How the NBA's Updated Salary Cap Will Impact the Raptors

The NBA's salary cap is coming in less than initially expected and that will have a small impact on the Toronto Raptors this summer

The Toronto Raptors salary cap space is going to be a little lower than expected next season.

The NBA had initially expected the salary cap to sit at $142 million next year, but new projections suggest the number will be $141 million for next season, according to Shams Charania.

The luxury tax threshold is now expected to be $172 million with a first tax apron level at $179 million and a second tax apron at $190 million, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported.

Only the salary cap and luxury tax threshold will impact the Raptors who have $88.7 million allocated to guaranteed salaries for next season. They also have a $12.5 million cap hold for Immanuel Quickley who is certainly going to re-sign with Toronto this summer. That means Toronto could have as much as nearly $40 million in cap space if the organization renounced its rights to all its upcoming free agents except Quickley.

The Raptors could clear up even more cap space if they trade Chris Boucher and Jalen McDaniels for expiring contracts, creating an additional $15.5 million in space. That would give Toronto enough room to sign a max contract player this summer, though considering the pool of players available that seems highly unlikely. The top available players include Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby, both of whom the Raptors traded earlier this year.

Toronto has only once operated as a team with cap space during Masai Ujiri’s tenure with the organization. The Raptors used that space to sign DeMarre Carroll to a multi-year deal. Other than that, though, Toronto has always been above the cap and utilized the mid-level exception to make offseason additions.

It's unclear how the Raptors will operate this summer. If they add long-term money at the trade deadline next month, Toronto will likely sit somewhere between the salary cap and luxury tax threshold once again.