Salary matching

Salary matching is the rule that keeps trades roughly even. A team over the cap can't just take on a big contract: the salary it sends out sets a ceiling on the salary it can bring back. Taking back less is always fine, so the real question is the most you can take back, and that depends on how much you send out.

For a team over the cap but below the first apron, that ceiling comes in three brackets:

• Send out up to $8.5M: take back up to 200% of it, plus $250K.
• Send out $8.5M to $33.1M: take back that salary plus about $8.5M, a buffer that grows with the cap each year.
• Send out more than $33.1M: take back up to 125% of it, plus $250K.

In a straight one-for-one, the team sending the smaller contract is the one to watch. It is the side taking back more than it gives, so its salary sets the limit; the other side, taking back less, always fits.

Two more cases sit outside the brackets. A team under the cap skips the band entirely and just fits the incoming salary into its cap room. A team at or above the first apron gets the tightest rule of all: it can't take back a dollar more than it sends out, which is a big reason expensive rosters are so hard to reshape.