What is stretch provision?
The stretch provision lets an NBA team waive a player and spread his remaining guaranteed salary over twice the remaining contract years plus one, lowering each season’s cap charge.
How it works
The player is still paid everything he is owed. What changes is how the money counts on the team’s cap: smaller charges over more seasons.
Two years left becomes five years of charges; one year left becomes three. The team trades a bigger cap hit now for dead money later.
Teams use it to create cap room or to duck under the tax or an apron, accepting that the stretched money will sit on their books after the player is gone.
The numbers
Remaining years
Of charges
Only timing moves
An example
A team owes a waived guard $20 million over two more seasons. Stretched, the cap charge becomes $4 million a year for five seasons, freeing room now.
What it means for a player
Being stretched does not cost you money, but it frees you to sign elsewhere. Check how the new contract interacts with the payments you are still receiving.
Sources
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.