In a rising salary cap environment, productive players with options
in their contracts are heavily incentivized to test free agency. It's
common sense. Consider Kyrie Irving. When he signed his rookie extension
in the summer of 2014, the salary cap was $63 million. Last offseason,
when he had to decide whether to pick up the option on the final season
of that contract, the cap was over $109 million. Over the past
half-decade, the cap has grown so rapidly that, short of injuries or
rapid decline, player options have large...
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