NBA teams have been spending money like crazy during the week-old 2016 free-agency period, and owners want to curb some of that spending next season.
According to CBS Sports, the league notified teams Thursday that the projected salary cap for the 2017-18 season will be $102 million — $5 million less than originally estimated. The cap for 2017 had even been projected as high as $110 million, but more than $1.7 billion in guaranteed contracts handed out so far have created a smaller shortfall between negotiated salaries and the players' collectively bargained guarantee of 51 percent of the league's revenue.
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The projections do not guarantee anything. Most years, including this past one, the July estimate for the following year's cap comes in low. Last year at this time, the 2016-17 salary cap was estimated at $92 million, but it came in at $94.1 million. The shortfall aspect is essentially a way for the owners to guard against ever having to force players to give back money, which is why the NBA needs to be conservative on these estimates.
The NBA reached a nine-year television deal with ESPN and Turner Broadcasting in 2014 that pays the league $24 billion. Because the salary cap is tied to basketball-generated income, the cap increased dramatically from last season's $70 million cap to $94 million for 2016-17. That resulted in teams opening their proverbial checkbooks to give some players more money than they would have previously received.
One of the biggest annual contracts issued so far was to former Thunder forward Kevin Durant, who got a two-year, $54 million contract from Golden State; he will likely opt out of that deal next summer for an even bigger payday. The same strategy will be used by Cavaliers forward LeBron James, who opted out of his contract this year to receive a new deal that will likely pay him about $27.5 million for the upcoming season. James could enter free agency again next year for a more lucrative deal.
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But those are star players. Former Celtics guard Evan Turner received a head-scratching four-year, $70 million deal from the Trail Blazers. The Lakers gave former Cavaliers center Timofey Mozgov — and his 6.9-point, 5-rebound per-game average — a four-year, $64 million deal. The Grizzlies retained guard Mike Conley, who has never been an All-Star in nine seasons, on a colossal five-year, $153 million contract.
But make no mistake: The spending sprees won't end in the future. The salary cap still going up — and now is expected to rise in 2018, as well.