The Boston Celtics can thank the Cleveland Cavaliers not only for eliminating them in the Eastern Conference finals, but also perhaps for making life a little more difficult this offseason.
The NBA reportedly notified teams Wednesday that the projected salary cap for the 2017-18 season will be $99 million, which is about a $5 million increase from last season but still $2 million lower than what the league estimated in April. The luxury tax projection reportedly has been lowered from $121 million to $119 million.
This could impact some teams, like the Celtics, who are looking to sign free agents once the negotiating period begins July 1. While $2 million doesn’t seem like a lot given the current state of NBA contracts, the drop still could force certain teams to do a little more maneuvering to clear cap space, especially if they intend to pursue a free agent positioned to land a maximum contract. The Celtics, of course, fall into that category, with players such as Gordon Hayward and Blake Griffin possibly on their radar.
Now, this development doesn’t exactly prevent Boston from acquiring either of those players or another star making big bucks — the price of max contracts will drop, too, given that they’re determined by the cap — and the Celtics always were going to need to make roster moves to clear space, whether by renouncing rights to all of their current free agents or by getting rid of certain young players. It just makes more work for Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge and Co., perhaps by requiring that Boston trade away an established veteran in conjunction with its free-agent pursuits.
So what does this have to do with the Cavaliers? Well, the drop in projected salary cap apparently was caused by the number of playoff games being fewer than expected. The biggest reason for that, of course, was the dominance of the Cavs and the Golden State Warriors leading up to their much-anticipated NBA Finals clash, which also lasted just five games.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
