NBA Reveals Full Voter Ballots For 2024/25 Awards
The NBA has formally revealed the full ballots submitted by the 100 media members who voted for each of this season’s awards, per a press release from the league.
Over the past several weeks, the NBA gradually unveiled its major award winners for the 2024/25 season, starting with Sixth Man of the Year on April 22 and wrapping up with All-NBA on Friday. While the league confirmed at the time of those announcements how many votes each player received, we now know exactly which NBA reporter or analyst submitted each vote.
So if you’ve been wondering who had Derrick White as their runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year, who snuck Jared McCain onto their Rookie of the Year ballot after he played just 23 games, who awarded Reed Sheppard and his 4.4 points per game a spot on their All-Rookie Second Team, or which 29 voters made Nikola Jokic their MVP choice, now you can find out.
Here are the results of this season’s award votes, in the order they were announced, along with our stories on each winner and links to the full media voter ballots:
Sixth Man of the Year
- Payton Pritchard (Celtics)
- Malik Beasley (Pistons)
- Ty Jerome (Cavaliers)
Clutch Player of the Year
- Jalen Brunson (Knicks)
- Nikola Jokic (Nuggets)
- Anthony Edwards (Timberwolves)
Defensive Player of the Year
- Evan Mobley (Cavaliers)
- Dyson Daniels (Hawks)
- Draymond Green (Warriors)
Rookie of the Year
- Stephon Castle (Spurs)
- Zaccharie Risacher (Hawks)
- Jaylen Wells (Grizzlies)
Most Improved Player
- Dyson Daniels (Hawks)
- Ivica Zubac (Clippers)
- Cade Cunningham (Pistons)
Coach of the Year
- Kenny Atkinson (Cavaliers)
- J.B. Bickerstaff (Pistons)
- Ime Udoka (Rockets)
All-Rookie Teams
First Team
- Stephon Castle (Spurs)
- Zaccharie Risacher (Hawks)
- Jaylen Wells (Grizzlies)
- Zach Edey (Grizzlies)
- Alex Sarr (Wizards)
Second Team
- Kel’el Ware (Heat)
- Matas Buzelis (Bulls)
- Yves Missi (Pelicans)
- Donovan Clingan (Trail Blazers)
- Bub Carrington (Wizards)
Most Valuable Player
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder)
- Nikola Jokic (Nuggets)
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
All-Defensive Teams
First Team
- Evan Mobley (Cavaliers)
- Dyson Daniels (Hawks)
- Luguentz Dort (Thunder)
- Draymond Green (Warriors)
- Amen Thompson (Rockets)
Second Team
- Ivica Zubac (Clippers)
- Jaren Jackson Jr. (Grizzlies)
- Jalen Williams (Thunder)
- Toumani Camara (Trail Blazers)
- Rudy Gobert (Timberwolves)
All-NBA Teams
First Team
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder)
- Nikola Jokic (Nuggets)
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
- Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
- Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers)
Second Team
- Anthony Edwards (Timberwolves)
- LeBron James (Lakers)
- Stephen Curry (Warriors)
- Evan Mobley (Cavaliers)
- Jalen Brunson (Knicks)
Third Team
- Cade Cunningham (Pistons)
- Karl-Anthony Towns (Knicks)
- Tyrese Haliburton (Pacers)
- Jalen Williams (Thunder)
- James Harden (Clippers)
Cade Cunningham Earns Salary Bump With All-NBA Nod
As a result of earning a spot on the All-NBA Third Team on Friday, Pistons guard Cade Cunningham will see the value of the five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension he signed last summer increase by a projected total of nearly $45MM.
Cunningham’s contract included Rose Rule language. The Rose Rule allow players coming off their rookie scale contracts to receive salaries worth more than 25% of the cap in year five if they make an All-NBA team during the season (or two of the three seasons) before their extension goes into effect. Players can also qualify by being named Most Valuable Player or Defensive Player of the Year.
Cunningham’s 2025/26 salary will now be worth 30% of the cap instead of 25%. Based on the NBA’s latest cap projections, that means his five-year deal will be worth $269,085,780 instead of $224,238,150.
