What is hard cap?
A hard cap is a payroll ceiling a team cannot exceed for the rest of the league year, for any reason. The NBA has no universal hard cap, but certain moves impose one at the first or second apron.
How it works
The NBA cap is soft: exceptions let teams go over it. A hard cap is triggered by the team’s own transactions. Once triggered, payroll cannot pass that apron until the league year ends on June 30.
For 2026-27, the first-apron hard cap ($209,015,000) applies to a team that acquires a player by sign-and-trade, uses more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level, uses the bi-annual exception, takes back more than 100% of outgoing salary in a trade, or signs a waived player whose prior salary exceeded $15,044,000.
The second-apron hard cap ($221,686,000) applies to a team that uses any portion of the mid-level, aggregates salaries in a trade, sends out cash in a trade, or uses a signed-and-traded player to take back salary.
The numbers
2026-27
2026-27
Prior salary above this
An example
Hoops Rumors tracks the teams that triggered hard caps each summer. A team that signed a player with the taxpayer mid-level, for instance, is capped at the second apron for the season.
What it means for a player
If a team is hard-capped, a mid-season buyout signing, a trade or even a minimum contract can be blocked by a few hundred thousand dollars.
Sources
- Hoops Rumors: NBA teams with hard caps for 2026/27
- Hoops Rumors: Salary cap, tax line set for 2026/27
Reviewed September 26, 2026 by McKinley Malbrough III, J.D., MS-HRM, certified WNBA player agent and former certified NBA agent. Figures are refreshed each July. General information, not legal, tax or financial advice.