With the new Collective Bargaining Agreement that was reached by the NBA owners and the player’s association this past December, we all knew the salary cap was going to go up. The only question was how much.
Well, now we have a number. Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports that the NBA has told teams that the salary cap for the 2017-18 season will be $101 million, up from $94.1 million this season.
Sources: The NBA has delivered teams a new salary cap projection for the 2017-18 season: $101M. The cap is $94.1M this season.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) April 7, 2017
The NBA salary cap has continued to grow steadily, starting with the 2014-15 season. Since then the cap has seen increases every season, including a huge jump from $70 million in 2015-16 to this season’s figure of $94 million.
The increase in money is largely due to the nine-year partnership the NBA reached with ESPN and Turner for the rights to show games. That deal was reportedly valued at $2.66 billion per year, and went into effect at the beginning of this season.
Last year’s salary cap bump led to some contracts that would have previously been considered unthinkable, like Kent Bazemore’s four-year, $70 million deal with the Hawks and Timofey Mozgov’s four-year, $64 million contract with the Lakers.
It remains to be seen whether those deals will be cautionary tales, but teams will have even more money to spend on free agents this summer.
