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The bill has come due for the NBA’s biggest spenders. Seven franchises will pay a combined $223.1 million in luxury tax penalties, a number that reflects just how aggressively teams pushed for contention this season. ESPN salary cap analyst Bobby Marks published the final breakdown on Sunday, the last day of the regular season.
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Marks shared the full list on X, headlined by the Cleveland Cavaliers ($68.7M) and Golden State Warriors ($67.9M), followed by the New York Knicks ($44.4M) and Los Angeles Lakers ($22.2M). The Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, and Minnesota Timberwolves round out the list. Despite the massive total, each of the 23 non-taxpaying teams will receive just $4.9 million, the lowest distribution since the 2020-21 season.
7 teams will finish over the luxury tax and pay a penalty
– Cleveland ($68.7M)
– Golden State (67.9M)
– New York ($44.4M)
– LA Lakers ($22.2M)
– Houston ($7.2M)
– LA Clippers ($6.7M)
– Minnesota ($6M)– Projected payment to the 23 teams is $4.9M
This is the lowest tax… https://t.co/lQDvt6bmeY
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) April 12, 2026
The $223.1 million pool is split in two. The NBA distributes half equally among the 23 non-taxpaying teams, while the league keeps the other half. That means every team below the $187.9 million tax line pockets roughly $4.9 million, regardless of record, market size, or roster strength.
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That final number tells a bigger story. Just before the Feb. 5 trade deadline, Marks projected 14 teams above the tax line, with payouts expected to reach roughly $13.8 million per non-taxpayer. But aggressive deadline maneuvering flipped the landscape. Teams like the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic, and Toronto Raptors all ducked below the line, prioritizing flexibility and avoiding the penalties tied to taxpayer status.
Cleveland offers the clearest example of how much the deadline reshaped the books. The Cavaliers were projected to pay close to $164 million in penalties before the deadline, but a series of moves, including the three-team deal that sent De’Andre Hunter to the Kings, slashed that number by more than $95 million. That shift pulled them out of second-apron territory and down to a still massive, but far more manageable, $68.7 million bill.
The repeater tax adds another layer to what comes next. The Warriors, Lakers, and Clippers are already on track to face harsher repeater penalties if they stay above the line next season. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Bucks, Celtics, Suns, and Nuggets have logged three straight years as taxpayers and now need one clean season to reset their repeater clock. Otherwise, the cost of contending only gets steeper.
The NBA Parity Problem: Why $223.1 Million Produces the Smallest Distribution Since 2020-21
The luxury tax is designed to do two things: punish spending and reward restraint. On the punishment side, it worked exactly as intended. Cleveland, Golden State, and New York alone account for $181.1 million of the $223.1 million pool, showing how much the league’s biggest spenders are willing to pay to stay competitive.
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The redistribution side tells a different story. Even with a $223.1 million pool, the payout shrinks because fewer teams stayed above the tax line and many reduced their penalties at the deadline. Since the league splits half the pool among all non-taxpayers, a smaller group of contributors means smaller checks for everyone else.
The same deadline discipline that helped teams escape massive tax bills also cut into the league-wide payout. While front offices protected their future flexibility, non-taxpaying teams saw their expected windfall shrink significantly. Just a year ago, payouts were around $11.4 million per team. This season, that number drops to $4.9 million, a clear reminder that in today’s NBA, financial strategy off the court can reshape the entire league’s balance sheet.
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Ved Vaze