Thought I'd mosey over and see what the salary levels are for the top 6 teams in the league this afternoon. Whats the cost per game for each teams roster to dress for each game. What is the accum total cost to the team for the wins and the losses from a purely financial standpoint;

Starting with the;
Spurs, 19-5 = salary this year = 63,781,469
63,781,469 divided by 82 (reg season)= $777,822.792 in salary per game
19 wins = $14,778,633. 5 losses = $3,889,110.00
Next Year salary, $60,949,471

Pistons, 18-3, salary this year = 58,369,179.
58,369,179 divided by 82 = $711,819,256 in salary per game
18 wins = $12,812,746. 3 losses = $2,135,457
Next year Salary, $48,814,842

Dallas, 18-6 = salary this year = 96,688,147
96,688,147 divided by 82 = $1,179,123 in salary per game
18 wins = $21,224,227. 6 losses $7,074,738
Next years salary, $74,208,883

Clips, 15-8 = salary this year = 49,840,050.
49,840,050 divided by 82 = $607,805,487 is salary per game
15 wins = $9,117,082. 8 losses $4,862,440
Next years salary, $41,805,298

Indy, 14-8 = salary this year = 74,324,205
74,324,205 divided by 82 = $906,392,743 is salary per game
14 wins = $12,689,498. 8 losses = $7,251,141
Next years salary, $68,579,380

Grizz, 14-8 = salary this year = 67,031,292
67,031,292 divided by 82 = $817,454,780 is salary per game
14 wins = $11,444,366. 8 losses = $6,539,638
Next years salary, $56,434,129

Summary;
The Pistons have the second most efficient team of todays top 6, at total cost per game, $711,819 to the Clips $607,805. The Pistons also have the second lowest long term salary contract amount on the books going into next summer, $48,814,842 to the Clips $41,805,298.

The Pistons are #1 with a bullet in expensing the least amount of funds for losses, a stingy $2,135,457.

I got the basic info from Hoopshype and ESPN. What I didn't do was take the time to go get the CBA hard cap info and apply it to each teams salary. The ones over the hard cap are paying dollar for dollar on the amount above the caps line. Dallas's cost per game is in actuality much higher than this info cause they are so far over. Maybe someone else can get that number and apply it to each of the above.

It would also be interesting to take the teams with 6 highest NBA payrolls (cap penalties included) and see what they look like using this basic formula. Then you'll know which GMs should be fired first.

__________________
"Most of the arguments to which I am party fall somewhat short of being impressive, knowing to the fact that neither I nor my opponent knows what we are talking about." Dangerfield

2005-06

• Salary cap: $49.5 million
• Luxury tax threshold: $61.7 million
• MLE: 5.0 million

Here's what it means in the Mav's case. Total salary is 96,688,147.The hard cap, (one that matters) is set at 61,700,000. The difference is $34,988,147.
Because it's $1 for every $1 a team is over the hard cap, their real salary is now
96,688,147 + 34,988,147 (penalty) or $131,676294 total on the year.

Divide that number by 82 and each games cost is $1,605,808
18 wins cost $28,904,522. 6 losses cost them $9,634,848
Their 6 losses cost more than the Clips 15 wins ($9,117,082)...

3 of todays top 6 teams are all in the penalty..Not Detroit.

__________________
"Most of the arguments to which I am party fall somewhat short of being impressive, knowing to the fact that neither I nor my opponent knows what we are talking about." Dangerfield

So we could throw out a ~$2mil. bonus without going into Lux penalty.

Well, no. I could be wrong, but we are over the cap, and can only spend more money by trading for additional salaries, or using exceptions to re-sign our own free agents.

The Pistons cannot spend $2 million on another player. Is this right?

We're about $2mil. under, so couldn't JD give CBill a bonus? For just this year.

That's a good question. I would think not. Check out the CBA Faq link. Lots of great info there.

I don't pretend to understand the CBA. The salary cap of 49.5 is the salary minimum. You must spend that. $61.7mil is the legal max.

Losses being of little or no value toward playoffs probably should not count in a Bang4theBuck calculation. I would suggest dividing the total amount spent for games played, by the number of wins. A team like NYK appears exceedingly poor (hi $ / few Ws).

Maybe there should also be a weighing factor cause Ws in the Central Division are harder to come by, and more of them are required to achieve the same goal than say the Atlantic Division.

Nope. 49.5 is the soft cap. It can be exceeded by taking on contracts via trade, or using one of the "many" exceptions such as Bird Right's, Early Bird, Mid-level etc.

61.7 is the salary level at which the luxury tax kicks in (threshold).

You can be anywhere from $1 ~ 61.7 million and not pay a dime of tax, but the only way you can grow your salary beyond 49.5 million is to use exceptions and trades. You can't sign players right up to the luxury tax limit if they are unrestricted free agents.

AFAIK.

Actually guys there is a minimum salary, it's 75% of the soft cap number. The soft cap is $49.5M which means the actual minimum amount is $37,125,000. On top of that, a team could conceivably pay less during the season. Say they have a payroll of $25M. At the end of the season they get charged, (taxed) whatever the difference is between what they're paying and the minimum cap amount. That difference is then distributed to the teams players.

The minimum during the current CBA will always be 75% of the soft number, which actually floats caused it's based on total revenue which is calculated after a season is played. So the current numbers I listed are subject to modification after the season. Then they forecast what they think the next years total income will be (industry wide) and re-set the soft and hard caps.

The soft cap is really supposed to a max number. It's the number used when a team is looking to sign a free agent. If they have a 42M payroll and the number is 49.5, they essesntially can take out of pocket 7.5M and use it to sign the Agent. It's the number used for free agent signings. It also determines what other kind of salary "exceptions" a team might have to sign some free agents under certain conditions.
But mostly it's about a teams room to sign another teams players straight-up.

The hard cap is number that allows a team to re-sign it's own players regardless of where they are in reference to the soft cap. That's because the NBA wants to give teams the ability to create a certain market consistency. It gives a team room to re-sign or extend a rostered player so that they don't have to lose him to free agency. They can keep their existing roster intact.

Some teams like NY, Portland and Dallas are always way over the top of the hard cap. That's because the hard cap simply represents a number that once exceeded, your team gets taxed or penalized by $1 for each $1 you're over. It represents where the penalty box starts.

So it means a team like Dallas who is 34M over the hard cap has essentially stockpiled some of the best and most talented players (in theory) in the NBA. The fine or tax subsequently levied against them is then pooled with monies from other teams penalized and the NBA distributes it to all the other teams that were under the hard cap. Like a bonus. But it's only for the owners, management keeps it. They can't distribute it among their players, (like the tax for being under the minimum) in fact they would violate the CBA rules if they did.

The reason some teams go over so far is they are in large markets where they have more media deals than teams in small markets. They get more advertising revenue which helps off-set the penalties (luxury tax). Or, they have far more corporate suites, higher arena advertising rates and they control their own food & beverage and parking lots.

They basically have more local and regional revenue coming in and they use the additional funds to control the free market movement of players by stockpiling them. They buy their division banners, instead of using exceptionally smart GM skills and sound coaching to negotiate the turbulent waters.