On July 1st, 2025, the Milwaukee Bucks waived Damian Lillard to make room to sign Miles Turner. In a world where nearly every NBA move is known and hinted at in advance, this one caught people by surprise. Dame’s time in Milwaukee ended abruptly on the day his 2-year, $112 million dollar extension took effect.
NBA fans lamented that the Dame/Giannis pick-and-roll never became as lethal as they fantasied. They were drawn back into the grief of a string of Achilles injuries that plagued an otherwise exciting postseason, Lillard’s being the first. And while it seemed unempathetic to toss aside a player that had gotten hurt playing for them, the Bucks had every right to do so. The NBA is a business; plus, Dame will get all his money…
Right?? Well, kind of…
Funny enough, the salary cap mechanics in the NBA have become better understood than how the cash gets transferred from team to player. As far as the Bucks cap space calculations are concerned, Lillard’s remaining salary, $112,583,016, will be stretched across the next five seasons (his two years remaining, times two, plus one) leaving Milwaukee with $22,516,603 of dead money on their books for each season through 2029-2030.
While that anchor will hang on Milwaukee’s cap sheet for some time, it gave the Bucks the room they needed to make a last gasp effort to convince Giannis that they were doing everything they could to remain a contender. General Manager Jon Horst said as much, speaking to Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Whether you like the move from a team building perspective, or see it as a desperate attempt at relevance for an organization that is turning a blind eye to its imminent forthcoming rebuild, neither matters to Damian Lillard now.
“Dame still gets his $100M over 2 years, right? And The stretch is just for the bucks cap hit?” [sic]
Ignoring the grammatical errors and incorrect total, this question came from a knowledgeable user in a reasonably well-informed discord server. Other users chimed in to support the initial claim, perhaps because it seems only fair, but according to Article II, Section 4(k), Paragraph ii(y) of the CBA, it’s just not the case.
“The remaining Base Compensation, if any, owed to the player pursuant to Exhibit 2 of the Contract shall be aggregated and paid in equal amounts per year over a period equal to twice the number of NBA Seasons (including any Season covered by a Player Option Year) remaining on this Contract following the date upon which the request for waivers occurred, plus one NBA Season.”
The “mandatory stretch provision” applies any time a player contract is terminated. That is to say that whether or not the Bucks had chosen to use the stretch provision in relation to the cap hit of the contract, the payment is automatically stretched, and this is non-negotiable.
It’s reasonable to assume that the overlap of those who study the NBA salary cap and those who have some interest in personal finance is probably decently high. For the latter, the concept of the time value of money looms large here. There is a big difference in being paid over two years instead of over five. Let’s take a look and see if we can estimate how much.
View or download your copy of the workbook here.
Before we dig into the nitty-gritty of the effect of the payment stretch, let’s address one thing right off the bat: the numbers that we all see reported as player’s salaries are placeholder values. They are usually close to accurate. But the actual amount a player is paid is not determined until the end of the season, after the league’s annual accounting review that occurs during the July moratorium, when the final calculation of the year’s basketball related income (BRI) is complete.
Players are guaranteed to receive between 49% and 51% of BRI, although they typically get the 51%. However, there are instances where the sum of the player’s placeholder values exceeds that proportion. To combat that, players have their paychecks docked 10%, which goes to an escrow account that can be paid back to the teams in the above-described scenario.
In 2024-2025, 9.14% went back to the teams with 0.86% returned to the players, as initially reported by Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. This is less likely to be the case in 2025-2026, where the salary cap is set to rise by the maximum allowed 10%, indicating that BRI is projected to grow by more than this amount. However, in 2026-2027, where the league is projecting only a 7% salary cap increase, your guess is as good as mine how the escrow will be divvied up. For this estimation, I have set the default in the calculator to be that Lillard will receive the full amount of his escrow back.
As to the timeline of the payments defined in his contract, those types of details are not as readily available to the public. Absent any additional information, let’s assume for the purpose of this exercise that the standard payment schedule applies as defined in Paragraph 3(a) of the Uniform Player Contract1 with escrow payment as described in Article VII, Section 12(c), Paragraph 2 of the CBA.2
As to how much of his gross pay Dame sees hit his account: subtract taxes, agent fees, NBPA fees, and I’m sure some other things we aren’t aware of. The worksheet uses 50% as his default take home percentage with an 8% annual growth rate, which is likely on the conservative side for someone with millions to invest.
Even with that significant chunk removed from his take home pay, the $112 million that got stretched over five years would be worth a total of $68,360,158 when Lillard cashed his final paycheck on October 15th, 2030. That’s not too shabby. But had his payment not been stretched, he’d have $76,216,358 by that 2030 date, receiving his last paycheck on that same day in 2027 and letting that money grow.
Damian Lillard lost $6,943,737 in net present value when he was waived by the Bucks.
Not that you need to shed any tears for Dame; he is a beloved basketball star and an extremely well paid one at that. But before you wave it off as “NBA is a business”, know that he effectively lost almost seven million dollars out of his pocket when Milwaukee made this move.3
But will he make that back in his next deal? We will explore that additional contract along with the set-off that Milwaukee is entitled to in a future article and worksheet to see how far, if any, he might come out ahead.
If you’ve enjoyed this, you might want to check out the rest of the Summer Stretch Series 2025:
And if you prefer watching instead of reading, I’ve created a companion video that ties it all together — watch it here
“Unless otherwise provided in Exhibit 1 (or, with respect to advances, in Exhibit 1, Exhibit 1A, or Exhibit 1B), such Compensation shall be paid in twenty-four (24) equal semi-monthly payments beginning with the first of said payments on November 1st of each year covered by this Contract (“contract year”) and continuing with such payments on the first and fifteenth of each month until said Compensation is paid in full.”
“In the event that, as of the completion of the Governing Audit Report, the Compensation payable to a player pursuant to the Adjustment Contract has already been reduced pursuant to this Section 12(c) by an amount that exceeds the then-applicable Contract Reduction Amount, then such excess shall be paid to the player in equal installments over the remaining semi-monthly payment dates on which payments are due to such player for the applicable Season pursuant to the Adjustment Contract beginning with either the next semi-monthly payment date following the issuance of the Governing Audit Report or, if practicability warrants, the second semi-monthly payment date following the issuance of the Governing Audit Report (or, if there are no remaining payments due to such player for the applicable Season pursuant to the Adjustment Contract, such excess shall be paid to the player within sixty (60) days following the completion of the Governing Audit Report).”
Assuming a 2.5% discount rate for inflation.