NBA free agency 2024: What is the salary cap for the 2024-25 NBA season?
From Bronny James’ selection by the Lakers to Paul James opting out of his Clippers contract, we’ve already seen some big moves but what’s the cap?
In late January of this year, the NBA took the decision to lower its salary cap projection for the 2024-25 season from $142 million to $141 million. Although the projection has dipped, it still represents a 3.66% increase from the 2023-24 campaign which had a cap of $136 million.
What is the salary cap for the NBA 2023-24 season?
In late January of this year, the NBA took the decision to lower its salary cap projection for the 2024-25 season from $142 million to $141 million. Although the projection has dipped, it still represents a 3.66% increase from the 2023-24 campaign which had a cap of $136 million.
The NBA offseason has been lit and free agency is about to make it more so
By now you can surely appreciate that the 2024 NBA offseason has presented us with all kinds of intrigue. For starters, we saw the Lakers drafting Bronny James with the 55th overall pick, meaning he and his father, LeBron James will give s the first father-son duo in NBA history. There was Mikal Bridges move to the New York Knicks. Then, we witnessed the speculation surrounding Klay Thompson who remains at a standstill in terms of contractual negotiations with the Golden State Warriors, and most recently we saw reports of Clippers star Paul George opting out of his final year to explore free agency.
This is all to say it’s been quite a ride and that’s before we touch on the fact that free agency officially opens on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET. What that means is that we’ve still got quite a bit to go before this is all over and that’s alongside the fact that this is the first offseason to utilize the new second-apron restrictions for teams over the luxury-tax threshold.
1. Philadelphia 76ers: $58.4 million
2. Detroit Pistons: $58.2 million
3. Orlando Magic: $52 million
4. Utah Jazz: $43.8 million
5. Oklahoma City Thunder: $37.5 million
6. San Antonio Spurs: $34.4 million
7. Charlotte Hornets: $11.4 million
8. Houston Rockets: -$20 million
9. Sacramento Kings: -$28.8 million
10. Brooklyn Nets: -$32.4 million
11. Atlanta Hawks: -$32.4 million
12. Portland Trail Blazers: -$34.9 million
13. Memphis Grizzlies: -$39.5 million
14. Dallas Mavericks: -$40.1 million
15. Denver Nuggets: -$44.1 million
16. Cleveland Cavaliers: -$44.9 million
17. Toronto Raptors: -$52.9 million
18. Washington Wizards: -$56.9 million
19. Boston Celtics: -$58.9 million
20. Milwaukee Bucks: -$60.5 million
21. Indiana Pacers: -$61.1 million
22. New Orleans Pelicans: -$61.3 million
23. Miami Heat: -$62.2 million
24. Chicago Bulls: -$70 million
25. New York Knicks: -$75.3 million
26. Los Angeles Lakers: -$79.1 million
27. Phoenix Suns: -$88.4 million
28. Los Angeles Clippers: -$102.8 million
29. Golden State Warriors: -$104 million
To be clear, any team that is over that second line won’t be able to aggregate contracts to trade for a single player, send out cash in trades, use trade exceptions from previous years, or reclaim more salary than they allocate in a trade. With that in mind, teams such as the Philadelphia 76ers who lead the league with $58.4 million in projected cap space, won’t have to worry about the second apron. That said, there are also a number of team who have the wiggle room to spend big in the next few days. In the table above you can take a look at what every team is working with.