By Luke Adams | at July 21, 2026 10:51 am
The second tax apron has been one of the most popular talking points this summer among NBA fans, players, and other individuals around the league, with Knicks owner James Dolan opening the offseason by promising that his championship team wouldn’t be surpassing the second-apron threshold, while National Basketball Players Association executive director David Kelly recently referred to the apron as “not good” for fans or players and made it clear that the players’ union is prioritizing eliminating or reworking it.
The second tax apron is set annually at roughly 134.4% of the salary cap, and a team whose salary is above that line is prohibited from using any portion of the mid-level exception, aggregating player salaries in a trade, sending out cash in a trade, or taking on salary by using a signed-and-traded player for matching purposes.
The second apron has taken the blame for a wide variety of roster moves this offseason, including the Celtics trading away All-NBA second-teamer Jaylen Brown, the Knicks losing key reserve center Mitchell Robinson in free agency, and the Thunder parting ways with three productive rotation players, Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins.
But is the second apron actually responsible for drastically changing the way that NBA teams build and maintain their rosters, or is its impact being overstated?
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