The honor of being selected as an All-Star is not the only thing on the line when the reserves are announced Tuesday night.
There are five players who could combine to earn $5 million if they are selected to the All-Star Game. Here's our look at each player who has an All-Star bonus along with the long-term financial ramifications that All-NBA voting will have for Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Jayson Tatum, Luka Doncic, Bam Adebayo, De'Aaron Fox and Donovan Mitchell.
We also take a midseason look at the status of players such as the Nets' Kyrie Irving, who have statistical bonuses in their contracts.
All-Star bonuses
Before we take a deep dive into the five players who have an All-Star bonus in their contract, it is important to understand the selection process.
The five starters in each conference were selected by a combination of votes from the fans (50%), media (25%) and fellow players (25%). The reserves, however, are chosen solely by the 15 head coaches in each conference. They are at the controls when selecting the seven players who will fill out the roster (two guards, three frontcourt and two wild cards).
Fair or unfair, those coaches will dictate whether a player like Jaylen Brown will earn a $1.3 million bonus for getting selected to his first All-Star Game. Of course, the play of Brown on the court, the success of the Celtics and the competition among guards play a big role. The fifth-year guard is having a career season, averaging 26 points per game on 41.4% shooting from 3-point range. He ranks No. 1 among Eastern Conference shooting guards in real plus-minus.
Brown should be a lock to get selected. His main competition for the four potential backcourt spots (that is if the two wild-card spots go to a guard) should come from Ben Simmons, James Harden, Trae Young, Zach LaVine and Malcolm Brogdon.
Despite having career years, Domantas Sabonis ($1 million) and Julius Randle ($945,000) are both facing stiff competition, which would only be increased if the two wild-card spots go to guards.
If Jayson Tatum and Khris Middleton are selected, as expected, for spots as frontcourt reserves, it would leave only one spot for Sabonis, Randle, Bam Adebayo, Gordon Hayward, Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic.
Unlike the frontcourt in the East, where much is up for debate, there should be no controversy out West for Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who is playing All-NBA-level defense for a team that has the best record in the NBA.
Like last year, he will earn a $1 million bonus for being selected.
Gobert also has a $500,000 bonus if he is named All-NBA First-Team Defense at the end of the season.
One name not mentioned is Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry, who has appeared in five straight All-Star Games, earning a combined $600,000 in bonus money.
Lowry has $500,000 in All-Star incentives this year and, despite ranking No. 4 among all point guards in real plus-minus, will likely not get named because of a crowded group of guards and the inconsistent play of the Raptors in the first half of the season.
All-NBA and the supermax
The 76ers' Joel Embiid and Nuggets' Nikola Jokic certainly picked the right time to have career seasons.
Barring an unexpected collapse in the second half of the season, both centers will get named All-NBA (the only debate is for first or second team) and will meet the supermax criteria.
However, because players must have seven years of experience when they sign a full supermax extension, the timing and length of the deals for Embiid and Jokic would look slightly different.
The two seasons Embiid sat out with foot injuries at the start of his career still count as years of service, so this offseason Embiid is eligible to add an additional four seasons to the two years left on his contract.
Jokic won't reach seven years of service until after the 2021-22 season, at which point he could sign a full five-year supermax extension that would kick in starting in 2023-24.
Since Jokic earned All-NBA in 2020, he'd become supermax eligible by making it again this year, even if he is not named All-NBA in 2022.
Based on a conservative $121 million cap projection (a number that is likely to increase), Jokic would earn $245.6 million over five years and Embiid $189.7 million over four seasons. However, the league's financial landscape two years out remains uncertain, as it deals with the ongoing fallout from the coronavirus pandemic as well as a potential new collective bargaining agreement.
The Mavericks' Luka Doncic is not supermax eligible but could receive a substantial pay increase in his rookie extension this offseason.
Because Doncic earned All-NBA in 2019-20, he can make himself eligible for a max extension at 30% of the cap by making All-NBA again in 2020-21. Instead of a five-year, $168 million extension, Doncic would be guaranteed a $201.5 million deal.
The rookie max extensions
We are still months away from this season's All-NBA teams being announced. Still, the halfway point of the season serves as a solid indicator on where the four players who signed rookie max extensions stand.
