Dead Money: Team Rankings

Not every dollar of each team’s payroll shows up on the court, as franchises often dish out funds to players who are no longer on their rosters or even in the league in some instances. Players with guaranteed money who are waived, either through a standard waiver release, use of the stretch provision, or when a buyout arrangement is reached, still count against a team’s cap figure for the duration of their contracts, or the amount of time specified by the collective bargaining agreement for when a player’s salary is stretched. NBA teams are currently in line to pay out approximately $76,938,241 in salary to players who are no longer on their rosters, with the Sixers topping out at an astronomical $28,493,696. You can view the full dead money breakdowns for the Atlantic, Central, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest and Pacific Divisions by clicking on the corresponding hyperlinks. Listed in descending order below are how each NBA team ranks in amount of dead money on the books this season:

  1. Sixers — $28,493,696
  2. Pistons — $9,353,478
  3. Wizards — $5,823,926
  4. Nets — $5,627,366
  5. Celtics — $3,819,456
  6. Timberwolves — $3,725,000
  7. Trail Blazers — $3,083,181
  8. Nuggets — $2,550,480
  9. Mavericks — $1,898,129
  10. Bucks — $1,865,547
  11. Jazz — $1,527,476
  12. Clippers — $1,412,964
  13. Grizzlies — $1,394,377
  14. Suns — $1,379,261
  15. Magic — $1,195,059
  16. Kings — $937,630
  17. Lakers — $620,035
  18. Pacers — $606,178
  19. Spurs — $507,711
  20. Bulls — $333,333
  21. Knicks — $275,000
  22. Raptors — $150,000
  23. Pelicans — $115,771
  24. Rockets — $88,187
  25. Hornets — $80,000
  26. Hawks — $75,000
  27. Cavaliers — $0
  28. Heat — $0
  29. Thunder — $0
  30. Warriors — $0

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

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