Tag: Salaries

The highest-paid NBA coaches and how they compare to players

Last week, Sportico released its list of the highest-paid coaches in American sports, with NBA coaches well represented and led by the Warriors’ Steve Kerr. However, their yearly earnings pale in comparison to NBA players, with coaches’ salaries …

Last week, Sportico released its list of the highest-paid coaches in American sports, with NBA coaches well represented and led by the Warriors’ Steve Kerr.

However, their yearly earnings pale in comparison to NBA players, with coaches’ salaries more closely matching those of rank-and-file players in the league.

Check for yourself below:

These are the NBA players with descending contracts

The hope for every worker is to have a better salary each year of their career. For NBA players, this is usually a given, starting with fixed rookie-scale contracts that increase annually. However, we find the opposite in some cases: players with …

The hope for every worker is to have a better salary each year of their career. For NBA players, this is usually a given, starting with fixed rookie-scale contracts that increase annually. However, we find the opposite in some cases: players with decreasing contracts year over year. For NBA organizations, this is a valuable tool to maintain future flexibility, even if it means making sacrifices in the immediate present.

Here are the players whose salaries will decrease until their current contracts expire.

Ranking: The highest-paid players per game in NBA history

Former teammates Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid top the list of highest-paid players per game in NBA history, according to HoopsHype’s research (minimum 15 games played). Both fit a common trend among the leaders in our ranking: star players who signed …

Former teammates Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid top the list of highest-paid players per game in NBA history, according to HoopsHype’s research (minimum 15 games played). Both fit a common trend among the leaders in our ranking: star players who signed massive contracts but couldn’t fully meet expectations due to injuries.

This pattern runs throughout the list, with several big names cashing in despite limited availability. In total, 19 players have earned at least $300,000 per contest over their careers.

As always, you can check the full ranking below:

NBA-NFL salary comparison: Team-by-team breakdown

NFL players have ample reason to be jealous of NBA salaries. Typically, even non-star basketball players receive contracts comparable to those of top football talents. If you want proof, just check below who the NFL player is with the closest salary …

NFL players have ample reason to be jealous of NBA salaries. Typically, even non-star basketball players receive contracts comparable to those of top football talents.

If you want proof, just check below who the NFL player is with the closest salary to each player in the NBA.

Research: Which NBA teams spend the most money on stars?

For a league in which star power so greatly determines outcomes, money is more evenly distributed among players than you might expect. In the last 20 years, All-Star players (roughly 5 percent of the players in any given NBA season) have received …

For a league in which star power so greatly determines outcomes, money is more evenly distributed among players than you might expect.

In the last 20 years, All-Star players (roughly 5 percent of the players in any given NBA season) have received only 16.59 percent of total league salaries. For All-NBA players (15 annually), the number would be 10.37 percent.

But which teams spend the most money on those star players?

We tried to find out by focusing on All-NBA selections in the past two decades (since we have 30 teams in the league).

Unsurprisingly, the Los Angeles Lakers top the list, having spent $792.7 million on All-NBA players – 30.61 percent of their total salary expenditure. Interestingly, they rank 29th in spending on non-All-NBA players.

More surprisingly, the small-market Oklahoma City Thunder rank second, investing $484.8 million in All-NBA talent. They also rank last in non-star player expenses. A prime example of efficient resource allocation right there.

For the full ranking, check below:

Ranking: Players who earned the most money without playing for the season

Stars are usually paid top dollar in the league, and they are expected to produce at an elite level consistently. However, injuries are a part of the game, sometimes due to wear and tear or simply unfortunate situations. We dived into history to …

Stars are usually paid top dollar in the league, and they are expected to produce at an elite level consistently. However, injuries are a part of the game, sometimes due to wear and tear or simply unfortunate situations.

We dived into history to find out which players pocketed the most while sitting out an entire season, whether due to injuries, health issues, or other reasons.

2024 cap space landscape: The outlook for each NBA team

With the 2024 NBA trade deadline in the rearview mirror, rosters are, for the most part, decided. The trade deadline is not the same thing as a roster deadline, and teams are permitted to make signings and waivings up to and including the last day …

With the 2024 NBA trade deadline in the rearview mirror, rosters are, for the most part, decided. The trade deadline is not the same thing as a roster deadline, and teams are permitted to make signings and waivings up to and including the last day of the regular season. Nevertheless, rarely if ever do those post-deadline moves make an impact on the team’s cap pictures in future seasons, and thus fairly accurate assessments of how each franchise lines up for the upcoming offseason can be made.

In the NBA’s most recent projections, the 2024-25 salary cap is estimated to be coming in at $141 million, still an increase from this season’s $136,021,000 but a slight decline from the previous projections. This nonetheless still represents a figure that is more than double what it was as recently as 2015-16. Team spending has however grown just as much, if not more, and so while many seasons since 2016 have seen plenty of cap space available around the league – certainly much more than across the previous decade, when a far slower rate of growth meant only a handful of teams having any every year – this number will be reduced this season.

Nonetheless, even though offseason trades, the instability of draft night, future extensions and contract options can all significantly change matters, there follows a look at each NBA team’s 2024-25 projected spending as things currently stand.

NBA players who were paid like stars (but were not)

Throughout league history, there are always players who are not at that top tier who get paid in the upper echelon. We delved into instances where mere role players or high-quality starters received star-like paychecks, landing in the Top 20 in …

Throughout league history, there are always players who are not at that top tier who get paid in the upper echelon.

We delved into instances where mere role players or high-quality starters received star-like paychecks, landing in the Top 20 in salaries for at least one season. Such situations might arise due to the market dynamics of the time or simply miscalculations by their front offices.

Here is a list that includes 22 players, including Chandler Parsons, Sam Bowie, and media personality Jalen Rose.

All-Contract Value Team: The biggest bargains in the NBA by position

Here are the best contract values by position with some honorable mentions listed as well.

The value of contracts in the NBA has become a bigger source of debate with their dollar amounts skyrocketing over the past decade. A player earning over $20 million or $30 million doesn’t have the same meaning that it used to. Now contracts are being analyzed in other ways such as their percentage to the salary cap.

So we made an All-NBA Team of the best contract values by position. In this exercise, we excluded players on rookie contracts and maximum salaries, since those amounts are generally fixed. It’s more practical to look at the contracts in between that are more nuanced and require a great deal of negotiation from both sides.