Written by Tyler Conway at Bleacher Report.com
The NBA’s 2017-18 salary cap is taking another jump—just not as high as the league once projected.
Teams were informed Wednesday night that the cap will be set for $99 million next season, per Jay King of MassLive.com. Original projections reported in April had the cap sitting at $101 million. The projection has fallen precipitously from a $108 million early projection.
The salary-cap boom last summer allowed the Golden State Warriors to sign Kevin Durant and left more than half the league with max-level cap room. There won’t be as much money going around this summer, and the cap being reduced from initial projections could hurt teams.
The slight difference of $2 million can be enough for one team to go from max-level room to not having enough capital. While it’s still within a margin of error that any general manager could wiggle through, that could result in additional, unforeseen salary-dump trades.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported the lower cap was due to fewer playoff games being played than expected and the subsequent drop in revenue. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors’ rampage over their respective conferences helped push revenue down, as did other shorter series.
The NBA’s luxury tax will also go down from $121 to $119 million.
