The NBA’s prohibitive second tax apron has teams running for the proverbial financial hills.

Fred Katz of The Athletic reported teams are “horrified” of reaching second-apron status due to the roster-building penalties involve.

Second-apron teams are prohibited from using their midlevel exception, signing players on the buyout market and compiling salaries to send out in trades. There are also several draft penalties, including the freezing of a team’s first-round pick seven years into the future.

We’ve seen the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors, a pair of major-market teams that have regularly paid exorbitant tax fees, completely restructure their finances this offseason in an effort to avoid tax penalties.

The Clippers even cited the realities of the new collective bargaining agreement when announcing Paul George’s departure. George signed a four-year, $212 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers after the Clippers lowballed him in early negotiations and ultimately refused to offer him the max or a no-trade clause on a lesser contract.

The Warriors saw franchise stalwart Klay Thompson walk to the Dallas Mavericks in free agency in large part due to money. Golden State slow-played extension talks with Thompson throughout last season and prioritized its flexibility over offering the five-time All-Star a contract—even one that came at a reasonable rate.

While some fans and executives have been frustrated by the realities of the new CBA, commissioner Adam Silver defended the new system by saying it will aid competitive balance.

“What I’m hearing from teams, even as the second apron is moving to kick in, the teams are realizing there are real teeth in those provisions,” Silver told reporters last month. “I don’t know how to view this, but I know reports have come out that the summer was boring from a fan standpoint. I don’t certainly think it was. We still saw a lot of critically important players moving from one team to another as free agents.

“But at the same time, I think this new system, while I don’t want it to be boring, I want to put teams in a position, 30 teams, to better compete. I think we’re on our way to doing that.”

Of course, some teams have decided to remain all-in on throwing money around. The defending champion Boston Celtics ensured second-apron status well into the future by inking extensions with Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and Sam Hauser this offseason and Jrue Holiday during the regular season.