Recent Examples Of NBA Contenders’ Cap Maneuvering

This past offseason, the Boston Celtics – at the time, barely 12 months removed from an NBA championship – traded key title pieces Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, while also seeing Al Horford and Luke Kornet leave in free agency. Boston successfully reorganized around youth, but still has the looming issues of how to deal with a cap table that’s 89% occupied by just three players (Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White).

The Indiana Pacers did similar maneuvering fresh off an NBA Finals trip last June. Following Tyrese Haliburton’s ruptured Achilles tendon, Indiana did not want to go into the luxury tax to re-sign Myles Turner. He ultimately wound up joining the Milwaukee Bucks.

In the years since the Nuggets’ 2023 title run, Denver has shed numerous pieces from that team in an effort to luxury tax penalties – including letting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown depart in free agency immediately after. They also traded Michael Porter Jr. last offseason. Despite all of that, the Nuggets could still have the largest payroll in NBA history next season.

These are not teams coming off of a lengthy stretch of championship wins, mind you. Rather, all of these moves were necessitated by the current CBA’s harsher luxury tax penalties and the skyrocketing salaries for those collecting so-called supermax contracts.

It’s not a knock on the players, who have earned what they make under the salary structure. Instead, it’s a note on how quickly those salaries can impact a team’s contention window, even after just one title (as was the case with all three examples above).

This Year’s Finals Participants Face Similar Decisions

The trend of post-Finals cap casualties could continue this June.

While the Knicks have core players Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart on the books through at least the 2027-28 season, the same won’t be true for most of New York’s crucial bench contributors.

Jose Alvarado has a $4.5 million player option for next year, while Mitchell Robinson, Landry Shamet and Jordan Clarkson (among others) are all unrestricted free agents.

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps has already reported that Robinson and Shamet are both likely to return on two-year deals as the team goes deep into the luxury tax’s punitive second apron over the next couple years. But the bill eventually will come due with this core after that. At which point, the Knicks will either have to accept steeper tax penalties or let key players go (via trade or free agency).

Should the Oklahoma City Thunder win the right to defend their championship this weekend, they’ll face a similar roster debate, albeit without the same astronomical revenues that the Knicks possess to offset the luxury tax.

Next year, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will combine to make up 75% of the Thunder’s cap on their own, and the team is already in the luxury tax before even accounting for club options on Isaiah Hartenstein ($28.5 million), Lu Dort ($18.2 million) and Kenrich Williams ($7.2 million).

Hartenstein, a key piece of the puzzle for the Thunder these past two years, was already a cap casualty for a contending Knicks team just a couple offseasons ago, which is how he wound up with OKC to begin with.

Oklahoma City’s large collection of young talent and draft picks allow it to potentially make shrewder decisions than most teams in their position. But the point stands: The Thunder’s 2026-27 roster will be fundamentally different than this year’s.

Benefits Of Being Ahead Of Schedule

The exception here, however, could be the Spurs.

If San Antonio can outlast the Thunder and beat the Knicks in the Finals, the team would not face similar math yet – simply because they’re ahead of schedule with a core of extremely young players. Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper will all be under 25 years old next season, and will all make less than $17 million each on their respective rookie contracts.

De’Aron Fox and Devin Vassell are the only Spurs players set to earn over $20 million next season, and both have contracts already locked in through 2028-29 (Fox’s goes a year beyond that).

San Antonio’s math starts getting a little trickier after next season when Wembanyama hits (restricted) free agency, and Keldon Johnson’s salary would take a significant leap as well if he’s re-signed as a free agent. But largely, this is still a team ahead of schedule, that gets to enjoy the benefits of pushing off larger cap questions a couple more years.

Unfortunately, for the rest of the NBA, they don’t have that luxury.

OKC is relatively young, but still has the aforementioned cap quandaries. And even for teams flush with picks, not every player is going to hit almost immediately like Wembanyama, Castle and Harper have for the Spurs.

The CBA is forcing teams to build contenders in new ways. And that’s ultimately become a good thing when evaluating the NBA’s newfound depth when it comes to teams capable of winning a championship.