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Community Shootaround: Best Postseason Player

April 21st, 2019 at 3:52pm CST by clarkcrum

The first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs is underway, with all series now having played three or four games. Heading into Easter Sunday, the Bucks, Rockets, and Celtics all had 3-0 series leads over the Pistons, Jazz, and Pacers, respectively, while the Warriors, Raptors, and Blazers lead 2-1 over the Clippers, Magic, and Thunder, respectively. Meanwhile, the Sixers have taken a 3-1 lead over the Nets and the Spurs and Nuggets are tied up at 2-2.

The leading postseason scorer so far is Damian Lillard, who is averaging 30.3 PPG to go along with 4.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. He is also ninth in PER at 27.7. He nearly led Portland to a 3-0 series lead over the Thunder in Oklahoma City with a 25-point third quarter in Game 3.

In the Eastern Conference, Joel Embiid has managed to play his way through pain and put up dominant averages of 25.3 PPG, 13.7 PPG, and 4.0 APG in in three games to give Philly a likely insurmountable 3-1 lead over Brooklyn. His numbers so far rank ninth in scoring and first in rebounding, while he also has the top PER of 40.4.

Other candidates for best player so far include some unsurprising candidates like Stephen Curry, Nikola Jokic, and MVP-front runner James Harden, as well as some less heralded players in Pascal Siakam and Lou Williams. Siakam is averaging a double-double through three games while Williams’ performance in Game 2 of the Clips’ series with Golden State helped lead the biggest comeback in playoff history.

So what do you think? Which player has had the best 2019 postseason so far? Is it one of the players listed above of another player? Is is purely based on stats or for some other, less-obvious reason? Head below to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts!

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Five Key Stories: 4/13/19 – 4/20/19

April 20th, 2019 at 9:15pm CST by Arthur Hill

If you missed any of this past week’s biggest headlines from around the NBA, we’ve got you covered with our Week in Review. Here are some of the most noteworthy stories from the last seven days:

The Warriors are still the favorite to capture a third straight title, but their playoff road got more difficult with the loss of DeMarcus Cousins. The standout center suffered a torn quad while diving for a ball in Game 2 of Golden State’s playoff series with the Clippers. Injury issues will hang over Cousins in free agency for a second straight summer.

Zion Williamson, projected to be the top pick in this year’s draft, officially declared himself eligible. Williamson had an outstanding freshman season at Duke, averaging 22.6 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.8 BPG and 2.1 SPG in 33 games. He moved into the top spot in most mock drafts early in the season and managed to stay there.

The Pelicans landed one of the top available executives when former Cavaliers GM David Griffin agreed to become their new executive VP of basketball operations. Griffin’s top job this summer will be to work out a trade for star center Anthony Davis, who requested a deal prior to this year’s deadline.

The Grizzlies continued their front office overhaul by hiring Rich Cho as VP of basketball strategy and Glen Grunwald as a senior advisor. Since the season ended, Memphis has demoted GM Chris Wallace and hired Jason Wexler as head of basketball operations and Zach Kleiman as VP of basketball operations.

The Kings finalized a deal to make Luke Walton their new head coach. Walton was unemployed for less than a day after being fired by the Lakers. GM Vlade Divac reportedly wanted to hire Walton three years ago.

Here are 10 more headlines from the past week:

  • The Lakers made progress in their coaching search, meeting with both Tyronn Lue and Monty Williams. Heat assistant Juwan Howard will also get an interview.
  • Howard is also a candidate for the Cavaliers‘ head coaching job. Mavericks assistant Jamahl Mosley, Jazz assistant Alex Jensen and Trail Blazers assistant David Vanterpool are also expected to receive interviews.
  • ESPN analyst Chauncey Billups is among the candidates for a front office position with the Timberwolves. Billups previously interviewed for management jobs with the Cavaliers and Hawks.
  • Former All-Star center Dwight Howard opted in for the final year of his contract with the Wizards. He will receive a little more than $5.6MM next season.
  • Hornets center Bismack Biyombo also picked up his player option for 2019/20. Biyombo will make $17MM in the final season of a four-year, $68MM deal.
  • Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. had surgery on his left tibia to relieve a stress injury. The team expects him to be fully ready in time for training camp.
  • Thunder swingman Hamidou Diallo had an arthroscopic procedure on his right elbow to ease the soreness. He was inactive for Game 2 of OKC’s playoff series with the Trail Blazers.
  • Blake Griffin missed the first two games of the Pistons‘ playoff series because of swelling and pain in his left knee. He will find out if surgery will be necessary once Detroit’s postseason run is over.
  • Kevin Durant said again this week that he doesn’t plan to focus on a free agency decision until the playoffs are over. He will be eligible for a five-year, $221MM deal with the Warriors or four years and $164MM from anyone else.
  • Sixers backup center Amir Johnson was fined for looking at his cell phone on the sidelines during the playoff opener with the Nets. Using a cell phone on the bench is a violation of the NBA’s Operations Manual.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Hoops Rumors Originals: 4/13/19 – 4/20/19

