{"id":638181,"date":"2026-03-04T05:15:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T05:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/638181\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T05:15:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T05:15:24","slug":"rockets-kevin-durant-is-a-big-fan-of-nba-parity-thank-god-for-the-second-apron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/638181\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets’ Kevin Durant is a big fan of NBA parity: ‘Thank God for the second apron’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA’s<\/a> most recent collective bargaining agreement, which imposed restrictions on teams whose salaries exceed the newly introduced “second apron,” is divisive. “The [NBPA] made a s— deal,” Golden State Warriors<\/a> forward Draymond Green<\/a> said on his podcast last summer<\/a>, days before saying that it had effectively killed free agency<\/a>. In an early-season story by The Athletic<\/a>, Detroit Pistons<\/a> wing Duncan Robinson<\/a> said that the players didn’t fully grasp that the second apron would function “like a hard cap,” and Miami Heat<\/a> guard Norman Powell<\/a>\u00a0described the effects of the apron as “annoying” and “frustrating.”<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant<\/a>, however, has a different perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Thank God for second aprons and the first aprons,” the Houston Rockets<\/a> star said, via the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, those who don’t like the CBA point to teams becoming stingier in contract negotiations — “everybody but the stars are getting kind of f—ed,” Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> big man Larry Nance Jr<\/a>. told The Athletic — and trading away talented players to lower their payrolls. The counter-argument, as articulated by commissioner Adam Silver at a press conference last September, is that, while certain individual players might be in a tougher bargaining position, teams are paying players “not a penny more and not a penny less” in the aggregate, since the players still get 51% of the league’s basketball-related income.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The apron system was designed to redistribute talent and promote parity, and in this respect, Silver said that it has been “very effective.” It sounds like Durant agrees with Silver. According to the AP, Durant’s eyes lit up when asked about this season’s title race being wide open.<\/p>\n

“We wanted some parity and I think the last few years we’ve gotten exactly that,” Durant said. “I mean, it’s fun for everybody watching the game, not knowing exactly who’s going to be around at the end of the season. And as a team, it gives you confidence to know that even though you don’t play your best ball around this time, nobody really is.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

With Devin Booker returning from injury, can Suns get out of the play-in?<\/p>\n

\n James Herbert <\/p>\n

\"With<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Durant said that, heading into the playoffs, teams are “trying to figure out which lineups they want to use,” particularly if they made moves around the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

“It’s a fun time to be in the league,” he said.<\/p>\n

Reasonable people can disagree about how open the title race really is. The reigning champion\u00a0Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> are the heavy favorites to win it all (+140 at DraftKings<\/a>), with the Denver Nuggets<\/a>\u00a0(+600) and San Antonio Spurs<\/a>\u00a0(+800) behind them. This time last year, however, the Indiana Pacers<\/a> were extreme longshots to make the NBA Finals, and they did just that, then came as close as you possibly can to winning it all, falling to the Thunder in seven games. For a team like Durant’s Rockets, who are 38-22 but have struggled with half-court offense, perhaps those Pacers can serve as inspiration.<\/p>\n

“You never know who can make a run in the playoffs,” Durant said. “We’re looking forward to using these games to continue to get better and keep growing and we’ll see what happens.”<\/p>\n

Unless Fred VanVleet<\/a> comes back from his ACL tear and saves Houston’s offense, it’s hard to envision this particular team making a deep playoff run. In general, though, the CBA put real obstacles in the way of organizations trying to build “superteams” and keep expensive rosters together. And if there’s any block of the NBA standings that exemplifies parity, it’s the West’s second tier, which is exactly where the Rockets find themselves.<\/p>\n

With less than six weeks left in the regular season, they’re in third place, but they’re only a half-game ahead of the fourth-place Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>, one game ahead of the fifth-place Nuggets, two games ahead of the sixth-place Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> and four games ahead of the seventh-place Phoenix Suns<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA’s most recent collective bargaining agreement, which imposed restrictions on teams whose salaries exceed the newly introduced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,193,187,188,200,4958,866,164,292,194,4066,126,938,2988,150,189,152,6,3101,24770,11,6050,35292,2550,25121,558,179,472,211,474,83255],"class_list":["post-638181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-rockets","tag-basketball","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-draymond-green","tag-duncan-robinson","tag-fred-vanvleet","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-houston","tag-houston-rockets","tag-houstonrockets","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-kevin-durant","tag-larry-nance-jr","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami-heat","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-nba-news","tag-nba-odds","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-rumors","tag-nba-second-apron","tag-nba-standings","tag-nba-title-odds","tag-norman-powell","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-rockets","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-what-is-second-apron"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}