Bit by bit, we are discovering the new features of the next collective agreement and the NBA has decided toeliminate the ” mid-level exception » for the most expensive teams. More exactly, it will apply for the teams which are in the ” luxury tax for $17.5 million and more.
Since the “luxury tax” is not a hindrance for certain franchises (Warriors, Clippers, Bucks, Lakers, etc.), this measure could be more penalizing since it will prevent them from recruiting a good “free agent”.
Donte DiVincenzo couldn’t have joined the Warriors
Concrete example: with this regulation, the Warriors could not have signed Donte DiVincenzo (9 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists), recruited to compensate for the departure of Gary Payton II, and currently valuable to compensate for the absence of Andrew Wiggins .
“Players will go to teams with a balance sheet or below. It will disperse wealth instead of seeing players concentrated in the top four or five teams.believes the player in the San Francisco Chronicle. “I understand this change and it is going in the right direction. But I’m also glad it didn’t happen last year honestly. Back from injury and free of contract, I really wanted to restore my value in the League. And for me, there was no better than this team! »
If this measure had been in place a year ago, the Bucks could not have signed Joe Ingles, and the Celtics could not have signed Danilo Gallinari.
Russell Westbrook couldn’t have joined the Clippers
But the NBA does not stop there in the “sanctions” since ESPN has listed three other measures that will give serious thought to franchises that do not care about the “luxury tax”:
– Thus, they will no longer be able to take position on a player left free by a “buy-out”. For example, the Clippers couldn’t have signed Russell Westbrook a month ago.
– Then the NBA banned from trading a first-round Draft for seven years.
– Finally, in the context of an exchange, these franchises will no longer be able to receive a “package” whose salaries are higher than the outgoing salaries. It will therefore necessarily be necessary salaries are equivalent between players transferred and received.
For next season, these measures will only target the Warriors and the Clippers, since they exceed the threshold of the “luxury tax” of 49 and 39 million dollars.
Mid-level exception : envelope of approximately 10 million dollars available each year to recruit all NBA franchises that do not pay luxury tax. They can use it on one or more players. A team that has to pay the luxury tax only has 6.5 million. From 2023/24, if a team greatly exceeds the high bar of the salary cap (by more than 17.5 million dollars), it loses its “mid-level exception”.
luxury tax : in the NBA, the salary cap is not strict, and the NBA authorizes the richest franchises to exceed the threshold set with a tolerance margin of approximately 20%. In this case, next year, the franchises would normally have been able to spend up to $124 million. Then, for every dollar spent above this cap, franchises must pay the “luxury tax” to the NBA. A kind of tax that can be very expensive, and candidates for the title usually pay tens of millions of dollars each year. A sum then donated to franchises, good students, who have not paid the “luxury tax”
