Welcome to Third Apron!
About me
If you aren’t familiar with me or my work, I'm Yossi Gozlan. I spent four years as an NBA salary cap analyst at HoopsHype, where I wrote about the cap for all 30 teams, every major transaction, and every corner of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It's one of my biggest passions in life, and I’ve been passionately doing it for eight years and counting.
I stepped away from writing in 2024 to become a father and soak in that experience. Any time I had for content went toward launching my YouTube channel, a project I’d wanted to build for years.
A year later, I was ready to write again. Third Apron is where that writing lives.
What is Third Apron?
If the NBA ever implemented a third apron, I’m not sure what additional penalties could even be imposed. Maybe teams can’t trade picks at all. Maybe there are restrictions on re-signing players they have rights to.
What I can tell you is that my Third Apron is my outlet for salary cap analysis that goes deeper than what fits in a tweet or a 10-minute video. If you’ve read my work at HoopsHype, expect that level of rigor — and then some.
How is this different from the podcast and videos?
The YouTube channel and podcast focus on transaction reactions, hypothetical trades, and other fun stuff. There’s occasional overlap, but when there is, it’s because I decided to go deeper on the subject in writing.
The newsletter is where the more advanced cap analysis lives. A lot of the CBA mechanics written about translate better on the page than on camera. My content will be niche for an already pretty niche field in sports.
To put it simply, I nerd out here.
If that sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from years of writing about the cap, it’s that I have a knack for making complex concepts click. Read regularly, and you’ll learn a lot about how the NBA actually works financially.
What do you get?
I publish roughly two to three posts per week, or over 100 per year. The content includes full 30-team offseason previews, trade deadline guides covering 125+ players, contract breakdowns with projected dollar figures, CBA deep dives that explain the mechanics behind every major transaction, and more.
Paid subscribers ($7/month or $50/year) get every post, the full archive, and community access. There’s also a founding tier at $100/year for those who want to go further. Free posts go out occasionally, and they’re just as rich as the paid posts.
Where else to find my work
Third Apron is more than the newsletter. You can watch the podcast and videos on YouTube (or listen on Spotify, Apple, and all podcast providers), view my salary cap data on CapSheets.com, and follow my instant transaction analysis on Twitter and BlueSky.
If you’re a fan of the work, consider supporting Third Apron!
