How does NBA salary matching work?
In a trade, each over-the-cap team's incoming salary is capped by a formula on its outgoing salary — expanded bands (200% + $250k on small salaries, outgoing + ~$9.1M in the middle, 125% + $250k on big ones) for teams below the first apron, and a strict 100% for teams above it. The middle figure is the CBA's "$7.5M" grown with the cap since 2023-24. Each team in a trade is judged under its own band.
2023 CBA · Art. VII §6(j)(1)(iv)
The 2026-27 matching bands
Why $9,095,709?
The CBA wrote the middle band as outgoing + $7.5M in 2023 dollars, escalating with cap growth (Art. VII §6(j)). With the 2026-27 cap at $164,961,000, that comes to $9,095,709.
Common questions
Does using expanded matching have a cost?
Yes — taking back more salary than you send by using the expanded trade-matching rules hard-caps the team at the first apron for the rest of the season.
What is aggregation?
Combining multiple outgoing contracts into one matching calculation. Second-apron teams can't do it at all, and recently acquired players sometimes can't be aggregated for two months.
See it enforced, not just explained.
Build a trade or signing and the sim rules on it, with the relevant citation when one applies.