Following the Money: Every Team’s Cap Situation (UPDATED!)

The reigning Finals MVP will find himself at the center of a wild free agency period. (Ron Turenne via espn.com)

Call it the spreadsheet before the storm, the math before the mayhem. 

We’ve never seen anything like the craziness that’s about to unfold when NBA free agency begins on Sunday evening. The sheer number of available players and possible outcomes makes this an unprecedented, complicated game of musical chairs that could leave the league looking completely different. Nearly half of the 450 players who finished last season on a roster are (or could be) free agents.

As this scattered free-for-all takes shape, it’s important to know where the money is. We’ve compiled a look at every team’s cap situation, sorted by the most flexibility teams can create without trading away salary, under the newly announced $109,140,000 salary cap.

Of course, that caveat — max flexibility without trades — looms large. As we’ve repeatedly seen in the NBA marketplace, teams can get creative about carving out more flexibility than appears to exist, so never forget when looking at this list that “where there’s a will, there’s often a way.” 

The exact amount of flexibility a team will create depends on decisions they make regarding any non-guaranteed salaries on their roster, as well as their plans with incumbent free agents. If they want to keep the rights to re-sign players, they have to reserve varied amounts (called cap holds) on their salary sheet. But we’ll go through each team’s situation by the maximum amount of spending power they could hypothetically create by moving away from all of their free agents and non-guaranteed players.

With that in mind, let’s check on the spending power around the league, and we’ll update this list throughout free agency.

Last updated July 8 at 2:00 p.m. EDT.

Potential Big Spenders

It doesn’t appear that any remaining teams have the ability to create enough cap room to offer max salary without trades.

Potential Medium Spenders

Atlanta and Dallas still have the means to create around an MLE-equivalent amount of cap room.

• Update: The Hawks committed most of their cap space agreeing to take on Allen Crabbe and Solomon Hill, and they just added Jabari Parker on a two-year deal. They can still create up to $9-10M in space (roughly equivalent to an MLE slot) should they choose to, plus they’ll have the Room MLE.
• Update: The Mavs’ U-turn from being the third team in the Jimmy Butler deal has them back to being able to create cap space: around $10-12M of it after acquiring Delon Wright from Memphis. That includes the cap holds they need to set aside so they can re-sign Kristaps Porzingis and forward Maxi Kleber, as well as the money for agreements made with Seth Curry and Boban Marjanovic.

Mid-Size Exceptions Remain

These teams all still have exceptions in the $5 to $9 million range.

Charlotte, Memphis and Minnesota will be operating over the cap this summer, but all of them could hang on to their full suite of non-taxpayer exceptions, like the $9.2M mid-level, the bi-annual exception, any remaining trade exceptions and more.

• Update: The Hornets are an exceptions team even after Kemba Walker leaves, which is why it will take a sign-and-trade for them to land Terry Rozier. This will keep several other exceptions intact, such as the $9.2M MLE, several player rights, and a $7.8M TPE left over from Dwight Howard that they can use through July 6. However, they will be hard-capped at around $138M after they complete the Rozier acquisition.
• Update: The Grizzlies’ have an agreement in place with Jonas Valanciunas, which basically moves them back into exceptions territory. That also allows them to keep the Conley trade exception, which they’ll need to acquire Andre Iguodala from Golden State.
• The Timberwolves are at the cap with just their top seven guaranteed salaries, so they will almost certainly operate as an exceptions team.

Cleveland, Denver, Houston and OKC are likely tax teams but still have at least the Taxpayer MLE at their disposal, while Chicago, New York and Philadelphia spent their cap space and appear to still have their Room MLE remaining.

• The Cavs are flirting with the tax based on their guaranteed salary, so unless a trade is made, they’ll have only taxpayer exceptions to work with.
• Update: The Nuggets’ acquisition of Jerami Grant leaves them with less than $2M to spend before they trigger the tax. That means they can’t use their full MLE. They could use MOST of it if they chose to, but that would leave them hard-capped. Or they could use the Taxpayer MLE and avoid the hard cap. The reality, though, is that they might instead be done with major signings, and add only a rookie or two to their 13-man roster so they can stay under the tax. .
• The Rockets are over the cap with just their five guaranteed salaries. They could technically use the full MLE, but doing so would hard-cap them. That said, this is one franchise that frequently finds ways to make stuff happen, even when it appears that their eyes are bigger than their stomach. 
• Update: The Thunder reduced their salary by trading Paul George and technically the full MLE is available to them — but because of salaries they’ve already committed, they couldn’t use the full amount and stay under the resulting hard cap… so they are basically down to the Taxpayer MLE as their primary free agency tool.
• Update: The Bulls acquired Tomas Satoranski into their remaining cap space after committing something like $13M of it to Thaddeus Young. They’re right back at the salary cap now, leaving them with the Room MLE and minimum exceptions.
• Update: The Knicks had massive cap space, but after missing on their prime targets, they pivoted to a platoon of role player types. After agreeing with Julius Randle, Taj Gibson, Bobby Portis, Wayne Ellington and Reggie Bullock, they committed the last of their cap space to point guard Elfrid Payton. They now have the Room Exception and minimum salaries to work with.
• Update: The Sixers can order transactions and get everything done under the cap — sign Al Horford with cap space while reserving cap holds for Tobias Harris and Mike Scott, then sign those two using free agent rights. But that will use all their cap space, and leave them with the Room MLE and minimums.

