Adam Silver was asked on Wednesday what he felt the offseason from the Brooklyn Nets means for the NBA's still relatively new collective bargaining agreement.

“I would say it’s no secret that we went into collective bargaining seeking a hard cap,” said Silver.

“So, for the long-term health of the league, we would rather do more to level the playing field among our teams, so the teams that have disparate resources are all competing with roughly the same number of chips so to speak."

The Nets have a payroll over $100 million next season and an anticipated tax bill at approximately $87 million.

“What I’ll add is that what we’ve seen with the Nets, ultimately there’s no prohibition if you’re willing to pay a very substantial tax — there’s no prohibition on signing the players they did, but the new rules also dramatically limit those players that are available to sign, especially once you move into the tax. So we’ll see [what happens].”

The Nets were limited in who they could acquire and also had to give up several first round picks to acquire Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.

“There’s a correlation between the ability to spend and success on the court,” said Silver. “It’s far from a perfect correlation, however, so we’ll see how it plays out.

“But, so far, they are playing by the rules, and we’ll see whether that brings them the success they are hoping for.”