There are many schools of thought about the consequences of a hard salary cap in the NBA, but one thing that needs to be thought about is: would such a cap make it difficult for -- or even ruin -- small-market teams? This article from CBS Sports postulates that such a cap would destroy a team such as the Oklahoma City Thunder, who play in one of the smallest markets in the league.
Would the Miami Heat be damaged by a cap of, say, $55 million? Yes, the Heat would, and of course a hard cap would also impact big-market teams like Boston, New York, Chicago and the LA teams. But (the article claims) a team such as the Thunder, which has been built around players who are all coming into extension-time together, would not be able to survive.
"Every team that's using the draft to build -- which is the sound and socially blessed way to structure a team -- would have to reconsider. The Cavaliers might've just committed 80 percent of their future cap to Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson if those two pan out.", Royce Young, the author of the CBS column, stated.
This is something to bear in mind. A hard cap would make the Cavaliers have to rethink the strategy of rebuilding through the draft, because once all those drafted players come eligible for new contracts at the same time in one of the smaller markets, and under the cap you can only afford two or three contract extensions and five or six guys are eligible...well, you can do the math.