Capmath

New Orleans Pelicans

Do the New Orleans Pelicans have cap space in 2026-27?

Season2026-272027-282028-292029-302030-31

No. The Pelicans are $31.3M over the $165.0M salary cap for 2026-27 (projected) on payroll alone, before any holds.
Salary cap
$165.0M
Team cap salary
$207.8M
Cap space
-$42.8M
Free-agent holds
$11.5M

Their cap salary is $207.8M: $196.3M in active contracts, $0K in dead money, and $11.5M in cap holds for their own free agents and unsigned picks. Even renouncing every free-agent hold would leave them $31.3M over, so cap space is not a realistic path this season.

Being over the cap is normal in the NBA. It means the Pelicans build through exceptions instead: their mid-level (if their spending tier allows one), minimum contracts, and Bird rights to re-sign their own players.

The rule behind this

Cap space is how far a team's cap salary sits below the salary cap. It is the most flexible way to add players: cap space can absorb any contract up to its size, with no matching rules.

What is cap space? →What does renouncing a free agent mean? →How do teams build over the cap? →

More Pelicans questions

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Numbers come straight from the live Pelicans cap sheet, recomputed whenever the data updates.