NBA Free Agency: 4 Reasons Teams Should Stop Spending

The Future May Be Better Than the Present

While NBA coaches, general managers and players are often very focused on the present, teams with salary cap space should be focused on the future.

We have already covered that there is very little talent left to spend the more than $100 million NBA teams have left to spend. Even the eight teams with more than $4 million left might struggle to find players worth spend their cap space on.

Instead, teams can start to plan for the future in five ways:

First, make the current players on your team, those you plan to build around hopefully, happy by giving them an amazing year end bonus based on what is left against the salary floor.

Second, you continue to keep your salary cap space for the following years.

While we can’t predict who will get traded, re-sign or sign extensions (like James Harden just did with the Houston Rockets), it is fair to say there will be more talent available in the next couple years than those we listed above that could be signed this year.

Third, it makes signing your young talent to extensions all the more possible and helps build the foundation of your team.

Even teams with just $4 million left in cap space can be more flexible in trying to lock up their talent long-term if they don’t sign players to multi-year contracts this season just because they have the cap space.

Fourth, it allows your team flexibility mid-season to absorb contracts from other teams. This can allow the team to either bring in a talented player that another team doesn’t want to pay or acquire assets (draft picks, young players) in exchange for taking a contract off another team.

Fifth, it can keep your owner happy. Spending money just to spend money isn’t a business model any business owner likes. Even though owners will have to pay up to the Salary Floor, they won’t be on the hook for future contracts for players who are not worth it.

Next: Will Spending Stop?