[RELATED: Maximum Salary Projections For 2025/26]
Cunningham was one of four players to sign a rookie scale extension that included Rose Rule language last summer. Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley, who was named to the All-NBA Second Team on Friday, had already earned a bump to 30% as a result of winning the Defensive Player of the Year award. His five-year deal will look identical to Cunningham’s.
The other two players who signed Rose Rule rookie scale extensions – Magic forward Franz Wagner and Raptors forward Scottie Barnes – didn’t receive any end-of-season awards, so their new contracts will begin at 25% of the cap and will be worth $224,238,150 across the next five seasons.
Meanwhile, Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. would have qualified for a designated veteran extension – also known as a super-max contract – if he had earned a spot on any of this year’s three All-NBA teams. However, he finished 17th in total voting, with 55 points, falling a little short of the required threshold. Clippers guard James Harden beat him out for the final Third Team spot with 68 points (Twitter link).
As a result, Jackson won’t be super-max eligible this offseason. That means in order to extend him, Memphis will likely need to give him a raise on his 2025/26 salary of $23,413,395 via renegotiation.
Without a pay bump, Jackson’s maximum extension would be worth $146,848,813 over four years, which may not be enough to convince him to sign. If the Grizzlies renegotiate next season’s salary to give him a raise, they would be able to offer up to 140% of his new ’25/26 salary in that first year of an extension.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Washington Wizards
When Michael Winger and Will Dawkins took over the Wizards' front office in 2023, they got the go-ahead from ownership to rebuild a roster that had hovered between 25 and 35 wins for five straight seasons. And they wasted no time in tearing things down.
A 15-67 season in 2023/24 - the worst mark in franchise history - earned Washington the No. 2 overall pick in a 2024 draft without any clear-cut future superstars at the top of the class. Alex Sarr was a fine addition in that spot, and the Wizards had acquired a couple extra first-round picks that they used on Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George. But the front office would need a more ample base of young talent - and ideally a singular young cornerstone to build around - before moving onto the next stage of its plan for the roster.
As a result, the 2024/25 season was another slog for the rebuilding Wizards, who traded Deni Avdija to Portland last summer and then leaned further into player development by sending out Jonas Valanciunas and Kyle Kuzma midway through the 2024/25 campaign. With the exception of Jordan Poole, the team's top five players in total minutes ranged from 19 to 21 years old, with second-year forward Bilal Coulibaly joining Sarr, Carrington, and George on that list.
Having relied so heavily on first- and second-year players who probably weren't ready for such major roles, the Wizards unsurprisingly finished dead-last in the NBA in net rating (-12.2) by a significant margin. Unfortunately, a victory over Miami on the final day of the regular season dropped Washington to second in the pre-lottery draft order, and some bad luck on lottery night pushed the club all the way down to No. 6 in the actual draft.
It was a brutal - and unlikely - outcome for a team that had a hard time buying a win for most of the season. Having reduced the roles for productive veterans like Poole down the stretch, the Wizards can't say they avoided outright tanking altogether, but they weren't doing it as egregiously as some of their fellow bottom-feeders -- their 18-64 record was much more about an inability to win than a deliberate effort to lose.
There will be some promising young players available at No. 6, but the prospects with the most obvious star potential - like Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, and V.J. Edgecombe - figure to be off the board by that point, forcing Winger and Dawkins to get more creative, and perhaps more patient, as they continue trying to build a roster capable of making it back to the playoffs.
The Wizards' Offseason Plan
In addition to the No. 6 overall pick in this year's draft, the Wizards will control No. 18, having acquired it in a deadline deal with the Grizzlies. They also own a small handful of extra first-rounders and swaps in the coming years, along with a plethora of second-rounders.
International Notes: Bogdanovic, EuroLeague, Asia, Sarr
The No. 27 pick in the 2014 NBA draft, Bogdan Bogdanovic spent three more seasons playing in Europe before making the move stateside in 2017. The veteran swingman has been in the NBA since then, but told reporters at the EuroLeague Final Four this week that he could see himself playing overseas again before his career is over.
“I had that goal when I was leaving (for the NBA), but I’ll see how my health is later in my career,” Bogdanovic said, per Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews. “I want to come back, of course, but I have to stay healthy. … I miss it because I’m closer to my friends and family (in Europe). That’s what I miss most. Competition as well, but friends and family first, honestly.”
