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Hoops Rumors Cap/CBA Live Chat: 7/4/2024
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Luke Adams
11:46
When a team waives a player and stretches his salary, they aren't allowed to re-sign him until after his contract would've originally expired. So stretching Horford's salary would prohibit the Celtics from bringing him back until 2025/26. Safe to assume that won't be something they do.
Silver
11:47
Talk to me like I'm a third grader. What are the implications of first apron and second apron, and is there a third apron? Thanks in advance!!
Luke Adams
11:48
That's probably a little too general a question to answer in a live chat setting, but I'll suggest checking out our glossary entry on the tax aprons, which is maybe a little dense for a third grader but is as straightforward as I could make it: https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2023/12/hoops-rumors-glossary-tax-aprons.h...
SilliBan
11:48
Where does the taxed money go?
Luke Adams
11:49
50% is distributed to non-taxpaying teams. 50% goes to the NBA for "league purposes" (this is vague but in recent years they've reportedly used that money as a source for funding their revenue sharing program.)
Trog
11:49
Although I appreciate the cap creating more equity, it is not easy to follow from a fan perspective. Do you foresee a more transparent and simplified version of the cap coming in your lifetime? If so, what changes would you envision?
Luke Adams
11:52
I'm skeptical. As I've learned from personal experience in my fantasy baseball keeper league, aiming for parity and a level playing field often means introducing more and more complex rules, not taking them away.

I love the puzzle aspect of figuring out various CBA/cap challenges, and I can afford to dedicate time to working through those issues because it's my job to do so. But I definitely have sympathy for fans trying to follow along with everything -- this new CBA has been especially brutal with some of the complicated new rules it added.
Guest
11:52
2 apron teams can't combine 2 players in one trade? But Can they send does players to different teams on same trade like 3 team trade?
Luke Adams
11:54
Sort of got into this in a discussion above about aggregation and the Suns. But whether those outgoing players are going to one team or two different teams, the rule is the same: A second-apron team can send out multiple players in the trade as long as their salaries aren't being aggregated together.

For example, the Suns wouldn't be able to send Nassir Little ($6.75MM) to Team A and David Roddy ($2.85MM) to Team B in order to acquire a player making $7MM from Team A (since that player's salary exceeds Little's and the Suns aren't allowed to aggregate). But if the incoming player is making $6.5MM, that's OK.
Jacob
11:55
The new rule about not taking in more money than what you send out seems to make trades between two second-apron teams near impossible.  Let’s say the Clips and Warriors had agreed on a Paul George S&T.  Would they have needed to guarantee the exact dollar amount of Chris Paul’s contract necessary to make it a financially neutral trade? (ie guarantee $8.7M of the $30M to make the total value of the deal match)?
Luke Adams
12:00
Partially guaranteeing Paul's salary would've been tricky in a deal with another over-the-cap team. Guaranteeing it for $8.7MM would've made him count for $8.7MM in outgoing salary for the Warriors' purposes, but he still would've counted for $30MM in incoming salary for the Clippers. That almost certainly would've been too big a gap to overcome, with both teams needing to meet salary-matching rules.

It would've been a real challenge for the Warriors and Clippers to do an opt-in-and-trade deal involving George. If the Warriors had sent out more money than they took back, they would've been hard-capped at the second apron (for aggregating salaries) which would've been doable, but the Clippers would've been hard-capped at the second apron, which likely wouldn't have been viable for them (they wouldn't have been able to fit in all that incoming salary below the second apron without losing Harden).
12:01
On the other hand, if the Warriors sent out less salary than George's incoming figure, the Clippers would've been fine to exceed either apron (since they'd take back less money than they sent out and aren't aggregating George with anyone), but Golden State would've been hard-capped at the first apron, making it more difficult to squeeze him in. Would've been tough.
ampet1112
12:01
Does it trigger an apron hard cap if a player is traded into another team's traded player exception?
Luke Adams
12:03
A team that acquires a player using a traded player exception that was created prior to this offseason (ie. last offseason or during the 2023/24 season) becomes hard-capped at the first apron.

There are no restrictions placed on a team that sends out a player who is going into another team's TPE.

For example, if the Warriors create a TPE in the Klay Thompson sign-and-trade, then use that TPE to acquire Kyle Anderson from Minnesota, it won't affect the Wolves' situation -- Minnesota is still allowed to be above the second apron.
Liam
12:03
Would you foresee NBA/CBA going towards a hard cap in the future?
Luke Adams
12:04
I mean, we're almost there already. It's almost impossible for a team to make normal moves this offseason without hard-capping itself at one apron or the other.

While technically there's no hard cap on teams operating over the second apron, the restrictions those teams face are punitive enough to discourage it.
Who's Fabio?
12:05
I've heard that the max salary will be going up by a large amount, maybe as much as 20 million per season.  Is that fantasy or a low estimate?  Where is max salary per season headed for the superstars?
Luke Adams
12:07
The expectation is that the salary cap will increase by 10% during the next few seasons.

The NBA and NBPA agreed not to increase it by MORE than that in a single season because teams were still mad about the big 2016 cap spike (almost 35%) that allowed the Warriors to sign Kevin Durant.

But there will be a lot of money coming into the league with the new TV rights deal going into effect in 2025, so the max increases are anticipated. That means maximum salaries will also increase by 10% per year.
12:08
That certainly won't mean an increase of $20MM for a single season, but the five-year maximum-salary deal for a player with 10+ years of experience (or a super-max guy like Tatum) should go from $285,393,640 this year to $313,933,410 next year.
12:09
Appreciate all the great questions today, guys. Wasn't sure how this would go, but we had more than enough to get through an hour. Enjoy the 4th (and the rest of NBA free agency)!
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