Empty the Bench

As ETB whiles away the time until the NBA postseason and MLB opening day, we continue our series of grocery-list inspired NBA pieces. Today, we take a look at the the most overpaid players in the Association. The players’ 2006-07 salary is the standard of measurement. Additional or previous years on the contract are taken into account, but this is a list of who is most overpaid this season. It would have been too facile to load the list with players who have missed the entire year due to injury, so I’ve tried to stay away from them when I can. Some are mentioned, but we’re primarily interested in the guys who fans expected to see on the court this season.

In selecting these players, I also didn’t want to make the obvious choices. It’s no fun if everybody knows exactly who is on this list and why before they read it. It’s even less fun when everybody agrees, so there are some very controversial selections.

Working within the above criteria, a few types of players emerge. There are the talented, but chronically injured. Players who can help their teams win, but they just can’t stay on the court enough to earn their pay. There are underachievers: players who aren’t bad at all, but they’re just not as good as they should be and they don’t improve their teams enough to warrant the money they’re making. There are guys who were once worth what they’re getting paid, but their skills have since degraded while their contracts have inflated. And then, of course, there are the guys who just plain suck.

Kevin Garnett, Minnesota Timberwolves

$21,000,000

Kevin Garnett is not a bad basketball player. Kevin Garnett is a great player, maybe one of the best power forwards in history. However, he’s currently making more money than anybody else (which he will continue to do for for the next three seasons), and the Timberwolves have absolutely nothing to show for it. They’ve made it out of the first round of the playoffs just once since KG was drafted in 1995, they’re a long shot to even make the postseason this year, they have no shot at winning a title any time soon and they aren’t selling out home games.

I won’t question Garnett’s tireless work ethic and impeccable stat line. I will question his inability to play big in big games and to score in crunch time. I’m a huge fan of Kevin’s, but when I set aside the numbers and my personal opinion it gets to a point where I have to ask:

Is Minnesota getting all it should be out of this supremely gifted athlete? Should he be the highest paid player in basketball? Are the Wolves getting their money’s worth?

Michael Finley, San Antonio Spurs

$20,154,625

As shocking as it sounds, Finley is the third-highest paid player in the NBA this season. But it’s not the Spurs who are picking up the tab, it’s the Dallas Mavericks, who released him in order to clear his salary from the books for 2007-08 and beyond. He was waived in 2005 by Dallas to avoid luxury taxes on his $51.8 million dollar contract over the following three seasons, but they’re still footing the bulk of the bill this season. It doesn’t seem that long ago that Finley was one of the Big Three in Dallas and perhaps their most important player. For years I thought he was one of the most underrated players in basketball, a cagey veteran with a sweet baseline jumper and quick hands. That is no longer the case.

Fortunately, the Spurs don’t expect much. In fact, if Finley can provide some veteran leadership and clutch play in the playoffs that leads to one or two big wins, San Antonio will be getting their $2.9 million’s worth. Hell, if he can get Jason Terry to punch him below the belt again to draw another one-game suspension like he did in the 2006 playoffs, they’ll be getting their money’s worth. But the fact that he’ll be pocketing a cool $20.15 million this season to play 21 minutes and score 8 points along with 2.7 boards and 1.2 assists on 39% FG shooting makes him one of the most overpaid guys out there.

Jermaine O’Neal, Indiana Pacers

$18,084,000

Here’s another player very similar to Garnett. He was selected out of high school just a year after KG by the Portland Trailblazers, but only became relied upon as a team’s MVP after he joined the Pacers. O’Neal is actually a very good basketball player, but still overpaid. Jermaine is the 7th highest paid in the NBA, and I don’t think he’s one of the top 20 most valuable. He’s a guy who can’t get his team over the hump in the playoffs, rarely steps up in big games and never dominates the way he should with his size and talent. To make matters worse, he’s become a serious injury liability. O’Neal is once again hobbled at a critical point in the season for the Pacers. They’re fighting for their playoff lives, and O’Neal isn’t participating in practices and could be deactivated from a game at any point.

The Pacers have lost 14 of their last 16 games (including an 11-game losing streak), and during that stretch O’Neal has rarely stepped up to shoulder the burden that a star player must. He’s put up multiple games of 10 points or less in that time, and while he’s watched the Pacers season has likely come to another early conclusion. On top of that lack of killer instinct, Jermaine doesn’t do what is required of a truly dominant power forward. He’s not known as a great defender (the excellent block totals being a product of help defense, not man defense), and O’Neal’s offense is wanting in consistency and polish. He does score 19.8 points a game, but the meager 44.5% FG and 75.8% FT percentages are not the efficiency you expect from a low-post guy and your team’s best player.

