what’s the “soft cap”. The cap that clubs are only allowed to go over via trades? And the hard cap being the luxury tax number?

Or something completely different

...has a soft cap that is the number above which exceptions must be used to bring a player in/re-sign him. The hard cap is, as you say, the luxury tax number and teams get dinged with a tax above that amount for a dollar in/dollar out. Teams cannot go over the cap with trades, only exceptions. You can read about exceptions here:

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm

Here are the exceptions:

Bird
Early Bird
Non-Bird
MLE
Bi-annual
Rookie
Traded
Minimum
Disabled

There is a nice chart at that site that explains how each exception can be used.

In plain English, the cap projection for next year is 58.5. The luxury mark will be around 70. In order for the team to operate above 58.5, they will have to exercise exceptions.

I think it’s that exact link if read in a bit (I think it was also you that posted it on Britt’s place) but anyway, it’s coming back to me now ^^

The NBA really doesn’t have any hard cap, I’ve always thought of it like the NFL where teams can’t go over for any reason. NBA teams can go over the luxury tax if they want, the just have to pay extra. But the way you put it does make it analogous to the NFL’s hard cap. I hadn’t thought of it like that before, good call.

And teams can technically go increase salary with trades if they’re over the salary cap. There’s a bit of room built into salary matching for teams involved in a trade. Teams are able to take back up to 125% of the salary they send out, plus $100,000. When using a trade exception the buffer is just $100,000.

Now everyone get off your computer and enjoy a beautiful holiday outside.