What is considered the NBA "Middle Class" Player and his expected?

[Vae Victus]

With all the discussion about how the 2nd Apron CBA era is massively impacting salaries on players in the middle tiers. Now i kinda wonder what people consider as the "middle class/avg" player.

We all know that the NBA is basically the top 450-500 players in the world, counting the players cycling through the GLeague, 2Ways, 10days, overseas draft stashes etc. 15 players per roster, but realistically over the course of the regular season you'd see a maximum rotation of 10 get the lion's share of mins, and the worst 3 of the roster are usually in street clothes and generally not playable in serious games. So is the "middle class/avg" player the 7-8th best player on the roster, or should it be the 5-6th best player of the rotation that actually plays (these guys typically get at least 26 mins a game).

The typical way we'd consider the "average middle class player" salary is usually done by a simple avg and the rising MLE can be considered a good barometer for the most part of what the "average player salary" should be. However, i now feel that the full NTMLE is about right for the 5-6th player on the team but way too much for the 7-8th player. I know max and rookie scale contracts will throw numbers off, as both of these factors severely limit a player's earning potential, but its been around long enough that its already factored in.

Ideal team construction should basically be 2 worthy max contracts given to 2 all star/superstar caliber players with complimentary skillsets (1 wing + 1 versatile big, ideally both are 2way stars), that takes up anywhere between 50-70% of the salary, so lets avg it out and say 60%. That means you have 40% of your remaining salary cap to fill up the roster, sure you can go past the cap and ruthlessly stay under the 1st and/or 2nd aprons, that'll def give you more wiggle room when youve got a good squad together, but before you're at that competitive stage you need to have a worthwhile roster to pay luxury taxes on.

Now that we see that the 3rd-10th rotation players (the last 5 dudes are typically vet mins, dirt cheap prospects so typically doesnt affect the cap much) essentially have to share the remaining 40% of the cap + whatever the team is willing to go beyond the cap but under the Aprons. Really restricts what teams can pay their players. Now normally in the recent past paying your 3rd/4th best players deals in the 20-30mil range didnt seem so unreasonable, its how we saw CJ McCollum and Jordan Poole get their sizable deals. Nowadays you simply cant do that, as those are cap killing contracts for non true #1/2 option level star players. Like paying Austin Reaves 30mil a year, which so many see as a no brainer move, just doesnt seem like a good idea to me. He's not good enough to be a #2, he doesnt provide defense or size (paying a Prime Aaron Gordon otoh can work well, especially when complimenting the slow footed ground bound SuperDuperstar Joker). A player of Reaves level in the current CBA reality should be making 15-20mil TOPS, he just doesnt provide enough other tools to justify going too far past the NTMLE. So the NTMLE is now around 15mil, is Austin Reaves merely an avg player or should he be considered something more and thus his salary should show that?

What is the average NBA player and their salary nowadays?

[meekrab]

So, the luxury tax line is 121.499% of the cap these days, I haven't tracked what it was in the past.

If you divide your 121.5% by 15 you get 8.1, or roughly 12.5 million dollars in 25-26 which is a bit less than the 'standard' MLE. Anybody making more than this should be either a top of the lottery rookie contract or a very solid contributor.