The salary cap will be at least $1MM and as much as $2MM higher than the most recently projected figure of $67.1MM, as the union revealed at a recent agents summit, two sources told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. The tax line, which had been projected at $81.6MM, is also now expected to be significantly higher, Berger hears. The league will set the official numbers on July 8th, the final day of the July Moratorium, Berger notes.
Teams like the Lakers, Spurs, Mavericks, Pistons, Suns, Rockets, Bucks stand to benefit from the increased cap, Berger posits, mentioning the Nets, Bulls and Thunder as teams that the higher tax line figures to help. I’d speculate that the Hawks, who may well have to use cap space to re-sign Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll, and the Warriors, who already have more than $81.6MM in guaranteed salary, stand to benefit as much as any teams. Of course, the maximum salaries are tied to the salary cap, so as the cap goes up, so do they.
The NBA sets the cap based on basketball related income, so it appears the league collected more money than it thought it would. The higher figures for 2015/16 won’t necessarily affect the projected spikes for 2016/17 and beyond, Berger writes.