[NBA]Second Apron Explained! -How Salary Cap Works-

[Script includes cut scenes]
(Clips of second apron)

The new CBA started on July 1st 2023.
The second apron introduced another penalty to the teams that are willing to spend whatever it costs to win.

(Joe Lacob’s “whatever it costs” clip)

Look at how many teams are over the luxury tax threshold.
You can see contenders basically have to be top payers.

In the current NBA, money is the dominant rule to win a championship.

Adam Silver does not see this is a good trend, so here we come with the Second Apron.
In this video, I would like to describe the Second Apron and the system of salary cap.

Let’s see the basics before details.

For 2023-24 season, the financial lines are like this

• Salary cap: $136 million
• Luxury tax: $165 million
• First apron: $172 million
• Second apron: $182.5 million

If you spend more than salary cap, you can only acquire players with exceptions such as Bird exception or mid-level exception. Up until the luxury tax threshold, you just pay the salary and nothing else. But if you exceed the luxury tax line, you will literally pay the tax.

If your salary is between luxury tax and the First Apron, the penalty is only financial.

But if you go over the First Apron, there are penalties like these.

• No sign-and-trade if the player keeps the team above the apron
• No sign with waived player during the regular season whose salary was over the $12.2 million midlevel exception
• Salary matching in trades must be within 110%(125% for teams not above the apron)

And if you exceed the Second Apron even, then

• No access to the $5 million midlevel exception for 2023-2024 season

And, at the end of 2023-24 season, more restrictions will be coming.

• No trade exception by aggregating the salaries of multiple players
• No cash in a trade
• No trade exception in a prior year
• First-round picks seven years onwards are frozen (unable to be traded)
• First-round pick is moved to the end of the first round if they remain in the second apron for three out of five seasons

You can still make a superteam by spending way over the luxury tax, first and second apron, but in exchange, the roster will be more limited and less flexible. The NBA League is trying their best to restrain rich teams from overpowering the small market with their financial force. However, it is not going to be practically enforcing as long as NBA adopt the soft cap.

The teams spend more to win, the league make CBA more strict, the teams pay even more, over the time, the league’s finance dramatically grow.

This is a game of chasing each other’s tail which eventually benefits the league, where the rich prevails.

Thanks for watching my contents. I am planning to upload videos to explain mid-level exceptions and luxury tax later on. You may not want to miss them if you want to know deeply about NBA. Please subscribe, like and comment. Bye.


The Sporting News(Stephen Noh)
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/n...

NBA.com
https://www.nba.com/news/nba-sets-sal...

as(Svetozar Vavlović)
https://en.as.com/nba/nba-free-agency...

Spotrac
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/tax/\\

CBASPORTS.com
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nb...

The Athletic(Mike Vorkunov
https://theathletic.com/4607105/2023/...

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