Since Kyle Lowry could negotiate his departure from the Hornets, it must be remembered that the new collective agreement (CBA) severely penalizes teams which far exceed the “luxury tax” when they wish to recover a “free agent”. The first punishment is that they are now deprived of “mid-level exception” which allows each summer to sign good free agents with an envelope of around twelve million dollars.
The second sanction is that during the season, they can no longer position themselves on a cut player who received more than the “mid-level exception”. This is precisely the case for Kyle Lowry, who could be cut in a few weeks via a buyout. Transferred to the Hornets, the former Heat leader receives $29.6 million this season, and seven franchises will therefore not be able to recover him if he becomes free.
The Knicks, Lakers or Cavaliers interested?
Among these seven franchises in the red, there is the Heat who, in any case, do not have the right to sign a former player, transferred, then cut. But also the Warriors, the Clippers, the Celtics, the Suns, the Bucks and the Nuggets. Unsurprisingly, we only find franchises that openly aim for the title.
Which means that if Kyle Lowry is cut, and he wants to play for a title contender, his choices will be limited. But we imagine that the Knicks, the Lakers, the Cavaliers or even the Wolves would not be against recovering an experienced leader. And vengeful.
Mid-level exception : envelope of approximately 12.5 million dollars available each year to recruit all NBA franchises which do not pay luxury tax. They can use it on one or more players. A team that has to pay the luxury tax only has 6.5 million. From 2023/24, if a team significantly exceeds the high salary cap bar (by more than $17.5 million), it loses its “mid-level exception”.
Luxury tax : in the NBA, the salary cap is not strict, and the NBA authorizes the richest franchises to exceed the threshold set with a margin of tolerance of around 20%. In this case, next year, franchises could normally have spent up to $124 million. Then, for each dollar spent above this ceiling, franchises must pay the “luxury tax” to the NBA. A kind of tax that can be very expensive, and candidates for the title generally pay tens of millions of dollars each year. A sum then returned to franchises, good students, who have not paid the “luxury tax”
