With the salary cap increasing significantly, how will this affect the Denver Nuggets?
Everyone knew the salary cap was going up this summer, the only question was by how much. Well, now we have our answer as reports came out Friday that the cap would be increasing to $94 million, up from the $70 million cap that was in place in 2015-16.
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
The Denver Post wrote an article outlining the Denver Nuggets‘ financial situation heading into this offseason, taking into account all of Denver’s current contracts along with draft pick placeholders for their three first-round picks. But it was written with the assumption that the 2016-17 cap would be $92 million rather than $94 million. It’s only a slight difference, but it could have big implications for Denver.
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The article mentions that, under the estimated $92 million cap, the Nuggets would have $19.4 million in cap space, which will likely go up to $24.1 million assuming they renounce the rights to free agents D.J. Augustin and Mike Miller. But with the cap going higher than expected, Denver will start with $21.4 million in cap space that will likely increase to $26.1 million.
The Nuggets aren’t known for going after big-time free agents and signing them to max contracts, but what this extra bump in cap space does is at least make that possible. Originally, Denver only would’ve been able to offer max contracts to Tier One free agents, i.e. players with 0-6 years of NBA experience. Bradley Beal and Harrison Barnes are two players who fall into that category. The max money that can be offered to Tier One free agents is $22 million per year.
But now, Denver has the flexibility to get to Tier Two free agents (players with 7-9 years of experience) as well. Maxing out any player in that category would cost $25.9 million per year which, thanks to the unexpected extra bump in salary cap, is just within the Nuggets’ budget of $26.1 million. Tier 2 free agents include the likes of Kevin Durant, Al Horford, and DeMar DeRozan.
Is it likely the Nuggets blow all their money for any of those guys? Actually, to go a step further, is it likely any of those players will even consider Denver a reasonable destination when multiple teams will be offering them max contracts? No, it is not. But it’s nice to know the Nuggets have the money to get a major move done if the right one comes along.
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With the draft coming up along with the extra cap space, the Nuggets could have a fairly different looking team come next season. This is certainly good news for fans who aren’t planning on relying on guys like Jakarr Sampson and Axel Toupane to get their team back to the playoffs.