For the past decade or so, we’ve seen a lot of ‘super teams’ with top-heavy rosters with ring chasers playing for veteran minimums and low-salary G League (or developmental) players fill out the rest. Ownership wants stars, and player agents maximize contracts for their guys. This ends up with a lot of $50M AAV free agency signings, while lesser but still quality players like Jonas Valančiūnas receive below-market contracts at $10M AAV.

What if the NBA and NBPA agreed on a slot system in the next CBA? The best player on the team would receive a predetermined percentage of the total team salary. The second-best player on the team would receive a slightly less percentage, and it would decrease gradually down to the final roster player.

This would create some interesting trade scenarios. Suppose Trae Young receives the #1 slot on the Hawks and they’re negotiating to acquire Doncic. This would trigger numerous scenarios where the Hawks must convince Doncic’s camp to accept the #2 slot, convince Trae to renegotiate his contract to the #2 slot, or trade Trae for a player willing to accept a contract under the #2 player designation.

This system would spread the quality of players around the league more evenly. Perhaps Jalen Brown feels like he should be a #1 and would be willing to move on from Boston to a less desirable city to get that contract.

In the end, the best players in the league will still make way more than others through endorsement deals. However, it would limit the amount ownership overpays them and then scrambles to fill out the rest of the roster with spare parts, like the situation the Los Angeles Lakers are currently facing.

I’m not bringing a fully fleshed-out idea to the table, so “what about…” questions can be answered by others. I think this concept would be interesting, especially during free agency.