Over the past week, the Phoenix Suns' ownership and front office came to a conclusion as they considered the idea of trading for Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal:
Don't just break the rules, smash them to bits.
The NBA's new collective bargaining agreement goes into effect in a matter of days (July 1 to be specific), and it contains a series of new guidelines aimed at breaking up and suppressing NBA superteams.
The most relevant is the salary-spending threshold known as the "second apron," $17.5 million above the luxury tax threshold, which was put in place to deny exactly what the Suns were considering: collecting three or more max contract players together on one team. If a team exceeds the second apron, the rules crush free agency options, trade options and even future-draft-pick options.
The Suns' leadership -- owner Mat Ishbia, CEO Josh Bartelstein, president James Jones and vice president Ryan Resch -- had been thinking about this problem ever since these rules became public in April; the new CBA was a bit of a gut punch to them.