NEW YORK — Victor Wembanyama signed his five-year extension with the San Antonio Spurs in July believing it was worth $252 million. By Saturday, it was worth more.
The NBA informed all 30 teams this week that its projected salary cap for the 2027-28 season had risen to $176 million, up from the $174 million figure circulated by the league in late June. The adjustment is a routine accounting update delivered months before the number becomes official, but it quietly reshuffled the guaranteed paydays of the two largest rookie extensions in NBA history before either player has taken the court in the 2026-27 season.
Wembanyama’s five-year deal is structured at 25 percent of the salary cap. Under the revised projection, its estimated value increases by approximately $2.9 million, from $252.3 million to roughly $255.2 million.
For Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose four-year supermax is tied to 30 percent of the cap, the same adjustment adds about $3.1 million. His projected deal rises from $272.8 million to approximately $275.9 million.
Neither player renegotiated. The money emerged from the math.
The driver is the $10 billion television rights agreement the NBA secured in 2024, the most lucrative broadcast deal in league history. That contract has been feeding into the salary cap since the 2025-26 season, pushing projected annual cap growth to roughly ten percent a year. The September update the NBA issues each fall reflects new estimates of broadcast revenue and related income that will flow into the cap two years out. Along with the revised $176 million cap figure, league officials told teams the luxury tax threshold for 2027-28 will sit at $213 million, according to Yahoo Sports.
What the update does not change is the second apron. The hard cap ceiling that the current collective bargaining agreement set at $234 million for the 2027-28 season remains in place. Teams above the second apron face severe restrictions on trades, two-way contracts, and mid-level exceptions. The gap between the $213 million luxury tax line and the $234 million second apron now stands at $21 million, determining how much room the wealthiest rosters have to add talent. For front offices already projecting payrolls into the 2027-28 season, each $2 million shift in the cap number ripples through dozens of calculations.
Wembanyama’s decision to sign at 25 percent rather than the 30 percent supermax carries a particular dimension in this context. The choice last summer was framed as a gesture of team-first loyalty, giving San Antonio more cap room to build around its franchise cornerstone. That reasoning holds. But it also means every dollar the league adds to its cap projection enriches Gilgeous-Alexander proportionally more than it enriches Wembanyama. At 30 percent of $176 million, Wembanyama’s first-year salary would open at $52.8 million. At 25 percent, it opens at $44 million. Over a five-year deal with maximum annual raises, the difference between those percentages grows each year. Wembanyama gave San Antonio flexibility; the cost of that flexibility becomes clearer every time the cap number moves.
The salary cap update lands as the NBA manages an unusual cluster of competing priorities heading into October. The federal criminal investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers over the Kawhi Leonard endorsement deals has consumed one ownership group and reset the league’s record for salary punishment. The NBA Board of Governors convened in New York this week to vote on Las Vegas and Seattle expansion franchises, the Europe initiative targeting 2027, and a response to the Clippers situation. Training camps open in less than three weeks.
The $176 million figure will not become official until the summer of 2027, when the NBA conducts the audit that converts projections to actuals. What happens between now and then, including league revenue from in-season tournaments, broadcast overperformance, and arena revenue sharing, will determine whether the number holds or gets revised again. At the moment, every front office in the league is running at least two sets of numbers.
