Who Has Money (2020 Version): Tracking Spending Power For All 30 Teams

This awesome week for NBA fans marches on. As the NBA rushes to get its 2020-21 season underway, free agency, the draft and the restart of trade season are all jumbled together into a chaotic mess of league-shifting transactions. It’s super weird, in the best possible way.

Of course, this peculiar offseason is happening against the backdrop of a global pandemic, which is also the reason why teams will be more financially limited this year. The team salary cap ($109 million) and tax threshold ($132 million) won’t budge from last season’s levels, which means cash could be tight for 30 NBA owners. 

As we did last year, we wanted to provide a look at every team’s cap situation, as a means of keeping track of where the money is. Teams are sorted below by the spending power they can open up without trading away salary under the $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.

This list will be updated throughout free agency. Last updated 9:12 p.m. MST on December 10

As of right now, there are three teams that could easily create a max salary slot, two who could create a a smaller amount (with some sacrifices) and 19 teams who should be able to use their full Mid-Level Exception (MLE). The other six teams are limited to the smaller taxpayer MLE — or less.

Potential Big Spenders

At present, nobody can create a full max slot without first moving salary.

Potential Medium Spenders

One team can still technically spend past the MLE amount but not quite the max.

Update: New York is clearly going to operate as a cap space team. They have agreed to deals with Alec Burks, Elfrid Payton, Austin Rivers and Nerlens Noel. Noel’s deal might fit into the Room MLE, which would mean the Knicks still have $23M or so they can create in cap space, after trading Ed Davis for two cheaper players.

Mid-Size Exceptions Remain

A bunch of teams appear to have the full non-taxpayer MLE ($9.26M) to work with, although using that exception would put a hard $138 million limit on their spending for the year. Some of these teams also project to have the Bi-Annual Exception (BAE) of $3.6M.

• Indiana can use their MLE and BAE, but doing so would put them close to a hard cap.
• Update: After securing RFAs Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez, Minnesota only has about $10M left under the apron — even less if they keep the three young players with non-guaranteed contracts. That means it will be pretty tight for them if they use the full MLE, but technically they still can. (They also own their BAE this year, but they can certainly not use both.)
• Update: Memphis will be over the cap despite not having a single player making more than Gorgui Dieng’s $17.3M. They have most of their MLE available — they used 1.3M on rookie Xavier Tillman, so they have just under $8M left. They also have the BAE.
• Update: Charlotte waived and stretched Nicolas Batum to accommodate the Gordon Hayward signing at $28.5M. They should have roughly $8M left in cap room (they used a million or so on their second-round rookie’s contract so they could give him a 4-yaer deal), if they want to use it — more if they decide to move on from Caleb Martin and Jalen McDaniels. Plus they’ll have the Room MLE.
• Update: Golden State is way over the tax line already with just ten players/picks accounted for. They will be limited to the TMLE — except that they also received permission to use a $9.3M injury exception for Klay Thompson. (They used a small $2.25M piece of their TMLE to sign Brad Wanamaker.)

A few teams have most, but not all, of their non-taxpayer MLE left.

• Update: Houston will be hard-capped after a S&T to get Christian Wood, but without knowing what they sent out, it’s not clear how much they have left under said hard cap. Safe to assume they’ll still have their MLE and BAE (they did use a small piece of their MLE to give rookies Tate and Martin longer deals, but still have $7.4M or so).
• Update: After locking up RFA Jakob Poeltl, San Antonio is $15M under the apron — even closer if they keep either of the non-guarantee Trey Lyles or Tyler Zeller. That means they technically still have their full MLE (and BAE), but they might not be able to use it. They used a very small portion for rookie Tre Jones, but have more than $8M left.
• Update: New Orleans locked up All-Star Brandon Ingram and now sits about $8M under the hard cap. That means they can’t quite use the full MLE — they can either use the amount they’re under the apron and then be hard-capped, or they can use the TMLE instead.
• Update: After letting Bogdan Bogdanovic walk, Sacramento could have theoretically created something like $13M in space, but they would have had to let go of Nemanja Bjelica. Instead, they’re operating like an exceptions team, with the MLE and BAE available. Robert Woodard got $1.5M of the MLE, leaving them with something like $7.8M left.
• Update: Andre Drummond’s opt-in leaves Cleveland firmly in exceptions territory. They have both their MLE and BAE, but for some reason gave Damyean Dotson $2M flat instead of just signing him to a min deal. That means Dotson had to come out of one of their exceptions, most likely the MLE, giving them about $7.3M left.
• Update: Orlando used $3.3M of their MLE on James Ennis, and now has about $6M left, plus the BAE.

