Buyers Remorse: Here Are The 10 Worst Contracts Of 2016 Free Agency
Judging contracts immediately after free agency is a tough exercise, but a year in? We can start to see how an investment is panning out.
2016 Free Agency was utter insanity. $1.8 billion spent in the first two days alone, contracts handed out like candy at Halloween. With most of the league flushed with fresh salary cap space as a result of the newly-signed network deal with the NBA, it was open slather on the market as replacement-level players and even below were given deals far, far above the normal value.
The stars were swimming in cash. Mike Conley, five years and $153 million. DeMar DeRozan, five years and $139 million (which was a discount!). Andre Drummond and Bradley Beal signed five-year deals worth $127 million with their respective franchises. Nicolas Batum got $120 million over five years, while Al Horford left money on the table in Atlanta, but still got $113 million from the Celtics.
Unfortunately, the sheer amount of cap spaces teams possessed meant bad deals were going to be made. The wisdom of those were questioned from the moment the ink dried on the contracts.
In the NBA and sports in general, personnel decisions are always judged in a vacuum. Trades and free agency acquisitions are assessed in their current state, regardless of the fact most are an investment. Sometimes, it is in the long-term, in the form of young players and draft picks. Other times, it’s short-term, for those in win-now mode.
It’s a mistake, but an understandable one. We’re all living in the sports bubble, where everything is amplified and overanalyzed. It’s part and parcel, and social media is an echo chamber for these things.
That being said — some contracts are just plain bad. The wisdom of their spending is certainly lacking, and you have to wonder what some teams were thinking when they threw money at the latest misguided signing. These bad decisions are on the franchise though, not the player.
No player or person in general will turn down a pay raise of that magnitude. It’s idiotic not to, but it is the franchise that should be judged so harshly. It is them who sets up their players for failure from the jump with such misguided notions.
So without further ado, here are the 10 worst contracts of 2016 NBA Free Agency (in alphabetical order, then we shall count down from 10 to 1):
10. Kent Bazemore, Atlanta Hawks
4 years, $70 million
Baze got paid this summer. He met with other teams, most notably Houston, but opted to stay in Atlanta and took a four-year extension with the Hawks. Unfortunately, that investment hasn’t paid off so far.
Perhaps it’s part of the Hawks transition that has seen him struggle. Maybe it’s the arrival of Dwight Howard. Or the presence of Dennis Schroder, instead of Jeff Teague at point guard, which didn’t help. Either way, $15.7 million is a lot of money to pay for 11 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
His PER dropped to a measly 11.5 (from 13.4, not great as it is), his true shooting percentage plummeted from a very respectable .551 to a horrendous .504. The wing was quite good defensively, but his inability to take a step forward when the Hawks needed offensive help, was a big problem.
Bazemore struggled heavily at the rim, finishing only 56.6 percent within three feet of the basket, and when he was trapped between three and 10 feet, he was an anemic 22 percent. That’s not a typo — it was that bad.
Approaching his 28th birthday, the undersized wing has a lot of work to do to make the most of the $54 million remaining on his deal.
9. Solomon Hill, New Orleans Pelicans
4 years, $48 million
Former Pacer Solomon Hill was thrown a big money offer from the state of Louisiana, and without much competition, he headed to the Pelicans. A player who averaged 4.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1 assist per game in 2015–16 got an average salary of $12 million per annum for four years?! The NBA has gone crazy.
New Orleans General Manager Dell Demps made it clear he would get franchise cornerstone Anthony Davis help, and he seeked assistance in the form of veteran signings. So, he signed Hill, E’Twaun Moore, Tim Frazier (resigned), Terrence Jones and Alonzo Gee…? Not exactly a GM’s finest work.
Sadly, Hill was never placed in a situation he could succeed in. The Pelicans were a roster devoid of genuine help to their two stars in Davis, Jrue Holiday (and later DeMarcus Cousins), and were a tire fire all season long.
The former Indiana wing shot a career-low 38.4 percent from the field, 34.8 percent from the perimeter and his PER was a ghastly 8.0, his lowest since his rookie campaign. He finished at the rim only 52.3 percent of the time, and his average outside shooting meant he was generally a liability on that end.
