NBA projects 10 percent raise in salary cap ahead of 2025-26 season

NBA projects 10 percent raise in salary cap ahead of 2025-26 season

Nine months ago, the NBA signed a new TV deal that was going to bring in north of $75 billion over the next 11 seasons–over a year after agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement.

Thus, money would be flowing out of the league’s pockets. As a part of that new CBA was how much the cap was going to raise. To nobody’s surprise, the league projects the cap to raise 10 percent–the max the new CBA allots–according to ESPN NBA front office insider and former league executive Bobby Marks.

As a result, the league projects to have a salary cap of $154.6 million with a $188.9 million luxury tax threshold, $195.9 million first apron and $207.8 million second apron.

To no surprise, NBA teams were notified that the salary cap in 2025-26 is expected to increase 10% from this past season, sources tell ESPN.

The current projection is the same that were given to teams in the offseason.

Salary cap: $154.6M
Luxury tax: $187.9M
First apron:…

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) March 25, 2025

Those are rough projections. We won’t officially know what the numbers will be until late June–right before the start of free agency. Assuming those numbers are accurate (if you place five zeroes at the end of each number), it would be a 9.97 percent increase in the cap as well as a 10 percent increase in the tax and a 9.98 increase for the first and second aprons, respectively.

There are currently 11 teams who project to have “practical cap space,” heading into the 2025-26 NBA season, according to Spotrac. The Nets will have the most while the Hawks, Spurs, Hornets, Jazz and others will have decisions to make to grant them that space.

Conversely, there are only six teams who project to be above the first apron with three teams–the Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics–also above the punitive second apron. The Suns are the most likely of the three to duck under that, but let’s see how this Kevin Durant situation shakes out.

Wyc Grousbeck believes no NBA team will stay in second apron long-term

As the cap continues to spike, I’m curious to see how teams manage their max contracts and their respective cap sheets. It’s very hard to win in today’s NBA with more than two players on max contracts, but filling out the rest of the roster may be easier, depending on when and how long some are signed. $30 million (per year) today isn’t what it used to be, and you will continue to see that with $50 million and above as the cap keeps spiking.

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