Those four players -- Bam Adebayo, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum and De'Aaron Fox -- each have a clause in their contract that will see their compensation increase from 25% of the cap in 2021-22 to 30% if they are named All-NBA. The 5% increase is worth an additional $32.6 million over the life of the contract for each player.
Mitchell, Tatum and Fox will earn the salary increase if selected to any of the three teams.
Adebayo's contract, however, has three specific benchmarks. His salary goes up to 30% of the cap if he is named MVP, 28.5% if he is first-team All-NBA and 27.5% if he is Defensive Player of the Year. Because of the MVP-level play of Embiid and Jokic, Adebayo is likely looking at a third-team All-NBA selection, at best, which would leave him out of any salary adjustments.
As for Mitchell, Fox and Tatum, each could find themselves on the All-Star team but left off All-NBA because of a crowded, competitive field.
At this point in the season, there appear to be four locks for the six All-NBA guard spots (Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Damian Lillard and Paul George) and four locks for the six forward positions (LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard).
Mitchell and Fox will likely find themselves competing for one of the two third-team guard spots, against a loaded field consisting of Bradley Beal, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Jaylen Brown (who also has a $1.8 million bonus for All-NBA), Zach LaVine, Trae Young, Mike Conley, Devin Booker and Chris Paul.
Tatum's chances of making an All-NBA team at forward could rest on the health of Anthony Davis, who is currently out with a sore Achilles tendon. If the voting media holds Davis' missed games against him, that could open up a forward spot, where Tatum would still be competing against the likes of Domantas Sabonis, Julius Randle, Khris Middleton, Gordon Hayward, Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris and possibly Adebayo (if allowed to be voted in as a forward).
Other incentive bonuses
Outside of the five players with All-Star bonuses, there are an additional 34 players who have incentives in their contracts that range from statistical, minutes or games played and team achievements (playoff success or team wins).
Because the season is shortened from 82 to 72 games, player bonuses for games played, minutes and total stats (not an average) are prorated over 72 games.
For example, Kyrie Irving has a games-played bonus in his contract that has been prorated from 70 to 61 games. Irving missed out on the bonus last year when his season was cut short because of a shoulder injury and is at risk of missing the $131,250 bonus once again if he is inactive for three more games.
Irving also has additional $131,250 statistical bonuses for free throws attempted, fouls per game, turnovers per game, free throw percentage and offensive and defensive rating. He is trending toward likely for every bonus except personal fouls and free throw attempts per game.
More bonus notes:
Irving's teammate Kevin Durant has a $1 million bonus if the Nets advance to the postseason. The bonus is not tied into games played for Durant, who earned it last season despite not stepping on the court for Brooklyn.
The Bucks' Jrue Holiday has missed eight games because of the health and safety protocols and is in danger of missing a $255,000 bonus for games played (59), minutes (1822) and rebounds per game (3.15 rebounds per game, minimum 59 games played). All three bonuses were achieved last year. Holiday could recoup the lost earnings if Milwaukee reaches the NBA Finals ($200,000) and wins the championship ($1 million).
Heat forward Kelly Olynyk has averaged a career-high 26.2 minutes this season and is on pace to earn a $1 million bonus for playing more than 1,493 minutes. He also has a $400,000 bonus if the Heat reach the playoffs.
The early-season struggles of the Atlanta Hawks has jeopardized a $750,000 bonus for Rajon Rondo. The Hawks must win 33 games and reach the first round of the playoffs for Rondo to reach the incentive. Atlanta is currently on a 31-win pace and is in 10th place in the East, which would only guarantee the Hawks a spot in the play-in round.
The Spurs' Rudy Gay has a $500,000 bonus if he has a defensive rating below 103 and defensive rebound rate above 20%. Gay has met one half of the criteria (defensive rating) but is only at 17% for defensive rebounds. One bonus that was deemed unlikely before the season started was if Gay shot 37.5% from beyond the arc and made 88 3-pointers. For the season, Gay is shooting 36.6% from 3 and has made 44 treys. The bonus is worth $500,000. Gay also will earn a $500,000 bonus if he appears in 53 games.
Besides bonuses for All-Star and All-Defense, Rudy Gobert has a $250,000 bonus if his ratio of total minutes played divided by total rebounds is less than 3.2. The Jazz center is currently at 2.2 (909 total minutes, 405 total rebounds). He also has a $250,000 bonus if his defensive rating is below 100 this season.