NBA Salary Cap Projection Adjusted Down For 2020-21

The NBA has informed teams of a revision to their future salary cap projections, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports. While the forecasted value for the 2021-22 season remains at $125 million, the value for next season has dropped to $116 million.

Previously the projected salary cap for 2020-21 was $117 million and, as we wrote about earlier this year, it was as high as $118 million last season.

While the actual cap number won’t be made official until the days leading up to next season, the league has typically done a fine job of predicting the cap amount, which is tethered to basketball related income.

The $116 million projection marks a $7 million increase over the current salary cap, so teams can still plan for a modest chunk of cap relief just by hanging on into the 2020-21 season. The luxury tax line, which was also walked back slightly with the latest projection, is also notably higher than this year’s mark.

While teams have plenty of hurdles to navigate before next season, understanding where the cap and luxury tax marks are expected to fall is of critical importance for front offices, especially those with significant sums of guaranteed money for the foreseeable future.