April 20th, 2019 at 6:15pm CST by Arthur Hill

Every week, the Hoops Rumors writing team creates original content to complement our news feed. Here are our original segments and features from the past seven days:

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Free Agent Stock Watch 2019: Eastern Conference

April 19th, 2019 at 7:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Every week, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents next offseason. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. With the playoffs underway, we turn our attention to the Eastern Conference:

Michael Carter-Williams, Magic, 27, PG (Up) – Signed to a one-year, $60K deal in 2019
Carter-Williams was scrounging for work six weeks ago after getting traded from Houston to Chicago in early January and then immediately getting waived. The former Rookie of the Year had to settle for 10-day contracts with Orlando before he was signed for the remainder of the season. Not only did he help the Magic reach the playoffs, he’s been one of their main cogs off the bench against Toronto. He posted 10 points, five rebounds and two assists in Orlando’s Game One upset. Carter-Williams has played well enough to receive offers commensurate to other veteran backup point guards.

Glenn Robinson III, Pistons, 25, SF (Down) – Signed to a two-year, $8.35MM deal in 2018
With Blake Griffin sidelined by a knee in the first two games against Milwaukee, Robinson got one last chance to convince the Pistons that they should exercise their $4.3MM option on him for next season. Robinson has been utilized as an undersized power forward in the series but his perimeter shooting woes have continued. After shooting just 29% from deep and falling out of Dwane Casey‘s rotation during the regular season, Robinson has made just one of his eight 3-point attempts in the first two games. Robinson will assuredly return to the free agent market this summer.

Pat Connaughton, Bucks, 26, SG (Up) — Signed to a two-year, $3.36MM deal in 2018
Connaughton’s modest salary of $1.723MM for next season becomes guaranteed if he’s still on the roster July 1st. That already seemed like a good bet heading into the postseason; now it’s a no-brainer. He’s taken advantage of an expanded role with Malcolm Brogdon and Tony Snell sidelined by injuries. Connaughton has been a difference-maker against Detroit, averaging 14.0 PPG on 73.4% shooting and 8.5 RPG in 29.5 MPG. He also recorded four blocks on perimeter shooters in Game Two. He’ll be one of the league’s best bargains next season.

Jeremy Lin, Raptors, 30, PG (Down) – Signed to a one-year, $487K deal in 2019
Lin chose the Raptors after agreeing to a buyout with the Hawks in mid-February. The expectation was that he would bolster the playoff rotation behind Kyle Lowry. But Lin has had trouble finding his footing in Toronto and with Fred VanVleet healthy, he has been the odd man out in the postseason. He never left the bench in the Game One loss to Orlando and played four meaningless minutes in Game Two. Lin should still find work this summer but he’ll likely have to settle for something close to the veteran’s minimum.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Hoops Rumors’ 2019 NBA Award Picks: Rookie Of The Year

April 19th, 2019 at 2:31pm CST by Hoops Rumors

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards this week and next week.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re keeping things going today with the award for Rookie of the Year. Here are our selections:

Arthur Hill: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Trae Young rallied to make the race interesting, but Doncic stands atop a very talented rookie class. He arrived from the EuroLeague with more experience and poise than most first-year players and quickly proved to be as good as his reputation. He was the top rookie scorer at 21.2 points per game to go with 7.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists, making him the first rookie to reach that combination since Oscar Robertson. Triple-doubles should become common for Doncic in the future as the Mavericks improve.

JD Shaw: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Just like the MVP award, this is widely viewed as a race between two select players: Doncic and Young. While Young made a strong late-season push, Doncic’s impressive production lasted all year long for the Mavericks, with the 20-year-old proving he can play multiple positions and lead a young team for the future. His wizardry with the basketball, impressive court vision, willingness to rebound, and mature scoring abilities help him stand out at such a young age, giving him the edge to be my pick for this year’s award.

