When the NBA's latest collective bargaining agreement was put it place, the restrictive nature of both the first and second aprons sent a clear signal to expensive teams willing to exceed either: There will be consequences.
As a result, teams have become less enthused about major payrolls, as they'd have to navigate challenges such as 100% salary matching in trades, no acquisition of players via sign-and-trade, salary aggregation limitations, and a small laundry list of additional items, directly preventing them from upgrading their rosters.
These changes, in many ways, translate into one larger goal: contract efficiency.
Teams that now carry dead money or bad contracts will be at an enormous disadvantage from a competitive perspective.