How They Were Signed: Mid-Level Exception

After looking at players that were signed under a team’s cap space and under one of the infrequently used salary cap exceptions – the bi-annual exception; we will look at which players on current NBA rosters were signed using the mid-level exception.

The mid-level exception is the second most frequently used salary cap exception and comes in three forms. These forms of the mid-level exception depend on whether the NBA team’s player contracts are below the  cap, or in the luxury tax. Teams below the salary cap are given what is referred to as the room exception. Teams above the luxury tax line are given what is referred to as a mini mid-level exception. Teams above the salary cap but below the luxury tax are allotted the full mid-level exception. Today we will only focus on those players signed under the full mid-level exception and will look at the room exception and mini mid-level exception another time.

The full mid-level exception allows teams to sign players for up to four years. The amount they are allowed to offer that player in the first year of the contract changes each year. For 2013/14 that amount was $5.15MM. The contract can grow each year to a maximum of 4.5%. Therefore teams who were looking to offer a player a contract this past offseason but were over the cap could offer that player up to a $21.99MM contract.

Teams are also allowed to use this exception each year and are not required to use it on only one player but can split it among multiple players. A more detailed explanation of the mid-level exception is available here.

Below is a team-by-team list of which players on current NBA rosters were signed under the standard mid-level exception.

StorytellersContracts and ShamSports were used in the creation of this post.

 

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