Hoops Rumors Originals

An NBA team that has spent all its cap space and doesn’t have any of its mid-level or bi-annual exception available still always has the ability to sign a player to a minimum-salary contract, unless that club is right up against its hard cap.

Teams with cap room or with access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception will have a little more flexibility to sign players to longer-term minimum-salary contracts. However, teams without cap room and without any other exceptions on hand can still use the minimum salary exception to add as many players as roster limits and the hard cap allow, for contracts of up to two years. Unlike other exceptions, such as the mid-level or the bi-annual, the minimum salary exception can be used multiple times.

[RELATED: Values of 2021/22 mid-level, bi-annual exceptions]

Undrafted free agents and second-round picks are often recipients of minimum-salary contracts, but there are plenty of veterans who end up settling for the minimum too. Because a player’s minimum salary is determined by how much NBA experience he has, many veterans will earn more than twice as much money as a rookie will in 2021/22 on a minimum-salary contract.

Listed below are 2021/22’s minimum salary figures, sorted by years of NBA experience. If a player spent any time on an NBA club’s active regular season roster in a given season, he earned one year of experience. So any player with zero years of experience has not yet made his NBA debut.

These figures represent a 3% increase on last season’s figures, since that’s the amount of the NBA’s salary cap increase for 2021/22.

Here’s the full breakdown:

Because the NBA doesn’t want teams to avoid signing veteran players in favor of cheaper, younger players, the league reimburses clubs who sign veterans with three or more years of experience to one-year, minimum salary contracts. Those deals will only count against the cap – and against a team’s bank balance – for $1,669,178, the minimum salary for a player with two years of experience.

For instance, Trevor Ariza, who has 17 seasons of NBA experience, is signing a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Lakers, who will only be charged $1,669,178 for Ariza’s contract. He’ll earn $2,641,691, but the NBA will make up the difference. This only applies to one-year contracts, rather than multiyear deals.

If a player signs a minimum-salary contract after the regular season begins, he’ll earn a prorated portion of the amount listed above.

Those figures listed above also only apply to players who are signing new contracts in 2021/22. Players who are in the second, third, or fourth year of a minimum-salary deal will be earning a slightly different predetermined amount.

For example, a player like Spurs guard Tre Jones – who signed a minimum-salary contract last offseason and now has one year of NBA experience – will earn a $1,517,981 salary in the second year of his contract, exceeding the $1,489,065 he’d receive if he were signing a new minimum deal this fall. That’s because his second-year salary is based on a 5% raise over last season’s minimum salary for a player with one year of experience.

Here’s what multiyear minimum-salary contracts signed in 2021/22 will look like:

Technically, a minimum-salary contract could cover five years for a player with full Bird rights, but in actuality, that never happens. While some second-round picks and undrafted free agents will sign three- or four-year minimum-salary contracts, a minimum deal exceeding two years is rare for a player with more than a year or two of NBA experience under his belt.

Information from RealGM was used in the creation of this post.

With the NBA’s salary cap set at $112,414,000 for the 2021/22 league year, the rookie scale has been set as well. The rookie scale locks in the value of contracts for first-round picks.

In every NBA league year, rookie scale amounts are assigned to each first-round slot, from No. 1 through No. 30. Teams can sign their first-rounders to as little as 80% of that rookie scale amount, or up to 120% of that figure.

While that rule theoretically affords teams some flexibility, first-round picks virtually always sign contracts worth 120% of their rookie scale amount, and unsigned first-rounders have a cap hold worth 120% of their rookie scale amount.

Listed below are the salary figures that represent 120% of the rookie scale amounts for 2021’s first-round picks. If a first-round pick signs a rookie scale contract in 2021/22, it will be for the amount below unless he accepts a deal worth less than the maximum allowable 120%. If that happens, we’ll adjust their amounts below.

These salary figures will only apply if the player signs in 2021/22. For instance, if Usman Garuba decides not to come stateside right away, his rookie contract will look a little different in future seasons. Meanwhile, if Leandro Bolmaro – last year’s No. 23 overall pick who remained overseas in 2020/21 – signs his rookie contract with the Timberwolves this year, it will look like identical to the deal listed below for Garuba (2021’s No. 23 pick).

Rookie scale contracts are guaranteed for the first two years, with team options on the third and fourth years.

Here’s the 2021 breakdown:

Information from RealGM was used in the creation of this post.

The salary cap for the 2021/22 NBA league year has officially been set, with the league announcing that the cap will be $112,414,000, a 3% increase on last year’s number.