Bogdanovic, who finished the 2024/25 season with the Clippers following a midseason trade from Atlanta to Los Angeles, added that he’s looking forward to representing Serbia in EuroBasket 2025 and is “optimistic” that Nuggets star Nikola Jokic will participate in the tournament.
“I feel like we have a good opportunity (to win the gold). We can’t hide,” Bogdanovic said, according to Antonis Stroggylakis of Eurohoops. “That’s it. We’re going for gold. All those years we’re building something. It’s progress. A process. Hopefully, we’ll stay healthy and we show up healthy and ready to go.”
Here are a few more items of interest from around the international basketball world:
- The EuroLeague is expected to expand from 18 to 20 teams beginning next season, according to reports from Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews and Alessandro Maggi of Sportando (Twitter link). Hapoel Tel Aviv, Dubai BC, and Valencia are the favorites to join the league next season, with ALBA Berlin exiting, according to Urbonas. In addition to working on expansion, EuroLeague officials are expected to meet with the NBA and FIBA next week about the NBA’s own European league.
- What exactly is the Asian University Basketball League? Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com takes a closer look at the college basketball organization launching this summer in Asia and speaks to AUBL CEO Jay Li about his goal of finding and developing the next NBA star from the continent. “We are not just an Asian basketball league,” Li said. “We could be the centerpiece of youth talent development for the entire world when it comes to developing Asia’s next Yao Ming, Asia’s next Jeremy Lin.”
- Dame Sarr, a 6’8″ wing from Italy, has committed to Duke for the 2025/26 season, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN. Sarr, who has spent the past two seasons playing for Barcelona in Spain, had a big game at last month’s Nike Hoop Summit, establishing himself as a potential 2026 first-round pick to watch. “My ultimate goal is to play in the NBA,” Sarr told ESPN. “There’s no better place to prepare you for that than Duke. For me to be as NBA-ready as possible, and become the best version of myself, I needed to have both experiences — playing for a pro team like Barcelona, and playing in a different type of professional environment like Duke against other players my age. Opportunity, minutes, repetition — this route is the best next step for me at this time.”
Lakers Notes: Okongwu, Center Targets, Finney-Smith
Asked during an appearance on the Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre podcast whether he has heard any buzz linking the Lakers to Onyeka Okongwu, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin said Los Angeles inquired with the Hawks about the big man earlier this year. McMenamin believes Okongwu was one of the centers Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka asked Luka Doncic about before the team reached an agreement to acquire Mark Williams.
“I do know that the Lakers made a call to the Hawks around the trade deadline about Okongwu,” McMenamin said (52:38 mark; hat tip to Ron Gutterman of Lakers Nation). “I think lob threat, athleticism, absolutely. In terms of being a perfect fit, maybe not. They might not get a perfect fit though. Clint Capela of ’17/18 probably was a perfect fit, but we’re in ’25/26 now. So that is kind of the spot they’re gonna be in.”
After voiding their deal with Charlotte for Williams in February due to concerns about his physical, the Lakers figure to make it a priority this summer to add a center in free agency or via trade. While there has been speculation about more ambitious trade targets like Nets big man Nic Claxton, McMenamin wonders if it would be in L.A.’s best interest to take a more conservative approach this offseason.
“I am of the opinion to not go all-in on someone like a Claxton, etc. making $20-30 million (per year),” he told McIntyre. “… They’re going to have the taxpayer mid-level available to them, so I’d try to go and get a guy at that level and if he doesn’t prove to be the best fit, make sure you’re holding on to one of your picks and then you can try to pursue something come February.”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report takes a closer look at how the Lakers might address their hole in the middle this season. Pincus suggests that Daniel Gafford would be an ideal trade target, though he wonders if the Mavericks would be reluctant to make another deal with L.A. so soon after the Doncic blockbuster. Pincus also mentions the Raptors‘ Jakob Poeltl and the Magic‘s Goga Bitadze as possibilities, but acknowledges that Toronto will likely be reluctant to part with Poeltl and that Bitadze is more of a backup than a starter.
- Dorian Finney-Smith‘s contract situation is up in the air heading into the summer, since it’s unclear whether he plans to pick up the $15.4MM player option on his current contract or opt out in search of a new deal. However, as Khobi Price of The Orange County Register writes in a subscriber-only story, it sounds like the veteran forward wants to stick with the Lakers — during his exit interview, he referred to his half-season with the team as “amazing.”
