The NBA’s latest salary cap projection for the 2017/18 season is now $101MM, sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. That’s an increase of nearly $7MM over this season’s cap of $94.1MM but lower than previous projections. The tax level is projected to rise $8MM to $121MM next season, Wojnarowski adds. (Twitter links).
This is a slight drop from the projections that Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reported in February. Pincus’ report projected a 2017/18 cap of $102MM with a tax threshold of $122MM. Previous projections had the cap for 2017/18 as high as $108MM, according to RealGM.com.
The somewhat modest increase in the projected cap means that teams will have a little less freedom to throw money around, compared to the free agent spending spree last summer. Players will still make substantial more money than just a couple of seasons ago. The cap was $70MM last season and hovered between $53.1MM in 2006/07 to $63MM in 2014/15.
Thank god there is enough money in the NBA now to give players like Timothy Mozgov what would have been superstar money just 2 years ago..