Teams With Dead Money Against The Salary Cap

The NBA’s salary cap for the 2014/15 season is set at $63.065MM and the luxury tax line at $76.829MM. Not all the money that teams pay out in player salary goes toward the players currently on their regular season rosters. When players with guaranteed contracts are waived, their teams are still on the hook for any dollar amount that fell under a full or partial guarantee. The player is removed from the franchise’s roster, but their salary still counts against the team’s salary cap figure.

Teams are already on the hook for approximately $40.627MM in “dead money” this season to players who won’t score a point, grab a rebound, or even warm a spot on the bench for the teams writing their checks. The Magic are the biggest spenders in this category, owing $14,705,259 in salary to players who no longer wear their jersey, or approximately 23.3% of this year’s cap amount.

Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders recently took a look at the salary owed to players no longer on rosters around the league, and since then, millions more in dead money accumulated as teams made a flurry of cuts to set their opening-night rosters. Listed below are the players who are owed “dead money” from their former teams for the 2014/15 season. Please note that these amounts do not include any cash owed to players who were let go using the amnesty provision. Teams that amnesty players are still responsible to fulfill the contracted dollar amounts, but that money doesn’t count against the salary cap.

76ers

Total=$5,194,920

Bucks

  • None

Total=$0

Bulls

Total=$333,333

Cavaliers

  • Chris Crawford ($20K)

Total=$20K

Celtics

Total=$3,015,908

Clippers

Total=$950K

Grizzlies

Total=$600,376

Hawks

Total=$1MM

Heat

  • Khem Birch ($50K)
  • Larry Drew II ($25K)
  • Tyler Johnson ($75K)

Total=$150K

Hornets

  • None

Total=$0

Jazz

Total=$1,011,482

Kings

Total=$958,780

Knicks

Total=$1,764,326

Lakers

  • None

Total=$0

Magic

Total=$14,705,259

Mavericks

Total=$1,090,243

Nets

  • None

Total=$0

Nuggets

Total=$185K

Pacers

  • None

Total=$0

Pelicans

  • None

Total=$0

Pistons

Total=$1,227,985

Raptors

Total=$671,609

Rockets

Total=$2,130,486

Spurs

  • Bryce Cotton ($50K)
  • Josh Davis ($20K)
  • JaMychal Green ($60K)
  • John Holland ($20K)

Total=$150K

Suns

Total=$777,778

Thunder

  • None

Total=$0

Timberwolves

Total=$4,519,500

Trail Blazers

Total=$30K

Warriors

  • Aaron Craft ($35K)
  • Sean Kilpatrick ($35K)
  • James Michael McAdoo ($35K)
  • Nemanja Nedovic ($1.1MM)
  • Mitchell Watt ($35K)

Total=$1.24MM

Wizards

  • None

Total=$0

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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