There’s always a Simpsons quote that explains pretty much everything in life to those of us born in the ’80s and ’90s.
The Simpsons even had a quote from the second apron.
On March 16, 1997, there’s a scene most Simpsons fans probably know. Homer is atop a stack of brown cast kegs with a crowd of Springfielders around him. “To alcohol,” Homer yells. “The cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.”
The second apron has had a similar ambiguous effect for the Wolves. The apron is the biggest cause of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade and the solution to getting out of the cap inflexibility the Wolves created by extending Towns.
Let’s back up. For The Simpsons reference to make sense, the second apron has to solve something. The NBA likely tried to create parity across the league with the second apron. There was a luxury tax in the previous CBA, but the only real penalty for going so far over the soft cap and into the luxury tax was financial penalties the owner had to play.
The richest owners were happy to pay the luxury tax penalties to build a contender. They likely built the cost into their economic model, factoring in playoff revenues. However, the luxury tax created a bigger divide between small- and large-market teams. Perhaps more acutely, teams with owners willing to spend vast sums of their personal money versus more fiscally responsible owners or ownership groups.
The most famous example is the LA Clippers acquisition of Norman Powell. The Clippers functionally traded Eric Bledsoe, Keon Johnson, Justise Winslow, and a second-round pick for Powell and Robert Covington.
The move ballooned LA’s luxury tax bill from $83 million pre-trade in 2021-22 to $142 million after extending Powell in 2023-24. Despite the Clippers’ playoff failures due to injury, they created a blueprint for a uniquely wealthy owner to buy an NBA championship.
The new CBA introduced the apron system, which, in addition to financial penalties for the owners, secretly punishes teams over the first and second aprons by limiting draft capital and financial flexibility — something that, to quote Homer, was the solution to the problem.
However, it created a predicament for the Wolves, a mid-size market team. In Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez’s attempt to take ownership of the team, they vaulted the Wolves through the first apron and well above the second.
If an NBA team is above the first apron, the penalties are as follows:
- Teams can only acquire sign-and-trade players if it places them below the first apron.
- Teams attempting a trade must match salaries within 110%. (Meaning $1 to $1.10.)
- Teams can not execute a trade that moves them into the second apron.
- Teams cannot sign a player for more than the mid-level exception (MLE) during the season.
All of those rules don’t sound untenable. Trades become harder, and no regular-season signings hurt the buyout, but the first apron is essentially a slap on the wrist.
However, the league punishes teams in the second apron:
Second apron teams lose the MLE and can only sign outside players to the minimum.
- Teams lose all past trade exceptions.
- Teams can not obtain trade exceptions.
- Teams lose the ability to trade first-round picks seven years into the future.
- Teams cannot trade multiple players out in the same trade deal.
- Teams can’t sign and trade their own players.
- Teams can’t acquire a sign-and-trade player.
- Teams must match salaries at 100% in trade or take in less money.
- Teams can’t acquire buyout players in-season (based on minutes or previous contracts).
In short, the second apron is crippling. It makes trades next to impossible, free agency obsolete for these teams, and trading picks nearly impossible. The in-season buyout market becomes unavailable, and acquiring talent becomes almost impossible.
To keep teams from remaining in the second apron, the NBA put in even more penalties for repeat offenders:
- If a team is above the second apron for 2 of 4 years, its first-round draft pick becomes frozen and moves to the end of the first round.
That’s where the Towns trade comes into play. The Wolves traded for Gobert, re-signed Towns, and extended Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels under the old salary cap rules.
The luxury tax hurt the owners’ pocketbooks but didn’t directly affect the team-building side. However, the new CBA put the Wolves in a difficult spot. In 2023-24, the league set the second apron at $182,794,900, and the Wolves had the third-highest-paid roster at $166,434,327. That put the Wolves roughly $16 million under the second apron, with Edwards and McDaniels’s massive extensions kicking in after the season.
In 2024-25, the league set the second apron at $190 million. The Wolves were projected to have a payroll of roughly $213 million before the Towns trade, $23 million over the second apron.
Furthermore, the Wolves would have also been over the 2025-26 second apron ($208 million) and likely could dip below the 2026-27 second apron, estimated to be $229 million. By repeatedly remaining in the second apron, the league would have frozen Minnesota’s picks, kicking them to the end of the first round until they exited the second apron for three consecutive years.
That’s where the Towns trade starts to look like a a necessity.
To dip under the second apron in 2025-26, the Wolves would likely have to let Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker leave in free agency. If Reid and Alexander-Walker walk, the Timberwolves would be at a $195 million payroll after accepting minimum team options on Luka Garza and Josh Minott – not including any draft picks for the 2025-26 draft. Minnesota would only have roughly $13 million in cap space before going over the second apron. If the Wolves didn’t want to get hit by the draft penalties, they would have had to stay under.
It’s important to highlight that the Wolves couldn’t use the $13 million to sign anyone because they would be well above the salary cap and into the first apron. Therefore, they likely would have spent that money on a MLE player.
The 2026-27 season may have been the first year the Wolves could get some cap freedom because Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert would come off the books. Still, they’d have to let Minott leave in free agency to get under the first apron.
Minnesota’s payroll would shrink to $144.8 million with only Edwards, Towns, McDaniels, Rob Dillingham, Terrence Shannon Jr., and Leonard Miller on the roster. The NBA salary cap would be estimated at $170 million, allowing the Wolves to spend $26 million in free agency.
However, their roster would look like a shell of the 2023-24 Western Conference championship team and would have lost nearly all their ancillary pieces. Towns would also be in his early 30s, and Edwards and McDaniels would be eyeing new deals starting in the 2028-29 season.
After considering that bleak hypothetical, it’s important to highlight that the Wolves looked at Towns’ contract and made a franchise-altering decision. By acquiring Randle and DiVincenzo, they shaved just over $11 million off their salary cap.
It also improves their outlook in 2025-26. If Randle accepts his player option, the Wolves would have $175 million in cap space, $33 million under the second apron. That could be enough to bring back Reid and Alexander-Walker while keeping every other player on the roster.
The alternative is that they trade Randle, or he declines his option, leaving the Wolves with a $144 million payroll. That ensures the Wolves can re-sign Alexander-Walker and Reid while leaving ample room under the second apron. They could also retain any players they got in return for Randle because Minnesota would be under the second apron at the time of the sign-and-trade.
The decision to trade Towns must have been difficult. It fractured a fan base and hurt Minnesota’s chances in 2024-25. However, it allowed them to compete in the new CBA.
A CBA that solved some of the NBA’s problems while creating others.