The NBA was already expected to have a bear market this offseason due to the lack of teams with functional cap space, but the anticipated lowering of the cap for 20-21 due to COVID-19 will make the use of exceptions even more invaluable for teams to sign free agents.

"The mid-level exeception is going to be like the priority exception," said Bobby Marks on The Hoop Collective Podcast. "With so few teams with cap space, these numbers might go down a little bit further. Teams that have that $9.8 million exception... you might be able to go get a guy that's looking for $15 million to $16 million. Or you might be able to split that up among two guys getting $10 million each."

The NBA sent out an estimated cap number for 20-21 at the end of January at $115 million, which was down from $116 million.