The NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement took effect July 1, which is exactly when De’Anthony Melton became eligible to sign an extension with the Sixers. While the new CBA contains some harsh punishments for the league’s highest-spending teams, Melton could be one of the early beneficiaries from it.
Under the old CBA, teams were limited to offering either 120 percent of the player’s previous salary or 120 percent of the estimated average salary as the starting salary on a new extension. For Melton’s purposes, he would have been limited to a four-year, $63.2 million extension at most (based on a $11.