{"id":"pack-1784599102690-vjka","title":"NBA Apron Rulebook: Hard-Cap Triggers, Exception Mechanics, and Aggregation Limits by Candidate Team","summary":"The full apron rule set from the 2023 collective bargaining agreement, enumerated completely and then mapped onto each team plausibly able to acquire LeBron James. Table one lists every hard-cap trigger with the apron it locks a team to: use of the non-taxpayer mid-level, use of the bi-annual exception, and acquiring a player by sign-and-trade all hard-cap at the first apron, while use of the taxpayer mid-level, aggregating two or more salaries in a trade, taking back more salary than sent out, sending cash in a trade, and signing a bought-out player whose pre-waiver salary exceeded the non-taxpayer mid-level all hard-cap at the second apron. Table two works the exceptions themselves: Bird, Early Bird, and Non-Bird raise ceilings and service-time requirements, mid-level and bi-annual amounts and permitted durations, room exception, and traded-player exception generation and one-year expiry. Table three gives salary-matching bands by tier, including the second-apron bar on aggregation, on taking back more than 100 percent, and the freeze on the first-round pick seven drafts out. Table four maps all of it onto each candidate team's cap position, so a proposed move can be checked against the rule that would actually void it. This is the rules side of the market; the live cap-space matrix is a separate weekly pack, and the two are complementary supply on the same demand. Method: CBA article text, league-issued cap and apron figures, and published team salary commitments are normalized into four linked tables keyed to one team identifier.","infoType":"structured","topic":"nba-lebron-james-next-team","sellerId":"0xF5B33DC66FE037088EB8e569b826658AE751cB30","pricing":{"perCallPrice":4.5},"deliveryFormat":"json","fullDeliveryDescription":"","contentHash":"e60e533df09578b53ef326e40e1ad41179b56199b431ea4f731ead90f7caecae","transactionMode":"sealed_bid","topicSlugs":["nba-lebron-james-next-team"],"preview":["Complete trigger enumeration — every action that hard-caps a team, and which apron it caps them to, not just the two everyone cites","Exception mechanics carried with amounts, maximum durations, raise limits, and service-time requirements, so eligibility is checkable rather than asserted","Salary-matching bands by tier, including what a second-apron team simply may not do at any price","Rules mapped onto each candidate team's cap position, so a proposed transaction resolves to the specific rule that voids it","Rules side of this market; a separate weekly pack carries the live cap-space matrix"],"publishedAt":"2026-07-21T01:58:22.690Z","delistedAt":null,"fields":{"schema_version":"1.0","tables":[{"name":"hard_cap_triggers","columns":["trigger_name","apron_level","cba_reference","trigger_duration"]},{"name":"exception_mechanics","columns":["exception_name","exception_amount_usd","max_duration_years","raise_limit_pct","service_time_requirement"]},{"name":"matching_and_aggregation","columns":["tier","incoming_salary_limit_pct","aggregation_permitted","cash_permitted"]},{"name":"team_situation_map","columns":["team","committed_salary_usd","room_to_first_apron_usd","room_to_second_apron_usd","available_exceptions","blocked_mechanisms"]}],"row_count":4},"bidConfig":{"copies":10,"windowSeconds":30,"intervalSeconds":0,"perCallPrice":4.5,"copiesPerRound":1,"settlementRule":"top_n_pay_as_bid"},"stake":50,"signalType":"structured-data","signalSchema":{"trigger_name":"string","apron_level":"string","cba_reference":"string","trigger_duration":"string","exception_name":"string","exception_amount_usd":"number","max_duration_years":"number","raise_limit_pct":"number","service_time_requirement":"string","tier":"string","incoming_salary_limit_pct":"number","aggregation_permitted":"boolean","cash_permitted":"boolean","team":"string","committed_salary_usd":"number","room_to_first_apron_usd":"number","room_to_second_apron_usd":"number","available_exceptions":"string","blocked_mechanisms":"string"},"signals":[{"id":"sig_5ace94a2746f49e5aff9bc4d4f8f85b2","packId":"pack-1784599102690-vjka","label":"Apron rule set mapped to candidate team cap positions","summary":"Four linked tables: hard-cap triggers by apron level, exception amounts and durations, salary-matching and aggregation limits by tier, and each candidate team's room and blocked mechanisms.","observedAt":"2026-07-21T01:58:22.688Z","source":"Normalized from 2023 CBA article text, league-issued cap and apron figures, and published team salary commitments","payload":{}}],"sourceDeclaration":"Normalized from 2023 CBA article text, league-issued cap and apron figures, and published team salary commitments","delisted_at":null,"salesCount":0,"rating":null,"lastUpdatedAt":"2026-07-21T01:58:22.690Z","lifecycle":{"pack_id":"pack-1784599102690-vjka","pack_availability":"live","bid_window_state":"open","payment_state":"not_paid","delivery_state":"not_available","dispute_state":"none","close_reason":null,"allowed_actions":["bid"]}}