When the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was agreed to in the summer of 2017 all parties were satisfied the league was in great shape. The new CBA began in 2017-18 with a seven-year term ending in 2023-24 although either the NBA Board of Governors or the NBPA (Players Association) have the choice to opt-out a season prior (2022–23) if so desired. The main features of the new CBA dealt with player contracts and alterations were made so that small market teams like the OKC Thunder could capitalize and the league would hopefully offer more parity and balance.
As it turns out that latter statement hasn’t proven to pan out especially with top tier players and was punctuated with the events of this past season and free agency.