With a glut of television money about to hit the league, free agents are headed for a windfall this offseason and next.
With one game separating the NBA from crowning its champion and the official start of the offseason, it appears teams will have a little bit of extra cash to spend on free agency in the coming year. It’s going to be even more bonkers a year from now.
According to Shams Charania of The Vertical, the salary cap for the 2016-17 season will be roughly $2 million higher than initially expected.
Vertical Sources: NBA has informed its teams that the projected salary cap will rise to $94M for 2016-'17 season. Higher than expected $92M.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 17, 2016
Why the extra spending cash? TV money, of course. The NBA’s TV deal with ESPN and Turner Broadcasting pays the league a total of $24 billion over the next 9 years. The salary cap, as explained by The Sporting News, is impacted by the basketball-generated income and altered accordingly. The salary cap in the NBA could reach over $107 million for the 2017-18 season, which means free agents should be looking to record some massive deals two summers from now. Basically, if you are an NBA player with an opt-out clause, you might want to hold on for one more year. The money will be plentiful in two more seasons if you can hold on for one more season.
In short, good news for free agents like Kevin Durant and Roy Hibbert entering the market this summer, but really fantastic news for potential free agents to be next summer like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook, just to name a few. The 2017 summer could be one of the wildest free agent signing periods we have seen in any sport in a long time. Throw in the push by the players union to have the NBA redefine what a max contract is, and ohhhhhh my.
We better get prepared now, because the buzz surrounding the 2017 free agent carousel should be about ready to start spinning early next week, with a full season still to play.
