2016 Off-Season vs. 2017 Off-Season: Combined Money Available To Spend On Free Agents For All 30 Teams

[sportscrazy]

Is there any where I could see the comparison of how much money was spent on free agents as a whole in 2016 versus a projected available LEAGUE-WIDE TOTAL of available free agent spending money in 2017? I would assume how much money is available in total pot is more important for players to get bigger contracts than the salary cap itself. Am I right in thinking, even if the salary cap is higher, but there's less combined cap space for the league to sign free agents with, that player salaries should be less once you get past the top 20 guys getting overpaid?

[BdeRegt]

You could do the math pretty easily as projected cap space numbers are readily available. The issue that you would run into in this scenario is that the NBA has a soft cap so cap space doesn't show the total number of money available. For instance, Curry is going to get a max contract that doesn't use any cap space as he will sign with his Bird rights after Durant and other players are signed using all the Warriors cap space. You will see this throughout the league with teams re-signing players without cap space. For example, I believe Ibaka will get paid more than he would on the open market because the Raptors can't risk losing him as no way to replace him.

In summary, you can do a comparison but it is basically impossible to actually say how much money will be spent in the off season with precision but can do a general idea. You can get closer by adding in estimated bird right contracts .