Salary List-O-Rama

Hi folks. Sorry for the silence - life got a little hectic for the Thunder (if I may go Karl Malone on myself) the last couple weeks. Here's a quick post for now:

David Moore of the Dallas Morning News broke down salaries - both player and team - in his column on Sunday.

A couple points:
- Only Charlotte, Atlanta and Toronto are under the salary cap of $53.1M.
- The true cap appears to be the luxury tax threshold of $65.4M - most of the league hovers around that number, and only 6 teams pay more than $1 million in tax.

I offer a bunch of links below to the Dallas Morning News, but it's worth noting that no one does salaries as well as the indispensable HoopsHype.com, which breaks them out in tables looking ahead to 2010-11 - a must-bookmark for the NBA junkie.

Here are the highest-paid players in the league:
1. Garnett $21M
2. Webber $20.7M
3. S. O'Neal $20M
4. Finley $18.9M (including pre-amnesty money)
5. J. O'Neal $18.08M
5. Kidd $18.08M
7. Bryant $17.7M
8. Duncan $17.4M
9. Iverson $17.1M
9. Marbury $17.1M
Complete player list
Top 25 players

Here are the top 10 team payrolls (includes amnesty players):
1. Knicks $117.0M
2. Mavericks $91.2M
3. Lakers $77.1M
4. 76ers $75.2M
5. Blazers $74.6M
6. T-Wolves $67.5M
7. Nets $66.9M
8. Spurs $66.4M
9. Nuggets $66.2M
10. Warriors $65.8M
Complete team list

Looking ahead, John Hollinger -- in his column on the top 25 '07 free agents (subscription) last week -- noted that the following teams should have significant cap room next summer:
- Milwaukee (a lot of room)
- Memphis
- Charlotte
- Atlanta
- Seattle
- Orlando (depending upon what they do with Darko)

Here are the Top 10 of his 25:
1. C. Billups
2. V. Carter
3. R. Lewis
4. G. Wallace
5. D. Milicic
6. M. Bibby
7. G. Hill
8. A. Varejao
9. Mo Williams
10. A. Nocioni

While we're on the subject of lists, for no particular reason, here are the top 5 most improved scorers, through Monday, from
David DuPree's column:
1. Kevin Martin, Kings: 23.8 ppg (+13.0)
2. Hakim Warrick, Grizzlies: 14.5 (+10.4)
3. Quentin Richardson, Knicks: 18.5 (+10.3)
4. Zach Randolph, Blazers: 27.3 (+9.3)
5(t). Joe Johnson, Hawks: 28.8 (+8.6)
5(t). Luke Walton, Lakers: 13.6 (+8.6)

Later.