- Assuming Finney-Smith remains with the Lakers, McMenamin expects him to be a valuable part of next season’s roster, as he said on his aforementioned podcast appearance with McIntyre. “I think Dorian Finney-Smith will be a major contributor on this year’s Lakers team,” McMenamin said. “He did not come in healthy and it took him some time to get some rhythm. With him having the comfort factor, the health factor on his side, I think he’ll be right there with being considered the (Lakers’) third-best player along with Austin Reaves.”
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Qualifying Offer
Players eligible for restricted free agency don’t become restricted free agents by default. In order to make a player a restricted free agent, a team must extend a qualifying offer to him — a player who doesn’t receive one becomes an unrestricted free agent instead.
The qualifying offer, which is essentially just a one-year contract offer, varies in amount depending on a player’s service time and previous contract status.
If a player reaches free agency with three or fewer years of NBA service time under his belt, his qualifying offer is worth whichever of the following amounts is greater:
- 135% of his prior salary; or 125% of his prior salary, if he signed his contract before the 2023/24 league year.
- His minimum salary, plus $200K.
For instance, after earning $2,019,699 this season, Trail Blazers forward Jabari Walker will be eligible for a qualifying offer this season if Portland wants to make him a restricted free agent. What would that qualifying offer be worth?
Well, 135% of Walker’s prior salary would be $2,726,594, but he signed his contract in July 2022, which means the relevant calculation here would be 125% of his prior salary. That works out to $2,524,624. Walker projects to have a minimum salary worth $2,378,870 in 2025/26. Adding $200K to that figure gets us to $2,578,870.
Walker’s qualifying offer would be worth the greater amount of those two: $2,578,870.
Walker’s minimum-salary projection is based on an estimated 10% salary cap increase. If the cap were to only increase by 5% next season, his projected minimum salary would be just $2,270,736. Adding $200K to that figure would work out to $2,470,736, so in that scenario, 125% of his prior salary would actually be the larger amount of the two and would be his qualifying offer.
It’s not a certainty yet that the cap will increase by the maximum 10%, so Walker’s qualifying offer projection is tentative for now. But as long as the cap rises by at least 7.5%, that QO would be based on $200K plus his minimum, not 125% of his prior salary.
The qualifying offer for a former first-round pick coming off his rookie scale contract is determined by his draft position. Under the previous CBA, the qualifying offer for a first overall pick was 130% of his fourth-year salary, while for a 30th overall pick it was 150% of his previous salary — QOs for the rest of the first-rounders fall somewhere in between. Those numbers will increase to 140% and 160%, respectively, under the new CBA, beginning when the 2023 draft class reaches restricted free agency in 2027.
The full first-round scale for the draft class of 2021, whose first-rounders will be hitting free agency this summer, can be found here, courtesy of RealGM.
A wrinkle in the Collective Bargaining Agreement complicates matters for some RFAs-to-be, since a player’s previous usage can impact the amount of his qualifying offer. Certain players who meet – or fail to meet – the “starter criteria,” which we break down in a separate glossary entry, become eligible for higher or lower qualifying offers. Here’s how the starter criteria affects QOs:
- A top-14 pick who does not meet the starter criteria will receive a same qualifying offer equal to 120% of the amount applicable to the 15th overall pick.
- Note: In 2025, the value of this QO will be $7,976,830.
- A player picked between 10th and 30th who meets the starter criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to 120% of the amount applicable to the ninth overall pick.
- Note: In 2025, the value of this QO will be $8,741,210.
- A second-round pick or undrafted player who meets the starter criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to 100% of the amount applicable to the 21st overall pick.
- Note: In 2025, the value of this QO will be $5,386,773.
Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga is one example of a player who falls into the first group, since he didn’t meet the starter criteria this year. The No. 7 overall pick in 2021, Kuminga will be eligible this offseason for a QO worth $7,976,830 instead of $10,240,287, the amount for his draft slot.
Conversely, Sixers wing Quentin Grimes (a former No. 25 overall pick) met the starter criteria and will now be eligible for a QO worth $8,741,210 instead of $6,311,825.
