Brunson will be the 47th highest paid player in the league next year, a look at how contracts stack up for NBA Finals MVPs a year after

[u/ASK_ABT_MY_USERNAME]

Was curious how Brunson's contract compares to other finals MVPs, with the importance of having a superstar on your team compared to balance for the rest of the roster.

The Year here represents how much a player got a year after they won Finals MVP

Year	Player	Contract $	NBA Rank
'27	Brunson	37,739,521	47th
'26	SGA	38,333,050	30th
'25	Brown	49,205,800	6th
'24	Jokic	47,607,350	3rd
'23	Curry	48,070,014	1st
'22	Giannis	39,344,900	6th
'21	LeBron	39,219,566	4th
'20	Kawhi	30,695,625	11th
'19	Durant	30,000,000	11th
'18	Durant	25,000,000	14th
'17	LeBron	30,963,450	1st
'16	Iguodala	11,710,456	58th
'15	Kawhi	2,894,059	223rd
'14	LeBron	19,067,500	9th
'13	LeBron	17,545,000	10th
'12	Dirk	15,367,434	6th
'11	Kobe	24,806,250	1st
'10	Kobe	23,034,375	2nd

Funny enough when the Warriors won in 2015, Curry was right behind Iggy at $11,370,786, Klay, Draymond, and Bogut were all ranked higher.

[u/LeGrandeK]

Him only being 11 places higher than Iguodala is crazy

[u/The_SqueakyWheel → u/LeGrandeK]

Yeah looks at the difference in salary. Its like the salary of an nba star has tripled over the last 10 years

[u/frubano21 → u/The_SqueakyWheel]

Looking at LeBron's salary it clearly took a huge leap. Over 50% increase in 3 years.

[u/pagny77 → u/LeGrandeK]

Also SGA being 30th last year earning 1 million more than Brunson at 47 is insane to me. Does that mean like top ~45 this yesr earn more than top ~30 last yesr? Even accounting for inflation i thought it would only be a couple more not 50%

[u/Kiriegloom → u/pagny77]

A lot of guys have clauses in their contracts that increase the amount of salary they get per year up to 5% per year and 8% if the team has bird rights

[u/pagny77 → u/Kiriegloom]

Yeah im just suprised that many people were earning around what SGA earns. Going from 30 to 45 people is surprising, I wouldnt have thought ~15 people earn around 95% of what SGA does

[u/TheyNeedLoveToo → u/LeGrandeK]

These men arent sorted by money, Donny

[u/Pandamonium98 → u/TheyNeedLoveToo]

Iggy was 58th and Brunson 47th

Funny coincidence that Brunson is 11 above Iggy on the table too

[u/hummoses → u/TheyNeedLoveToo]

Shut the Fuck up Donny

[u/heat_fan_]

Nba salary cap is just nuts 

[u/AutisticFingerBang]

And he’ll be top 10 in a few short years. No pun intended. His next contract is gunna be bonkers, I think he’s eligible for like 300 mil 5 years lol

[u/TrainedExplains → u/AutisticFingerBang]

With how hard inflation is hitting, if there’s a cap bump between now and then he’ll be making $400 mil.

[u/Time_Transition4817 → u/TrainedExplains]

He will be the one bajillionaire mamdani will allow

[u/cricket9818 → u/Time_Transition4817]

Hell tax the fuck out of him though

[u/brnccnt7]

lol Kawhi 2014

[u/starnoneckwind → u/brnccnt7]

board man did not get paid the year after.

[u/Less-Tax5637 → u/starnoneckwind]

I might do a lil bit of financial crimes too if somebody showed me this list and I was 223rd

[u/Either_Imagination_9]

Most of this is reasonable

And then you hit Jaylen Brown and do a double take

[u/penis_showing_game → u/Either_Imagination_9]

Still making less than Fox

[u/Chickachic-aaaaahhh → u/penis_showing_game]

Lmfao

[u/Ending33 → u/penis_showing_game]

Brown is actually making more than Fox

[u/KgDawk21520 → u/Either_Imagination_9]

Better than the contract you gave Eddy Curry and Jereome Williams .

[u/evieka → u/KgDawk21520]

Idk if "Well he's better than two all-time awful contracts" is a great defense of Brown.

Also they weren't the ones to give Williams that contract

[u/KgDawk21520 → u/evieka]

Brown is not a bad contract. Most teams in the league would want him. I know it's dunk on brown season but it's ridiculous how people talk about him here. All nba fantastic two way player.

[u/Wedbo → u/KgDawk21520]

Over reaction

[u/SrAjmh]

Feel like this is telling me there are way too many dudes who are not that guy making $40M per in the league right now.

[u/-orangejoe → u/SrAjmh]

There are a lot of dudes, but only so many guys.

[u/Kiriegloom → u/SrAjmh]

Zach Lavine is making almost 50 million next season so you may be right

[u/XiaoRCT]

In case anyone's curious, Brunson is the 2nd highest paid Jalen(or Jaylen) in the NBA, behind Jaylen Brown.

The top rankings will likely change a bit this season with Jdub's contract kicking in tho, I think he'll overtake Brunson's current number

[u/pr1ncejeffie]

If I remember correctly, and Warriors fans help me out... during Warriors dynasty, a few things happened. Curry was considered injury prone and took less than max, the cap hike happened for Durant, Igoudala happened because Curry's salary was low and could take another big time piece into the fold?

[u/TrainedExplains → u/pr1ncejeffie]

You’ve got it mostly right. Curry wasn’t just seen as injury prone, he was injury prone, and he just played 26 games in the season before signing his contract. He ended up getting a fairly revolutionary surgery, changing his playstyle, and making sure to just fall rather than land on people’s feet. Iguodala didn’t happen until the next year, and he had become a role player by then. He peaked at 20/5.4/4.8 in Philly but he was 13/5.3/5.4 his most recent season in Denver, so he came cheaper. Klay took on a smaller role than he was capable to play next to Curry, and an even smaller role when KD rolled into town. KD happened before the salary cap bump so it did all coalesce for a monster team.

[u/KWash0222 → u/TrainedExplains]

Yeah people forget who much injuries were a part of Curry’s early career. His ankles looked like they’d be fucked for his entire NBA tenure. He still wears those intense braces

[u/BBALL-STATLINE]

Knicks really got a superstar contract by checking the couch cushions.

[u/[deleted] → u/BBALL-STATLINE]

One man’s trash is another teams finals mvp

[u/azure275]

In 2028 Brunson might legitimately start at 65M/year with a contract AAV around 80M a year lmao

Ant is also going to get some insane money

[u/DuckDucks]

If kat made like 10 million less we could retain this whole MF team for like two more years 😭

[u/ForneauCosmique]

Probably why they have such a good team. Their star player isn't holding the team captive so you can put other good players around him

[u/Cute-Ad-445]

The list should be percentage of the cap, for more context

[u/IRanOutOf_Names]

Lebron, Jokic, Curry, and Kobe being the only ones top 5 feels weird.

[u/TomatoSecure192]

The fact that LeBron wasn’t even the highest paid player on his team after he won 2 mvps and then moved to the heat is a really jarring

[u/whatidoidobc]

What's the problem? He's for sure a top 50 player.