For the last four decades, from 1980-2019 the NBA has been dominated by dynasties. The Bulls, Lakers, Spurs, Warriors and Celtics have all won multiple championships in a single time frame. There has not been a repeat finals winner since 2018 when the Warriors swept the Cavaliers to win their 3rd ring of their dynasty. There hasn’t been a repeat in our current decade, which has never happened before. Many were left wondering if the Warriors truly ended the dynasty era in 2022. The big question people have is why the dynasty era has ended, is it due to player movement? Is it the new Collective bargaining agreement, that stipulates player contracts? Or perhaps it is due to luxury tax, that influences how teams assemble their rosters?

In the mid-late 2010’s, the Golden State Warriors constructed a super team with good drafting and free agency moves, which led to 4 rings in 8 years. This led to an era where every GM and owner wanted to try and build a super team by trading and signing for superstars. The Warriors might just be the last dynasty the NBA will have because of the new salary cap rules that have been established in recent years. I believe we are now seeing the long-term effects this is having on team building and possibly even weakening of previously strong franchises.

A main reason that has stirred up controversy for starting the parity era is the acceptance of player movement through free agency and requesting trades. The acceptance of player movement has made it harder for dynasties to just dominate teams because the star disparity was so unbalanced throughout the league. It has also made it much more acceptable to leave your team to go try to win elsewhere or take the bigger contract instead of staying loyal to your team as it had been in the past now with players like Kevin Durant leaving the Warriors to go to the Nets, Kyrie Irving going from the Cavaliers to the Celtics or Anthony Davis going from the Pelicans to the Lakers.

One of the biggest reasons dynasties have died is the luxury tax and the second apron. The luxury tax limits teams from overspending on superstars and creating super teams that might be needed to achieve a dynasty era for a franchise. The luxury tax has made it challenging around the league to overspend because the NBA forces teams to pay a tax if they go over the salary cap. The second apron has made it nearly impossible to keep or sign stars with big contracts, as the apron imposes restrictions on whom teams can trade and how much they can spend in free agency when exceeding the salary cap which happened in 2024 with the warriors being in the luxury tax and trying not to go into the apron when they didn’t have enough money to resign their longtime franchise star Klay Thompson who went to the Dallas Mavericks.

The CBA, which was established during the 2023-24 season, is yet another reason why people think the dynasty era is over for the NBA. The CBA, known as the collective bargaining agreement, dictates how the revenue is distributed throughout the league. This also includes the rule of the 2nd apron, which explains how front offices build teams under the second apron. With the salary cap restrictions and not being able to keep your stars without being taxed or losing draft picks by exceeding the team salary limit of 207 million dollars and when this happens you can only offer mid level exception contracts which makes it almost impossible to build a team that can win multiple championships.

It is not a surprise that people think that the dynasty era in the NBA is over, with the new salary cap restrictions that the CBA creates. Difficulty in player retention doesn’t help teams in longevity and team morale. Making it extremely hard to keep players on the same team, long enough to have a shot at a dynasty anymore. With the example of the Boston Celtics during the 2025 off-season, trading Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingas, while trying to dump salary to stay under the apron so they can keep their stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen brown. The new NBA champions, The Oklahoma city Thunder will try dodging the Second apron in the future, in hopes of keeping their young core together as with many other teams of the present and future teams will try to reinvigorate a new dynasty. With The risk of the new CBA still bringing challenges for the NBA and each individual franchise of the future, it appears like it has almost completely ended the possibility of a new dynasty era.