It’s hard to believe the situation will get better for Hill and New Orleans, though stranger things have happened.
8. Meyers Leonard, Portland Trail Blazers
4 years, $42 million
Early extensions are generally good ideas and are always investments, so this deal might pay off. However, thus far, it has not been a great deal for the good people of Portland.
Leonard shot a career-low 38.6 percent overall and 34.7 percent from 3-point territory, alongside racking a career-worst PER of 8.9. His true shooting percentage was .507, and in every sense, it was the poorest year of the big man’s career.
The Blazers were terrible defending at the rim, and Leonard did not help with a close to nonexistent paint protection. If the big cannot score, he doesn’t have a lot of use to Portland.
His contract will age well because of salary cap increases, but Leonard is a long way from justifying the Blazers’ early faith in him through signing him to an extension so soon.
7. Jamal Crawford, Los Angeles Clippers
3 years, $42 million
To fans of dribbling and trick shot highlights, I am sorry, but this needs to be addressed. Giving a then-36-year-old $42 million is a horrible, Doc Rivers General Manager idea. Despite his less-than-deserving Sixth Man of the Year award in 2015–16, it was not a good thought to give him that much money.
Crawford has been a disaster defensively his whole career, but even more so in his later years. Of all players averaging 12 points per game or more, the swingman was sixth lowest in true shooting percentage, at .526.
He had the third-lowest win shares per 48 minutes of any player averaging more than 24 minutes per game in the entire league — only D’Angelo Russell and Devin Booker were lower than the veteran. Crawford’s value over replacement player? Dead last, at -0.6.
The former Hawk, Blazer, Knick and Bull is still a reasonable player; he just shouldn’t be playing this many minutes at this stage of his career or be offered that sort of money. There is a reason the Clippers were 13.7 points better when Crawford was off the floor.
Crawford’s contract is a hallmark of Doc Rivers’ tenure in the front office in Los Angeles. Hopefully, it will end this coming summer.
6. Timofey Mozgov / 5. Luol Deng, Los Angeles Lakers
4 years, $64 Million
One of the first deals of 2016 Free Agency, Mozgov’s was one of the real eyebrow raisers alongside Joakim Noah’s. Without much competition, the Los Angeles Lakers handed out a salary cap, crippling deal to former Cavalier Mozgov, who had been phased out in the Land during their championship run in the 2016 Playoffs.
Then, they did relatively the same with Deng, who was due for a payday after two relatively successful campaigns in South Beach with the Miami Heat. He’d shown nice flashes sliding into a small ball power forward role and appeared to have secured himself a future role in the league as he aged.
Considering the Lakers’ rebuild, these deals are horrible. It’s not that both players did not play a full season after being shut down during the team’s late tanking spree. It’s not that Mozgov played a mere 20.2 minutes per game, which is barely more than his 2015–16 season in Cleveland. Or that Deng shot 39 percent overall and 31 percent from deep — looking at a shell of the player once known as Luol Deng.
It’s the future impact on Los Angeles as a franchise that will be the most difficult to overcome. Both contracts are so horribly un-tradable, the Lakers may have to attach at least one significant asset to move them off the roster in pursuit of signing big fish in free agency or simply resigning their youthful core.
The Lakers have done well drafting and rebuilding the team from the ground up despite Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour and the constant pursuit of superstars. Two bad decisions last summer might mean that is compromised heavily going forward.
If the lottery doesn’t go their way and Los Angeles falls outside the top 3 and they lose both the 2017 and 2019 first-round picks they own, these contracts will be even worse and belong higher on the list.
4. Miles Plumlee, Milwaukee Bucks/Charlotte Hornets
4 years, $50 million
Two bad things have happened involving Miles Plumlee in the last year. Him getting paid is not one of those, but the decision to do so is certainly one of question.
Firstly, John Hammond and Jason Kidd handed out a hefty extension to another of the NBA Plumlee family, as Miles received a four-year deal. However, Plumlee proved to be disastrous in his final 45 games as a Buck, and was soon dealt to the Charlotte Hornets.
