Teams generally prefer to stay under the NBA's luxury tax threshold ($150,267,000 for 2022-23) unless they're a championship contender. Some may have begun rebuilding (or aren't as good as they had hoped) but still have large contracts on the books that will soon expire. As the February 9 trade deadline nears, some franchises will [Read More]

When can NBA players extend their contracts, and for how much? As with most questions about the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement, the answer is "it depends." Is the player a first-round pick coming off their first contract? How long was the initial agreement? How many years are left on the deal? Did the player [Read More]

Bird Rights are a vital team-building component, enabling NBA franchises to re-sign players for larger and larger salaries. Named after Hall-of-Fame forward Larry Bird, Bird Rights come in three flavors based on how many consecutive seasons a player stays with the same team (in most cases, rights transfer with the player via trade). Non-Bird [Read More]

Fans love to play general manager, willing their team to a championship via a flurry of fake trades. But not every player is trade eligible—an understandable area of confusion for fans, especially after a player receives a contract extension. The following cheat sheet to help clean that up! When Can Players Be Traded, In [Read More]

Unlike the NFL, which has a hard cap or spending limit, the NBA has a soft cap. Teams in the NBA can carry payrolls that go above the salary cap. For example, 27 of 30 are currently over the NBA's $123.7 million cap for the 2022-23 season. Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the NBA [Read More]