Trae's salary has been discussed previously in this thread, but not necessarily in terms of the salary cap ramifications.
Re: Tre's salary - projecting out into the future the issue starts when Wemby's Rookie Supermax kicks in, and you get into the 70%+ range for these 3 guys.
If we project the cap table out and make a few assumptions (detailed below), then things look like this:
| Year |
Cap |
Young 35% |
Young 30% |
Wemby |
Devin |
% of Cap Trae35% |
% of Cap Trae30% |
| 2024 |
141.0 |
43.0 |
43.3 |
12.8 |
29.3 |
60.4 |
60.4 |
| 2025 |
155.1 |
46.0 |
46.0 |
13.4 |
27.0 |
55.7 |
55.7 |
| 2026 |
170.6 |
59.7 |
51.2 |
16.9 |
27.0 |
60.7 |
55.7 |
| 2027 |
187.7 |
64.5 |
55.3 |
56.3 |
24.6 |
77.5 |
72.6 |
| 2028 |
206.4 |
69.6 |
59.7 |
60.8 |
27.0 |
76.3 |
71.5 |
| 2029 |
227.1 |
75.2 |
64.5 |
65.7 |
37.8 |
78.7 |
74.0 |
| 2030 |
249.8 |
81.2 |
69.6 |
70.9 |
40.8 |
77.3 |
72.6 |
| 2031 |
274.8 |
44.1 |
44.1 |
76.6 |
44.1 |
60.0 |
60.0 |
Some key assumptions:
- Assumed the cap will go up by the max 10%/year starting in 2025
- Assumed that Trae will earn a max extension with 8% raises that kicks in starting in 2026. But you can see the impact that 35% v 30% creates.
- Assumed Wemby will get the 30% rookie SuperMax with 8% raises (this is likely the safest assumption of them all)
- Assumed Devin balls out and earns a 140% extension with 8% raises when his rookie extension ends
- Assumed that when Trae's extension ends, and he'll be entering his 13th season, that he'll have fallen off a little and will sign a similar contract to Devin's 2031 number
I don't know how these "Big 3" percentages of the cap compare to other teams or if this is manageable or completely hamstringing. Of course, the Spurs will have lots of other players who hopefully will have blossomed and earned big contracts during this time with all these picks.
I don't have any opinion on this at this time, other than to say... this is going to be the case if we go after any Star player via trade.