If we have another season like this next year, I'd have to question the league judgement in thinking the right thing to do would be to continue holding the $1M cap increases. If this year's revenue would have yielded a $90M cap and we have two more full years of holding it back, we'll likely see a cap increase of $10-15M in 2025-26. This will result in GMs throwing up all over themselves overpaying plugs and will completely f*** up the entire pay structure of the league.
They need to start looking forward a bit and making a guess as to what the cap number will be when they are made whole, and split the difference. Three straight years of $4-5M increases would be way better for the league and the players as a whole than 2 years of 1M, then a $10-12M increase in year 3.
But you know the league, they won't do the logical thing here. If I was a player agent representing guys that are early-mid career, I'd 100% be pushing for their contracts to expire in summer 2025 when all of the sudden league wide teams will have an extra $300M-$400M to spend on players.
A more sane approach I'd think since they've already accepted full pay back by 2024-25 is reasonable, this is about figuring out what the cap will be in 2025-26. So if this year's revenue would normally yield $90M, just assume that number for now with no new revenue at all. 2022-23 is 82.5, so what should 2023-24 and 2024-25 be assuming $90M in 2025-26. Pretty easy math is $85 in 2023-24, $87.5 in 2024-25 and $90M in 2025-26. If next year's revenue goes higher again use that number to re-predict the cap in 2025-26 and adjust again thus smoothing the increases out.