NBA injury cost: $1.3b in guaranteed salary paid to injured players last season

The NBA offseason is well underway, and as teams continue to build and finalize their rosters for next season, they may want to look at where a lot of their salary cap is being wasted.

The data team at Casino Guru has analyzed injury records for last season to show just how much teams are spending on injured players' guaranteed salaries and the figure is astonishing.

Data for the study was collected from the online sports data platform Spotrac, analyzing the 'NBA Injured List Tracker' which shows how much players were paid while sidelined. Reasons to be on the list include: injury, injury management, illness and rest.

Key Highlights:

• Teams paid a combined $1.3b in guaranteed salary to injuries last season.
• Indiana Pacers paid the most in guaranteed salary on injured players last season, totaling $81.5m.
• Dallas Mavericks ($72.5m) & Golden State Warriors ($72m) paid the 2nd & 3rd highest amount.
• Minnesota Timberwolves spent the least on injured players salaries last season, at $16.1m.
• New York Knicks ($18m) & Brooklyn Nets ($22.3m) spent the 2nd and 3rd least on injured players salaries.
• Memphis Grizzlies had the most injuries (22) and most days missed by players (1,081), spending $71.8m.
• Tyrese Haliburton ($44.5m) was the most expensive injured player, followed by Jayson Tatum ($42.3m) both Achilles recoveries, and Trae Young was 3rd at $36.2m.

NBA Teams With the Highest Paid Guaranteed Salary for Injured Players

1. Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers find themselves top of the spending for injured players last season at $81.5m - this is mainly down to one player, Tyrese Haliburton. Sadly, in game 7 of the NBA finals against Oklahoma City Thunder in 2024/25, Haliburton suffered a torn Achilles which ultimately ruled him out of all future games the following season.

The Pacers star has cost them $44.5m in guaranteed salary last season, and it’s not the only injury to hit the wallets. Obi Toppin's partial stress fracture, which caused him to miss 58 games, has cost the team $9.7m. These injury issues played a big role in the Pacers going 19–63, the worst record in franchise history.

2. Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks have paid the second most in guaranteed salary to injured players at $72.5m, Kyrie Irving being the biggest spend. His torn ACL in March 2025 cost him the whole of last season, and The Mavs a whopping $35.9m in guaranteed salary. But fans will now be hopeful of no repeat to this cost, as it has recently been announced he's 100% fit ahead of next season.

Anthony Davis was also a big factor of their total cost after missing 55 games due to a calf issue and costing $17.1m. Davis was traded in February this year to the Wizards as part of a multi-player blockbuster deal to have some financial flexibility and build around rookie Cooper Flag.

3. Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors paid $72m in guaranteed salary to injured players last season, the third highest total in the league. Unlike the team above them who had one major hitter in injury cost, the Warriors had two.

Jimmy Butler was paid the most whilst injured at $27.6m after missing 44 games throughout the season, mostly due to his torn ACL, whilst Steph Curry missed 40 games costing $24.3m mainly due to suffering from runner's knee.

The Warriors started last season competitively, but Butler and Curry's injuries as well as some additional sidelines throughout the squad factored heavily into them missing the playoffs after losing in the play-in tournament.

NBA Teams With the Least Paid Guaranteed Salary for Injured Players

1. Minnesota Timberwolves

The Timberwolves had another solid season, not only competitively but also cost saving wise. They had the lowest guaranteed salary spend on injured players in the whole league at $16.1m, this is a huge $65m less than top spenders Indiana Pacers.

Although they made the second round of the playoffs, proving themselves as one of the better teams in the west conference, they may have seen more success if the injuries they did have weren't so badly timed. Donte DiVincenzo suffered a ruptured Achilles ruling him out of any future games, and Anthony Edwards also faced injury – however he returned later. Edwards alone cost the team $9.4m throughout the season.

2. New York Knicks

The Knicks had their best season in over 50 years after winning a historic NBA finals matchup against the San Antonio Spurs. They also proved themselves to be one of the healthier teams throughout and finished with the 2nd least injury spend in the league, totaling $18m.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson both had short spells of injury accumulating $3.8m in injured salary between them. The outlier for the Knicks cost-wise was OG Anunoby, who missed 18 games from injury with a total cost of $6.3m.

However, all key players were fit during the playoffs, and they had no season ending injuries like a lot of teams, helping them create history for their fans.

3. Brooklyn Nets

Following the Knicks in the injury cost table comes their crosstown rivals the Brooklyn Nets. Compared to the two teams below in injury cost, they didn't have a great season, but that was due to being in a rebuild phase focusing on developing young players and remaining financially flexible.

The Nets spent $22.3m on guaranteed salary to injured players last season, and the bulk of that came from Michael Porter Jr. at $8.5m spread throughout the season. Looking through the rest of their salary spent on injured players, you can see their expensive players were mostly available, with injuries primarily among the younger and/or lower salaried players.

Nets fans will be hoping that the rebuild phase pays off over the next few seasons, and they can enjoy more successful years than the one they just faced.

Methodology

This analysis uses Spotrac’s NBA Injured List Tracker for the 2025–26 season to measure team injury-related salary expenditure. Injury cost is defined as Spotrac’s "Cash Total Per Days Missed" metric, representing salary paid to players while they were unavailable due to injury or inactive-list status.

Data is collected at the player-team level, with traded players counted separately for each team that paid them while unavailable. Costs are reported in total dollars and as a percentage of the 2025–26 NBA salary cap ($154.647 million) for standardized comparison across teams.

Non-injury personal absences are excluded, with mixed personal/injury absences adjusted by removing personal days and prorating the associated salary and missed games. Injury management and rest designations are included because they represent inactive-list salary costs, while personal absences are removed. Team totals were validated against Spotrac’s published injury tracker figures before adjustments.

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