The NBA is capping the spending of high-payroll teams
Wojnarowski notes that the league’s highest-spending teams, like the Warriors and Clippers, won’t be able to continue their luxury tax spending while still adding talent to the roster.
The league plans to curb the spending by implementing a second salary cap apron, which begins $17.5 million over the tax line. The teams that reach that tax mark will no longer have access to the taxpayer mid-level exception in free agency.
This rule would have kept the Warriors from signing Donte DiVincenzo, the Bucks from signing Joe Ingles, the Celtics from signing Danilo Gallinari and the Clippers from signing John Wall.
This rule will be eased into the salary cap over a number of years and will not be instantaneous. This rule will also help lower and middle spending teams across the league have a better chance of adding more talent to their teams in free agency.