I'm pretty sure that NOP has never paid a penny of tax, and if they went over, not only would they have to pay the tax (pretty marginal) but they'd forego the payments to non-tax-paying teams, which was like $17.3M last year (much more important).9. NOP - Only $3M over the tax, their big 3 (Zion, McCollum & Ingram) can easily take them to the playoffs, I don't expect them to be sellers, though they might be opportunistic in acquiring assets
NOP could get rid of Kira Lewis and duck under the tax.
This article - https://www.nola.com/sports/pelicans/will-the-new-orleans-pelicans-pay-a-luxury-tax-next-season/article_4f804b2c-265c-11ee-abc1-67dedccc6190.html - suggests that ownership might go over the tax if they were actually contenders but that will definitely depend on how many games Zion is able to pay.