Many of the NBA’s highest-paid players are on contracts considered maximum-salary deals, but the 2022/23 salaries for those players vary significantly depending on when the player signed his contract and how much NBA experience he has. That’s why a player like Stephen Curry will earn about $17.7MM more than Donovan Mitchell in ’22/23 despite both stars technically being on max deals.
When a player signs a maximum-salary contract, he doesn’t necessarily earn the NBA max for each season of that contract — he earns the max in year one, then gets a series of identical annual raises. In Curry’s case, his 2022/23 salary actually exceeds this year’s maximum, since the annual cap increases since he began earning the max haven’t kept pace with his annual 8% raises.
Listed below, with some help from Spotrac‘s salary data, are the top 50 highest-paid NBA players for the 2022/23 season. The players on this list don’t necessarily have the contracts with the largest overall value. The list below only considers salaries for ’22/23.
Additionally, we’ve noted players who could potentially increase their earnings via incentives or trade bonuses. We didn’t add those notes for players like Curry who have trade bonuses but are already earning the maximum — their salaries for this season can’t increase beyond their max.
The cutoff for a spot on this year’s top-50 list is over $25MM, so 13 players earning $20MM+ didn’t make the cut, led by Knicks forward Julius Randle ($23.76MM, plus incentives) and Hawks big man John Collins ($23.5MM).
Here are the NBA’s 50 highest-paid players for the 2022/23 season:
- Stephen Curry, Warriors: $48,070,014
- Russell Westbrook, Lakers: $47,063,478
- LeBron James, Lakers: $44,474,988
- Kevin Durant, Nets: $44,119,845
- Note: Durant’s cap hit includes a $42,969,845 base salary and $1,150,000 in likely incentives.
- Bradley Beal, Wizards: $43,279,250
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks: $42,492,492 (15% trade kicker)
Kawhi Leonard, Clippers: $42,492,492 (15% trade kicker)
Paul George, Clippers: $42,492,492
Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers: $42,492,492 - Klay Thompson, Warriors: $40,600,080 (15% trade kicker)
- Rudy Gobert, Timberwolves: $38,172,414
- Anthony Davis, Lakers: $37,980,720 (15% trade kicker)
- Khris Middleton, Bucks: $37,948,276
- Jimmy Butler, Heat: $37,653,300 (15% trade kicker)
- Tobias Harris, Sixers: $37,633,050 (5% trade kicker)
- Luka Doncic, Mavericks: $37,096,500
Zach LaVine, Bulls: $37,096,500
Trae Young, Hawks: $37,096,500 - Kyrie Irving, Nets: $36,934,550 (15% trade kicker)
- Note: Irving’s cap hit includes a $36,503,300 base salary and $431,250 in likely incentives. He also has another $718,750 in unlikely incentives.
- Pascal Siakam, Raptors: $35,448,672
Ben Simmons, Nets: $35,448,672 - Karl-Anthony Towns, Timberwolves: $33,833,400 (15% trade kicker)
Devin Booker, Suns: $33,833,400
Kristaps Porzingis, Wizards: $33,833,400 - Jrue Holiday, Bucks: $33,665,040
- Note: Holiday’s cap hit includes a $32,544,000 base salary and $1,121,040 in likely incentives. He also has another $4,752,000 in unlikely incentives.
- Joel Embiid, Sixers: $33,616,770
Andrew Wiggins, Warriors: $33,616,770 - CJ McCollum, Pelicans: $33,333,333
- Nikola Jokic, Nuggets: $33,047,803
- Note: Jokic’s cap hit includes a $32,478,837 base salary and $568,966 in likely incentives. He also has another $568,966 in unlikely incentives.
