The Lakers aren’t known for their bargain shopping on the free agent market, but this year, they scored an extraordinary number of contributors for the minimum salary. Five Lakers are averaging more than 20 minutes per game while making the minimum, including Nick Young, the team’s leading scorer and a Sixth Man of the Year candidate. Young might have found more money if he’d signed with another team, but the allure of playing for his hometown Lakers was too great. The team’s other low-paid rotation guys probably wouldn’t have been able to sign for a salary greater than the minimum elsewhere, so with them, it’s more a matter of GM Mitch Kupchak‘s eye for talent and Mike D’Antoni‘s coaching. Wesley Johnson, Xavier Henry, Jordan Farmar and Shawne Williams have all pitched in to help the team mitigate the loss of Kobe Bryant for all but six games so far this season. The Lakers are just 13-19, but they’d probably be much worse if not for their cut-rate five.
The Rockets have had much more success this season, with a 21-13 record, and while that has much to do with Dwight Howard and James Harden, the team’s pair of max contract players, three minimum-salary forces have emerged. Patrick Beverley is on the shelf with a broken hand, but when he’s played he’s notched 31.5 MPG, more than any other minimum-salary player in the league this year aside from Isaiah Thomas of the Kings. Omri Casspi and Francisco Garcia are also significant cogs for Houston, which would boast a fourth minimum-salary rotation player if Chandler Parsons‘ contract didn’t call for him to make only about $42K more than the minimum for a player with his experience.
Here’s every player in the NBA this season making the minimum salary and averaging at least 20 MPG entering today:
- Isaiah Thomas, Kings (31.9 MPG)
- Patrick Beverley, Rockets (31.5 MPG)
- P.J. Tucker, Suns (30.4 MPG)
- D.J. Augustin, Bulls (29.5 MPG)
- Khris Middleton, Bucks (29.3 MPG)
- James Anderson, Sixers (29.2 MPG)
- Nick Young, Lakers (28.1 MPG)
- Wesley Johnson, Lakers (26.4 MPG)
- Alan Anderson, Nets (25.3 MPG)
- Jeff Taylor, Bobcats (24.2 MPG)
- James Johnson, Grizzlies (23.1 MPG)
- Mike Miller, Grizzlies (22.9 MPG)
- Shaun Livingston, Nets (22.2 MPG)
- Xavier Henry, Lakers (21.8 MPG)
- Hollis Thompson, Sixers (21.2 MPG)
- Omri Casspi, Rockets (21.1 MPG)
- Francisco Garcia, Rockets (20.8 MPG)
- Jordan Farmar, Lakers (20.7 MPG)
- Shawne Williams, Lakers (20.6 MPG)
- DeJuan Blair, Mavericks (20.2 MPG)
- E’Twaun Moore, Magic (20.2 MPG)
- Anthony Tolliver, Bobcats (20.0 MPG)
ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.