Banking Cap Space
If for some days during the season, a team is under the cap, do they get to bank that amount and be over the cap on other days so long as they don’t go over the cap for the full season?
Answer
Yes, that’s exactly how the salary cap works! The salary cap is a daily calculation based on each day of the season. By virtue of the pro-rating math, space not used can be used later in the season. For example, if a team was $1 million under the cap for the first half of the season, they could be over the cap by $1 million for the second half.
However, the real advantage comes from the fact that a $2 million cap hit player traded halfway through the season will only be on the new team’s cap for $1 million ($2 million x 50% of days). Therefore, if a team is $1 million under the cap halfway through the season, they could add a $2 million cap hit player at that point which only adds $1 million of cap hit through the end of the year.
