NEWSLETTER
NBA teams received some shocking news roughly 24 hours before free agency.
According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, the league is in line to see an unexpected spike in the salary cap before free agency officially tips off on Thursday night. The number is supposed to come in at around $123.6 million, which is noteably higher than the original $112.4 million estimate.
While the Bulls are not a salary cap team this offseason, they do stand to benefit from the adjustments this will make to a number of other spending tools. For example, this should slightly increase the non-tax-payer mid-level exception, which the Bulls will to be heavily reliant on this summer to add more depth. We should also see an increase in the luxury tax line, slightly shrinking how much the Bulls would have to pay if they decided to step into tax (which they should).
Zach LaVine is also now in line to have his max contract net him a couple extra million. To be clear, this shouldn’t have any impact on the Bulls’ discussions, as it’s simply now the NBA’s price of doing business.
I know this isn’t the juiciest news, but every dollar counts in free agency, and this just set both players and organizations alike up with a little more wiggle room. Now … how will the Bulls use it?
