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On Saturday, Fred Katz and John Hollinger of The Athletic broke the news that the NBA recently increased its projections for the 2027-28 salary cap by $2 million. Initial projections had the cap landing at $174 million, but the latest projections are a $176 million salary cap and a $213 million luxury-tax line.
Katz and Hollinger explained why that could provide some much-needed financial relief to teams around the league:
“The latest national TV contract was supposed to usher in an era of 10 percent annual salary-cap increases, more than enough to cover the 8 percent raises in contracts given to most star players. Instead, the local TV market crashed so hard that the annual raise was barely half that a year ago (5.2 percent) and was forecast to be similar in 2027-28 (5.5 percent). The projected raise for 2027-28 is now 6.7 percent — still a far cry from the maximal 10 percent, but closer to the raises in player contracts.”
That’s particularly welcome news for the Lakers given their free-agent spending spree this past offseason.
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Since Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton all changed teams this summer, they were limited to 5% annual raises in their contracts rather than 8%. That means the projected cap growth in 2027-28 is now expected to (slightly) outpace their annual raises.
While Grimes and Kessler each have standard 5% annual raises in their contracts, Mamu’s deal was uniquely structured. He’s earning $13 million this year, goes down to $12.35 million in 2027-28, goes back up to $13.0 million in 2028-29 and has a $13.65 million player option in 2029-30.
Austin Reaves also did the Lakers a solid by taking $5 million less than what was initially reported. He could have received full 8% annual raises every year, but instead, he took only a roughly 4% raise in 2027-28, which also slightly reduced the amount he could receive in the final two years of his contract.
That all begs the question of what the Lakers might have up their sleeves next offseason.
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In all likelihood, they’re eyeing access to the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception. They’re now…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-updated-2027-28-salary-163000002.html
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Publish date : 2026-09-15 16:30:00
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