NBA Labor: Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver Confirms Owners Want To Roll Back Player Salaries

One of the biggest questions that's lingered throughout these NBA labor discussions is what happens if the NBA goes to a hard salary cap and teams are stuck well over it. What happens to the players' salaries then? Would they have to accept pay cuts on deals they negotiated in the old CBA?

As it turns out, the answer to that question is ... yes. At least if you believe deputy commissioner Adam Silver. In an interview with CBSSports' Ken Berger, Silver said that salary rollbacks on existing contracts is a part of the owners' proposal.

On-the-record confirmation that the NBA is looking to do to its players what the NHL did in 2005.

"It's part of our proposal," Silver said. "It included a reduction of existing contracts in addition to a reduction of the maximums going forward."

This means that all 450 players may end up losing a significant chunk of their existing contracts. Yowzers. Berger asked Silver whether that would mean Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh would have to take sizeable pay cuts in order to keep the Miami superteam alive, and Silver said yes.

"That's what they did in the NHL," Silver said. "That was the system they had. All existing contracts were cut a certain percentage."    

NHL players were force to take a 24-percent pay cut on their existing contracts. That's a major chunk of change, and it ultimately led to a lockout in 2005. 

If the league's proposal passes through, there are suddenly some major implications at play. Among them:

• If the NBA insists on a hard cap, then many teams will be affected. Currently, the following teams already have over $58 million in committed salary next season: Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles (Lakers), Miami, Orlando, Portland, San Antonio and Utah (HT: Sham Sports). Several others will approach or exceed that threshold by filling out their roster. And that's just if the new hard salary cap is at the same level it was at last year. It could drop.
•  As previously discussed, the Miami trio will all need to take major paycuts to stick together.
• Suddenly, Carmelo Anthony's trade request means less now. Anthony wants to be traded in order to get a new contract extension before the CBA expires, but since he's not being grandfathered in, he'll lose out anyway. Whether he signs now or next summer, he will still have to take a pay cut.