The NBA's revenues have jumped from $3.8 billion in 10-11 to a projected $5 billion next season.

Adam Silver revealed Tuesday after meeting with league owners that the NBA is projecting that it will have to write a nearly $500 million shortfall check to the players after the 2016-17 season. 

There was a shortfall in the players' guaranteed 50 percent of revenue for this past season, and there could be another one after '15-'16, as well.

"That's not, of course, the ideal outcome from our standpoint," Silver said. "It's not something we predicted when we went into this collective bargaining agreement."

Silver also said Tuesday that a "significant number" of teams are "continuing to lose money" despite "fairly robust revenue sharing when some teams are receiving $20 million checks from their partners."

Silver cited the cost of competing with high payrolls as well as arena costs, new practice facilities and other infrastructure costs that have gone up.