NBA Opening Night is here! It doesn’t come with quite the fanfare of Major League Baseball’s Opening Day or NFL Kickoff Weekend, but the NBA is back. The Boston Celtics will get their rings and raise a record 18th banner to the rafters. Then, the chase for the 2025 title is on.
With the regular season upon us, NBA teams have finalized their opening night rosters. The league’s financial landscape has never been more complex. The days of being under the cap, over the cap or over the tax are long gone. Now, we have first and second aprons, and 10 different ways to become hard-capped at those aprons.
But don’t fret! We’ve got you covered with where each team stands with the 2024-25 NBA season tipping off.
Team Salary Landscape
There are now five buckets that teams fall in, depending on how much team salary they are carrying. We’ll run through them in order of most to least expensive.
Second Apron Teams
Boston Celtics: $7.6 million over the second apron
Milwaukee Bucks: $6.5 million over the second apron
Minnesota Timberwolves: $17.2 million over the second apron
Phoenix Suns: $31.5 million over the second apron
The full weight of the second apron has come to bear this season. After a transitional year, which saw only some of the second apron restrictions kick in, the NBA’s most expensive teams are handcuffed like never before.
The good news for Boston, Milwaukee, Minnesota and Phoenix? All are title contenders. The bad news? None of this foursome has the ability to add much throughout the year. At least not without subtracting key rotation players to do so.
First Apron Teams
Denver Nuggets: $5.6 million over the first apron
Los Angeles Lakers: $10.8 million over the first apron
Miami Heat: $9.2 million over the first apron
New York Knicks: $7.2 million over the first apron
Philadelphia 76ers: $4.6 million over the first apron
The first apron is only slightly less restrictive than the second apron. It’s a little easier for these teams to make trades and the like, but only a little easier.
Much like the second apron group, the first apron teams all fancy themselves as title contenders. That’s definitely true of the Nuggets, Knicks and Sixers. Lakers and Heat? We’ll see if their veteran stars can drag them there one more time.
Luxury Tax Teams
Cleveland Cavaliers: $1.7 million over the luxury tax
Dallas Mavericks: $5.4 million over the luxury tax
Golden State Warriors: $5.8 million over the luxury tax
LA Clippers: $2.5 million over the luxury tax
New Orleans Pelicans: $1.6 million over the luxury tax
This group is a mixed bag of good teams. The Mavericks are title contenders. The Cavaliers are hopeful of climbing into the contender tier. The Warriors, Clippers and Pelicans are part of a large group of teams battling for playoffs spots in a deep Western Conference.
The challenge for everyone in this group but the Cavs? They are all hard-capped at the first apron. That’s going to make adding to their roster in-season a difficult task.
Over The Cap Teams
Atlanta Hawks: $1.3 million under the luxury tax
Brooklyn Nets: $2.1 million under the luxury tax
Charlotte Hornets: $10.4 million under the luxury tax
Chicago Bulls: $4.5 million under the luxury tax
Houston Rockets: $10.5 million under the luxury tax
Indiana Pacers: $3.2 million under the luxury tax
Memphis Grizzlies: $3.9 million under the luxury tax
Oklahoma City Thunder: $11.5 million under the luxury tax
Orlando Magic: $20.5 million under the luxury tax
Portland Trail Blazers: $3.7 million under the luxury tax
Sacramento Kings: $3.7 million under the luxury tax
San Antonio Spurs: $21.1 million under the luxury tax
Toronto Raptors: $9.3 million under the luxury tax
Utah Jazz: $27.2 million under the luxury tax
Washington Wizards: $11.9 million under the luxury tax
As per usual, the NBA’s largest group of teams is living over the cap, but under the tax. This group is a mix of playoff contenders and rebuilding squads, outside of the Thunder, who are a title contender.
This is where the moves will happen. When there are trades in-season, expect these teams to be involved, either as direct parties or as helpful facilitators.
Under The Cap Team
Detroit Pistons: $10.2 million under the cap
The days of multiple teams hitting the season with oodles of cap space available are over. Teams have to hit the salary floor now, or they miss out on the end-of-year luxury tax disbursement. The Pistons have hit the floor, but enter the season as the league’s lone cap space team.
Detroit is also sitting on an open roster spot (more on that in a bit). That means they’ll be everyone’s favorite third team in complicated trades, especially between hard-capped teams (more on that in a bit too!). That should have new front office boss Trajan Langdon ready to pick off additional assets for his still-rebuilding team.
Hard Caps
Over half of the NBA is facing a hard cap at either the first or second apron. With 10 ways to become hard-capped now, teams are facing more roadblocks than ever to navigate around as they build their rosters. For each hard-capped team, we’ll break down which apron they are hard-capped at, and how much wiggle room they have.
