Salary Cap, Tax Line Set For 2022/23 NBA Season

Amid a flurry of early contract agreements during the first couple hours of 2022’s free agent period, the NBA has officially set the salary cap for its 2022/23 season. As reported earlier this week, the cap increased by a full 10% on last season’s $112,414,000 figure.

Here are the details, courtesy of a league press release and a Twitter thread from Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report:

  • Salary cap: $123,655,000
  • Luxury tax line: $150,267,000
  • Salary floor: $111,290,000
  • Non-taxpayer mid-level exception: $10,490,000
  • Taxpayer mid-level exception: $6,479,000
  • Room exception: $5,401,000
  • Maximum salaries:
    • 6 years or fewer: $30,913,750
    • 7-9 years: $37,096,500
    • 10+ years: $43,279,250
  • Early Bird exception: $10,843,350
  • Estimated average salary: $10,792,000
  • Tax apron: $156,983,000
  • Trade cash limit: $6,363,000

The tax apron for the 2022/23 league year will be the hard cap for any team that acquires a player via sign-and-trade, signs a player using more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception, or signs a player using a bi-annual exception.

The Early Bird exception is the maximum amount a team can offer a player it intends to re-sign using his Early Bird rights. Bobby Portis (Bucks) and Nicolas Batum (Clippers) are among the players who have already agreed to Early Bird deals.

Players earning below the estimated average salary who are eligible for a veteran extension can receive a starting salary of up to 120% of the estimated average salary on a new deal. So the maximum starting salary for a player earning below the league average who signs an extension that begins in 2023/24 will be $12,950,400.

[RELATED: Maximum Salaries For 2022/23]

[RELATED: Minimum Salaries For 2022/23]

[RELATED: Values Of 2022/23 Mid-Level, Bi-Annual Exceptions]

The salary floor is the minimum amount a team must pay its players in 2022/23. A team that doesn’t spend up to that amount will distribute the shortfall to its players. For instance, the Thunder had a shortfall of $22.7MM in ’21/22, which will be divided among their players, tweets Pincus.

The trade cash limit is the maximum amount of money a team can send or receive during the 2022/23 league year. The sent and received categories are separate, so if a team sends out $6,363,000 in one trade and receives $6,363,000 in another, they aren’t back at square one — they’ve reached both limits.

The NBA has also updated its salary cap projections for the 2023/24 season and is now forecasting a $133MM cap and a $161MM tax line, according to Pincus (Twitter link).

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