2024 cap space landscape: The outlook for each NBA team
With the 2024 NBA trade deadline in the rearview mirror, rosters are, for the most part, decided. The trade deadline is not the same thing as a roster deadline, and teams are permitted to make signings and waivings up to and including the last day of the regular season. Nevertheless, rarely if ever do those post-deadline moves make an impact on the team’s cap pictures in future seasons, and thus fairly accurate assessments of how each franchise lines up for the upcoming offseason can be made.
In the NBA’s most recent projections, the 2024-25 salary cap is estimated to be coming in at $141 million, still an increase from this season’s $136,021,000 but a slight decline from the previous projections. This nonetheless still represents a figure that is more than double what it was as recently as 2015-16. Team spending has however grown just as much, if not more, and so while many seasons since 2016 have seen plenty of cap space available around the league – certainly much more than across the previous decade, when a far slower rate of growth meant only a handful of teams having any every year – this number will be reduced this season.
Nonetheless, even though offseason trades, the instability of draft night, future extensions and contract options can all significantly change matters, there follows a look at each NBA team’s 2024-25 projected spending as things currently stand.