That’s where the second bad thing happened. The Hornets somehow decided that trading for a man with a horrible extension who was just signed would be a good man to trade for. Sure, in his 13 games, he shot 58 percent from the field on less than two shots per game, but the big was only playing just over 13 minutes per game. That’s practically a million per minute.
The Bucks were 4.7 points better without Plumlee on the floor, but the Hornets were a staggering 10.7 points better without him. He might not even be in their rotation next season depending on what course they take this summer. With the team all in on Kemba Walker, Nicolas Batum and co, they aren’t likely looking for any passengers.
Right now, Plumlee is dead money waiting to happen, and it might not be long until he’s traded again to a bad team with cap space.
3. Evan Turner, Portland Trail Blazers
4 years, $70 million
Portland… what were you thinking?! A tenure of revitalization under Brad Stevens in Boston aside, it is hard to fathom what possessed notable, smart man Neil Olshey to offer Turner that kind of money.
With C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard handling most of the duties on ball, it made no sense to bring in a player with such heavy ball-handling needs when on the floor. He was miscast in roles all season long, and despite some promising play at rare times, he will always be swimming against the tide trying to justify the money he is now paid.
Especially with the team bringing back Allen Crabbe by matching his four-year, $75 million offer sheet with the Brooklyn Nets. $145 million on Turner and Crabbe combined was never going to reap huge rewards.
It had to be one or the other, and the Blazers picked both. The result with Turner? A god awful .491 true shooting percentage, an abysmal .035 win shares per 48 minutes, his real plus minus was -2.91 and his value over replacement player was -0.3.
The Blazers were 7.7 points per 100 possessions better with him on the bench, and they’d be a hell of a lot better off if they never added him to the roster.
2. Joakim Noah, New York Knicks
4 years, $72.6 million
Phil Jackson seemed to step back into his hippie days when he signed Noah in Free Agency. Noah didn’t have any offers — certainly not in that range — and the Knicks President went out and signed him as soon as free agency opened. The match was obvious, with Noah wanting to play for New York. He would have signed for less.
What were you thinking, Phil?! Noah played 46 games, ended up needing season-ending surgery and was later suspended for a violation of the NBA’s drug policy. His on-court performance wasn’t the worst, but at the number he is being paid, you’re looking for prime-Noah.
At age 32 with a long list of injuries throughout his career, you’re not getting prime-Noah (sorry Phil). Here’s quick review of Noah’s first year in NYC.
What. A. Disaster. Noah was the butt of jokes all season long, even from his fellow players.
Modern bigs need to be able to shoot, and with a sub-500 true shooting percentage at .495, that doesn’t come close to good enough. He’s a passing big who fits the triangle, but with the jury out on the system, his lack of shooting will always be at the forefront.
The Knicks were better when Noah was off the floor, and their future is with Kristaps Porzingis at the five. It makes his signing all the more puzzling. With arguably the most un-tradable contract in the entire NBA, Noah gets №2 on the list. So that means…
1. Chandler Parsons
4 years, $94.4 million
It didn’t seem like a horrible idea at the time, right? Parsons was ready to leave Dallas, and Memphis needed a smart wing to join their veteran core. He was a great get for the Grizzlies, who have traditionally not been a serious participant for the marquee free agent.
Then, 2016–17 happened. Parsons’ knee troubles lingered, and his max contract began to continuously look worse. He only managed 34 games and 19.9 minutes per game in the process. It got to the point where his fellow players were even mocking his contract.
Injuries crippled Parsons’ game and season, and he finished with 6.2 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game for the season. His true shooting percentage was lowest of all 10 candidates listed, at .436. That was thanks to a blindingly bad 33.8 percent from the field and 26.9 percent from deep.
Parsons made $22,116,750 this season!
He might soon recover from his injuries, and everyone hopes that he does. But, this contract will be a complete albatross for a franchise already facing enough future questions going forward.
Sadly, the numbers speak for themselves.
A year in, looking back on the 2016 Free Agency class, it is clear some teams got a tad too excited spending their money. How will they be haunted going forward, in an attempt to build their teams with some terribly allocated money sitting on the books long-term? Time will tell.
What will 2017’s Free Agency class bring?
