2026 Third Apron Front Office Awards
Welcome to the second annual Third Apron awards, also known as the Yossis.
As explained in last year’s inaugural awards, this exercise attempts to highlight aspects of front office work while also reflecting on transactions made throughout the year. The period being honored is between the end of the 2024-25 salary cap year and the 2025-26 trade deadline.
Best Salary Cap Management: Boston Celtics
This award is for the team that best utilized its available salary cap flexibility to significantly improve the roster now and in the future. This doesn’t take into account the work done to create the conditions needed for those opportunities. That would be best salary cap planning, but that won’t be taken into account because it would encompass work done in previous seasons.
Brad Stevens won the 2025-26 Executive of the Year last month, an award voted on by other executives, likely because the Celtics won 56 games after stripping down several parts of their roster. They let go of many core pieces from their 2024 championship team for financial relief. Running back the roster would’ve cost an unsustainable $500 million in combined payroll and tax penalties due to higher tax rates and the more punitive luxury-tax system in the 2023 CBA.
It’d be reductive to say Stevens won this award for getting under the tax. Looking under the microscope, this was elite salary cap management for several reasons. The first is that the Celtics reduced their payroll by nearly $43 million between the 2025 offseason and the 2026 trade deadline. They win this award not just for the sheer difficulty of executing that, but for doing so without trading a first-round pick or one of their three best players.
The other reason is the long-term element. The Celtics are in the repeater tax by virtue of being taxpayers in 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. By being under the tax in 2025-26 and presumably 2026-27, they’ll escape the repeater tax for 2027-28, 2028-29, and 2029-30. They’re setting themselves up for a three-year window of title contention when they can surround Jayson Tatum with stronger talent while paying the less punitive standard tax rates.
Second place: Dallas Mavericks
The Mavericks deserve a lot of credit for trading Anthony Davis. Did they receive a ton of positive value in terms of young players, draft picks, or good veterans? No. But it did get them out of apron hell. They were stuck right up against the second-apron hard cap, and this not only gave them more flexibility below that threshold, but single-handedly got them under the first apron and luxury tax. Usually, something like this can only be pulled off at the trade deadline with multiple teams, but the Wizards had multiple large trade exceptions to keep this a two-team deal.
This trade also saved the Mavericks $225 million in payroll and luxury tax penalties across the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons. In addition, they created a $20.8 million trade exception they could use to acquire bad salaries with draft picks attached. They are now in a much stronger position to surround Cooper Flagg with young talent and better-fitting pieces.
Most Efficient Payroll: Oklahoma City Thunder
This is for the team that rostered the most players who met or exceeded the value of their respective salaries this season. That’s an important distinction because some might view it as the award for the team with the lowest payroll relative to its win total. In that case, the winner this season would be the Spurs for winning 62 games while being $4.9 million under the luxury tax line, which is more room than most contenders had.
The Thunder win this award for a second straight season, and it’s not close. They’ve put together one of the most top-heavy and deepest rosters down to the 13th man in NBA history. They’ve done it all while remaining under the luxury tax, something they were able to accomplish thanks to years of planning. This will be their last year under the luxury tax, with the maximum extensions of Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams set to kick in next season.
Second place: New York Knicks
The Knicks also have roughly 13 players playing at or exceeding the value of their contracts. Even if Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby are overpaid, it’s hard to complain about them at the moment, given their outstanding performance so far in these playoffs. Jalen Brunson earning $11 million less than his maximum possible salary provides so much value that it compensates for it. And several of their players earning $4.5 million or less have often risen to the occasion.
Best Scouting: Charlotte Hornets
This award is for the team that identified and acquired the most value in the draft, free agency, and trades. Unlike last season, both players on rookie deals and veterans are taken into consideration. It rewards the team that identified and acquired talent the rest of the league may have undervalued.
Selecting a player in the draft who can actually play is an accomplishment in and of itself. The Hornets win this award for coming out of the 2025 NBA Draft with what seems to be, at the very least, three NBA players. One of them, Kon Kneuppel, is looking like a potential All-Star. They get extra points for that selection when considering there was no clear consensus in the 3-5 range. Sion James and Ryan Kalkbrenner are already important parts of the rotation. They also got Coby White for virtually nothing, a player who fits so well with what they’re doing and whose contract demands should fit their payroll structure.
Second place: Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks finish second for their many shrewd transactions, nearly all of which were in their favor. They recognized Nickeil Alexander-Walker was being undervalued and pounced on the opportunity to sign him. The theory of Kristaps Porzingis on their roster made sense, even if they didn’t get the result they wanted due to his injuries.
Their acquisition of C.J. McCollum seemed innocuous, but it turned out to be one of the most underrated moves of the season since it saved their season. It not only got them to the playoffs, but it also helped them win two playoff games. Even Jonathan Kuminga, mostly thought to be a low-risk flyer, made enough of a difference to help steal a playoff game against the Knicks.