Mostly Done Spending

Boston, Brooklyn, Detroit, Indiana, L.A. (Clippers), L.A. (Lakers), Milwaukee, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, Toronto, Utah and Washington have committed all their cap space and/or mid-sized exceptions, and only have small exceptions and/or veteran minimum contracts as the only roster-refining tools. Golden State and Miami technically have exceptions remaining, but using them will be tricky after invoking a hard cap.

• Update: The Celtics used most of their cap space to accommodate a max contract for Kemba Walker. They also appear to have committed the Room MLE to Enes Kanter and keeping the rights to Daniel Theis means they’re essentially down to minimum slots.
• Update: The Nets were a major cap room team, and they put it to good use. Reports indicated that they have landed Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, DeAndre Jordan and even Garrett Temple. Depending on exactly how the numbers are going to come together, that might represent all of Brooklyn’s spending power, leaving them with minimum exceptions from here out. 
• Update: The Pistons will be over the cap, and used most of their MLE to sign Derrick Rose to a 2-year deal. They have about $2M left of the MLE, plus the option to use the BAE, minimum salaries and two small trade exceptions.
• Update: The Pacers added Jeremy Lamb and Brogdon with their cap space. It depends on how those deals were structured, but it would appear Indy only has $3-5M left in cap room, as well as the Room MLE and minimum slots.
• Update: The Clippers spent their cap space with their blockbuster acquisitions from late Friday night: landing Kawhi Leonard in free agency while simultaneously scoring Paul George via trade. They have previously acquired Moe Harkless and were reserving the rights to re-sign Pat Beverley. They had to use their Room MLE to re-sign JaMychael Green, whose rights they had cleared to complete the Leonard signing.
• Update: We’ll still figuring out how the Lakers orchestrated their slew of deals in the wake of missing out on Kawhi. But after agreeing to terms with Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, DeMarcus Cousins, Quinn Cook, Javale McGee, Avery Bradley and Alex Caruso — about $35M worth of signings, per reports — it looks like they’re spent. Most likely, Bradley will account for their Room MLE and Rajon Rondo, Jared Dudley and Troy Daniels will be minimum signings after they add the rest via cap space.
• Update: The Bucks had to clear cap room to re-sign Lopez while holding onto the rights to Khris Middleton and Malcolm Brogdon. They could spend another $3M or so before re-uppong Middleton and signing-and-trading Brogdon, and then the Room MLE is already committed to the other Lopez, Brook’s brother Robin.
• Update: The Pelicans had a busy Sunday as well, agreeing to sign JJ Redick, adding Europe’s Nicolo Melli, and later trading for Derrick Favors. Based on reported numbers, it looks like Redick and Favors will fit into the Pelicans’ cap space, and Melli into the Room MLE, meaning that the Pels are more or less done with big spending. 
• Update: The Magic’s agreements to retain Nikola Vucevic as well as Terrence Ross will require them to keep their cap holds in place, guaranteeing that they’ll operate as an exceptions team this summer, and they already spent their MLE on Al-Farouq Aminu. 
• Update: The Suns will be a cap space team, but already committed small chunks when they agreed to acquire Aron Baynes and Dario Saric in draft-day deals, and then added Ricky Rubio in free agency. They dedicated their Room MLE to the Frank Kaminsky signing.
• Update: The Blazers are over the tax, and already used the Taxpayer MLE to fund their agreement with Rodney Hood. They are down to just minimum contracts now.
• Update: After agreeing to a deal with Cory Joseph — following agreements with Harrison Barnes, Trevor Ariza and Dewayne Dedmon — the Kings are virtually out of cap space. They also used their Room MLE on Richaun Holmes.
• Update: The Spurs got their MLE back by turning the DeMarre Carroll signing into a sign-and-trade, but they spent it again to add forward Marcus Morris.
• Update: Marc Gasol opting in ensured that the Raptors will operate as an over-the-cap team, even as Leonard moves on. They used a small portion of the MLE to sign Matt Thomas out of Europe, and then they used some combination of their remaining MLE and their Bi-Annual Exception to add Stanley Johnson and later Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. They would appear to be about spent for 2019.
• Update: The Jazz have committed their cap space in the Mike Conley deal, then opened up more to agree to a $73M contract with Bojan Bogdanovic.  Utah also committed its Room MLE to the Ed Davis signing, so they pretty much only have minimum contracts left to offer.
• Update: The Wizards will operate over the cap, which will allow them to keep the rights to Thomas Bryant (reportedly re-signing) and Tomas Satoransky (whose rights they’ll use to S&T him to Chicago). Their deal with Ish Smith will also eat up most of their MLE.
• Update: The Warriors’ acquisition of D’Angelo Russell via sign-and-trade gives them a hard cap for the season — teams who acquire a player via S&T can’t exceed roughly $138M all year. With Klay Thompson’s new max contract, they are very close to that hard cap, even after dumping Iggy to Memphis. They technically have their taxpayer MLE, but will have a hard time using it and dodging the hard cap.
• Update: The Heat will be hard-capped after completing the new version of the Jimmy Butler trade, and have only $1.3M to spend under said hard cap. And that’s if they stretch the remaining $15.6M they owe Ryan Anderson, which brings salary cap implications for 2020-21 and 2021-22. 

We’ll keep an eye on how things develop and update this list throughout free agency as we keep track of where the money is and how it could get divvied up to the more than 200 potential free agents this offseason.