How

[u/Substantial_Life_989]

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/cap/_/year/2026/sort/cap_total

I don’t get it, I think about our team and no one has a max contract. Most of our players are on “team-friendly deals” Our best players are underpaid. Our owner is cheap, So how do we have the least amount of cap space in the whole league?

[u/not-a-potato-head]

Because that number includes $55m in cap holds for Kuminga and Vincent, neither of whom are on the roster

[u/Substantial_Life_989 → u/not-a-potato-head]

Yea, I get that, but like  have to assume that other teams have cap holds still on the books too.  *this is not me asking the question. I mean I posted the website I can look it up. This is me being surprised by it all. 

[u/red2play → u/Substantial_Life_989]

None near what Atlanta has now that the Cav's signed Harden. The only other team is the Wizards. The Cavs did have a 47M cap hold for Harden but he resigned for less.

[u/PhilosophyFair9062]

We have a couple of "overpay" 1 year deals that come off the books next season. CJ, Landale, Hield, Dort, Gueye, Nembhard all coming off the books without another extension. Over 60m in cap space freed for next season.

[u/Calm_Comparison_6129 → u/PhilosophyFair9062]

Yep. Hawks are in a great spot cap-wise.

[u/Substantial_Life_989 → u/Calm_Comparison_6129]

If you click on the link you can toggle to next season. We have -50Million in cap space next season. 

[u/technicolorsound → u/Substantial_Life_989]

Almost 80m-ish in cap holds that year. Click on the team to see what’s going on. Don’t just look at the number

[u/Substantial_Life_989 → u/technicolorsound]

It’s just jarring to see the number. 

[u/cheemydee5]

We do have 18 guys on the roster

[u/rockhoward → u/cheemydee5]

There are 17 players with full contracts although one of them has no guaranteed money at this juncture. That number does not include the 3 2-way contracts.

By the beginning of the season the team must be trimmed to 15 full contracts plus the 3 2-way contracts.

[u/PeasePorridge9dOld]

Those financial sheets can be tricky to read. They can report an exact number for 2 different team but that number can be wildly different for each.

Since we’re close to the end of FA, the more important number to look at is the Active column. That tells you the amount of number current,y in contracts for next season. We are 16th on that list.

Also, we have 10 players making between $9M and $30M. For comparison, DEN has 5. That isn’t necessarily a good thing.

[u/Substantial_Life_989 → u/PeasePorridge9dOld]

That’s fair, offseason is not over. 

[u/ThatDudeWay]

Called depth. Weird crazy concept.

[u/Substantial_Life_989 → u/ThatDudeWay]

Looking around at other teams, our depth is going to win us more games than people are realizing. Especially if Kingston Flemmings is actually good as a rookie. 

[u/Ice2jc]

Because Onsi didn’t like our options for getting a guy on a max contract or giving a guy a max contact. 

We can absolutely trade for a guy on a max contract at the deadline because of the unusual amount of 1 year deals that we have. 

And if we don’t trade for a max contract guy at the deadline we are in line to have basically more cap space than anybody next summer.

We are locked and loaded ready to pounce on a max guy, I promise.

[u/Patekchrono917 → u/Ice2jc]

Other teams are going to be asking about Nickeil, Onyeka, and Dyson way before they give a damn about these expiring deals. Those expirings won’t be anything but fillers if there’s a big move for the hawks. 

[u/Ice2jc → u/Patekchrono917]

Sure I think it’s reasonable to think that if we got a legit star #1 option or one of the best centers in the league in a trade we’d probably have to give 1 of those guys up along with multiple FRP’s.  As of right now I’d guess that the lesser pick of MIl/NO in 2027 is probably our most desirable asset that is actually gettable. 

There is some redundancy with Zuby/OO and OO would be less of a priority if we bring in a stretch big.  There is some redundancy with Dyson/Lu/Kingston.  I’d try to keep NAW because of his deal. 

[u/ViperStrikes123 → u/Ice2jc]

We don’t have anything to trade for that type of player

[u/Ice2jc → u/ViperStrikes123]

Yes we do lmao we have draft picks in every year from here on out 

[u/Wavegod-1]

Money coming off the books next season, which has been said by everyone here and across the league as they expect the Hawks to be major players.

[u/ViperStrikes123]

We sign players like Jock Landale and think it’s okay to use our money like that but hey it’s all about having cap flexibility so we can sign waiver quality players!

[u/redditsucksass_ → u/ViperStrikes123]

Yeah wtf why would we sign one of the best backup bigs available for us to a 1 year deal instead of just trading for jokic???

[u/stdfan]

I mean the data is right there.