Where every team stands · 2026-27
Trade Radar →Payroll = sum of 2026-27 cap hits on the books in our cap database (built from public contract data, updated daily). Cap $165.0M · tax line $200.4M · first apron $209.0M · second apron $221.7M · minimum team salary $148.5M, as announced by the league.
The rules the machine applies
01Salary matching
How much salary can come back
A team under the cap after the trade simply absorbs incoming salary into its room. A team over the cap has to send salary out to bring salary in, and the allowance depends on what it sends: up to $7.50M out lets it take back 200% plus $250k; between $7.50M and $29.00M out, it can take back the outgoing amount plus $7.50M; above $29.00M out, 125% plus $250k. A team that finishes above the first apron gets none of that cushion: it can take back at most 100% of what it sends.
02The first apron ($209.0M)
No sign-and-trade, no old exceptions, no extra salary back
Above it, a team cannot acquire a player through a sign-and-trade, cannot use a trade exception created in a previous season and cannot take back more salary than it sends. It can still aggregate contracts and still attach cash.
03The second apron ($221.7M)
No aggregation, no cash, a frozen first-rounder
Above it, the restrictions bite: no aggregating two or more salaries to bring back one bigger contract, no cash in trades, no trade exceptions at all, no sign-and-trade acquisitions, no taxpayer mid-level exception, and the team's first-round pick seven years out is frozen (it becomes untradeable, and drops to the end of the round if the team stays above the line).
04Roster and tax
15 contracts at most, and the bill above the tax line
A team can carry at most 15 standard contracts (two-way deals don't count) and must be back to 14 within two weeks of dropping below. The luxury tax is paid on every dollar above $200.4M, in rising bands: $1.50 per dollar for the first $5M over, $1.75 for the next $5M, $2.50, then $3.25, and half a dollar more for each further $5M. Repeater teams pay more; the machine shows the non-repeater bill.
05Draft picks
The Stepien rule and the seven-year freeze
Every pick a team holds, own or acquired, can be sent along with the players, with its protections attached. Two rules apply: the Stepien rule (a team can never be left without a first-round pick in two consecutive future drafts, counting picks it owns and picks it has acquired), and the freeze on the first-round pick seven years out for teams above the second apron. The ledger behind the list is on the draft pick ledger, verified weekly.
06What the machine leaves out
Consent, waiting periods, kickers, proration
Player consent (no-trade clauses, one-year Bird rights), the waiting periods after a signing, trade kickers, unlikely bonuses and mid-season proration. Those change a handful of trades a year; the four rules above kill the rest. When a real trade lands on the Trade Radar, the same engine tells you whether the reported framework is even legal.