Chris Crouse: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Doncic wasn’t held back by the learning curve that typically accompanies rookies. Showcasing command of the Mavs offense early in the season, he built a Rookie of the Year award candidacy that would be hard for any player to overcome.

Young, Deandre Ayton, and Jaren Jackson Jr. are among those who deserve recognition for their respective rookie seasons and each should have a bright future in the league. However, Doncic’s debut was more deserving of the award.

Dana Gauruder: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Young made a spirited run after the All-Star break, but Doncic’s numbers also rose as the year went along. Even after posting 21.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, and 6.0 APG in his first NBA season, he’s still younger than many college juniors — the Mavericks’ future is bright with Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis as their franchise cornerstones. Doncic also racked up eight triple-doubles, tying for fourth in the league, and he’ll likely rank second to only Russell Westbrook in that category over the next few seasons.

Luke Adams: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
Young’s second-half stats (22.8 PPG and 8.9 APG in 40 games) made this race more interesting than it had any right to be, given that at least one sportsbook paid out Rookie of the Year bets on Doncic in mid-February. Still, the gap between the two rookies’ early-season performances make this an easy choice.

Before they slumped during the holiday season and then traded away half their team early in 2019, the Mavericks got off to a 15-11 start – capped by a win in Atlanta – with Doncic looking like their MVP. Meanwhile, during the Hawks’ first 26 games, Young was putting up a shooting line of .373/.243/.781 with a league-worst turnover rate. Young’s second-half run wasn’t enough to overcome that slow start.

While a number of players from the 2018/19 rookie class should go on to have long, productive NBA careers, Doncic has been the best of the bunch so far.

Who is your pick for Rookie of the Year? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

Still to come:

  • Defensive Player of the Year
  • Most Valuable Player

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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2018/19 Hoops Rumors Contract MVPs: Part II

April 19th, 2019 at 11:11am CST by ChrisCrouse

Hoops Rumors is breaking down each type of contract in the NBA to find out which players were the most valuable under each type of deal.

If you missed Part 1 of the “Contract MVPs,” we covered two-way deals, 10-day contracts, and various mid-level and bi-annual exceptions. The rules in Part 2 remain the same: To qualify, a player must have played under that contract during the 2018/19 campaign. Players who see their status change (such as Enes Kanter, who began the season on a max deal but then signed with Portland for the minimum) maintain the same status they began with.

Here are our remaining “Contract MVPs”:

Minimum Salary

The Nets signed Dinwiddie to a minimum-salary deal back in 2016 and while injuries delayed his breakout, he showcased his offensive ability over the past two seasons. He scored a career-high 16.8 points per game in 2018/19, sporting a 16.8 player efficiency rating in the process.

The combo guard was able to parlay his success into an extension worth $34MM over three years starting in the 2019/20 campaign. It’s a massive raise on this year’s salary, which came in just under $1.66MM.

Honorable mentions: Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose

Rookie-Scale Contract

  • Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves): Four-years, $25,720,035 rookie-scale contract (signed in 2015).

Towns signed a long-term, maximum-salary extension back in September, but he earned just slightly under $7.9MM this season during the fourth and final year of his rookie deal. You could argue that no player has provided more value on a per-dollar basis than Towns (though Ben Simmons also has a case) and that’s a product of the NBA’s ever-valuable rookie-scale contracts.

Jimmy Butler‘s departure allowed Towns to truly take the lead role in Minnesota. The center finished the season fifth in both VORP and NBA Math’s TPA. He was fourth in player efficiency rating and top-10 in win shares.

The former Kentucky Wildcat put himself in position to make an additional $30MM+ on his $158MM extension by inserting himself into the All-NBA Team conversation. He’ll have more competition for a “contract award” in a new tier next season.

Honorable mention: Ben Simmons

Rookie-Scale Extension (Including Max)

Antetokounmpo was willing to take less than the max during extension negotiations in 2016, since he wanted Milwaukee to have the flexibility to make sound additions around him. The 2018/19 season was a culmination of those efforts, with the Bucks securing the top record in the NBA.

With a deep team that complements him, Antetokounmpo took yet another leap forward. The 2017/18 Most Improved Player led the league in player efficiency rating and in win shares per 48 minutes. The only real stain in his MVP candidacy is his minutes played total (2,358), which ranked 47th in the league (between CJ McCollum and Nicolas Batum). Still, he’s favored to win the league’s award and he gets our MVP for this tier.

