For the NBPA, the second salary cap apron is no longer just a front-office inconvenience. It is becoming a labor issue, a roster-building issue and, as David Kelly sees it, a fan issue too. In his first official media session since being named head of the NBPA in February, Kelly said the current collective bargaining agreement has created a system that limits movement and, in some cases, pushes teams to break apart successful groups.
Kelly pointed directly at the Celtics as the clearest example. The 2024 championship team was not kept intact through the summer of 2025, when the Celtics traded Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis and let Al Horford and Luke Kornet leave via free agency to clear the second salary cap apron. That, Kelly argued, is exactly the kind of outcome that makes the system worth revisiting. “What we are seeing is guys not being able to sign where they want to play, and teams having to break up their team because of the second apron,” he said.
Why the NBPA sees a problem
The apron mechanism limits trades, free-agent signings and salary aggregation, which means it affects more than one decision at a time. It can shape whether a contender keeps its core together, whether a veteran stays in a preferred market and how much flexibility a front office really has once it gets expensive. Kelly framed that as a broad problem, not a niche one. “You have a team that just came off of a championship to not have those guys together,” he said. “We see that as a problem for our members, but also for the fans and for the game.”
That is also why the issue has become more than a theoretical debate about team-building efficiency. Brad Stevens said last week that a Brown extension using 35 percent of the cap was impractical and suggested cap-hit changes, including possibilities that would preserve roster continuity. Kelly did not dismiss the idea of compromise. “I would hope so,” he said when asked whether changes could come sooner. “I think it needs to be addressed.”
What happens next
The timing matters because the NBPA’s current CBA includes an opt-out clause in 2029, and Kelly said the union may have to wait until 2029 or 2030 if it cannot get tweaks earlier. That leaves the issue in a holding pattern for now, even as the league continues to live with the consequences of the apron system. For teams, that means fewer easy paths to keeping a championship roster together. For players, it means fewer chances to choose their preferred landing spot. And for fans, it can mean watching the league’s best teams come apart sooner than expected.
For a franchise like the Celtics, the league’s rules have already changed the shape of the roster. For the rest of the NBA, including teams trying to build the next contender, the question is whether those rules are protecting competitive balance or simply making it harder for good teams to stay good. Kelly made clear which side of that argument the NBPA is on.