A qualifying offer is designed to give a player’s team the right of first refusal. Because the qualifying offer acts as the first formal contract offer a free agent receives, his team then receives the option to match any offer sheet the player signs with another club.
A player can also accept his qualifying offer, if he so chooses. He then plays the following season on a one-year contract worth the amount of the QO, and becomes an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, assuming he has at least four years of NBA experience. A player can go this route if he wants to hit unrestricted free agency as early as possible, or if he feels like the QO is the best offer he’ll receive. Accepting the qualifying offer also gives a player the right to veto trades for the season.
Here are a few more details related to qualifying offers:
- A team that issues a qualifying offer can unilaterally withdraw that offer anytime up until July 13.
- A player who receives a qualifying offer has a deadline of October 1 to accept it. He and the team can agree to extend that deadline.
- A different set of rules applies to players coming off two-way contracts. For most of those players, the qualifying offer would be equivalent to a one-year, two-way salary, with a small portion (known as the “maximum two-way protection amount”) guaranteed. For 2025/26, that partial guarantee projects to be worth $85,300.
- A player who is coming off a two-year, two-way deal; has already been on two-way deals with his current team for at least two seasons; has spent parts of three seasons with his current team on two-way deals; or has accumulated four years of NBA service would be eligible for a qualifying offer equivalent to a standard, minimum-salary NBA contract, with a small portion (known as the “two-way QO protection amount”) guaranteed. For 2025/26, that partial guarantee projects to be worth $102,300.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Earlier versions of this post were published in previous years.
Central Notes: Haliburton, Nesmith, Giannis, Sasser
On the night that he was traded from Sacramento to Indiana in February 2022, Tyrese Haliburton went out for dinner with his new head coach Rick Carlisle, who outlined the Pacers‘ plan to have him run their offense, writes Jamal Collier of ESPN. Since then, Indiana has made an increased effort to complement Haliburton with players who will fit into his up-tempo playing style, notes Joe Vardon of The Athletic.
“As we’ve put this group together around Tyrese, we’ve had to make adjustments to develop a style that was effective for us,” Carlisle said. “It’s a difficult style, you know, it’s demanding, physically demanding, takes a tremendous amount of wherewithal as an athlete and then you got to be super unselfish.”
Nearly two years after acquiring Haliburton, the Pacers traded for Pascal Siakam, a three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA forward who has a championship on his résumé. But Haliburton is still Indiana’s leader and the player the team trusts to take big shots with the game on the line, as he has done multiple times throughout this postseason.
“My group wants me to take those shots,” Haliburton said, per Collier. “My coaching staff wants me to take those shots. Our organization wants me to take those shots. I think now we’re at the point where our fans want me to take that shot. Everybody’s living and dying with it at that point. That gives me a lot of confidence.”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- Shakeia Taylor and Jay King of The Athletic spoke to Aaron Nesmith‘s high school coach, John “JP” Pearson, about one of the heroes of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, whose 8-of-9 performance from beyond the arc helped the Pacers steal a win in New York. “I’m over there telling him, ‘I’m not quite sure what I just saw, Aaron,'” Pearson said of a phone call he had with Nesmith late on Wednesday night. “And Aaron was like, ‘Yeah, we won the game.’ And I told him, ‘No, Aaron, I was living when Reggie Miller did all that and it’s being compared right now.’ And he goes, ‘I don’t think I was born.'”
- While there has been no indication at this point that Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo plans to request a trade, multiple agents who spoke to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report at the draft combine think it will happen. With that in mind, Pincus explores the top five most logical landing spots for Antetokounmpo in the event of a deal, identifying San Antonio, Houston, Brooklyn, Atlanta, and Oklahoma City as the best fits.
- Marcus Sasser saw his minutes cut back in his second NBA season, but that was more about the Pistons‘ increased depth than any sort of decline in the second-year guard’s production, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. Detroit will have to make a decision by October 31 on whether to exercise Sasser’s $5.2MM team option for 2026/27. Assuming that option is picked up, he’d become extension-eligible during the 2026 offseason.
Knicks Notes: Starting Five, Communication, Brunson, More
After suffering one of the worst late-game collapses in NBA playoff history on Wednesday, the Knicks weren’t willing to simply flush that game without taking a closer look at how they let that Pacers comeback happen, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. Head coach Tom Thibodeau and multiple Knicks players spoke on Thursday about the need to learn from Wednesday’s mistakes.