Grant Hill, Orlando Magic

$16,901,500

Grant Hill will have to play at a high level until he was 40 if the Magic are to get their money’s worth out of the fat contact Grant signed before the 1999 season. It was a max-type deal for a player who was expected to be one of the best in the NBA for a bulk of the contract. That hasn’t been the case, as Grant had only played in 135 games in six seasons coming into 2006-07. It all started right before he became a free agent that summer, as Hill tried to prove the type of team player he is by playing on a broken ankle in Detroit’s first-round playoff loss. The Magic proceeded to buy the damaged goods, and the results haven’t been pretty. Hill’s seven-year, $93 million contract was named the worst free agent signing since 1996 by CNN/Sports Illustrated.

As has been the case every year since, Hill was supposedly fully healed and feeling ‘better than he has in years’ heading into 2006-07 and the Magic faithful again thought they might finally start to see a return on that investment. Unfortunately, Hill has been merely mediocre this season and hasn’t provided the youthful Magic with the on-court leadership they desperately need. They have a compelling young core in center Dwight Howard, power forward Darko Milicic and point guard Jameer Nelson, so a veteran presence on the wing would have been vital in securing homecourt advantage for the postseason. Instead, Grant has missed 18 games and the former triple-double specialist has only put up 14 points and 2.2 assists while he’s been out there. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Grant Hill and he was a joy to watch in his hey day. I think he’s a class act and the injuries are largely not his fault (Who could have known playing on the broken ankle would have such lingering effects?). But having the 13th most lucrative contract in the league this season at $16.9 million, he’s just overpaid.

Baron Davis, Golden State Warriors

$15,070,000

Hopefully the fact that Baron is the godfather of nefarious rapper The Game’s firstborn son doesn’t come back to haunt me and make me regret mentioning him here. I’m not a hater, I think Baron could be an extremely effective player. Unfortunately, Boom-Dizzle’s combination of extraordinary inefficiency and propensity for injury prevents that from being the case. For his career, Davis is a 41% shooter from the field and hits 67% of his free throws. This season, he’s at 43.6% and 74.5%. That’s not good for a guy you count on to handle the ball and hit key free throws down the stretch. Davis is also a shoot-first type of player, which isn’t ideal in a point guard. In the last three years, he has attempted 7.1 3-pointers per game, while only making 32.5% of them.

Despite the flaws, when Davis is on the court, he helps his teams win. There’s no doubt about that. His 20 points, 8.4 assists, 2.1 steals and 4.5 boards are very impressive. What I wonder is: will he ever be able to stay on the court? And with his talent, shouldn’t he have a more positive impact? Baron came out of UCLA known as a tremendous athlete with knee problems. He remained healthy his first two seasons, but has been hurt for significant periods every season since, playing in only 217 of a possible 328 games. This year he’s missed 20 contests (and counting) with that gimpy knee. That’s not what you want to get from the league’s 22nd highest paid player.

Andrei Kirilenko, Utah Jazz

$12,338,437

Going into this season, I was a big fan of Ivan Drago’s, er, Kilienko’s. But 2006-07 has been an unmitigated disaster, both on the court and off. A year ago Kirilenko was an extremely energetic and versatile player who could score 25 points, snag 15 rebounds, block 8 shots, get 5 steals or rack up 5 assists on any given night. In fact, last year he became the only active player in the NBA to be a member of the 6×5 club, notching 14 points, 7 blocks, 6 steals, 8 rebounds and 9 assists on January 3rd versus the Lakers (of Los Angeles). This year, not so much. Last season he was a player that could guard anybody from athletic shooting guards to bigs like Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, but he hasn’t brought that tenacity in 2006-07 and he’s down significantly in every statistical category.

AK-47 is the highest paid player on the Jazz, and he hasn’t brought the hustle on game night or the leadership in the locker room that should come along with that status. With the emergence of Mehmet Okur as an All-Star and a relatively healthy Carlos Boozer playing like a double-double machine, Andrei has become an afterthought on both ends of the floor, and he hasn’t responded well. He’s been pouting and complaining to the local newspapers about his diminished role to the point that Jazz owner Larry Miller said, “The combination of not playing very well and shooting his mouth off — that’s not a good combination.” Mr. Miller is right. But Andrei is still young and very talented, so hopefully he can find a new home this offseason.

Adonal Foyle, Golden State Warriors

$8,125,000

Foyle’s a nice guy and all. He’s a political activist, the founder of Democracy Matters and he even writes poetry with Washington Wizards center Etan Thomas (Washington fans have undoubtedly had a good chuckle or two at the local commercials for Etan’s ‘Poetry Jams’). He’s just not a very good basketball player. Every year, teams overspends on a big man they think can be merely serviceable. Such was the case with Foyle, who has been a huge disappointment this season despite limited expectations.

Part of the inefficacy is due to Andris Biedrins making Foyle largely obsolete. Despite that, it’s hard to imagine a reasonably athletic 6’10″, 270 pound man can’t produce more than 2.3 points, .4 assists and 2.4 rebounds in 10:11 minutes a game for a team desperately in need of size up front. That’s approaching Yinka Dare inefficiency (the most notable NBA player from my alma mater, George Washington, who averaged .1 assists for his career and went a league record 77 games and 770 minutes before getting his first). I’ll let this last number speak for itself: 637. That’s Adonal’s total career games played, the most among all active players without a single playoff appearance.

