Here are some interesting things I noticed: Of the 8 teams to make the conference semifinals, 5 of them are in the top 8 in payroll. If we were to subtract 21 mil from the payroll, the rockets would have one of the lowest payrolls in the NBA, and by far are the lowest spending team to get this far. The portland trail blazers are paying 38mil to guys not playing for them. The Lakers have a lower payroll than the rockets if Tmac's salary is included. It will also be very hard for them to pay Odom and Ariza next year. The mavericks have the 2nd highest payroll. Cleveland has the 3nd highest. The team with the higher payroll has won every series except for two exceptions: The rockets beating Portland, but in this case Portland has 38 mil of bad contracts so their payroll is less than the rockets. The hawks beating the heat, but in this case the payrolls were very close: 68mil vs 69mil.