- James Harden, Sixers: $33,000,000 (15% trade kicker)
- Brandon Ingram, Pelicans: $31,650,600
Jamal Murray, Nuggets: $31,650,600 - D’Angelo Russell, Timberwolves: $31,377,750
- Deandre Ayton, Suns: $30,913,750
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder: $30,913,750
Michael Porter Jr., Nuggets: $30,913,750 - Donovan Mitchell, Jazz: $30,351,780 (15% trade kicker)
Jayson Tatum, Celtics: $30,351,780 (15% trade kicker)
Bam Adebayo, Heat: $30,351,780
De’Aaron Fox, Kings: $30,351,780 - Gordon Hayward, Hornets: $30,075,000 (15% trade kicker)
- Jaren Jackson Jr., Grizzlies: $28,946,605
- Kevin Love, Cavaliers: $28,942,830
- Jaylen Brown, Celtics: $28,741,071
- Note: Brown’s cap hit includes a $26,669,643 base salary and $2,071,428 in likely incentives. He also has another $1,035,714 in unlikely incentives.
- Chris Paul, Suns: $28,400,000
- Kyle Lowry, Heat: $28,333,334
- Jalen Brunson, Knicks: $27,733,332 (10% trade kicker)
- DeMar DeRozan, Bulls: $27,300,000
- Al Horford, Celtics: $26,500,000
- Draymond Green, Warriors: $25,806,468 (15% trade kicker)
One player notably missing from this list is Clippers guard John Wall, who exercised a $47,366,760 player option for the 2022/23 season in June, when he was still a member of the Rockets. Wall eventually agreed to a buyout with Houston, but still counts for $40,866,760 against the team’s books this season, and is earning $6,479,000 on his new deal with L.A.
Wall’s combined cap hits would make him one of the top three highest-paid players for 2022/23, so why doesn’t he make the cut? Because he’s not actually earning all that money this season — even if a team doesn’t apply the stretch provision to a player’s cap hit when he’s waived, the player’s payments still get “stretched” across multiple seasons.
That means the Rockets will actually be paying the $40,866,760 they owe Wall across three years instead of just one, which works out to annual payments of approximately $13.62MM. Combining that number with Wall’s new $6,479,000 salary for 2022/23 wouldn’t make him one of the NBA’s top 50 highest-paid players for this season.
Wow. A lot of these salaries are outrageous when taking into account player production and contributions to WINNING. Sheeesh. Not hating, but damn.
Yeah, luckily salary are not connected to future numbers in any way at all, that would be massively unfair to players and would allow the scum billionaire team owners to pocket even MORE of the profits than they already are.
Westbrook at #2 is what jumps out at everyone who sees that list. That is why he is impossible to move.
He’s been moved twice while on this same contract wtf are u talking about
Dumped the next year because he brought the teams down. He was traded for another salary dump to Washington and then traded to LA because LeBron wanted him. Both team regretted trading for him.
He was still traded twice, so clearly he’s not untradeable.
I think you need to look up the word impossible
Jrue Holiday and Andrew Wiggins have no place being on this list lol
There are many bad contracts on this list.
You’re right, it’s not like Wiggins and Holiday were key pieces to their respective teams winning championships or anything.
Tobias Harris is the worst. By far.
Michael Porter Jr. jeez talk about getting paid on potential
I could not find him on this list
He’s number 24
D Lil topping this soon at 60 mil per year
So many guys to hate. So little time.
You could hate the billionaire team owners instead, because hating players is exactly what they want you to do. You owned much?
“Hating players is exactly what they want you to do”? I was pretty sure their main hope was for you pay to watch their team play, but okay then.
Darkside for the win
Pretty sure Sankara’s being sarcastic, he’s a player’s advocate much like me. The difference is I don’t throw together nonsensical trade scenarios that ridiculously favor the Hornets or Hawks, ask you who your favorite obscure two man teammate combo is and I rarely bring the race card into disagreements.
This is an undefeated comment
@A’sfan
And hate the owners for what reason? Is being rich a crime?
Depends how you got rich…
This is the mistake for the Lakers championships and future
Westbrook opt in
Not too long before Morant is somewhere on that list.
LMAO Tobias is the 15th highest player in the league LOL!!!
It really stings that the sixers paid Tobias instead of Jimmy virtually the same amount of money(miami-Philly tax differential aside) because of Ben Simmons and team fit when now he would fit so much better with Ben gone.
Tobias Harris is the worst. By far.
it’s a big salary but he’s still a 20 ppg scorer with good efficiency. he’s worth a big contract but maybe not that big