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Do teams in the luxury tax threshold have a bigger tax hit from a minimum vet than a minimum rookie?

Take for instance Ronald Dupree and Wesley Matthews. Do the Jazz have to pay the luxury on the extra money Dupree's minimum would have been? How does this work for under the cap, and under the lotto teams?

DelaneyRudd wrote:Do teams in the luxury tax threshold have a bigger tax hit from a minimum vet than a minimum rookie?

Take for instance Ronald Dupree and Wesley Matthews. Do the Jazz have to pay the luxury on the extra money Dupree's minimum would have been? How does this work for under the cap, and under the lotto teams?

Sort of. If the rookie (or a player with one year of experience) is signed as an undrafted free agent on a minimum contract, then their luxury tax hit is the same (the minimum salary of a second year player, which is $825,497 this year) as any player with two or more years of experience.

So in your example, the Jazz are not saving any money towards the luxury tax by keeping Matthews over Dupree. They would have saved luxury tax money if they kept Goran Suton, who was drafted by the team. His luxury tax hit is the same as their cap hit ($457,588).

Note that while the above applies to the tax calculations, they do stand to save money on actual payroll.

Thanks