“It was just (those) last five minutes, learning from it, just owning up to it and knowing what we have to do better,” Mikal Bridges said. “Obviously, we want that game back. But it’s a seven-game series, so come out, be better, but hopefully finish the next game.”
As devastating as the Game 1 loss was, Bridges described the team’s vibes on Thursday as “good” and said the energy level was “pretty high.” Thibodeau, meanwhile, expressed confidence in his club’s ability to not let the momentum the Pacers gained with their dramatic overtime win carry over to Game 2.
“I think that’s the playoffs, that’s the challenge,” Thibodeau said. “You always have to reset. There’s gonna be a lot of emotional highs and lows and you’ve gotta be able to take a punch and you’ve gotta be able to bounce back. So that’s all we’re thinking about is how we move forward, be ready for the next challenge, and then what did you learn from it?”
Here’s more on the Knicks, who will be looking to even up the Eastern Conference Finals at one game apiece on Friday:
- In a separate story for the New York Post, Braziller takes a closer look at the unflattering postseason data on the Knicks’ starting lineup. The five-man group – made up of Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns – was outscored by 16 points on Wednesday and has a -8.0 net rating in 292 playoff minutes. Asked on Thursday about a possible lineup tweak, Tom Thibodeau said “everything is always on the table” but didn’t sound like a man preparing to make a change, per Braziller. “You also need players that are effective with the bench unit and then what starters are you gonna play with the bench unit,” Thibodeau said. “So I think it’s twofold.”
- The Knicks, who have spoken multiple times in the postseason about the way in which communication breakdowns have caused problems for them, echoed that message after Game 1, notes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. “I think we let off a little bit, and then we stopped talking to each other. Just a little miscommunication,” Bridges said on Thursday. “They got some threes and obviously (Aaron) Nesmith made a lot of shots. But we made it easy — didn’t make it harder. He stayed hot and we miscommunicated and he made a couple more, some rhythm ones.” Asked on Thursday about an animated late-game argument between Anunoby and Towns about a miscommunication, Brunson downplayed the moment, describing it as “just guys talking.”
- Brunson averaged about two fouls per game during the regular season but has seen that average jump to 3.5 per game in the postseason. He fouled out of Game 5 vs. Boston and picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter on Wednesday vs. Indiana, Schwartz writes for The Post. “It’s just me being smart and understanding, offensively and defensively, what I have to do better,” Brunson said of addressing that issue. “It is what it is, you just gotta be smart.”
- Not playing at the level they’re capable of for a full 48 minutes has been a recurring problem for the Knicks throughout the regular season and playoffs for the Knicks, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic, who writes that the club will once again have to prove that it’s made for this moment.
Details On NBA’s Playoff Bonus Money For 2024/25
The pool of bonus money for NBA playoff teams this season is worth approximately $34.7MM, according to Kurt Badenhausen and Lev Akabas of Sportico.
The top six teams in each conference earn bonuses based on their regular season records, while the 16 playoff teams also receive a chunk of money from the playoff pool, increasing the value of their payout with each series win. That bonus money is divvied up among the players on each club’s 15-man roster.
Teams eliminated in the play-in tournament aren’t entitled to any of the playoff bonus money, even if they had the seventh- or eighth-best regular season record in their conference.
The breakdown for 2025’s playoff pool money is as follows (rounded to the nearest thousand), per Sportico:
Regular season achievements:
- Best record in NBA (Thunder): $869K
- No. 1 seeds in each conference (Cavaliers, Thunder): $761K per team
- No. 2 seeds (Celtics, Rockets): $609K per team
- No. 3 seeds (Knicks, Lakers): $456K per team
- No. 4 seeds (Pacers, Nuggets): $372K per team
- No. 5 seeds (Bucks, Clippers): $288K per team
- No. 6 seeds (Pistons, Timberwolves): $204K per team
Postseason achievements:
- Teams participating in first round (all 16 playoff teams — the 12 listed above, plus the Magic, Heat, Warriors, and Grizzlies): $466K per team
- Teams participating in conference semifinals (eight teams): $568K per team
- Teams participating in conference finals (four teams): $951K per team
- Losing team in NBA Finals: $3,803,000
- Winning team in NBA Finals: $8,805,000
A team that makes a deep playoff run will cash in on more than one of the bonuses listed above.
