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My understanding is that with veterans of a certain year of service the league pays for whatever goes above 2 point something million for one year deals. And I did find this, which doesn’t quote specific cap sections but essentially says the same.

But I also checked with ChatGPT who says that the NBA only covers the portion of salary but not the tax bill. So this is all very confusing.

Whatever it is, both parties must have agreed to it and it must benefit them both in some way.

Superbone wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 17, 2026 9:18 am

Whatever it is, both parties must have agreed to it and it must benefit them both in some way.

I mean, I don't know if HH "agreed" to get cut from the team and lose his 2-year contract. But he likely was happy to come back on the 1-year as a compromise rather than just be off the team.

This is just a small transaction, but it may be a hint that Ishbia needs to be tighter about money going forward. I also wonder if this would stop him from being interested in signing another veteran like Ben Simmons for the end of the bench. We'll see.

He was on year 2 already, so I don’t think this hurt Highsmith at all. He was guaranteed 1 million already before he was cut, so he’s getting 1 million plus the vet min, so he’s actually making more. Maybe it was a handshake deal previously?

It doesn’t seem to make sense from what I know about the cap. The league does cover part of the vet min salary, so we end up paying him 3.5 million while he makes like 4 million, but before he was making 3 million and we were paying 3 million. Maybe just a favor to get Highsmith an extra million that only costs us 500k?

Maybe there are some tax benefits…I saw someone say it might make him easier to trade as he’d now be absorbable by any team, before they had to match his salary(not that it was much).

Actually sounds like there might’ve been an injury protection on that 1 million and it wasn’t guaranteed…so probably this was to get the benefit of the league covering part of the vet min contract

There ya have it. Thanks, Split.