A new television deal for the NBA has created an extremely weird situation as far as the salary cap is concerned. Contracts are on the rise around the league and there continues to be plenty of debate about the amount of money certain players make and whether or not they are worth it.
The reality is that the salary cap is going up and in two years, the average salary in the NBA could be around $15 million. However, even with the salary cap skyrocketing, there are still at least a handful of contracts that are difficult to justify.
Here is a look at the four worst contracts in the NBA heading in to this season.
Wesley Matthews, Dallas Mavericks
Four Years, $70 Million
The Mavericks are coming off the worst offseason in franchise history. They allowed Tyson Chandler and Monta Ellis to walk away with the hope that they can use the money they would save to lure the No. 1 target on their free agent list. For at least a couple of days, it looked like that plan had worked the way they wanted it to after DeAndre Jordan committed to signing with them.
However, a couple of days later news broke that Jordan had changed his mind and the final night before he resigned with the Los Angeles Clippers turned in to a huge embarrassment for the Mavericks franchise.
In the end, Dallas missed out on Chandler, Ellis and Jordan and yet still their biggest mistake might be the contract they gave to the free agent they did manage to sign in Matthews. The veteran shooting guard was a terrific defensive player that can shoot the three-ball but he is coming off the worst injury a basketball player can suffer: a torn Achilles tendon. Beyond that, because Jordan didn’t sign with Dallas, Matthews earned an extra $13 million.
At 29 years old, his best days are clearly behind him. $70 million over four years is a lot of money to give a player with such an uncertain future and it tops our list of the worst contracts in the NBA heading in to this season.
Enes Kanter, Oklahoma City Thunder
Four Years, $70 Million
While it isn’t as terrible as the contract Dallas gave Matthews, it’s no surprise that another four-year, $70 million deal appears on this list as that is the amount that the Thunder paid for Kanter to return to the team. There is no doubt that Kanter can help the club offensively but on a team that already has Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, is that really what Oklahoma City needed?
There is probably some truth to the theory that management wanted to show Durant they are for real about contending for an NBA title heading in to his final season but they had more important areas of need. They better hope Kanter isn’t the defensive liability he proved to be in Utah and Oklahoma City last year.
Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls
Five Years, $95 Million
The overall contract didn’t seem like a bad idea at the time but when you consider the remaining two seasons on Rose’s deal include a combined $41.4 million, it’s clear that it has become of the worst contracts heading in to this NBA season. Rose isn’t the young superstar with MVP potential that he was when he signed this deal and with so many injuries, he’s become the new Dwyane Wade: his body is broken down but the rare time, he can still play to the worth of this deal.
With so much talent on the roster, the Bulls are almost certainly have to be wishing they could spend that money elsewhere (or get him to take less money). Rose is still a quality player when healthy but he rarely is and that is a lot of money for a contending team to pay an unreliable asset.
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Reggie Jackson, Detroit Pistons
Five Years, $80 Million
Jackson is still only 25 years old and he has the potential to be a very good NBA point guard but even though he performed well down the stretch in Detroit last season, it was a stretch for the Pistons to give him this deal. Jackson put up quality numbers but it took a long time for him to sign as a free agent and it seemed as though a big reason for him not signing much quicker was the lack of interest in him on the free agent market.
There were plenty of reports that Detroit was ultimately bidding against itself when it came to signing Jackson and after spending big to lock him in as a franchise player, they could very well end up regretting it as one of the worst contracts in the NBA heading in to this season.
