On Wednesday, the Indiana Pacers traded Bruce Brown, Jordan Nwora and three first-round picks to the Toronto Raptors for two-time All-Star forward Pascal Siakam. The NBA’s new salary-floor rules deserve some of the credit for that blockbuster deal.

The Pacers signed Brown this past offseason to a two-year, $45 million contract, which includes a $23 million team option in 2024-25. He was a key cog in the Denver Nuggets’ run to the NBA championship last season, averaging 12.0 points on 51.1% shooting, 4.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists in only 26.5 minutes per game in the playoffs, but that’s hardly the typical statistical output of someone earning $20-plus million per year in the NBA.

The Pacers entered free agency with more than $30 million in cap space, so they had money to spend. But they had incentive to spend more quickly than usual thanks to the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement.

Under the previous CBA, teams only had to hit the salary floor—90% of the league’s salary cap in a given year—by the final day of the regular season. Those that didn’t had to distribute the shortfall among the players on their roster that year. But rebuilding teams often went into the season far below the salary cap so they could facilitate in-season salary dumps ahead of the trade deadline.

The current CBA requires teams to hit the salary floor by the first day of the regular season. Those that don’t will not be eligible to receive a luxury-tax payment from teams over the tax threshold, which is typically an eight-figure amount. If this past offseason is any indication, that will all but eliminate the strategy of teams taking a ton of cap space into the year.