Which NBA teams have the highest salary cap in the 21-22 season?

NBA free agency for the 2021-22 season began on August 2nd where teams officially negotiated deals with players after the NBA’s announcement of the Salary Cap being set at $112.414 million; the salary cap is the total limit the clubs can spend on all player salaries and benefits.

What Happens If a Team Goes over the Salary Cap?

Despite the cap being the ceiling that’s meant to limit what teams spend on their players and create an equally competitive atmosphere for all NBA teams, most teams do go over it. Unlike in the NFL and the NHL, the NBA utilizes “soft caps” that allow teams to exceed the specific amount, as long as they pay additional taxes. It’s also important to note that the owner of the team is the one who is responsible to pay out-of-pocket.

NFL Soft Cap and Luxury Tax System

With this soft cap, it is not hard for teams to attract players, free agents and re-sign their own existing players. It is worth noting that the current Warriors are a great example of a historic team that was able to make it to the top with this “soft” ceiling.

In addition to the soft cap, the NBA utilizes a luxury tax system, which does not limit how much teams can spend on their players, but rather subjects them to pay a penalty for each dollar their team salary exceeds the tax level. This system was actually created to prevent the teams with high incomes from signing almost all of the more talented players in the league.

This season’s luxury cap threshold was set at $136.606 million, with the minimum team salary at $101.173 million- 90% of the Salary Cap; clubs have to spend the minimum team salary.

What happens if an NBA team does not reach their minimum salary?

If a team gets to the final game of the regular season without reaching their minimum salary, they are required to spend the 90 percent and distribute subsidiary money to the players on the roster. Failure to spend enough on a team is a rare occurrence in the NBA.

NBA teams with the highest salary amounts in 21-22?

The teams with the highest salary amounts, or in other words the ones who are most limited to the amount they pay their players, are subject to reduced privileges in free agency. As mentioned above, if these teams go above the luxury tax cap, that’s when they’re also subject to paying luxury tax.

The three most deep-into-tax teams in 21/22 are the Golden State Warriors, the Brooklyn Nets, and the LA Clippers. Here’s a real-time look at the salary amount totals for each of these teams, along with their estimated cap space:

San Francisco’s Warriors salary amount is $186,115,103 with $ -73,701,103 cap space that has them on the edge right now. The Warriors are now more than $30 million past the tax threshold. Every penny will be well-thought-out by the Warriors as re-signing or trading someone like Kelly Oubre Jr. ($14.42 million) would just add on to the cost, on top of two high first-round picks joining an already expensive roster.

The Brooklyn Nets are at $179,338,292 and are likely to have the most expensive roster next season.The Nets are over $29 million above the tax line and they only have eight players under contract for next season. Their cap space is $ -66,378,251 for the 21/22 season.

The LA Clippers are not deep into tax quite yet, with a $169,306,962 salary amount and a $ -57,114,024 cap space. Considering Kawhi Leonard (current salary: $39.34 million), Reggie Jackson ($14.96 million) and Nicolas Batum (20.87 million), are back at acceptable salaries next season, the Clippers will still be above the salary cap.

NBA teams with the most cap space 21-22

The space kings of the 21-22 offseason, the New York Knicks, have a $52.6 million cap space to operate the way they want to. The San Antonio Spurs are sitting easy into their $48 million cap space, with the Mavericks also quite flexible at $33.5 million.

All that being said, it is quite probable, as we’ve seen in past years, that by the end of the 21-22 regular season, some NBA teams will have to pay luxury tax. At this point, there are 13 teams going down that road, unless they choose to make no changes to their 21-22 roster. But since one player in the NBA can make the difference between missing the playoffs and reaching the NBA Finals, we know that’s not going to happen.