Best Value Signing: Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Atlanta Hawks)
This award is given to the team that signed a player to a contract he is significantly exceeding the value of. The lower the annual salary relative to the talent of the player, and the longer the deal, the more valuable it is. This award does not take into consideration maximum contracts, rookie-scale contracts, or minimum contracts. It’s meant to recognize the negotiation required to put together the contracts in the middle.
The Hawks signed Nickeil Alexander-Walker to what looks like a top-five value contract in the league. It is a significant bargain for a player with a combination of strong perimeter defense and recently improved offensive output. He went from a good reserve to a player who has shown he may be a good third or fourth option on a good team. He might be underpaid by roughly $10 million annually.
Second place: Santi Aldama (Memphis Grizzlies)
There were several other great contracts in consideration, such as Aaron Nesmith’s two-year, $40 million extension. Second place went to Santi Aldama for the three-year, $52 million contract the Grizzlies signed him to. It’s a great value for a player who could start on many teams but is also low enough to continue coming off the bench. It also has a team option, which will allow the Grizzlies or his new team to restructure his deal soon. This should increase his value and make him one of the more attractive players in the trade market this offseason.
Best Accumulation of Value: Memphis Grizzlies
This award goes to the team that yielded the most short and long-term value in its transactions. Teams that acquire more value than they sent out get recognized here. Teams that sign good players to good contracts also get credit.
The Grizzlies come out on top after an active season in the trade market. They yielded a total of seven first-round picks and one first-round pick swap for Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane. They also conveyed two of those selections in a trade-up for Cedric Coward, who’s already looking like one of the best players in the 2025 draft class.
Along with Aldama, they signed Ty Jerome to a three-year, $27 million contract. It was a lower total value than many expected him to get, and he’s already exceeded it. He’s another player who could net a strong return for the Grizzlies in a potential trade. Along the way, they also acquired players like Taylor Hendricks, Walter Clayton Jr., Olivier-Maxence Prosper, and several others. Given their track record, chances are at least one or two of these players will emerge as rotation players.
Second place: Brooklyn Nets
The Nets were last year’s winner after acquiring five first-round picks for Mikal Bridges and regaining control of their own draft picks. They didn’t replicate such a haul this season, but they did make arguably the most lopsided trade of the season by swapping Cameron Johnson for Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first-round pick. They turned a player who was probably worth one first-round pick at the time into maybe three first-round picks of value when factoring in Porter Jr. His emergence into an All-Star-caliber player has significantly increased his trade value in a potential trade.
Most Improved Outlook: Los Angeles Clippers
This award goes to the team whose future looked grim due to a lack of talented young players or draft equity, but then turned it around with a series of transactions and internal developments. If there were a metric that measures and ranks teams based on their combination of young players and draft assets, this would go to the team that raised its standing the most. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with the best accumulation of value, but this award factors in the context of a team’s situation before the moves.
This year’s award goes to the Clippers, which is strange to say because they may ultimately worsen their outlook. The Aspiration investigation is still ongoing and could result in them losing multiple first-round picks if they are found to have circumvented the cap. Putting that aside, they were already in a pretty bad situation. They had the oldest rotation in the league with no young players to look forward to and a draft-pick deficit. They were likely capped at being a first-round exit, which has been their ceiling over the past five seasons.
The trades they made at the 2026 trade deadline were transformational for their outlook. They were given a life raft with the opportunity to trade 36-year-old James Harden for 26-year-old Darius Garland. He’s injury-prone and flawed, particularly on defense, but he’s a gifted offensive player and two-time All-Star. They also got an offer they couldn’t refuse for Ivica Zubac, including two first-round picks and Benedict Mathurin. This team is probably still a first-round exit, but they now have a solid foundation for the next era of sustainable-winning Clippers basketball.
Second place: Charlotte Hornets
The Hornets have been in a perpetual rebuild over the past decade after many draft mistakes. It felt last offseason like they would continue on this treadmill, especially after the 2024 Draft. That changed after hitting on three draft picks in the 2025 draft and seeing significant improvements from Brandon Miller and Mousa Diabate. They also got an All-NBA-caliber and mostly healthy season from LaMelo Ball. They are on the verge of returning to the playoffs, and they could make it a regular occurrence with marginal improvements each year, consistency, and perhaps a consolidation trade.
Most Creative Cap Mechanics in a Transaction: Desmond Bane to the Magic for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four first-round picks, and a first-round pick swap
This trade seems simple on the surface, but it was loaded with complicated salary-cap aspects to follow. The Stepien rule is applied, with the Magic agreeing to trade nearly all the first-round picks they were allowed to. It was completed during the 2025 offseason but before the 2025-26 salary cap year rolled over, which adds another layer of complication with salary matching since descending annual salaries were involved.
