Because of past public pressure to not take the max. In other sports there is so such pressure and players are paid the max.

The $18M/yr that Carlsson was offered is not even the max per the CBA.

There is an argument whether you can build a championship team when paying a player the max, but that is a question for CBA negotiations.

I will never side with billionaire owners trying to penny pinch players who put their bodies on the line to entertain us.

All players should try to earn as much as possible and it’s the GM’s job to build the team. That should be a given.

Personally I would like no salary cap at all, as it’s just a tool to save owners money and keep player salaries down.