First Apron Hard-Capped Teams
Atlanta Hawks: $5.4 million under the first apron
Brooklyn Nets: $5.2 million under the first apron
Chicago Bulls: $9.5 million under the first apron
Dallas Mavericks: $386,752 under the first apron
Golden State Warriors: $533,659 under the first apron
Houston Rockets: $15.2 million under the first apron
LA Clippers: $4.9 million under the first apron
New Orleans Pelicans: $4.4 million under the first apron
Oklahoma City Thunder: $17.4 million under the first apron
Sacramento Kings: $8.6 million under the first apron
Toronto Raptors: $10.5 million under the first apron
Washington Wizards: $11.6 million under the first apron
For some of these teams, the hard cap doesn’t really matter. The rebuilding teams aren’t going to end up in range for it to really matter.
For others, like the Mavs and Warriors, they are working up against some extremely tight margins. Golden State doesn’t even have enough room to fill their open 15th roster spot at the moment. The Clippers and Pelicans are somewhat tight to apron too. On the flip side, the Thunder continue to have incredible flexibility for a title contender. If there is a deal Oklahoma City wants to make, they can do so without any real hard cap challenges creeping in.
Second Apron Hard-Capped Teams
Charlotte Hornets: $28.5 million under the second apron
Denver Nuggets: $5.2 million under the second apron
Indiana Pacers: $18.9 million under the second apron
New York Knicks: $3.6 million under the second apron
For the Hornets and Pacers, their second apron hard cap is of no consequence. They won’t get anywhere close enough for it to matter.
The Nuggets have a bit of wiggle room, should they want to make an in-season trade.
As for the Knicks…it’s a challenge. New York did a wonderful job navigating all things CBA this summer to avoid a first apron hard cap. But they’ve still put themselves right up against the second apron. Right now, the Knicks have three open roster spots. They only have enough room to fill two of those spots, with one veteran minimum signing and one rookie minimum signing (and that has to be a player the team held/holds the draft rights for). That’s pretty tight to work around. Expect the Knicks to push the boundaries of how long they can go without 14 players on standard deals (up to two weeks at a time or for 28 total days per season) to try to create any form of additional wiggle room.
Open Roster Spots
Recently, we wrote about The NBA’s Vanishing 15th Roster Spot. To start the season, there are 15 standard roster spots open around the NBA. There are also two open two-way roster spots.
Open Standard Roster Spots
Boston Celtics: 1
Cleveland Cavaliers: 1
Detroit Pistons: 1
Golden State Warriors: 1
Houston Rockets: 1
Indiana Pacers: 1
Memphis Grizzlies: 1
Miami Heat: 1
New Orleans Pelicans: 1
New York Knicks: 3
Philadelphia 76ers: 1
Phoenix Suns: 1
Sacramento Kings: 1
We already covered what’s going on with the Warriors and Knicks. For the Celtics, Cavaliers, Heat, Pelicans, Sixers and Suns, this is about managing their luxury tax situation. These teams likely won’t fill their open spots until we’re deeper into the season.
The Pistons, Rockets, Pacers, Grizzlies and Kings are likely waiting for the right player. The latter four teams are also pursuing playoff spots, so keeping some additional flexibility is a smart play. And the Pistons could use their open spot to facilitate in-season trades using their remaining cap space, as mentioned earlier.
Open Two-Way Roster Spots
Detroit Pistons: 1
Orlando Magic: 1
These spots will likely get filled sooner, rather than later. Detroit was rumored to be signing Alondes Williams, but as of this writing that signing hasn’t gone official. Orlando may wait to see if any players shake loose early in the season, or if a G League player pops when that season starts in a couple of weeks.
Offseason Spending
For all of the consternation that the “New CBA is ruining the league and no one wants to spend money” teams doled out record sums this 2024 NBA Offseason.
Between free agent contracts, rookie signings and extensions, team committed to nearly $7.5 billion (yes, billion with a “B”) in new money. Of that amount, roughly $6.7 billion is fully guaranteed.
Last season, teams committed to almost $5.9 billion in new money, with $5.5 billion being guaranteed.
That’s an additional $1.6 billion of new money that was introduced into the system this offseason. And the new media rights deals don’t even start until the 2025-26 season.
The NBA is as healthy as it has ever been. The league is fairly wide open, with multiple teams fancying themselves as title contenders. More money is being spent then ever. And expansion is right around the corner. Life is good for all parties involved in the NBA.
Enjoy the season everyone!
NEWS
