Hoops Rumors is in the process of ranking the cap hit for each NBA player by position. I’ve already posted the point guard, shooting guard, small forward, and power forward salary rankings for the 2014/15 campaign. The next spot on the hardwood that I’ll be looking at is the center position for the 2014/15 season.
All told, NBA teams have committed a total of $383,653,157 in cap hits this season to the men tasked with patrolling the paint around the league. The average hit for the five spot this season is a more than respectable $5,048,068, with the Rockets’ Dwight Howard topping the list with a salary of $21,436,721.
It should be noted that teams won’t necessarily pay out every dollar listed here. There are quite a few players who have non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts. Some of those players will be sweating it out all the way until January 7th. That’s when teams must waive players with no specific guarantee date written into their contracts to avoid having to guarantee their salaries for the rest of the season. Most salaries align with cap hits, but that’s not the case for a player like Jeremy Lin, who’s getting close to $15MM from the Lakers this season even though his cap hit is little more than half that amount, because of the contract he signed through the Gilbert Arenas Provision. In addition, incentive clauses that a player either triggers or fails to meet can leave a player with more or less money than his cap hit reflects.
Still, the purpose of this list is to show the relative pay scale by position, which is why all contracts are included in this post. The only deals which were omitted were for players with non-guaranteed deals who were already waived.
The league’s centers are listed below, in descending order of salary:
- Dwight Howard (Rockets) $21,436,721
- Marc Gasol (Grizzlies) $15,829,688
- Brook Lopez (Nets) $15,719,062
- Roy Hibbert (Pacers) $14,898,938
- Tyson Chandler (Mavs) $14,846,887
- DeMarcus Cousins (Kings) $14,746,000
- Al Jefferson (Hornets) $13.5MM
- Andrew Bogut (Warriors) $12,972,973
- Joakim Noah (Bulls) $12.7MM
- Nikola Pekovic (Wolves) $12.1MM
- Al Horford (Hawks) $12MM
- DeAndre Jordan (Clippers) $11,440,123
- JaVale McGee (Nuggets) $11,250,000
- Larry Sanders (Bucks) $11MM
- Marcin Gortat (Wizards) $10,434,782
- Anderson Varejao (Cavs) $9,704,545
- Kendrick Perkins (Thunder) $9,654,342
- Jordan Hill (Lakers) $9MM
- Omer Asik (Pelicans) $8,374,646
- Robin Lopez (Blazers) $6,124,729
- Chuck Hayes (Raptors) $5,958,750
- Enes Kanter (Jazz) $5,694,674
- J.J. Hickson (Nuggets) $5,381,750
- Chris Andersen (Heat) $5,375,000
- Spencer Hawes (Clippers) $5,305,000
- Zaza Pachulia (Bucks) $5.2MM
- Chris Kaman (Blazers) $4.8MM
- Timofey Mozgov (Cavs) $4,650,000
- Joel Embiid (Sixers) $4,427,640
- Samuel Dalembert (Waived by Knicks) $4,051,527
- Cody Zeller (Hornets) $4,030,560
- Ian Mahinmi (Pacers) $4MM
- Kevin Seraphin (Wizards) $3,898,693
- Bismack Biyombo (Hornets) $3,873,398
- Joel Anthony (Pistons) $3.8MM
- Jonas Valanciunas (Raptors) $3,678,360
- Alex Len (Suns) $3,649,920
- Jason Smith (Knicks) $3,278,000
- Joel Freeland (Blazers) $3,013,512
- Kosta Koufos (Grizzlies) $3MM
- Nikola Vucevic (Magic) $2,751,260
- Udonis Haslem (Heat) $2,732,000
- Andre Drummond (Pistons) $2,568,360
- Meyers Leonard (Blazers) $2,317,920
- Brendan Haywood (Cavs) $2,213,688
- Steven Adams (Thunder) $2,184,960
- Vitor Faverani (Celtics) $2,090,000
- Kelly Olynyk (Celtics) $2,075,760
- DeJuan Blair (Wizards) $2MM
- Lucas Nogueira (Raptors) $1,762,680
- Jusuf Nurkic (Nuggets) $1,762,680
- Tyler Zeller (Celtics) $1,703,760
- Ronny Turiaf (Wolves) $1.5MM
- Gorgui Dieng (Wolves) $1,413,480
- Mason Plumlee (Nets) $1,357,080
- Pero Antic (Hawks) $1.25MM
- Clint Capela (Rockets) $1,189,200
- Miles Plumlee (Suns) $1,169,880
- Rudy Gobert (Jazz) $1,127,400
- Festus Ezeli (Warriors) $1,112,880
- Alexis Ajinca (Pelicans) $981,784
- Cole Aldrich (Knicks) $915,243
- Ryan Hollins (Kings) $915,243
- Nazr Mohammed (Bulls) $915,243
- Robert Sacre (Lakers) $915,243
- Henry Sims (Sixers) $915,243
- Greg Stiemsma (Raptors) $915,243
- Dewayne Dedmon (Magic) $816,482
- Justin Hamilton (Heat) $816,482
- Jerome Jordan (Nets) $816,482
- Ognjen Kuzmic (Warriors) $816,482
- Jeff Withey (Pelicans) $816,482
- Hassan Whiteside (Heat) $769,881
- Alex Kirk (Waived by Knicks) $507,336
- Fab Melo (Waived by Grizzlies) $437,080
- Miroslav Raduljica (Waived by Clippers) $300K
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.