The NBA is pursuing an upper salary limit in its negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement with the NBPA.
The idea has been met with significant resistance from the union and is considered a non-starter.
The new system would replace the current luxury tax with a hard limit that teams could not exceed to pay salaries.
The NBA and NBPA are working to reach an agreement prior to a December 15 deadline.
The league believes the current system fails to provide a level enough playing field to make more of the 30 teams competitive and that the financial imbalance is unsustainable.
There is also skepticism among smaller NBA marketplaces who worry that an upper spending limit would fail to create the competitive parity that the league is hoping to achieve, instead causing well-constructed smaller market teams to have to break up cores of contending talent despite a willingness to enter into the luxury tax.
The league would also need to find a new mechanism for revenue sharing.
