In 2016, the NBA experienced a cap spike due to a massive new television deal. There might have been an opportunity for the league and players union to agree to a smoothing provision that would have allowed for more moderate increases over a few years, but instead, the entire jump came that one summer.
As a result, certain teams were tremendous beneficiaries — like Golden State, who added Kevin Durant to a team that was already the two-time defending Western Conference champions. Others were big losers — like the Lakers, who didn’t know what to do with their money and gave long, oversized contracts to Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov.