Wolves Post Randle Cap Situation
Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2026 11:56 pm
Here’s the Wolves cap situation after the Randle deal and Ayo signing:
Before the Randle trade, we had a total payroll of $1888,889,745 for 8 players and a cap hold of $2,783,880 for the 28th pick. The Randle trade dropped our payroll down by $33,333,334 and eliminated the cap hold, resulting in a much lower cap hit of $155,556,411, which was about $10 million below the $165,500,00 salary cap.
Assuming Ayo’s first year is $19.5 million, our his re-signing puts our cap hit at $175,056,411, which is about $25 million under the luxury tax threshold of $201,000,000 and around $35 million below the 1st apron of $209,000,000. It is $48 million below the 2nd apron of $222,000,000.
What does all this mean? It means the Wolves are capped, but have still have access to all the League’s salary cap exceptions, including the full non-taxpayer MLE of $15 million and the biannual exception of $5.478 million along with the vet minimum and draft exceptions. if the Wolves use the full trade exception from the Randle deal on a single player, they’ll lose access to the non-taxpayer MLE but still end up just shy of the 1st apron and about $15 million below the 2nd apron with five roster spots to fill.
Before the Randle trade, we had a total payroll of $1888,889,745 for 8 players and a cap hold of $2,783,880 for the 28th pick. The Randle trade dropped our payroll down by $33,333,334 and eliminated the cap hold, resulting in a much lower cap hit of $155,556,411, which was about $10 million below the $165,500,00 salary cap.
Assuming Ayo’s first year is $19.5 million, our his re-signing puts our cap hit at $175,056,411, which is about $25 million under the luxury tax threshold of $201,000,000 and around $35 million below the 1st apron of $209,000,000. It is $48 million below the 2nd apron of $222,000,000.
What does all this mean? It means the Wolves are capped, but have still have access to all the League’s salary cap exceptions, including the full non-taxpayer MLE of $15 million and the biannual exception of $5.478 million along with the vet minimum and draft exceptions. if the Wolves use the full trade exception from the Randle deal on a single player, they’ll lose access to the non-taxpayer MLE but still end up just shy of the 1st apron and about $15 million below the 2nd apron with five roster spots to fill.
