A Look at the Thunder’s Luxury Tax

For the second year in a row the Oklahoma City Thunder finished over the luxury threshold. They will finish with $93,765,298.00 in salary, or about $9.03 million over the tax threshold.

If you are unfamiliar with how the luxury tax works, it is described by cap expert Larry Coon on CBAFAQ.com as follows:

The luxury tax is a mechanism that helps control team spending. While it is commonly referred to as a “luxury tax,” the CBA simply calls it a “tax” or a “team payment.” It is paid by high spending teams — those with a team salary exceeding a predetermined tax level. These teams pay a penalty for each dollar their team salary exceeds the tax level.

This is not much of a problem for the Thunder…