It hasn't been all that common in recent years for would-be contenders to carry significant cap room into free agency, but the Sixers and - to a lesser extent - the Thunder showed this year that it can still pay off in a big way.
Philadelphia plotted for over a year to maximize its cap room for the 2024 offseason, putting off a contract extension for Tyrese Maxey in order to generate extra spending power by keeping his modest cap hold on the books and then going over the cap to re-sign him. That approach put the 76ers in position to sign Paul George, arguably the top unrestricted free agent on the market, to a four-year, maximum-salary contract and then to use their remaining cap room to sign complementary players like Caleb Martin and Andre Drummond.
Oklahoma City, meanwhile, didn't have maximum-salary room available and didn't go big-game hunting at the very top of this year's free agent class, but the Thunder used their space to give Isaiah Hartenstein a front-loaded contract starting at $30MM, outbidding the Knicks to land either the best or second-best center available (depending on how you feel about Nic Claxton).
At this point, there are hardly any teams that project to operate under the cap in 2025, and many of the clubs that could have cap room - such as the Nets and Wizards - are still very much in the retooling stage.
There's one potential exception though. The Rockets finished last season with a 41-41 record and appear poised to take another step forward this season as their young core (which now includes No. 3 overall pick Reed Sheppard) continues to grow. Houston also has the ability to create maximum-salary cap space next offseason.
However, the Rockets' path to maximum-salary room isn't quite as clean as the Sixers' was, and may require shedding one or two starter-caliber players. Let's take a closer look at the team's potential path to max space.
Houston currently has just two players with guaranteed salaries for the 2025/26 season, but that total could increase to seven once the team picks up several rookie scale options for '25/26 by the October 31 deadline. Here are the details:
Funny how many NBA owners forced a strict tax code because they didn’t like how warriors and other clubs were spending. Now the poorer NBA teams are complaining about the tax apron to get their young stars under contract.
Exercise all the rookie options except Griffin. Decline the team options on FVV and Aaron Holiday. Sengun’s cap hold gets you to 79M. Each roster cap charge in 2025-26 is 1.27M and they’ll have 6 at this point, so combining them with Jalen Green’s 37.5M cap hold gets you to 124.3M, or 30M under the cap.
Now, Green hasn’t earned a starting salary anywhere close to that amount. The Rockets may prefer to lock him in at a much more team friendly amount or package him with one of their youngsters and/or expiring contracts for more cost certainty. Barring that, they need to drop 16M to create max cap space, which means extending Green at a starting salary of no more than about 22M.
This also doesn’t include the hold for their 1st round pick, which can be their own, OKC’s, or Phoenix’s. On draft night they would have to trade out of that pick, perhaps packaging it with Brooks for multiple cheaper players which eliminates more of the roster charges. Keeping the pick would add about 2M.