Out of ESPN's top-25 free agents for the 2023 offseason, only five of those changed names and all had relatively modest resumes in Fred VanVleet, Donte DiVincenzo, Bruce Brown Jr., Grant Williams and Patrick Beverley. Five of the top-25 remain unsigned and the other 15 either re-signed or declined free agency by exercising player options.

David Falk, who represented Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and many other players during his peak in the 1990s, laments what has become of free agency.

“I find it sort of a little bit boring,” Falk said in an interview with Howard Beck of GQ.

“I don't think free agency is dying,” said Falk. “I think that as the rules become more and more restrictive, it’s more and more difficult to be creative.”

Falk laments the rules the NBA has implemented in which many contracts are for set amounts such as the supermax, max, rookie scales and midlevel exceptions.

“The nature of being an agent, it's become so restrictive that it doesn't require a lot of skills,” Falk said. “Mathematically, only 30 percent of the contracts are negotiated. And I think that most players really don't need agents today.”

Falk believes the max contract creates situations where truly great players are underpaid and many All-Stars are paid at the same level of the superstars.

“The system becomes so clogged by a whole group of grossly overpaid players that don't bring in revenues, don't sell tickets, don't sell concessions,” Falk said. “They're good players, but they're artificially overpaid, because of the foolish restraint in the system.”

“How do you differentiate Curry from Klay Thompson?” Falk continued. “How do you differentiate Giannis [Antetokounmpo] from Middleton? How do you differentiate [Jayson] Tatum from [Jaylen] Brown? You know, that's the whole point. They created a system where it's like gross homogenization. For me, that took all my excitement away from being in this business because you can't differentiate yourself.”

Falk also believes player empowerment was as strong in the 1990s as it is now, but it is wielded differently.

“You don't think Michael Jordan and Patrick had power?” Falk said. “Of course, they had power. But they were smart enough to know that they would never do those kinds of things publicly, because it was inimical to the game that they love.”

With free agency now more restrictive, players have used trade requests to get to the team and situation they want.

“It makes it makes it look less professional,” Falk said. “In order to make more money as a 50-50 partner, they have to not attack the business, they have to grow the business.”