Welcome to The Third Apron!
What it is, what to expect, and why you should subscribe.
If you aren’t familiar with me or my work, I’m Yossi Gozlan. I’m an NBA salary cap analyst with over six years of writing experience, mostly with HoopsHype. For four years I had the privilege of writing about one of my biggest passions in life: the cap. I got to write about it for all 30 teams, all players, and facets around the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
I stepped away from writing over the past year since I became a father and wanted to soak in that experience. Any time I had to make content was dedicated to my YouTube channel, a project I wanted to launch for years (don’t worry, it’s not going away or getting less attention).
It’s been exactly one year since I last wrote for HoopsHype and I’m ready to get back to writing again. And the name of the Substack/publication/newsletter is The Third Apron.
What is the Third Apron and what kind of content can you expect from it?
If the NBA had to implement a third apron in the future, I’m honestly not sure what additional penalties can be imposed on teams above it. Maybe teams can’t trade draft picks at all, and maybe have restrictions toward re-signing players they have rights to1.
But what I can tell you is that my Third Apron will be my outlet for all my salary cap analyses and musings. If you’ve seen my work on HoopsHype, you can expect some flavor of that and more.
You may be asking: how is this going to be different from my videos? I think I have a good idea of what works for my videos (transaction reactions, hypothetical trades, etc, which understandably have a broader appeal). There may be some overlap with my videos, but if there is, that’s because I decided to go deeper on the subject by writing about it.
Here, I plan on writing about more advanced salary cap topics. Subject matter that should translate better in writing than in video form. My stuff here will be niche for an already pretty niche field in sports.
To put it simply, I’ll be nerding out here.
If that sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. If there’s something I’ve learned about myself from writing all these years, it’s that I have a strong knack for simplifying complex concepts and ideas of the cap in a way readers can understand. If you’re subscribed to and read my work regularly, you will learn a lot about the cap and CBA.
How much is the subscription and how much content can you expect?
The subscription will be pretty simple. $5 per month or $50 annually for paid posts and the ability to make community posts. There will be occasional free posts, maybe more than usual in busier times of the year and I’m writing a bunch. I don’t have any founding plan set, but I’ll add one if I can come up with some benefits.
I plan on averaging two posts per week on here, so ideally I’d put out 100 posts per year. I had an even higher output than that in my last year with HoopsHype, so I think that’s a realistic target. I’ll probably be putting stuff out more at certain times of the year than others (trade deadline, free agency, and the lead-up to those periods). But even if I’m not publishing as much stuff in deader times of the year, it should all average out in the end.
I already have several other outlets for my work. You can watch my videos on YouTube (I plan on eventually starting a traditional conversational podcast there). You can view my salary cap sheets on CapSheets.com. I post instant transaction analysis on Twitter and BlueSky. If you’re a fan of my work, please consider supporting me on The Third Apron.
Open to ideas in the comments on what one could actually look like!