Honorable mentions: Joel Embiid, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis

Max Contract (25% Starting Salary, Non-Rookie-Scale Extension)

These contracts generally exist as a result of a player on a rookie contract hitting restricted free agency. Sometimes it’s a player who was not selected in the first round severely overachieving leading up to the end of his contract. Outside of the rookie-scale extensions, there aren’t many desirable max deals that start at 25% of the cap (reserved for players with 0-6 years of experience).

The 2016 offseason shopping spree littered the market with max contracts of this criteria. Chandler Parsons, Hassan Whiteside, and Harrison Barnes can thank the biggest salary cap spike ever for their status. Different circumstances led Andre Drummond and Otto Porter Jr. to receive their deals, though both contracts are considered player-friendly.

Jokic, Bradley Beal and Kawhi Leonard are the only real contenders for the MVP of this max contract tier. There are arguments for Beal and Leonard, but Jokic’s dominant campaign, in which he finished third in the league in NBA Math’s TPA Metric, gives him the nod.

Honorable mentions: Bradley Beal, Kawhi Leonard

Max Contract (30%)

  • James Harden, (Rockets): Four-year, $117,964,846 extension (signed in 2016 and renegotiated a year later).

Harden signed an extension in 2016 before the current CBA went into effect, then inked a new, super-max extension a year later after the players’ union and the league came together to add a provision to the new CBA. The passage grandfathered Harden and Russell Westbrook into the pool of players that were eligible for the Designated Veteran Extension.

Harden’s super-max extension doesn’t kick in until next season where he’ll make $37.8MM. His original extension, which began at 30% of salary cap and will ultimately run for three seasons from 2016/17 through 2018/19, has produced an MVP season sandwiched by two (likely) runner-up campaigns. The Rockets arguably received the most production from any one player regardless of contract type over this three-year stretch.

Honorable mention: Paul George

Max Contact (35%)

Had Curry not missed a stretch of 11 games early in the season, perhaps he’s in the NBA’s MVP discussion. Although sharing the court with several other Warriors stars does not help his narrative.

Curry further shifted his offensive load beyond the 3-point line in 2018/19, attempting a career-high 11.7 shots per game from behind the arc. He made 5.1 of those tries (the same amount as his 2015/16 MVP season) and it resulted in the second-highest scoring season of his career (27.3 points per game).

Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and LeBron James are the only other players who played on this tier of max contract this past season. Each star had a season deserving of accolades, but Curry was a notch above them this year.

Honorable mentions: Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, LeBron James

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

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2019 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Atlanta Hawks

April 18th, 2019 at 3:59pm CST by Luke Adams

The Hawks were viewed by prognosticators as perhaps the NBA’s worst team entering the 2018/19 season, and while they still didn’t crack the 30-win mark, they exceeded their modest expectations and flashed some intriguing long-term potential. With a handful of core pieces already in place, Atlanta has the draft assets and the cap flexibility to keep adding more this offseason.

Here’s where things currently stand for the Hawks financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2019:

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

  • None

Team Options

  • None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

  • Deyonta Davis ($1,645,357)
  • Jaylen Adams ($1,316,852) 1
  • Total: $2,962,209

Restricted Free Agents

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

Projected Salary Cap: $109,000,000
Projected Tax Line: $132,000,000

Offseason Cap Outlook

  • Realistic cap room projection: $43.4MM
  • The Hawks have nine players on fully guaranteed contracts for 2019/20. If they simply keep those players plus both of their first-round picks, then renounce or waive the rest of their players, this would be their cap room projection. That’s not an unrealistic scenario, since none of Atlanta’s free agents are players the team must re-sign.

Cap Exceptions Available

  • Trade exception: $1,378,242 (expires 2/7/20) 3
  • Room exception: $4,760,000 4

Footnotes

  1. Adams’ salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 19.
  2. The salaries for two-way players don’t count against a team’s cap, but their cap holds do during the offseason.
  3. The Hawks will lose this exception if they go under the cap to use room.
  4. This is a projected value. In the unlikely event that the Hawks remain over the cap, they’d instead gain access to the mid-level exception ($9,246,000) and bi-annual exception ($3,619,000).

Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders and RealGM was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Hoops Rumors’ 2019 NBA Award Picks: Most Improved Player

April 18th, 2019 at 2:13pm CST by Hoops Rumors

While the NBA won’t announce this year’s award winners until June, we’re making our picks for 2019’s major awards this week and next week.

The Hoops Rumors writing team has weighed in with our choices below, but we also want to know which players, coaches, and executives you think are most deserving of the hardware this season, so jump into the comment section below to share your thoughts.

We’re keeping things going today with the award for Most Improved Player. Here are our selections:

Luke Adams: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
In a season littered with breakout performances, nearly half of the NBA’s rosters feature at least one legit candidate for this award. None has a stronger case than Siakam.

Grouped together with young Raptors role players like Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby a year ago, Siakam has raised his ceiling significantly since then, improving every aspect of his game, from his ball-handling to his outside shooting to his defensive versatility. The Raptors leaned on Siakam as one of their primary play-makers on offense and asked him to defend point guards, centers, and everything in between on the other end of the floor. He responded admirably to every challenge, emerging as an indispensable part of a 58-win team and as a future All-Star.

Dana Gauruder: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
Siakam only started five games last season before blossoming into the second-best player on a prime playoff contender in 2018/19, his third NBA campaign. The 25-year-old averaged nearly 10 points more than last season, was one of the Raptors’ top rebounders (6.9 RPG), and improved his assist totals as the season went along (4.1 in the month of March). Even if Kawhi Leonard leaves in free agency, Siakam may be primed to step into a starring role.

JD Shaw: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
This is the easiest award for me to vote on, mostly because Siakam’s improvement on both ends was so clear this season that you really don’t have to look at the stat sheets. He was tasked with a much larger role under head coach Nick Nurse and accepted the challenge, cementing his role as starting power forward and helping lead the Raptors to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at 58-24.

If you do check the numbers, you’ll see Siakam raised his shooting marks drastically. He shot 55% from the floor, up from 51% last season, and 37% from 3-point range, up from 22%, to go along with an average of 16.9 points per game, good for the second-most on his team.

Arthur Hill: D’Angelo Russell (Nets)
Injury-free for the first time since his rookie season, Russell developed into the leader the Lakers were hoping for when they drafted him second overall in 2015. His stats didn’t improve as much as those of other candidates (21.1 PPG, 3.9 RPG and 7.0 APG this season, compared to 15.5/3.9/5.2 last year), but he became the top crunch-time option for a Nets team that reached the playoffs for the first time in four years. Russell was Brooklyn’s leader in scoring, 3-pointers, assists, steals, deflections, games played, minutes played and PER, and appears ready to be one of the top point guards in the East for years to come.

Chris Crouse: Pascal Siakam (Raptors)
Russell took a huge step forward this year, while Siakam took a Giannis-from-the-free-throw-line style leap.

Siakam’s improvement came in ever-changing circumstances. The Raptors only saw Leonard and Kyle Lowry suit up together in 43 games. Siakam played in 80 contests and was part of 19 different starting lineups for Toronto. His role routinely fluctuated from top defensive stopper to floor-spacing third option to isolation play-maker to in-transition tempo-setter.

Due to injuries, Russell also had to deal with a rotating cast beside him, but he consistently was the No. 1 option. He led the Nets to the playoffs first the first time since Paul Pierce was in Brooklyn, scoring 4.6 more points and dishing out nearly two more assists per game than he did last season without increasing his turnovers. His player efficiency rating skyrocketed from barely above league average to 19.4.

Russell’s year-to-year usage in Brooklyn remained steady and he deserves credit for becoming more efficient with his opportunities. Siakam expanded his game and earned additional opportunities, upping his scoring by nearly 10 points per contest with a completely new offensive game. Brooklyn’s first-time All-Star appears to want the award more than Siakam, but the Raptors’ utility knife has the better case for 2018/19’s Most Improved Player.

Who is your pick for Most Improved Player? Share your choices and your thoughts in the comment section below!

Previously:

Still to come:

  • Rookie of the Year
  • Defensive Player of the Year
  • Most Valuable Player

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Poll: 2019 All-NBA First Team

April 18th, 2019 at 12:03pm CST by Luke Adams

NBA teams in 2018/19 played at the fastest league-wide pace in three decades, and scoring totals increased in turn. According to Basketball-Reference, clubs scored an averaged of 111.2 points per game this season, the highest mark the league has seen since the NBA-ABA merger.