Raef LaFrentz, Portland Trailblazers

$10,905,000

Another big man who was just expected to be mediocre and has failed in the modest task which was his charge. Lafrentz was selected by the Denver Nuggets as the 3rd overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft, and he showed flashes of great outside shooting and shot-blocking ability earlier in his career – mostly in contract seasons. Portland is a young, rebuilding team that wanted to ease future center LaMarcus Aldridge along and pair the oafish Zach Randolph with a real shot blocker. LaFrentz should have been able to post decent numbers in this role and been a mentor for Aldridge. Instead, he’s been largely absent from the team and contributed next to nothing.

Raef has been crying about a sore calf all year, and he’s averaging career low figures (1.5 points, 1.7 rebounds, .2 blocks, and .1 3-pointers on 27% FGs) in less than 9 minutes per game with Portland. There’s really not much more to say about LaFrentz, it’s pretty obvious he isn’t earning his $10.9 million in 2006-07.

Predrag Stojakovic, NO/OK Hornets

$10,800,000

Stojakovic is a likable guy and the Serbian Sharpshooter’s Executive Contour haircut really takes us back . . . to the 1950s. I’ve enjoyed watching him over the years, and I really debated Peja’s inclusion because the injury has played a big part in his poor season. But the truth is, Peja wasn’t playing well before going under the knife, and his complete lack of a contribution has been the main factor in the Hornet’s disappointing year. They have Tyson Chandler and David West down low to rebound and score, and they have Chris Paul to run the show. All they needed was a good perimeter threat to stretch defenses and keep pressure off of the Paul-West two-man game, but Stojakovic hasn’t been able to provide that in shooting 42.4% from the field.

In 2003-04, Stojaković was selected as an All-Star, and finished second in the league in scoring with a career-high 24.2 ppg. He finished fourth in MVP voting and was voted to the All-NBA 2nd Team. In 2004-05, he missed 16 games to injury, but still averaged 20.1 ppg. He’s got a great track record, so this year could easily be an anomaly. But the three-time NBA All-Star (2002, 2003 and 2004) has been largely absent this year, and providing little while he’s been active. I think he has a great chance to rebound next season, or even to contribute in the playoffs if the Hornets make it, but he certainly hasn’t earned his $10.8 million yet.

The 2006-07 New York Knicks

$139,264,859 million

What, you thought they were going to come through this article unscathed? Only in the city of New York could a group of underachieving athletes be this overpaid. The Knicks far outpace the competition, spending an astounding $139,264,859 million in a league where the ‘salary cap’ is set at $53.135 million this season (meaning New York will incur the luxury tax, tacking on over $70 million more). The next closest team is the Dallas Mavericks, whose $92,320,604 million pales in comparison and who have recorded 27 more wins on the year.

In addition to the Caligula-esque team salary, the Knicks bought out the contact of Larry Brown for over $40 million earlier this year (a deal that would have paid him $53 million over the next four years). They also bought out the contract of Jalen Rose, paying him $16.9 million for the privilege of waving Rose goodbye. Oh, and thank gooodness insurance will be picking up the tab on injured guard Allan Houston’s $20,718,750 million (2nd most in the NBA) this season or things could be really getting out of hand.

Stephon Marbury may actually be earning his $17.3 million. Maybe. And $8.2 million isn’t bad for Eddy Curry, a young center who can score 18 points a game. David Lee, Renaldo Balkman and Channing Frye all make under $2.4 million, and they contribute regularly. So, let’s see. That leaves us with Steve Francis ($15 million, tied for 22nd in the NBA), Maurice Taylor ($9.75 million), Shandon Anderson ($8.5 million) Quentin Richardson ($6.9 million), Jamal Crawford ($7.2 million), Malik Rose ($6.5 million), Jerome Williams ($6.4 million), Jerome James ($5.4 million) and Jared Jeffries ($5.2 million). Wow.

Well, with all of this money flowing we can expect perennial competitiveness, or at least competence, right? Not exactly. New York is currently 30-39 (.435%) and holds the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference, poised to miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season. The coup de grace: Coach/GM Isiah Thomas recently received a multi-year contract extension, so there’s no end to the foolishness in sight.

Dishonorable Mention:

Radoslav Nesterovic, $7,280,000
Theo Ratliff, $11,666,666
Wally Szczerbiak, $11,000,000
Brian Grant, $17,370,625
Kenyon Martin, $11,818,182

Reader Picks:

Ben Wallace, $16,000,000
Brian Cardinal, $5,400,000
Rasheed Wallace, $12,000,000
Larry Hughes, $13,363,012
Etan Thomas, $5,880,000

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