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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 25: Commissioner Adam Silver poses with 2025 NBA Draft Prospects prior to … More the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 25, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and\/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Sarah Stier\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
As the NBA’s salary cap projections for the 2026-2027 season has been lowered, with the 10% increase now projected as just a 7% increase, it raises questions in regards to the ripple effect such an event would cause.<\/p>\n
One element that could be influenced by the change is the value of draft picks.<\/p>\n
Set salaries<\/p>\n
Rookie contracts have been set for decades, at a significantly lower price tag than established contracts, and the main key is the long-term security, particularly among first-round selections, where teams have four years of team control.<\/p>\n
In a financial situation, where teams will now have less flexibility, the value of draft picks could be set at a premium, especially by teams closing in on the first or second apron.<\/p>\n
It makes sense, given the aforementioned longevity of the contracts.<\/p>\n
Even Cooper Flagg, the top pick of the 2025 NBA Draft, is only making 8.9% of the salary cap in his first year, a percentage that doesn’t dramatically change over the course of four years.<\/p>\n
There is a reasonable chance that Flagg, viewed as a generational talent, is going to make an All-Star team, perhaps several, during that four-year span, which means the Mavericks, by all intents and purposes, would have one of the best contracts on their hand.<\/p>\n
That’s the type of value teams would love to acquire, and that’s doable even without the element of a generational player.<\/p>\n
Say a team picks at 15th, right in the middle of the first round, as the Oklahoma City Thunder did in the draft last month.<\/p>\n
They picked Thomas Sorber, who will earn just 3.0% of the salary cap this season, and again, that percentage won’t dramatically change during his initial contract.<\/p>\n
If teams get even a backup level played at that spot, that’s easily a win at just three percent of the cap, meaning value isn’t exclusively tied to players nearing stardom.<\/p>\n
Major value<\/p>\n
Due to the above, teams willing to fork over picks next summer could ask for the moon in return. The argument they can make is fairly simple.<\/p>\n
“The cap didn’t jump the full 10% as expected, so you have less money to work with. We can help with that.”<\/p>\n
It’s a bargaining tactic, and it’s a genuine benefit for a costly team.<\/p>\n
One scenario that mid-tier teams, selecting in the late lottery stage, should look for is expensive teams giving up future picks, unprotected, in order to help their books immediately.<\/p>\n
If a team nearing the second apron prioritize a cost-controlled asset, the trading team will have every right to ask for a pick with little to no protection as compensation, as they’ll be fully aware of the benefits of having cheap production.<\/p>\n
We’ll see how it all ends up working out, but teams that are significantly below the apron levels, and who aren’t in a rush, could in theory make out like bandits in about 11 months.<\/p>\n
Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com<\/a>, PBPStats<\/a>, Cleaning the Glass<\/a> or Basketball-Reference<\/a>. All salary information via Spotrac<\/a>. All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 25: Commissioner Adam Silver poses with 2025 NBA Draft Prospects prior to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[461,49,48,2597,2695,459,20708,17317,3555,82,20709],"class_list":["post-25531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-nba","tag-nba-salary-cap","tag-nba-draft","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-sports","tag-thomas-sorber"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}