The NBA officially announced Monday that the salary cap for the 2025–26 season is $154.647 million, up 10% from $140.588 million last season.
However, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, the league is also projecting the salary cap for the 2026–27 season at $165 million, just 7% more than this upcoming year.
That matters because, coming off the league’s record-breaking 11-year, $77 billion media-rights deal, there was a league-wide assumption that the salary cap was going to increase by 10% again, the maximum increase allowed in the CBA. The NBA’s salary cap has seen a 10% increase in three of the last four seasons.
A 10% increase next year would have led to a salary cap of about $170 million, or about $5 million more than the league’s projection.
A $5 million jump may seem small compared to the nine-figure contracts handed out around the league now, but it matters in an era where teams are looking to avoid harsh luxury-tax and apron penalties. The salary cap increases result in equal jumps in the luxury tax and apron thresholds, which are what teams use in their budgeting and projections.
The estimated luxury tax level for the 2026-27 season is $200 million, with the first and second aprons projected at $209 million and $222 million, respectively, according to RealGM.