OKC’s situation is a little hard to follow, but here goes: 

Update: Now that the Al Horford trade is complete, we can see how OKC worked its cap magic. By rolling Vincent Poirier into the Green-and-Ferguson-for-Horford deal that was reported into November, the Thunder were able to acquire Horford through over-the-cap trade rules instead of clearing cap space to absorb the salary difference. This is significant because it means they kept their MLE and BAE, but also because they keep several trade exceptions intact (and actually created a few new ones with all their cap maneuvering this offseason). OKC used $2M of the MLE on Theo Maledon, but should have around $7.3M left, plus the BAE and a boatload of trade exception money. (A full list of active trade exceptions is below.)

Smaller Exceptions Only 

A few teams have somewhere between the TMLE-equivalent left and just the BAE:

Here are teams that have spending power ranging from roughly the TMLE equivalent all the way down to the BAE level:

• Update: After agreeing to an 8-figure deal with Joe Harris, Brooklyn can’t use the MLE or BAE without going over the apron, which means the Nets will only have the TMLE instead.
• Philly lowered costs with the Josh Richardson for Seth Curry swap, but they’re still within $2M of the hard cap that would be triggered by using anything beyond the TMLE. They used 900K of the Taxpayer MLE to sign Isaiah Joe, so they’re down to having just $4.8M of exception money left, plus minimums.
• Update: Chicago’s $4.8M deal with Garrett Temple came out of their MLE, giving them $4.5M of it left, plus the BAE. 
• Update: As expected, Miami is staying over the cap, as evidenced by them using Bird rights to retain Goran Dragic and Meyers Leonard. They also appeared to use most of their MLE on Avery Bradley (maybe $4M left?) and their BAE on Moe Harkless.
• Update: Utah already committed its MLE to Derrick Favors, meaning it only has the BAE and minimum contracts left. They’ll be hard-capped at $138M, and are sitting in the low $130s currently, so they may not use their BAE.
• Update: Washington reportedly gave most of its MLE to Robin Lopez, leaving them with their BAE and minimum exceptions, after giving Davis Bertans a healthy raise.
• Update: Portland appears to have spent its MLE on Derrick Jones Jr., leaving them with just their BAE and minimum exceptions. They also re-signed Rodney Hood and re-acquired Enes Kanter.
• Update: Gordon Hayward’s opt-out gave Boston its exceptions back, and then they committed the MLE to Tristan Thompson. They appear to still have their BAE (Jeff Teague got the minimum).  

Here are teams who *may* have their $3.6M BAE left, but we’re waiting on some reporting to know for sure.

• Update: Phoenix committed its MLE to Jae Crowder, but still has the BAE and minimum salaries. They might have committed some or all of the BAE to Langston Galloway, but we’ll have to wait on further reporting there.

