When the cap was expected to climb 10% a year, it was rising faster than player salaries. Now that script has flipped. The cap is crawling, but salaries tied to those old 8% raises are climbing faster than the cap itself. That leaves teams with less optionality to improve their rosters in future seasons. Do the math on the squeeze. Say you have two 35% max players eating up 70% of your cap. That leaves 30% for everyone else. Under a $228M cap, that 30% is $68.4M to build out your depth. But if the 2029-30 cap comes in at just $193M as currently projected, that same 30% is only $57.9M. Same roster structure, $10 million less to work with.
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Do the math on the squeeze. Say you have two 35% max …
