2014/15 Salary Rankings: Centers

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:

  1. Dwight Howard (Rockets) $21,436,721
  2. Marc Gasol (Grizzlies) $15,829,688
  3. Brook Lopez (Nets) $15,719,062
  4. Roy Hibbert (Pacers) $14,898,938
  5. Tyson Chandler (Mavs) $14,846,887
  6. DeMarcus Cousins (Kings) $14,746,000
  7. Al Jefferson (Hornets) $13.5MM
  8. Andrew Bogut (Warriors) $12,972,973
  9. Joakim Noah (Bulls) $12.7MM
  10. Nikola Pekovic (Wolves) $12.1MM
  11. Al Horford (Hawks) $12MM
  12. DeAndre Jordan (Clippers) $11,440,123
  13. JaVale McGee (Nuggets) $11,250,000
  14. Larry Sanders (Bucks) $11MM
  15. Marcin Gortat (Wizards) $10,434,782
  16. Anderson Varejao (Cavs) $9,704,545
  17. Kendrick Perkins (Thunder) $9,654,342
  18. Jordan Hill (Lakers) $9MM
  19. Omer Asik (Pelicans) $8,374,646
  20. Robin Lopez (Blazers) $6,124,729
  21. Chuck Hayes (Raptors) $5,958,750
  22. Enes Kanter (Jazz) $5,694,674
  23. J.J. Hickson (Nuggets) $5,381,750
  24. Chris Andersen (Heat) $5,375,000
  25. Spencer Hawes (Clippers) $5,305,000
  26. Zaza Pachulia (Bucks) $5.2MM
  27. Chris Kaman (Blazers) $4.8MM
  28. Timofey Mozgov (Cavs) $4,650,000
  29. Joel Embiid (Sixers) $4,427,640
  30. Samuel Dalembert (Waived by Knicks) $4,051,527
  31. Cody Zeller (Hornets) $4,030,560
  32. Ian Mahinmi (Pacers) $4MM
  33. Kevin Seraphin (Wizards) $3,898,693
  34. Bismack Biyombo (Hornets) $3,873,398
  35. Joel Anthony (Pistons) $3.8MM
  36. Jonas Valanciunas (Raptors) $3,678,360
  37. Alex Len (Suns) $3,649,920
  38. Jason Smith (Knicks) $3,278,000
  39. Joel Freeland (Blazers) $3,013,512
  40. Kosta Koufos (Grizzlies) $3MM
  41. Nikola Vucevic (Magic) $2,751,260
  42. Udonis Haslem (Heat) $2,732,000
  43. Andre Drummond (Pistons) $2,568,360
  44. Meyers Leonard (Blazers) $2,317,920
  45. Brendan Haywood (Cavs) $2,213,688
  46. Steven Adams (Thunder) $2,184,960
  47. Vitor Faverani (Celtics) $2,090,000
  48. Kelly Olynyk (Celtics) $2,075,760
  49. DeJuan Blair (Wizards) $2MM
  50. Lucas Nogueira (Raptors) $1,762,680
  51. Jusuf Nurkic (Nuggets) $1,762,680
  52. Tyler Zeller (Celtics) $1,703,760
  53. Ronny Turiaf (Wolves) $1.5MM
  54. Gorgui Dieng (Wolves) $1,413,480
  55. Mason Plumlee (Nets) $1,357,080
  56. Pero Antic (Hawks) $1.25MM
  57. Clint Capela (Rockets) $1,189,200
  58. Miles Plumlee (Suns) $1,169,880
  59. Rudy Gobert (Jazz) $1,127,400
  60. Festus Ezeli (Warriors) $1,112,880
  61. Alexis Ajinca (Pelicans) $981,784
  62. Cole Aldrich (Knicks) $915,243
  63. Ryan Hollins (Kings) $915,243
  64. Nazr Mohammed (Bulls) $915,243
  65. Robert Sacre (Lakers) $915,243
  66. Henry Sims (Sixers) $915,243
  67. Greg Stiemsma (Raptors) $915,243
  68. Dewayne Dedmon (Magic) $816,482
  69. Justin Hamilton (Heat) $816,482
  70. Jerome Jordan (Nets) $816,482
  71. Ognjen Kuzmic (Warriors) $816,482
  72. Jeff Withey (Pelicans) $816,482
  73. Hassan Whiteside (Heat) $769,881
  74. Alex Kirk (Waived by Knicks) $507,336
  75. Fab Melo (Waived by Grizzlies) $437,080
  76. Miroslav Raduljica (Waived by Clippers) $300K

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

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