http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources-nba-salary-cap-to-rise-to-120-million-in-2020-203759822.html
The National Basketball Players Association informed player agents that the salary cap is projected to rise to $120 million in 2020, which would be a jump from $94.1 million in 2016 and its projection of $103 million in 2017, sources told The Vertical.
In the NBA’s latest evaluation of the 2020 salary cap, it was projected to rise to $118 million, sources said.
The NBA and the NBPA finalized a new collective bargaining agreement last week, and the deal is on course to be ratified in January. The salary cap projection of $118 million to $120 million – with a projected $143 million luxury tax threshold – is a significant rise in a growing economy for the league.
With the $120 million cap figure, max salaries would be $42 million annually for Tier 1, $36 million for Tier 2 and $30 million for Tier 3.
The NBA and the NBPA have been proactive in recent days to explain the new changes to all respective parties. The NBA and its players have seen immense raises in the salary cap because of the league’s nine-year, $24 billion television deal that began this season and various branding deals.
For reference, Al Horford got $26.5 as a 30% max player this season as a 9 year vet.
I would note that in the current CBA, a cap of $120 million would produce lower max salaries than those listed. As I haven't seen the new CBA, I don't know if the calculation of max salaries has changed. If it has, that would negatively impact the Celtics ability to have room for a max signing this summer.
Apparently MAX salaries will now be directly tied to the salary cap. Midway down this article "Players in line for max deals". Also just above it mentions cap holds for 1st round rookie RFAs are increasing.
http://bballbreakdown.com/2016/12/19/stands-benefit-nbas-new-cba/
Thanks for finding that. In a Q&A on ESPN.com today, Larry Coon implied that the rookie scale bump might be getting phased in over 3 years, but I might have misunderstood what he said.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18317693/nba-answering-your-questions-new-nba-collective-bargaining-agreementAll these changes are not good for the Celtics -- I recalculated the Celtics salaries including increases to our players on rookie deals, cap holds for our draft picks, and the increased cap hold for Olynyk. If we get the #3 pick again, we'd have between $18.5-20.5 million in cap space. With max salaries also increasing, it's become a lot more difficult to create the room. Even renouncing Olynyk wouldn't get us all the way there without an additional move, or this year's Brooklyn pick coming in a bit lower than some would hope.
Accordingly, I think you'll see Ainge push hard for that final major trade. The max salary free agent route might have just closed, unless there's something else in the details that hasn't been released. These changes look to have cost the Celtics about $5.5 million in cap room next season. Combine that with a max salary increase of $2 million, and that's a significant contract that would need to be moved.
EDIT: Upon further review, all hope is not lost, but a lot may be. The salary increases to our players currently on rookie deals might not count against the cap (so the salaries would be greater than the cap hit.) We could have up to $22.5 million in cap space, which would give us room for a max free agent if we renounced Olynyk. But renouncing Olynyk is still sub-optimal, and it was definitely much easier to imagine having room for a max free agent and keeping Olynyk just a week ago.