The NBA Cup finalists showed different ways of playing and spending money.
Tuesday night’s championship game in Las Vegas between Milwaukee and Oklahoma City featured a matchup between two teams with different spending styles. The Bucks are above the NBA’s second apron, a limit that restricts how teams can trade for or sign players once exceeded. In contrast, the Thunder are below the first apron.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver thinks this difference is fitting.
“I think it’s great for the new (collective bargaining agreement),” Silver said Tuesday in a meeting with reporters before Milwaukee won the NBA Cup 97-81. “At the same time, there is a correlation between success on the floor and spending — and that’s the reason behind the second apron. We’re not trying to make any secret out of it.”
The apron system will limit how some teams can make trades in the future. Earlier this season, when Minnesota and New York were finalizing the trade to send Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks, Timberwolves basketball operations president Tim Connelly said the new rules were difficult to deal with.
“The new rules … some of the consequences are unintended, quite frankly,” Connelly said this fall. “I don’t know if anyone intended to make it this challenging to make moves, to make trades when you’re above certain aprons.”
Silver said the league knew about some of the challenges the new rules would create.
“I understand the frustration of some of the general managers because particularly if you go over the apron, we’ve cut down on your flexibility,” Silver said Tuesday. “But that was the very intent of the second apron and with the goal being to have a better distribution of star talent around the league. And I think we’ve been successful in doing that.”
The league believes that big-market and big-spending teams can win, but so can smaller-market and lower-spending teams. Milwaukee is one of four teams above the second apron, along with Boston, Phoenix, and Minnesota.
“There’s many different ways to win,” Silver said.
