MAVS NEWS:

[Scott41theMavs]

If you are operating under the cap, by definition you have the ability to do even bigger than the full MLE. Then you get an MLE in addition.

The room MLE, which is quite a bit smaller than the non-tax.

The situation that isn’t great and raises the over/under question is if the team has less cap room (say, before signing their own FAs to bigger deals than their cap holds) than the amount of the NTMLE. If they just want to target one (expensive) player who they don’t already have rights to, they’re better off operating over the cap.

Edit: I think I missed the “operating under the cap” qualification you yourself used, which means you had my commentary presumed in what you posted. Oh well.