I don't know why we even have a salary cap. The Salary cap is literally worthless to my knowledge. Just say.....This is the minimum you have to spend. This is the luxury tax. End of story.
Is there any penalties for going over the salary cap? Again luxury tax is different.
I think the salary cap is working exactly how it's designed.
A hard cap is unrealistic with only 13-15 players per team. It would just be too easy to steal a player by paying him $1 more than the team has in cap space.
Look at Miami; they were able to have their Big3 but could only sign a weak bench beyond that. And they won 2 championships. With no cap, they could have signed one more great player - or a couple of very good ones - and just ran away with every title, Cleveland is having to get rid of some assets to get a Big3 (if they acquire Love). Houston has to shed some decent players to get Bosh.
I think what teams are seeing now is that they need a "Big3" + 1. You have your three all-stars, but then need 1-2 players on rookie deals to win. And the rookie can then be upped, if needed, by matching a RFA offer sheet. Cleveland may have that with James, Irving, Love and players like Thompson and Waiters. Houston has that with Bosh, Howard, Harden and Parsons.
Hard cap works in football because you have 53 players. There should be some kind of cap in baseball, IMO. Probably some structure like the NBA. Only will happen, though if we see 20 years of only the Dodgers and Yankees winning titles, which hasn't happened.