NBA’s Projected Salary Cap for 2024-25 Drops From Prior Estimate

Adjust your salary cap sheets accordingly. 

The NBA’s projected salary cap for the 2024-25 season will be around $141 million, roughly a million dollars lower than the previous cap projection, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. ESPN reported that the minimum salary for teams will be $127 million while the luxury tax line is $172 million.

Teams will hit the first tax apron at $179 million and the second at $190 million. The further teams go into the apron, the more likely they are to incur penalties such as being unable to acquire players in a sign-and-trade or sign a player through the mid-level exception. 

The decrease in the salary cap will have a marginal impact on the rookie, mid-level, and minimum contracts, among others, but it’s hard to see it as a sign of concern for the NBA. The league is currently grappling with the fallout from the Diamond Sports bankruptcy case, which has impacted several teams’ books, and the current media rights deal expires at the end of the 2024-25 season. Given the expected financial increase from the impending media rights deal, the slight decrease in the projected salary cap might be the NBA hedging a bit to help teams before likely seeing it increase for the following season.