The Raptors look to be a beneficiary of the league’s salary cap set to rise to $70M for the upcoming season. Initially, the cap was expected to be $67M, but the jump to $70M has one major effect: max contracts are now bigger because those are based on a percentage of the cap. Secondly, they’re giving teams who were projected to be above to near the cap (like the Raptors) extra breathing room. The Raptors will likely sign Bismack Biyombo using the “mini” mid-level exception, meaning that his $2.8M first year salary wouldn’t count against the cap. This would free up about $5M worth of money for Masai Ujiri to spend, without resorting to trades.
Given the free-agent pool that’s out there (discussed here and here recently), offering a $5M deal isn’t nothing, and certainly lends more flexibility to Ujiri as he tries to round off his roster.
Check out Basketball Insiders for more detail, as currently they appear to have the best numbers (at least until Sham Sports get their act together).
Blake will have a real analysis of this thing tomorrow.
Another winner from higher cap would be the Raptors, who could still have $5 million in space if Bismack Biyombo takes room exception.
— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) July 9, 2015
