How the NBA Second Apron Works: Trade Limits, the Pick Freeze and the Tax

The NBA has three payroll lines above the salary cap: the luxury tax, the first apron and the second apron. For 2026-27 they sit at $200.428 million, $209.015 million and $221.686 million. The tax is a bill. The aprons are rules about what a team can do.

The first apron already takes away a lot: the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, the bi-annual exception, acquiring a player in a sign-and-trade and taking back more salary than you send out in a trade. The second apron adds four more: no aggregating salaries in a trade, no cash in trades, no taxpayer mid-level exception, and a frozen first-round pick seven years out.

None of those stops a team from re-signing its own players with Bird rights. The second apron is built to stop teams from adding, which is why it hits a team still building much harder than one keeping a finished roster.

The levels. Article VII, Section 2(e) of the CBA sets the First Apron Level and the Second Apron Level. For 2026-27 the NBA set them at $209.015 million and $221.686 million, with the tax level at $200.428 million.

The hard cap triggers. The CBA's Transaction Restrictions Table lists moves that hard-cap a team at an apron. Using the bi-annual exception, the non-taxpayer mid-level, acquiring a player by sign-and-trade, or an expanded traded player exception caps a team at the first apron. Aggregating salaries in a trade, sending cash in a trade, using an exception created by a sign-and-trade, or signing with the taxpayer mid-level caps it at the second apron. A team that's already above the line can't make those moves.

Salary matching. Above the first apron, the $250,000 cushion in trade matching goes to zero, so a team can take back no more than 100% of the salary it sends out (Section 6(j)).

The pick freeze. Under Section 2(f), a team is a "Second Apron Team" for a season if its salary is above the second apron at the start of its last regular-season game. Its first-round pick in the draft after the seventh following season becomes untradable. For 2026-27, that's the 2034 first. If a team is a Second Apron Team in two of the next four seasons, that pick moves to the end of the first round.

The tax. The apron and the tax are separate. A team pays tax on every dollar over the tax line, in brackets ($6.064 million each in 2026-27). Standard rates are $1.00, $1.25, $3.50 and $4.75 per dollar, then 50 cents more per bracket. A team that paid tax in three of the previous four seasons is a repeater and pays $3.00, $3.25, $5.50 and $6.75, then 50 cents more.

"The second apron bans taking back salary and sign-and-trades." Those start at the first apron. A team between the aprons already lives with them.

"You can't re-sign your own players." You can. Bird rights still work above the second apron. That's why the apron mostly punishes teams trying to add talent.

"The second apron makes you a repeater." Repeater status comes from paying the tax, not from crossing an apron. A team just under the second apron that pays tax in three of four years becomes a repeater too.

"The pick is gone." The frozen pick is still yours. You make it. You just can't trade it, unless the two-of-four rule moves it to 30th.

Only the NBA uses aprons. The WNBA has a hard cap. The NFL and NHL use hard caps with no tax. MLB has a Competitive Balance Tax with surcharges and draft-pick penalties for big spenders, but no apron-style transaction bans.

Watch the start of each team's last regular-season game, when Second Apron Team status is fixed. Watch trade-deadline deals where a team aggregates salary while it's still under the line. And watch teams with set cores that choose to pay rather than break up a winner. That's the test of whether the apron is a rule or just a price.