NBA Salary Cap 2026-27: Tax Line, First Apron and Second Apron Explained, With Every Dollar Figure

For the 2026-27 NBA season, the salary cap is $164.961 million, the luxury tax line is $200.428 million, the first apron is $209.015 million and the second apron is $221.686 million, per the NBA’s official announcement. The minimum team salary is $148.465 million. These are the final figures as announced June 30, 2026, not projections, and they stay fixed through the season, so they are accurate as of Nov. 10, 2026.

The 2026-27 figures

The league said the cap and tax level took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on July 1, 2026, per NBA.com. The same release listed the minimum team salary and both aprons.

The 2026-27 column is from the NBA’s release. The 2025-26 column is from Hoops Rumors’ hard-cap breakdown and minimum salary floor explainer. By our arithmetic, every line rose about 6.7%: the cap is up $10.314 million, and the second apron is up $13.862 million. Front Office Sports reported in July 2025 that the league had projected a 2026-27 cap near $165 million, about 7% above 2025-26, and the final number landed there.

How far apart the lines sit

Teams can exceed the cap in many ways, such as re-signing their own players, so the cap is not a ceiling. By our arithmetic, the tax line is $35.467 million above the cap, the first apron is $8.587 million above the tax line, and the second apron is another $12.671 million above that. From the cap to the second apron is $56.725 million.

The lines also track fixed shares of the cap. TheScore put the tax line near 121.5% of the cap, the first apron at roughly 126.7% and the second at roughly 134.4% when it explained the 2023 labor deal. By our arithmetic the 2026-27 figures work out to 121.5%, 126.7% and 134.4%, so the structure held.

The floor and the tax line

The minimum team salary works as a floor. Hoops Rumors explains that clubs must spend at least 90% of the cap, and by our arithmetic 90% of $164.961 million is $148.465 million, matching the league’s number. A team below the floor on opening night has a cap hold added to reach it, loses its share of the end-of-season tax payout, and sends the shortfall to the league, which redirects it to players, per Hoops Rumors.

The tax line is where a team starts paying tax. CBS Sports says the penalty grows the further a team goes over, and that a repeater rate that is “substantially higher” applies to teams over the line in at least three of the previous four seasons. TheScore reported that half of tax money goes to teams that did not pay it. We did not confirm the exact dollar rates, so we leave them out.

What the first apron restricts

According to CBS Sports and theScore, a team above the first apron:

• cannot take back more salary in a trade than it sends out;
• cannot use the non-taxpayer mid-level exception or the bi-annual exception, or acquire a player by sign-and-trade;
• cannot sign a bought-out player whose previous salary was above the non-taxpayer mid-level, which the NBA set at $15.044 million for 2026-27, per NBA.com;
• cannot use a trade exception created in the prior season.

Hoops Rumors’ hard-cap glossary adds that certain otherwise permitted moves can trigger a hard cap at the first apron, which keeps a team’s payroll from going above it for the rest of the league year.

What the second apron restricts

The second apron adds rules on top of the first-apron ones. Per theScore, a team above it cannot use the mid-level exception, cannot aggregate multiple outgoing player salaries to acquire a player whose salary requires combining those contracts, cannot sign-and-trade its own players to acquire others, and cannot send out cash in trades. Per Hoops Rumors, certain otherwise permitted transactions can trigger a hard cap at the second apron, which is $221.686 million this season, preventing a team from exceeding that limit during the league year. Teams already above the apron cannot use the restricted transactions.

There is also a draft penalty. A team above the second apron at the end of the regular season has a future first-round pick frozen, so it cannot be traded. Per CBS Sports, if the team is above the line in at least two of the next four seasons, the pick drops to No. 30, and if it is below in at least three of four, the pick is freed.

Hard-cap status can change

Team payrolls and hard-cap status can change through trades and signings. The July 8 projections cited in earlier reporting are historical estimates, not a verified list of teams currently hard-capped in November 2026.

Caveats

We did not verify the luxury tax rate schedule, so no rates appear here. Sources count the frozen pick as seven years out (theScore) or eight (CBS), so we do not state a year. The restriction lists come from news outlets summarizing the labor agreement, not the agreement text, which we could not open.