Joe Camporeale-USA Today Sports
Not many NBA fans pay attention to or even care for that matter about the league’s salary cap and luxury tax.
In fact, the only time you really hear about numbers, contracts, signings and their impacts are around the summer months, when another season comes to a conclusion and the off-season rumors and news stories take over the public perception.
What if I told you however, that teams that pay more and aren’t worried about paying the luxury tax, win more basketball games — would you be surprised? Probably not — the more money, the more stars — the more stars, the more wins. It’s that simple, right?
Well, according to this chart from Business Insider, teams that overpaid and went over the NBA’s salary cap have won more games than teams that stayed under. In fact, over the course of the last five seasons, 37 of the 150 teams that went over the salary cap and had to pay a luxury tax won more than 37.5 games on average. Only two failed to reach that average threshold.
It’s like rocket science, huh?
If teams are willing to overpay and take on the penalty, they will have a higher shot at winning a championship than teams that abide by the salary cap. The ironic portion of the chart however, indicates that teams that vastly over pay in terms of luxury tax aren’t as successful — maybe that’s just a matter of being unable to live up to hype or expectations.
Either way, it’s an interesting concept.
Follow Paul Seaver on Twitter: @PaulSeaverRS
