Getty Luka Doncic of the Mavericks
It’s not necessarily the talent that will earn Mavericks star Luka Doncic the largest contract in NBA history next year. To be sure, the talent helps—Doncic earned a spot on the league’s All-NBA team this season, ensuring he is eligible for a “supermax” contract that will start at 35% of the salary cap when it kicks in. But part of what will pave the way for Doncic to be No. 1 in NBA total salary is just good timing and the fortunate decision to put a player option into his previous contract.
Because NBA salary-cap rules dictate a 10% increase in the salary cap, and with a new media deal coming in, it’s easy to project clearly what kind of new deal Doncic will get in 13 months: five years and $346 million.
The first year will be fore $59.7 million, or 35% of the $170.6 million salary cap in 2026-27. Doncic will get 8% raises each year, and the final year of the deal will come in at $78.8 million.
“People will react to the number, and it is a staggering number, I get it,” one NBA source noted. “But it is all in the math, really. He is just getting a supermax at just the right time for it to be the biggest one.”
Luka Doncic Gets Mavericks to NBA Finals
Doncic led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals for the first time on Thursday, with a dominating win over the Timberwolves. He tallied 36 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in the game, pushing him impressive postseason stat line to 28.8 points per game, 8.8 assists and 9.6 rebounds.
When Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has to put ink to paper on a new contract for Luka Doncic in the summer of 2025, then, he can do so knowing he is giving the biggest salary in league history to a guy who has led the team, at least, to the championship round. The Finals against the Celtics will begin on Thursday, June 6.
“Luka’s contract will be, as many have reported and shared, that will be the richest contract in history. For about a year, until the next guy comes along,” Spotrac’s Keith Smith said on the site’s podcast this week. Indeed, the highest-paid mantle figures to pass among players on an annual basis for the coming years, with each well-timed supermax contract topping the last.
‘35% of the Cap is 35% of the Cap’
Doncic will edge out the total payout that will go to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is, like Doncic, coming off a five-year max contract he signed in 2021. But Doncic has a player option in 2026-27, meaning he can opt out of that year and start his extension then, a five-year deal.
SGA does not have a player option, though, so he will be eligible to sign a four-year extension that starts in 2027-28.
Smith explained: “You want to add the max amount you can onto it. You want to get down to when you have one year left on the contracts. …
“With Luka, what he is gonna do is, he is going to go into 2025, he will decline his player option in 2026-27, and he will actually add five years in new money onto his contract next year.”
The source pointed out that supermax deals tied to the rise in the salary cap will only continue to be good for the top-tier players in the NBA, but added that, “It’s not Luka Doncic, it’s the guys in the middle and on the lower end, they’re not getting the same kinds of raises. It’s a problem.”
But, Smith said, it’s just the way the collective-bargaining agreement is set up. It is, indeed, all in the math.
“The thing is, and this is why we put it on Spotrac, on the cap sheet, it’s still 30, 35% of the salary cap,” Smith said. This is not a reflection of the salaries are getting crazy—I mean, they are, don’t get me wrong—but this is still, 35% of the cap is 35% of the cap is 35% of the cap. It’s the cap that is going up because the league is in such great shape.”