For example, if the Thunder win the championship, their payout from the playoff pool would be worth more than $12.4MM in total — that amount would include their bonuses for posting the NBA’s best record, claiming the West’s No. 1 seed, making the first round, making the conference semifinals, making the conference finals, and winning the NBA Finals.
Nuggets’ Josh Kroenke Talks Depth, Adelman, Front Office, More
Following Denver’s elimination from the playoffs on Sunday, star center Nikola Jokic told reporters that the Nuggets “definitely need to figure out a way to get more depth” this offseason. Jokic pointed to Indiana, Oklahoma City, and Minnesota as examples of teams who have benefited in the playoffs from strong benches, whereas the Nuggets leaned more heavily on their top six players for most of the postseason.
In an end-of-season media session on Thursday, Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke said he agreed with his superstar’s assessment, per Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (Twitter link).
“There’s an urgency to improve the team and the organization everywhere, whether that’s via trade, via draft,” Kroenke said. Right now, I think that having a cohesive organization from coaching staff to front office is our main goal.
“… I heard Jokic’s comments loud and clear. I mean, I think that I was thinking that before those words came out of his mouth. Just in how the playoffs, if you’re watching the games, you can see yourself, as well as watching our games, you can see where we leaned on a lot of guys for a lot of minutes in big-time moments. And that has a cumulative effect that when you play in a seven-game series,that can wear you down.”
Although Kroenke referred to the draft and the trade market as two ways the Nuggets might look to supplement their core, Denver is currently the only team without any picks in the 2025 draft and isn’t exactly loaded with trade assets. The team’s proximity to the tax aprons also means it will be difficult to make upgrades via free agency.
As Kroenke pointed out, that means the front office will have to get creative in terms of adding talent, while the coaching staff will have to do all it can to develop the Nuggets’ young players who are still on team-friendly contracts.
“The rules don’t allow certain (cap) exceptions to exist anymore the same way they did previously, for you to go out and get a veteran player, kind of a plug-and-play bench-type player,” Kroenke said. “I think those opportunities do exist if you’re smart and can find value where others might not see it. But I also think that whether it’s Oklahoma City, you look at some of the guys on the Pacers’ roster, these guys have been developed over a period of years. They understand their roles, they understand their responsibilities, and they’re accountable to that. Those are the teams that I see having a lot of success. So there’s a lot of ways to improve it, and we’re gonna be looking at all of them.”
Here’s more from the Nuggets’ vice chairman:
- As we detailed on Thursday, Kronenke confirmed that Denver will retain interim head coach David Adelman, giving him the job on a permanent basis. Management is hopeful that Adelman will be able to get more out of some of the younger players on the roster than former head coach Michael Malone did, which might reduce the need for the team to find answers on the trade market. “I think a lot of our answers are internal right now,” Kroenke said, according to Durando. “With where we are from a roster standpoint, we have guys locked into contracts. We’re going into a coaching transition. And to be frank, that’s a huge change. Huge change. … DA’s philosophy, how he might use these guys slightly differently, there’s gonna be a lot of big changes throughout our organization already.”
- Interim general manager Ben Tenzer has “done an unbelievable job” since taking over for Calvin Booth last month, according to Kroenke, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Tenzer is a lock to be named the club’s full-time GM. “I’ve promoted (general managers) from within for several cycles now,” Kroenke said, per Durando. “Am I going to do that again? I’m not 100% sure. But I know we have some very capable people in this organization, and they’ve made me rethink a few things that I’ve already been thinking myself, which is great. I don’t want an organization where everyone agrees. I want everyone to challenge people, and then when the door opens and we move out, we’re all moving in unison.”
- While the Nuggets’ decision to fire their head coach and general manager with less than a week left in the regular season created the perception of instability, Kroenke pushed back against that notion, as Durando tweets. “I think the real instability would be if I just hid behind the curtain and allowed the plane to continue to go where it was heading, and probably, I think that plane would have landed in the play-in (tournament) and probably gone right out then,” Kroenke said. When Adelman coached his first game on April 9, Denver was in a four-way tie for fourth in the Western Conference. The Nuggets won their last three regular season games to secure that No. 4 seed.