The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers are both staring at luxury tax bills that exceed the NBA’s salary cap for the 2023-24 season, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
Marks projected the Warriors and Clippers to have luxury tax payments of $176.9 million and $142.4 million respectively. The cap, meanwhile, sat at $136 million.
The newly crowned Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns are among the other teams staring at a tax bill:
Bobby Marks@BobbyMarks42
Unofficial luxury tax payments per team:
Golden St- $176.9M
$142.4M<br>Phoenix
$68.2M<br>Milwaukee
$52.5M<br>Boston-
$43.8M<br>Denver-
$20.2M<br>Miami-
$15.7M<br>LA Lakers-
$6.9M<br><br>
The 22 teams below the tax are projected to receive $11.96M each.
Per Spotrac, Golden State ($224.8 million) and Los Angeles ($202.1 million) had the two highest payrolls in the NBA. Their situations were made worse because they were considered repeat offenders in terms of the luxury tax.
The current collective bargaining agreement was intended to rein in the free spenders such as Warriors team governor Joe Lacob, and it appears to be accomplishing that goal.
“Our Plan 1, or 1A, is actually we’d like to be out of the tax, and we think that we have a way to do that,” Lacob told The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami in February regarding the organization’s offseason priorities.
“That kind of is the plan, not just under the second apron. I’ll tell you why that’s important, because the truth is that we need to be out of the tax two years out of the next four, below the tax line, in order to get this repeater thing off our books. We don’t want to be a repeater. It’s just so prohibitive, not to say we wouldn’t do it if we had to, but you’ve gotta look at what the downside is to doing that.”
The Clippers aren’t in a position to be as financially driven. James Harden is an unrestricted free agent, while Paul George will presumably opt out of his contract and hit the open market. Retaining both stars, despite what’s bound to be a significant cost, is critical for Los Angeles to achieving its short-term ambition of lifting a championship.
Assuming everything goes according to plan, team governor Steve Ballmer will be writing another massive check to the league this time next year.
For the Celtics, a luxury bill of $43.8 million is an acceptable price to pay when it results in an 18th championship. The question long term, however, is how much the organization can sustain that kind of spending.
Lev Akabas@LevAkabas
Can the Boston Celtics keep their core together after this year?
They can run it back in 2024-25, but Tatum’s potential supermax and White’s impending free agency will make 2025-26 very difficult financially.
Jaylen Brown’s five-year, $286.2 million supermax extension goes into effect in 2024-25, and Jayson Tatum is eligible to get a supermax deal of his own starting in 2025. Tatum’s overall payout can hit $315 million over five years.
Few NBA teams have been more consistent over the last decade than the Celtics. In the not too distant future, team governor Wyc Grousbeck will see the full cost of extending that run further.