NBA salary cap rises all the way to $70 million, according to report

The NBA salary cap will jump all the way up to $70 million this season, which is even higher than optimistic projections, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski. The luxury tax threshold will be $84.7 million, according to Wojnarowski.

That’s welcome news for a number of teams that need a higher salary cap to be able to execute a number of their agreed-upon transactions comfortably. The San Antonio Spurs, in particular, now have more breathing room to officially sign LaMarcus Aldridge and fit free agents Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green in without going over the cap.

Initial estimates projected a cap number of around $67.1 million, but the league reportedly told teams to prepare for a jump as large as $2 million before the negotiation period began on July 1. As it turned out, even that was conservative. The league conducts an official audit every year for the first week of free agency to come up with the official number and $70 million is the figure that occurred. In the meantime, nearly every key free agent has reportedly agreed to a deal during the period known as the moratorium.

The league’s audit also formalized the maximum salaries as follows:

And the various salary-cap exceptions as follows:

That means that Aldridge will make just under $19.7 million next year.

In addition, two teams -- the Orlando Magic and Denver Nuggets -- failed to meet the minimum 90 percent payroll last season. They will pay their players the difference. The league in general spent less than the 50.39 percent of basketball-related income the players are supposed to receive, so it must make a $57.3 million shortfall payment to the NBA Players Association.

The cap is expected to make a huge jump to over $90 million in 2016-17 after the league’s new TV deal kicks in.