Ever since the Jaylen Brown trade, I've grown more curious about how the salary cap constrains team building. Contract extension rules seem to be an issue in the NBA. For example, Brown has three seasons left on his contract, yet he could have signed an extension this offseason. In the summer of 2027, Brown will have two years remaining on his contract and will be able to sign an extension that could add three more years on top of that. Letting players extend this early sounds like a good thing, since it lets teams stay together longer, right? But it also means teams have to commit early to keep the player happy. Did the Celtics want to give him an extension next offseason that would pay him 35% of the salary cap for his age-33, 34, and 35 seasons? No. Even though Brown's current contract doesn't end until the summer of 2029 (if humans still exist then), the extension rules can force a team's hand. Don't offer Brown the extension, and things could get quite awkward. That is why many players force trades to get to a team that will give them the coveted early extension.
All that to say, I'm starting a salary cap series, and today I want to look at how top-heavy each team is. The one caveat is that this takes place while the Pistons and Jalen Duren have yet to come to an agreement. I've grown tired of waiting.
For this, we will be looking at team payrolls in terms of what percentage of the salary cap each player takes up. We will have six charts, starting with the top earner for each team, followed by the top two earners combined, all the way until we finish with the top six earners for each team.
Let's begin.
If anyone is asking how a player like Steph Curry can be at 38% of the cap when a max contract is 35%, it's because the max is 35% of the salary cap in the first season. After that, players can get raises of up to 8% each year. So if the league's salary cap is going up 5% each year while a player's salary goes up 8%, then the PLAYER'S salary growth outpaces the LEAGUE'S salary cap growth. This is a concern for teams, as the NBA's cap has not been going up as much as originally forecasted.
Devin Booker is at 35% now and is a good example of the problem with extension rules. Booker signed an extension in July 2025 that doesn't start until the 2028-29 season and includes a player option for 2029-30, which is his age-33 season. Booker signed an extension and will then play THREE SEASONS before that contract even begins.
The Bulls are last, with Josh Giddey taking up only 15% of the salary cap.
We have quite the range here, as Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler combine to take up 72% of this season's salary cap, while Josh Giddey and Nic Claxton, the two highest-paid players on the Chicago Bulls, take up only 29% of the cap collectively.
Seven teams have two players at 30% or more: Warriors, 76ers, Celtics, Nuggets, Heat, Wizards, and Cavs. Technically, the Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam are at 29.7% each, which rounds up to 30% on the chart, but they both fall just under.
The Washington Wizards are giving a combined 65% of the salary cap to Anthony Davis and Trae Young.
The 76ers are investing 95% of the salary cap in just three players.
The Warriors have 89% of the salary cap tied up in three players who are a combined 111 years old: Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green.
The Charlotte Hornets catch me off guard with Coby White, Naz Reid, and Grayson Allen as their three highest-paid players.
Three teams spend more than the whole cap on four players: Knicks 103.5%, 76ers 101.9%, and Warriors 101.3%.
The Nuggets are at 99.5%. The chart rounds that to 100%, but they are just short.
The Knicks are the only team with four players at 20% or more. The Magic come closest, but Suggs is at 19.6%.
The Orlando Magic traded away future assets to bring in Desmond Bane, and now they have four players making 94% of the salary cap. This was a play-in team last season, and it plays in an Eastern Conference with a lot of improved teams this season. That is a lot of cap in four players. It feels like a cautionary tale: if a team is going to trade a bunch of future assets, they better believe they already have a true stud on the roster. In their case, with hindsight, don't trade for Bane. Wait for a disgruntled star on another team, and see if you can trade Paolo Banchero plus those picks to bring in a true #1. We will see if Sean Sweeney can turn it around. They were a Franz Wagner injury away from beating the Pistons in the first round last season, so here's to hoping we get a healthy season from Franz.
The Spurs' cap sheet doesn't seem fair. Players who can make a big positive impact while on their rookie deals are a team's dream.
I know the Denver Nuggets were banged up for the playoffs, and Nikola Jokic didn't really try for the first four or five games, but wow, is it depressing seeing a first-round exit team with that starting five taking up 113% of the salary cap and being the second-most expensive top five.
The Sacramento Kings have the 12th-most expensive top five in the NBA.
The Grizzlies' top five, meanwhile, combine to make less than 50% of the cap.
The top 10 is identical across charts 4, 5, and 6. It's the same ten teams in all three: Knicks, Nuggets, Warriors, Cavs, 76ers, Raptors, Magic, Timberwolves, Celtics, and Heat. Only the order shifts.
I hope you enjoyed this exercise. The point was to help illustrate where teams have their money tied up and just how much of the cap goes to their top players. Looking at salaries as a percentage of the cap can provide a little more clarity and hopefully a little more understanding of how teams are built.
I'm going to dive more into salary cap and team building visuals. Do you have any questions on this one? Is there anything you'd like me to dig into for a future post? Just let me know. I'm not saying I'll do it, but if you have an idea that intrigues me, I'll look into it, because I'll be curious too.
All data for this piece came via Spotrac.
Also make sure to visit the Basketball Resource Database
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