The Spurs are heading into the offseason with 11 players and about $37 million in cap space if they drop all free agent cap restrictions. They can generate a maximum of $43 million in the space, but that would require waiving the $7.7 million unsecured salary. Zack Collins. However, this seems unlikely After the endorsement Collins received at the end of the season From the technical director Gregg Popovich.
Tottenham have three players they can make qualifying offers for and offer restricted free agents: Romeo LangfordAnd Three JonesAnd Sandro Mamoklashvili. Of those three, Langford was the least likely to receive one since the bid amount of $6.9 million would cut into their cap space if he accepted it. Jones has a qualifying offer of $5.2m but Tottenham could rescind him after they have likely reached a verbal contract agreement with him in free agency. Such a maneuver would reduce his hold to the veteran minimum and give San Antonio an additional $3 million in cap space.
As in previous seasons, Spurs look likely to prioritize their cap space in ways that help speed up the rebuilding process. This will largely involve participating in trades where they acquire draft equity with unwanted contracts attached. They can sign role players to evaluate contracts that could potentially move later as they did with Doug McDermott. If they want to offer a large portion of their space to a talented player, it would make sense to pursue one of the best young restricted agents such as Cameron Johnson or Austin Reeves.
It should be noted that while the new CBA will not greatly affect them in the near future, it could affect their use of cap space. The Spurs entered the 2022-23 season with a turnover of $27 million in cap space, putting them $14.6 million short of the minimum salary. They didn’t end up using much of their cap space at all before the end of the season and ended up finishing underground. The new CBA has new procedures that will likely prevent teams like Tottenham from rolling onto that cap space or even finishing under the floor again.
Now teams under the salary cap as of the first day of the regular season lose the difference between the cap and floor space. This would have reduced the Spurs’ net worth per season from $27 million to just $12.4 million. Teams below the floor prior to the regular season will also be required to pay teams to the league and will no longer receive a distribution of luxury tax payments. The loss of cap space alone would likely incentivize the Spurs to spend at least $25 million in cap space before the start of the season because that would see them hit the salary floor.