Under the league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, the values of the mid-level, room, and bi-annual exceptions are tied to the percentage that the salary cap shifts in a given year. Because the cap figure for 2021/22 increased by 3%, the values of the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions will increase by the same amount.

Listed below are the maximum annual and total values of each of these exceptions, along with a brief explanation of how they work and which teams will have access to them.

Mid-Level Exception (Non-Taxpayer):

The non-taxpayer mid-level exception is the primary tool available for over-the-cap teams to add free agents. As long as a team hasn’t dipped below the cap to use cap space and doesn’t go over the tax apron ($143MM) at all, it can use this MLE, which runs for up to four years with 5% annual raises.

Mid-Level Exception (Taxpayer):

If an over-the-cap team currently projects to be a taxpayer or expects to move into tax territory later in the 2021/22 season, it will have access to this smaller mid-level exception for taxpaying teams.

If a team uses more than $5,890,000 of its mid-level exception, it is forbidden from surpassing the tax apron at any time during the league year. So even if a team isn’t above the apron when it uses its MLE, it might make sense to play it safe by avoiding using the full MLE and imposing a hard cap.

The taxpayer MLE can be used to sign a player for up to three years, with 5% annual raises.

Room Exception:

Although this is also a mid-level exception of sorts, it’s colloquially known as the “room” exception, since it’s only available to teams that go below the cap and use their cap room.

If a club goes under the cap, it loses its full mid-level exception, but gets this smaller room exception, which allows the team to go over the cap to sign a player once the team has used up all its cap space. It can be used to sign players for up to two years, with a 5% raise for the second season.

Bi-Annual Exception:

The bi-annual exception, as its name suggests, is only available to teams once every two years. Of the NBA’s 30 clubs, only three – the Nuggets, Lakers, and Bucks – used it in 2020/21, so they won’t have access to it in 2021/22. The league’s other 27 teams could theoretically use it this season.

Still, even if a team didn’t use its BAE in ’20/21, that club doesn’t necessarily have access to it for the coming year. As is the case with the non-taxpayer MLE, this exception disappears once a team goes under the cap. It’s also not available to teams over the tax apron — using the BAE creates a hard cap at the apron.

The BAE can be used to sign players for up to two years, with a 5% raise after year one.

Note: Be sure to check out our Hoops Rumors Glossary for more information on the mid-level exception and the bi-annual exception.

Now that the NBA has set its salary cap for the 2021/22 league year at $112,414,000, we have a clear idea of what maximum-salary contracts will look like for the coming season. Conveniently, the cap increase came in at almost exactly 3%, which is precisely what the NBA had been forecasting all year, so our projections won’t change much.

Listed below are the maximum-salary contracts for players signing contracts that start in 2021/22. The first chart shows the maximum salaries for a player re-signing with his own team — a player’s previous team can offer five years instead of four, and 8% annual raises instead of 5% raises. The second chart shows the maximum salaries for a player signing with a new team.

These figures will apply to a number of players who signed maximum-salary contract extensions that will go into effect in 2021/22: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Paul George, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, Bam Adebayo, and De’Aaron Fox. They’ll also apply to anyone who signs a maximum-salary contract as a free agent this offseason — Kawhi Leonard is the most viable candidate.

A player’s maximum salary is generally determined by his years of NBA experience, so there’s a wide gap between potential earnings for younger and older players.

In the charts below, the “6 years or less” column details the maximum contracts for players like Tatum, Mitchell, Adebayo, and Fox; the “7-9 years” column applies to free agents like Beal; and the “10+ years” column applies to the league’s most experienced vets or those who qualified for the super-max, including Antetokounmpo, George, and Lillard.

Here are the maximum salary figures for 2021/22:

A player re-signing with his own team (8% annual raises, up to five years):

A player signing with a new team (5% annual raises, up to four years):

It’s worth noting that none of the maximum-salary figures listed above will apply to extension-eligible players whose new contracts would start in 2022/23.

This group includes players like Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, who appear on track to sign extensions with the Warriors and Heat, respectively. It also includes players who will sign maximum-salary rookie scale extensions, such as Luka Doncic, Trae Young, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Even if they officially sign new deals sooner rather than later, the exact value of their next contracts will depend on where the cap lands for 2022/23. The NBA has announced that the cap for ’22/23 is projected to come in at $119MM, but there’s plenty of time for that estimate to fluctuate between now and next summer.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.