As a result, some historic individual numbers were recorded in 2018/19, making the All-NBA races particularly compelling. For a handful of players, the All-NBA selections will also have major financial consequences, impacting their potential maximum salaries this offseason.

The league isn’t expected to announce its All-NBA teams for about another month, but we want to give you an opportunity to make your own picks before then. We’re starting today with the First Team, before moving onto the Second Team on Monday, and the Third Team later next week.

Polls for the guards, forwards, and center are below — you’ll have the opportunity to pick two players apiece in the guard and forward polls. We’ll leave today’s polls open through the weekend before naming the players with the most votes to our All-NBA First Team and moving on to voting for the Second Team.

Vote for your All-NBA picks below, and then take to the comment section to explain your reasoning. And if there’s a player not listed below that you believe deserves All-NBA consideration, be sure to mention him in the comment section too — if I agree, I’ll make sure he’s included in our Second and Third Team polls.

Guards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA First Team guards.

Forwards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA First Team forwards.

Center:

(Choose one)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA First Team center.

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Recent History Of NBA Taxpaying Teams

April 18th, 2019 at 11:01am CST by Luke Adams

As we detailed last week, five NBA teams finished the 2018/19 season in luxury tax territory, with the Thunder, Warriors, Raptors, Trail Blazers, and Celtics on the hook for an estimated total of $153.5MM in tax payments.

It was the first time since 2016’s salary cap spike that as many as five teams were taxpayers, and the projected league-wide tax payments of $153.5MM appears to be a new high. While two teams – Oklahoma City and Golden State – contributed significantly to that figure, the rising number of clubs in the tax reflects that teams are once again going well over the salary cap, as annual cap increases have slowed in recent years.

Listed below are the NBA’s taxpayers for the last five seasons, based on data from ESPN, Larry Coon’s CBA FAQ, and our own records.

As this list shows, the Thunder, Warriors, and Cavaliers were each taxpayers in three of the last four seasons, making those teams eligible for repeater-tax penalties if they finish in tax territory again in 2019/20. Repeater penalties are more punitive — the tax for every dollar spent above the tax line starts at $2.50 rather than $1.50. As such, those teams figure to do their best to avoid excessive spending next season.

The 2019/20 tax line is expected to be around $132MM, based on the NBA’s latest cap projections, and the Thunder already have nearly $138MM in guaranteed salaries on their books, per Basketball Insiders. The Cavaliers are at about $123MM, but may increase that figure substantially if they trade J.R. Smith‘s non-guaranteed contract for guaranteed salary. As for the Warriors, they’re only at $82MM in guaranteed money, but would be at risk of going well into the tax if they re-sign Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.

As we prepare to keep an eye on those teams’ spending this offseason, here are the reported luxury tax figures from the last five NBA seasons:

2018/19

  1. Oklahoma City Thunder: $61.6MM
  2. Golden State Warriors: $51.5MM
  3. Toronto Raptors: $21.4MM
  4. Portland Trail Blazers: $15.1MM
  5. Boston Celtics: $3.9MM
    Total: $153.5MM
    Note: This season’s figures are still subject to change, based on postseason-related contract incentives.

2017/18

  1. Cleveland Cavaliers ($50.7MM)
  2. Golden State Warriors ($32.3MM)
  3. Oklahoma City Thunder ($25.4MM)
  4. Washington Wizards ($7MM)
    Total: $115.4MM

2016/17

  1. Cleveland Cavaliers ($24.8MM)
  2. Los Angeles Clippers ($3.6MM)
    Total: $28.4MM

2015/16

  1. Cleveland Cavaliers ($54MM)
  2. Los Angeles Clippers ($19.9MM)
  3. Golden State Warriors ($14.8MM)
  4. Oklahoma City Thunder ($14.5MM)
  5. Houston Rockets ($4.9MM)
  6. San Antonio Spurs ($4.9MM)
  7. Chicago Bulls ($4.2MM)
    Total: $117.2MM

2014/15

  1. Brooklyn Nets ($20MM)
  2. Cleveland Cavaliers ($7MM)
  3. New York Knicks ($6.9MM)
  4. Los Angeles Clippers ($4.8MM)
  5. Oklahoma City Thunder ($2.8MM)
    Total: $41.5MM

Information from Basketball Insiders, Larry Coon’s CBA FAQ, and ESPN’s Bobby Marks was used in the creation of this post.

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