Dwyane Wade breaks down why the new salary cap rules are great for the NBA: “It forces teams to develop and make smarter financial decisions” originally appeared on Basketball Network.
The incredible depth of the Oklahoma City Thunder roster, otherwise the second-youngest team in the league, was on full display in this year’s playoffs, in what many are calling the strongest Western Conference in recent seasons.
Advertisement
Their playoff rotation included nine players averaging over 10 minutes per game, with seven of them playing over 20. When you have nine guys who can hold their own for 10 minutes on the court in an NBA playoff game, there’s not much more to say.
On the other hand, to everyone’s surprise, the Indiana Pacers were one win away from capturing their first-ever Larry O’Brien trophy. Their playoff rotation included 10 players, eight of whom were logging more than 15 minutes per game, with seven over the 20-minute mark.
All of this brings us to the conclusion that the NBA is slowly but surely entering a new era.
Advertisement
The era of superteams and superstar alliances is coming to an end.
The new salary cap rules are forcing teams to think differently. Teams are being built from the ground up because, under the new regulations, it’s practically impossible to keep two max-contract players on the same roster long-term. That has created parity we’ve never seen before — the league crowned its seventh different champion in the past seven seasons, something that’s never happened before. Dwyane Wade addressed this trend on the “The Why” podcast.
“It aimed at superteams or owners willing to spend endlessly,” he said.
Advertisement
“It forces teams to develop and make smarter financial decisions. It makes it much harder to stack talent via free agency. So it’s the Big 3 – we don’t want this no more. If you go into the second apron, you can’t use your mid-level exception to sign key players. These are the penalties. Then you can’t package certain stars and trade for a star,” he concluded.
The NBA is changing big time
Having ten players in a playoff rotation means one thing: you’ll always have so-called “trade chips,” which suggests the team won’t fall apart quickly, like what’s happening with the Denver Nuggets. Now, it’s hard to say that the Nuggets have collapsed, considering they lost twice in a seven-game series after their championship season, and to outstanding teams.
Advertisement
However, aside from Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. received big contracts just before the new CBA rules were introduced. It’s hard to blame Denver’s front office — they couldn’t have predicted how much the second apron would reshape roster building, but they had no room to put quality pieces around their main stars.
The Pacers, for example, have the luxury of Aaron Nesmith hitting five threes in the final five minutes of a playoff game and turning the impossible around against the New York Knicks. Eight total threes in the game. Not Tyrese Haliburton, not Pascal Siakam — Nesmith.
That’s team depth.
Advertisement
The biggest takeaway from the success of the Thunder and the Pacers is that the NBA is changing big time and in a very specific direction: deeper rotations, less dependence on superstars and more balanced, well-constructed teams. Mark Cuban also broke down how the new CBA rules will impact the league.
“When you get past the second apron, it’s even tougher and so before you could always figure out, you know, find a team together by making trades, taking back money, whatever it may be — that’s going to be nearly impossible going forward,” he said.
The NBA is increasingly favoring roster depth and load distribution
In the 2005–06 season, 17 players averaged more than 40 minutes on the court, with starters usually playing between 40 and 44 minutes per game. Five years later, in the 2010–11 playoffs, that number dropped to ten, and the typical starter range moved to 39–41 minutes.
Advertisement
Today, in the 2024–25 season, only nine players are averaging more than 40 minutes in the playoffs; the average time for starters remains around 37–40 minutes and it’s no longer standard for top players to routinely cross that threshold.
All of this confirms that the modern NBA is increasingly favoring roster depth and load distribution, as best demonstrated by the 2025 Finals teams.
So, expect teams in the coming seasons to be built in the image of the Pacers and Thunder. The new era has officially begun.
Advertisement
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 18, 2025, where it first appeared.