Besides being the day when non-guaranteed 2019/20 salaries become fully guaranteed, January 10 represents an important date on the NBA calendar for a second reason. It’s also the day when several cap exceptions begin to prorate downward for the rest of the season.
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As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, taxpayer mid-level exception, room exception, and bi-annual exception will all decline in value by 1/177th each day for the rest of the season, beginning today. Trade exceptions and disabled player exceptions will be unaffected.
Each team will be affected slightly differently by the proration calculations. For instance, the Spurs had $3,758,000 left on their mid-level exception entering today. Their MLE value will decline by $21,232 per day (1/177th of $3,758,000) for each of the season’s remaining 97 days. By the last day of the season, it will be worth less than $1.7MM.
A team like the Cavaliers, with their full $9,258,000 mid-level exception available, will see its value decline by over $52K per day, while the $961,380 left on the Raptors‘ MLE will decline by just $5,432 per day.
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According to Marks, 18 teams will be affected by the rest-of-season proration. Twelve clubs don’t have any form of mid-level, room, or bi-annual exception available, since they’ve already used one or more of those exceptions. The unaffected clubs are the Grizzlies, Magic, Celtics, Nets, Pacers, Clippers, Lakers, Bucks, Sixers, Suns, Kings, and Jazz.
These prorating exceptions shouldn’t have a major league-wide impact. However, if the other 18 teams want to offer a free agent more than the minimum salary or sign a free agent to a three- or four-year contract the rest of the way, they’ll need to use some form of the MLE or BAE, so they’ll have to keep tabs on the ever-changing values of those exceptions.
For details on how much the remaining teams have left on their mid-level and/or bi-annual exceptions, you can check out our trackers here and here.
By the last day of the season, it will be worth less than $1.7MM
Does this mean that a player can sign a contract on the last day of the season for 1.7 million? He can make 1.7 million in a day?
In theory, yes, though it’s extremely rare that something like that would happen.
Closest example I can think of off the top of my head is when the Bulls signed Sean Kilpatrick to a three-year deal in March 2018. The starting salary on that one was $2.1MM+ for the remaining 15ish days of the season, though the Bulls were still under the cap in that case, not using an MLE.
Hm that 3 year deal sure expired quickly, according to my math. Weren’t they trying to reach the minimum salary or something?
I believe they were below the floor, yeah. Not that they were obligated to spend that money before the end of the season — it just would’ve been dispersed among the rest of the players on the roster otherwise, so I can’t imagine those guys were too happy about the Kilpatrick signing.
The last two years on Kilpatrick’s deal were non-guaranteed. I think he was off the roster by opening night the following season.