It had been projected to come in closer to $67 million until recently.[…] The salary cap is derived in part on league revenues.
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And after the players union rejected a salary-cap smoothing proposal in March, the projected cap line for the 2016-17 season is expected to make another jump somewhere into the $80-90 million range.
The league says Wednesday the cap increased by 11 per cent and the 2015-16 cap will be the highest ever.
Both are effective beginning 00:01 United States Eastern Standard Time (04:01 GMT) on Thursday when the NBA’s moratorium period ends and teams can officially sign free agents and make trades.
In addition, two teams – the Orlando Magic and Denver Nuggets – failed to meet the minimum 90 percent payroll last season. The league in general spent less than the 50.39 percent of basketball-related income the players are supposed to receive, so it must make a $57.3 million shortfall payment to the NBA Players Association.
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New team-mate Kawhi Leonard will now earn $95.3 million over his five-year max deal. The non-taxpayer midlevel for this season is $5.5 million, the taxpayer midlevel is $3.4 million and the midlevel for a team with room under the salary cap is $2.8 million.
