off of someone else's mistake,' " a general manager from a team not linked to any of the players signed by the Grizzlies in 2016 told ESPN. "That was the problem. Players were going to try to hold teams and agents to these comparisons. We're coming out of a bubble.

"You had faulty logic all across the league. The league and the players association for a lack of smoothing, the teams that spent, the agents and players that thought that this was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that was never going to end. You had a lot of parties that were guilty of a gold-rush mentality. It's always going to come to an end."

In an interview in June with C.J. McCollum for The Players Tribune, Adam Silver talked about expansion.

"I think it's just a question of when's the right time to seriously start thinking about expansion," said Adam Silver. "Think about the state we're in the league right now, where amazing to me, that coming off these Finals you have some fans saying, 'there's only one good team in the league.'

"I'm thinking, if people really believe that even though we have 450 of the best players in the world and 450 players can only form one really good team, it doesn't make sense to expand in terms of dilution of talent.

"I don't want to put a precise timeline on it, but it's inevitable. At some point we'll start looking at growth of franchises. That's always been the case in this league. Seattle will no doubt be on a short list of cities we'll look at."

Before Game 1 of The Finals, Silver was asked by Danny Leroux about expansion.

"Expansion is not something we’re looking at right now. It is less a function of labor peace, it more goes to the strength of a 30-team league," said Silver. 

Silver cited the financial health for all 30 NBA teams needs to be addressed before expansion.

"I have no doubt at some point we’ll turn back to it, but at least in my last discussions with our owners on this, most of them said let’s keep focusing on the health of these 30 teams and the quality of the competition. When we feel we’re in a better place with the 30 teams we have, maybe at that point we can look to expand."

The Golden State Warriors are the first NBA team to use personal seat licenses to finance their $1 billion Chase Center.

A team official confirmed that the number of seats dedicated for season-ticket holders will decrease from the 14,500 currently at Oracle Arena in Oakland to roughly 12,000 at Chase Center in San Francisco. Half of the tickets will come with a per-seat cost of $15,000 or less. The other half would cost more than that.

The fee will essentially act as an interest-free, tax-free loan for three decades. The Warriors will return the money the fan paid for the right to buy tickets after 30 years. The license will be called a "membership."

The membership will be transferable, but unlike in the NFL, the licenses will not be allowed to be resold for a value above the original price paid minus the years used.

The Warriors will let fans pay for memberships in installments, though those plans haven't been formalized.

Leslie Alexander has put the Houston Rockets up for sale in a surprise announcement.

Alexander purchased the Rockets in 1993 for $85 million and the franchise is now valued by Forbes at $1.65 billion.

The Rockets recently signed James Harden and Daryl Morey to extensions.

"It's been my great joy and honor to own the Houston Rockets for the past 24 years," Alexander said in a statement. "I've had the incredible opportunity to witness true greatness through the players and coaches who have won championships for the city, been named to All-Star and All-NBA teams, enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and done so much for our franchise and our fans.

"And the Houston community has been home to me; I will continue to support the charities I have made commitments to throughout the years. I'll always have a special place in my heart for the fans, partners, city officials and employees who care so deeply for this team.

"I've made this decision after much deliberation with my family and friends, and do so knowing the franchise is in great shape with the players, coaches and management team in place. CEO Tad Brown will oversee the sales process with the league office, supported by my management team."

The NBA will move their trade deadline for the 17-18 season to before All-Star weekend.

The deadline will be Feb. 8, 2018 while the All-Star Game will be played Feb. 18th in Los Angeles.

DeMarcus Cousins was traded by the Sacramento Kings to the New Orleans Pelicans shortly following the 2017 All-Star Game.

The trade deadline has historically been on the first Thursday after the All-Star Game.

Robert Sarver proposed seeding teams 1-16 for the playoffs by record regardless of conference three seasons ago. Mark Cuban pitched a temporary realignment plan.

"The commissioner's office was not interested," Sarver emailed ESPN this week. "The Eastern teams don't like it."

The league has argued that schedule imbalance and over-long travel make a 1-16 system problematic.

"It needs to be addressed," Cuban emailed ESPN on Thursday. "Seven of the 10 smallest markets are in the West. I really believe Eastern teams know they can get by doing less, and [in some cases] make the playoffs. Because they are larger markets, they will sell tickets and advertising, and get viewers. They get the best of both worlds."

The Golden State Warriors could generate over $300 million on personal seat licenses for Chase Arena in downtown San Francisco, according to sources that spoke with former San Jose Mercury News' Warriors' blogger Adam Lauridsen.

The NBA has never had a team sell personal seat licenses, which has become common practice in the NFL.

Golden State will also sell eight-year luxury box deals for the arena, which will open for the 19-20 season.

The Warriors are privately financing the arena and also have several player salary and luxury tax concerns.

RealGM Note: The revenue generated by PSLs would be amortized over a period of 20 years into the league's BRI.

While there was a surge of deals when free agency opened, players are seeing offers that are lower and shorter than many expected following the 2016 offseason.

"Fewer teams with cap space and teams have certainly been less aggressive," said Adrian Wojnarowski in describing the 2017 free agent market.

"Part of it is, what slowed up the market, talking to agents, general managers is expectations for so many players were really high. When they looked at what happened last summer, teams and agents knew that without the smoothing in of the cap spike, they put it all in that last year, in the first year, that players like Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov, players like that were artificially getting an advantage.

"What's slowing the market now is players aren't accepting where they are now financially."

Players are appealing to their agents to continue to seek better deals elsewhere even if they're being advised to take what's offered.

Paul Millsap and Derrick Rose are a couple of examples of free agents who are finding the market to be more tepid than expected.

The National Basketball Association announced that the Salary Cap has been set at $99.093 million for the 2017-18 season. The tax level for the 2017-18 season is $119.266 million.

The Salary Cap and tax level go into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday, July 1, when the league’s “moratorium period” starts and teams can begin negotiating with free agents. The moratorium period ends at 12:01 p.m. ET on July 6.

The minimum team salary, which is set at 90% of the Salary Cap, is $89.184 million for the 2017-18 season.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement provides for three different mid-level exceptions depending on a team’s salary level. The non-taxpayer mid-level for this season is $8.406 million, the taxpayer mid-level is $5.192 million and the mid-level for a team with room under the Salary Cap is $4.328 million.