Teams get crafty in circumventing salary cap rules

Warriors add even more talent despite spending $200M for Curry alone

NEW YORK — Free agency in the NBA can be so complicated that even teams mess it up sometimes.

The Houston Rockets and Nene had to negotiate two deals because it turned out the first contract they agreed to wouldn’t have been legal in NBA circles.

All the talk about salary caps and luxury taxes is when basketball becomes a business. It’s one of the reasons more and more front offices are being led by former stat analysts instead of former stat stuffers.

So now that free agent signings have commenced, here’s a look at the salary cap, how it’s determined, and how teams get around it:

Question: Why are deals that were done days ago being announced today?

Answer: The NBA has a moratorium period during which teams and players can negotiate and agree to deals, but nothing can be completed until the moratorium ends, which is now the afternoon of July 6. The salary cap used to be computed during the moratorium and announced just before it ended, which was sometimes confusing to teams in trying to negotiate contracts without knowing exactly how much they could spend. The cap is now announced when free agency opens on July 1. Question: How is the salary cap determined? Answer: It’s a formula based on the projected basketball-related income of that year. For the 2017-18 season, the cap has been set at $99.1 million. That’s the highest it’s ever been, though it didn’t take anywhere near the huge leap of a year ago following the extension of the league’s national TV deals. As a result, teams haven’t spent quite as extravagantly — or perhaps foolishly — as last July.

Question: Are there penalties for exceeding the cap?