Most interestingly, it was the first example in the current CBA that invoked a specific loophole. If a team makes a trade after the end of the regular season but before the new salary cap year, and it triggers an apron hard cap, then the team is hard capped to that specific apron for the upcoming season. The Magic had to address this loophole since it hard-capped them to the second apron, but they were already above the second apron in 2025-26. More details and exactly how they resolved this can be read here:
Second place: The seven-team trade featuring Kevin Durant to the Rockets
The initial Durant trade was already interesting because it was a rare case of two apron teams being able to make a trade together. Teams above the apron can’t take back more salary than they’re sending out, so it worked out for the Rockets. But it also worked out for the Suns because Dillon Brooks’ $1 million in likely incentives for making the playoffs were adjusted to unlikely since they missed the playoffs last year. The $1 million eliminated from his cap hit was enough for them to send out more salary than they took in from their perspective.
Then the trade expanded to include seven teams, which initially sparked speculation of something bigger going on. No more big-name players were involved, but several interesting salary concepts were. The Rockets had previously agreed to sign and trade for Clint Capela without sending out players, but they had no available exception to absorb him. They didn’t have to by tying his acquisition to their trade for Durant since they were able to take in even more salary in exchange for Brooks and Jalen Green.
Lastly, it was the totality of the trade, which was essentially multiple smaller trades previously agreed to and tied together for simplicity’s sake. The initial reporting of a seven-team trade brewing led to a fun 48 hours of cap nerds figuring out the details and how it could work. It was mainly the application of the “touch rule”, or how teams in a multi-team trade must send or receive one of the following with at least two other teams: a player, a draft pick, draft rights to a player, a two-way player, or $1.1 million in cash.
Most Fun Transaction: The stretching of Damian Lillard and the subsequent signing of Myles Turner
This move came out of absolutely nowhere and was the most shocking set of transactions of the 2025 offseason. It was first reported that Myles Turner would depart the Pacers, which was already hard to take in, considering they were one win away from winning the championship. The implication that he was signing with the Bucks meant that they had some work to do to create the cap space. They could’ve done it by trading a combination of players like Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis.
Instead, the Bucks shocked us again by waiving and stretching Damian Lillard’s remaining two years and $112.5 million. He still gets the full amount without playing a single game in the extension he signed in 2022, but it resulted in a $22.5 million dead-cap hit over the next five years. That move, along with the buyout and stretching of Vasilije Micic, who was also acquired in a salary dump involving Pat Connaughton, created the cap space necessary to sign Turner to his four-year, $109 million contract. Responsible? Probably not. Fun? Absolutely.
Second place: Anthony Davis to the Wizards
This one also genuinely came out of nowhere, which added a much-welcomed element of surprise to the trade deadline. This trade, along with the Trae Young trade, was a good example of how teams operating below the first apron can quickly increase their payroll. It exhausted all of the Wizards’ cap flexibility while saving the Mavericks over $100 million between the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons. It also added more finality to the Luka Doncic trade now that we have a clearer picture of the final return for him.
Most Fun Team: Boston Celtics
The Celtics’ motive to reduce their payroll and what they stood to gain has been documented on Third Apron all season long and at the beginning of this post. It all culminated in them getting under the luxury tax line at the trade deadline and positioning themselves with a brilliant plan to finish the season below it by a narrow margin. Watching them reduce their payroll step by step since the offseason was truly a joy to follow.
Second place: Oklahoma City Thunder
This one may be surprising, given all they really did last offseason was run the team back, but I got a kick out of how they went about it. They had to trim two roster spots and did so by trading a 2025 first-round pick for one in the future, and attaching one of their many second-round picks to get off Dillon Jones. They used what little luxury tax flexibility they had to give Jaylin Williams and Ajay Mitchell larger starting salaries while locking them into team-friendly extensions.
Even the extensions of Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, which were destined to be maximum contracts, had interesting elements of negotiation with the All-NBA escalators (or lack thereof with Holmgren). And then there’s the Jared McCain trade. It went from initially feeling like a luxury and long-term play, especially since his two years of team control will subsidize moving off other expensive role players to reduce their tax penalty next season. It may turn out to be a necessity in their quest to repeat as champions.
Executive of the Year: Zach Kleiman (Memphis Grizzlies)
Zach Kleiman’s case has been detailed throughout this post. The accumulation of value for Bane and Jackson Jr., along with the signings of Aldama and Jerome to great contracts, brought tremendous positive value to the team. But there’s also the element of convincing ownership to go in this direction. Entering a rebuild is easier said than done. Actually doing it and moving on from a talented young group that consistently made the playoffs is a tough sell.
The Grizzlies are now armed with 13 first-round picks through the 2033 draft, including the 3rd (lottery luck isn’t being considered) and 16th in the upcoming draft. As hypothesized last month, they could stand to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the impending 3-2-1 lottery reform. They have one of the strongest draft records since 2019, identifying value in all spots of the draft. If there’s a front office that can be trusted with a large surplus of draft picks, it’s this one.
Second place vote: Onsi Saleh
Third place vote: Brad Stevens
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