The past two seasons, the free agency market has been tight. Following the drunken-level spending spree of 2016 — the year that gave us the Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, and so many more anchor contracts — teams were cautious and out of money.
That’s about to change, because the salary cap is about to jump next summer, and some of those terrible contracts are starting to come off the books. This week the NBA updated its salary cap projections to teams, and Shams Charania of The Vertical got ahold of the memo.
Sources: The NBA has informed its teams of updated projected salary cap and tax level for 2019-20 ($109M, $132M) and 2020-21 ($118M, $143M).
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 18, 2018
From last memo to teams in June, NBA's projections are unchanged for 2019-20 season -- but 1.5 percent ($2M) higher for 2020-21 season due to BRI projections and projected shortfall-based adjustment. https://t.co/4cX8FOj7BV
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 18, 2018
For comparison, the cap is at $101.9 million, with the luxury tax is at $123.7 million.
With nearly half the players in the NBA as free agents next summer — did you notice all the one-year contracts this summer? — and the jump in cap space, about 20 of the NBA’s 30 teams could have cap space for a max player. Next summer is going to be wild.