New Orleans Pelicans

Are the New Orleans Pelicans in the luxury tax in 2028-29?

Season2026-27 2027-282028-292029-30 2030-31

No. The Pelicans are $155.1M below the luxury-tax line for 2028-29 (projected).

Tax line

$230.0M

Tax payroll

$74.9M

Margin

$155.1M

The tax line sits at $230.0M (projected), and the Pelicans' tax payroll (contracts plus dead money; cap holds don't count) is $74.9M. They can add up to $155.1M in salary before paying tax.

Staying under the line also avoids repeater status, the higher rates charged to teams that pay tax in multiple recent seasons.

This is a forward look at 2028-29: it counts the contracts, options, and cap holds already on the Pelicans books for that season. Signings, trades, and option decisions between now and then will move these numbers.

The rule behind this

The luxury tax is a financial penalty line above the salary cap. Teams whose payroll (contracts plus dead money; cap holds don't count here) exceeds it pay a tax on the overage, at rates that escalate in brackets the deeper a team goes.

What is the luxury tax? →What is the salary floor? →

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Numbers come straight from the live Pelicans cap sheet, recomputed whenever the data updates.