Neil Olshey

Blazers general manager Neil Olshey could have around $30 million in cap space for the 2015-16 seasons.

(Bruce Ely/Staff)

The NBA had a good 2014-15 season financially.

On Wednesday, the league announced that the salary cap for the 2015-16 season has been set at $70 million, an all-time high. The cap for 2014-15 was $63.2 million.

The new cap goes into effect at 9:01 p.m. PDT Wednesday, when the moratorium period ends. Teams can then begin signing free agents as well as make trades.

The salary cap is set annually by computing 44.74 percent of the league's basketball-related income. The higher-than-expected cap for 2015-16 -- the league's early estimates placed it at $67 million -- will mean a higher value for players who sign maximum contracts, such as LaMarcus Aldridge, who has agreed to a four-year max deal with San Antonio.

Aldridge's max deal would pay him a starting salary of 30 percent of the cap (based on his years of service in the league).

(It should be noted that under the collective bargaining agreement, a different cap figure is used to determine maximum salaries than the one teams use for their payrolls. The different max-determing cap is set using at 42.14 percent of BRI.)

How does this affect the Trail Blazers? When contracts that were verbally agreed to during the moratorium period are signed, the Blazers will drop at least $49 million in cap holds after Aldridge, Wesley Matthews (Dallas), Robin Lopez (New York) and Arron Afflalo (New York) sign contracts with their new teams. Each team is assigned cap holds for its own free agents until they sign with another team, or it rescind the player.

The Blazers also have cap holds for Dorell Wright, Joel Freeland and Alonzo Gee totaling about $8.8 million, but those can be eliminating by rescinding the team's Bird rights to them.

Adding in the new contracts for free agents Al-Farouq Aminu and Ed Davis, who both agreed to deals with Portland and should sign this week, and the Blazers will have about $40 million in salaries for next season, leaving them as much as $30 million in cap space.

The Blazers, in fact, might have to add salary as the new salary minimum for each team was set at $63 million. They could also disperse the difference between their payroll and the minimum among their players. When Aminu and Davis sign their deals, Portland will have 12 players on its roster, one under the minimum each team must have.

The league's luxury tax level was set at $84.740 million.

The league also announced the values of three mid-level exceptions. The non-taxpayer mid-level is $5.464 million, the taxpayer mid-level is $3.376 million, and the mid-level for a team with room under the cap is $2.814 million.

As long as Portland is under the cap, they can only use the last mid-level exception.

The cap figures were set without factoring in the league's new TV contract with Turner and ESPN, which kicks in next year. When those deals factor into BRI next summer, the cap for 2016-17 could balloon to as high as $108 million, according to some estimates.

-- Mike Tokito

mtokito@oregonian.com

503-294-7604; @mtokito