Milwaukee Bucks’ Salary Cap Maneuvers Following Damian Lillard’s Waiver

The Milwaukee Bucks have made significant moves in their roster management. They waived veteran Damian Lillard after reaching an agreement to sign center Myles Turner to a four-year, $107 million contract.

Since Lillard still had two years and $113 million remaining on his contract, the Bucks plan to use a stretch provision to spread his remaining salary cap hit across the next five seasons. This approach represents the largest waiver and stretch in NBA history, according to analyst Bobby Marks.

The NBA’s stretch provision allows teams to waive a player and distribute their remaining salary cap charge over multiple future seasons, providing greater flexibility with the team’s salary cap. The remaining cap hit is divided based on a formula: the number of years left on the player’s contract, multiplied by two, plus one. Since Lillard had two years remaining, his $113 million cap hit will be allocated over five seasons.

The 2023 NBA-NBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement specifies that a team cannot stretch a waived player’s salary if the total salary cap impact of all waived players exceeds 15% of the Salary Cap in any given year.