An NBA team that has spent all its cap space and doesn’t have any of its mid-level or bi-annual exception available still always has the ability to sign a player to a minimum-salary contract, unless that club is right up against its hard cap.
Teams with cap room or with access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception will have a little more flexibility to sign players to longer-term minimum-salary contracts. However, teams without cap room and without any other exceptions on hand can still use the minimum salary exception to add as many players as roster limits and the hard cap allow, for contracts of up to two years.
[RELATED: Values of 2025/26 mid-level, bi-annual exceptions]
Undrafted free agents and second-round picks are often recipients of minimum-salary contracts, but there are plenty of veterans who end up settling for the minimum too. Because a player’s minimum salary is determined by how much NBA experience he has, many veterans will earn more than twice as much money as a rookie will in 2025/26 on a minimum-salary contract.
Listed below are 2025/26’s minimum salary figures, sorted by years of NBA experience. If a player spent any time on an NBA club’s active regular season roster in a given season, he earned one year of experience. So any player with zero years of experience has not yet made his NBA debut.
These figures represent approximately a 10% increase on last season’s minimum salaries, since that’s the amount of the NBA’s salary cap increase for 2025/26.
Here’s the full breakdown:
| Years of Experience | Salary |
|---|---|
| 0 | $1,272,870 |
| 1 | $2,048,494 |
| 2 | $2,296,274 |
| 3 | $2,378,870 |
| 4 | $2,461,463 |
| 5 | $2,667,947 |
| 6 | $2,874,436 |
| 7 | $3,080,921 |
| 8 | $3,287,409 |
| 9 | $3,303,774 |
| 10+ | $3,634,153 |
Because the NBA doesn’t want teams to avoid signing veteran players in favor of cheaper, younger players, the league reimburses clubs who sign veterans with three or more years of experience to one-year, minimum-salary contracts. Those deals will only count against the cap – and against a team’s bank balance – for $2,296,274, the minimum salary for a player with two years of experience.
For instance, Mason Plumlee, who has 12 seasons of NBA experience, will reportedly sign a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Hornets, who will only be charged $2,296,274 for Plumlee’s contract. He’ll earn $3,634,153, but the NBA will make up the difference. This rule only applies to one-year contracts, not to multiyear deals.
If a player signs a minimum-salary contract after the regular season begins, he’ll earn a prorated portion of the amount listed above.
Those figures listed above also only apply to players who are signing new contracts in 2025/26. Players who are in the second, third, or fourth year of a minimum-salary deal will be earning a slightly different predetermined amount.
For example, Knicks big man Ariel Hukporti – who signed a minimum-salary contract last season and now has one year of NBA experience – will earn a $1,955,377 salary in the second year of his contract, less than than the $2,048,494 he would receive if he were signing a new minimum deal this fall. That’s because his second-year salary is based on a 5% raise over last season’s minimum salary for a player with one year of experience, whereas the cap rose by 10%.
Here’s what multiyear minimum-salary contracts signed in 2025/26 will look like:
| Experience |
2025/26 | 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | $1,272,870 | $2,150,917 | $2,525,901 | $2,735,698 |
| 1 | $2,048,494 | $2,411,090 | $2,616,754 | $2,830,685 |
| 2 | $2,296,274 | $2,497,812 | $2,707,612 | $3,068,140 |
| 3 | $2,378,870 | $2,584,539 | $2,934,742 | $3,305,598 |
| 4 | $2,461,463 | $2,801,346 | $3,161,876 | $3,543,059 |
| 5 | $2,667,947 | $3,018,158 | $3,389,014 | $3,780,524 |
| 6 | $2,874,436 | $3,234,968 | $3,616,151 | $3,799,340 |
| 7 | $3,080,921 | $3,451,779 | $3,634,152 | $4,179,277 |
| 8 | $3,287,409 | $3,468,962 | $3,997,570 | $4,179,277 |
| 9 | $3,303,774 | $3,815,861 | $3,997,570 | $4,179,277 |
| 10+ | $3,634,153 | $3,815,861 | $3,997,570 | $4,179,277 |
Technically, a minimum-salary contract could cover five years for a player with full Bird rights, but in actuality, that never happens.
While some second-round picks and undrafted free agents will sign three- or four-year minimum-salary contracts, a minimum deal exceeding two years is rare for a player with more than a year or two of NBA experience under his belt.
Data from RealGM was used in the creation of this post.
So if a team signs a guy to a minimum contract for 2 years, like the Bucks did with Prince, his cap hit for those years are the numbers in the table? The Bucks don’t get reimbursed to make his cap hit $2,296,274 this season and then whatever the 2-year vet min is in 2026-27?
Correct. His cap hits will be $3,303,774 in 2025/26 and $3,815,861 in ’26/27.
Also why do the players with 9+ years get more than a 5% raise in year 2?
The 5% raises aren’t based on the player’s salary from the previous year, but on the previous salary for a player with that many years of experience.
For instance, a player with 10+ years of experience this season is getting $3,634,153. If a player with nine years of experience signs a two-year minimum contract, his salary for next season (when he has 10 years of experience) would be $3,815,861, which is 5% more than $3,634,153.