Basically Done Spending

• Update: The Lakers committed their MLE to Montrezl Harrell and the BAE to Wesley Matthews, and then gave Kentavious Caldwell-Pope a massive raise. They flipped JaVale McGee to give themselves room under the hard cap to sign Marc Gasol to a 2-year minimum deal, but with Anthony Davis finalizing a max deal starting at $32.7M, they will be very close to the hard cap. Even Exhibit 10 contracts will be hard at this point, after re-upping Markieff Morris at the veteran minimum.
• Update: After a big payday for Marcus Morris and committing the MLE to Serge Ibaka, it’s unlikely the Clippers can use their BAE at all without exceeding their hard cap at the apron. It’s close, and some of it depends on some non-guaranteed salary and Morris’ exact first-year figure. But they might be done spending, beyond minimum deals.
• Update: The surprise undoing of the Bogdan Bogdanovic sign-and-trade put Milwaukee’s exceptions back in play, but it looks like they committed most of their MLE to D.J. Augustin and their BAE to Bobby Portis. Then they agreed with Bryn Forbes on a 2-year deal with a PO, so my sneaking suspicion is that this was the rest of their MLE. So they might be down to just vet minimums.
• Update: Even with Jerami Grant defecting, Denver is still right at the cap and will primarily be using its MLE and BAE. They used most of their MLE on JaMychal Green, and then either used the rest or their BAE on overseas guard Facundo Campazzo. Either way, they’re down to having one exception left of like $2-3.6M, plus minimums, and reports are they used $2.06M of exception money to convert Bol Bol. So they’re likely done, other than minimum deals.
• Update: After agreeing to a big new contract with Fred VanVleet, Toronto will definitely be operating as an exceptions team. They split their MLE between Aron Baynes ($7M) and Alex Len (the rest), and they will not have a BAE because they used it last summer on Stanley Johnson.
• Update: We’re waiting to find out year-by-year numbers of Danilo Gallinari, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kris Dunn and Rajon Rondo, but for now it appears that Atlanta is down to under $2M left — or effectively just minimums. And that’s assuming Dunn fits into the Room MLE. (Solomon Hill might have been a minimum deal, or he might be fitting into that last $2M slot.)
• Update: Dallas used the MLE to sign Trey Burke, Willie Cauley-Stein and rookie Tyrell Terry. They technically have a tiny bit of MLE left, but it’s literally less than the rookie minimum amount. They also used the BAE on Boban Marjanovic last summer, so their exceptions are essentially gone.
• Update: Detroit’s situation was tricky. Turns out, they had to waive (and stretch) Dewayne Dedmon and Rodney McGruder in order to accommodate the Jerami Grant signing with cap room. THEN they did their other moves, like using Christian Woods’ tiny cap hold to S&T him to Houston, then dealing Trevor Ariza in exchange for Delon Wright. It’s complicated, but the bottom line is this means their cap ro0m will be gone. They also spent their $4.8M Room MLE on formery lotto wing Josh Jackson. So only minimums remain for Detroit.

Trade Exceptions

A handful of teams also have outstanding trade exceptions, and the NBA is planning to extend the timeframe for using TPEs that would have expired over the summer. TPEs can only be used to acquire a player via trade, so these don’t necessarily add to a team’s spending power where free agency, but it’s good to keep track of these too as it relates to the different tools teams have to add talent. Here is every TPE I know of that it at least $2M in value.

Still waiting for confirmation on how exactly OKC engineered its TPEs.

Dates shown are the dates these exceptions would expire, but dates will be altered by the league given this year’s unique transaction calendar.

• Boston $28.5M (Hayward) – 11/29/21
• OKC $27.5M (Adams) – 11/24/21
• OKC $19.5M (Gallinari) – 11/24/21
• OKC $16M (J. Johnson) – 11/27/21 
• OKC $14.4M (Oubre) – 11/22/21 (I’m assuming they used most of this one to absorb Trevor Ariza so that they could create a new TPE with James Johnson – will confirm)
• Philadelphia $8.2M (Horford) – 12/8/21 
• Miami $7.5M (Johnson) – 2/6/21
• Utah $5M (Davis) – 11/23/21
• Memphis $4.2M (Iguodala) – 2/6/21
• Cleveland $3.8M (Clarkson) – 12/23/20
• Houston $3.6M (Capela) – 2/5/21
• LA Clippers $3.6M (Robinson) – 2/6/21
• Utah $3.5M (Bradley) – 11/22/21
• Denver $3.3M (Hernangomez) – 2/5/21
• Philadelphia $3M (Richardson) – 11/18/21 – Used on Poirier so they could create a larger TPE from the Horford deal
• Boston $2.6M (Poirier) – 11/19/21
• Houston $2.5M (Nene) – 2/5/21
• Portland $2.8M (Labissiere) – 2/6/21
• Sacramento $2.7M (Dedmon) – 2/5/21
• GSW $2.2 (Cauley-Stein) – 1/25/21
• Houston $2.5M (Rivers) – 11/27/21
• Portland $2.1M (Bazemore – some used on Kanter) – 1/21/21
• LA Clippers $2M (Shamet) – 11/19/21
• Brooklyn $2M (Musa)* – Likely used to acquire Shamet

TPEs that are likely already expired:

• OKC $10.4M (George)* (I’m assuming they used most of this one to absorb George Hill so that they could create a new TPE in the full amount of Adams’ salary)
• OKC $9.3M (Grant)* (I’m assuming they used this to absorb Justin Jackson — and later TJ Leaf — so that they could create a new TPE for James Johnson’s full salary)
• Memphis $7.7M (Conley)
• Memphis $4.74 (Wright)
• Memphis $3.4M (Korver)
• Memphis $3.1M (Miles) – Likely used on Hezonja

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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.