The salary cap is at $154.647 million and the luxury tax is at $187.895 million.
The NBA’s 2025–26 salary cap is officially set at $154.647 million, with a luxury tax line of $187.895 million. For the Washington Wizards—who already have $163.7 million in salary commitments—this confirms what we expected: they’re above the soft cap but still likely to avoid crossing the tax threshold. As a rebuilding team, it also doesn’t make sense to go into the tax anyway.
That’s because Washington is still deep in rebuild mode. The six players with the highest cap hits—Khris Middleton, CJ McCollum, Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk, Richaun Holmes, and Corey Kispert—include five on expiring contracts, with only Kispert signed beyond this season (2025-26). This structure gives the Wizards maximum flexibility heading into 2026, when they’ll shed significant salary and potentially pivot toward younger talent.
In the short term, expect the Wizards to remain quiet in free agency beyond signing a player to the midlevel exception of approximately $14.104 million, staying under the luxury tax. But with cap space looming and a rising salary ceiling league-wide, Washington could finally reset its roster in 2026 with meaningful long-term moves.