The fact that the NBA salary cap is expected to skyrocket following this season created some interesting scenarios around the league as teams appeared – at least on paper – to overspend with the idea those deals wouldn’t look nearly as bad once the overall cap increased.
However, some deals just look awful regardless of what the cap situation is. We’re looking at you Toronto Raptors (Cory Joseph) and New York Knicks (Derrick Williams). At any rate, we’ve handpicked four deals that are sure to be regrettable in a couple of seasons…or maybe right away.
Wesley Matthews, Dallas Mavericks
4 Years, $70 Million
The Mavericks experienced a very difficult NBA free agency period but after watching DeAndre Jordan walk away from their agreement, basketball fans in Dallas had to be hoping the team could find a way to walk away from this deal. That won’t happen though and now the Mavericks are actually on the hook to pay $70 million to Matthews instead of $57 because Jordan walked away. That’s a whopping $17.5 million.
The idea of giving the 28-year-old Matthews such a ridiculous deal would be a reach even if he wasn’t coming off a major injury but when you consider how much he relies on his athleticism and the fact that he is coming off a torn Achilles injury, it’s clear that this was desperation. The Mavericks whiffed on Rajon Rondo last season, watched Tyson Chandler and Al-Farouq Aminu walk away and needed to get someone. Matthews is a good player when healthy but this is too much for him.
Aron Baynes, Detroit Pistons
3 Years, $20 Million
Where did this come from? Did the Pistons even need a center? They already have Andre Drummond and the new NBA de-emphasis traditional centers, so why pay almost $7 million a year for a backup. They could have used a second-round pick and got someone of the same caliber.
Instead, the Pistons gave Baynes a whopping $20 million and unclear why. Baynes is not young. He’s 28 and he’s hardly proven anything in the NBA. The Spurs have used him sparsely as he hasn’t proven to be much of anything for them other than a bench body. That’s what the Pistons are getting here but for some reason they deemed it necessary to pay him $7 million when there was really no competition for his services.
Omer Asik, New Orleans Pelicans
5 Years, $60 Million
For all of the talk about how the Pelicans had to surround their MVP Anthony Davis with elite talent, it seemed like a lock that they wouldn’t entertain the idea of bringing back Asik since they had more important needs at other positions. So when they announced that they were bringing back the reserve center at a ridiculous rate of $12 million over each of the next five years, there were more than a few experts that were literally shocked.
Asik is a decent option in the paint where his defense and rebounding are his strengths but paying that kind of money for a one-dimensional, 29-year-old backup center when there are so many bigger areas of need makes this deal done by New Orleans one of the worst of the 2015 summer period for sure. He’s also a bad fit next to Davis as the two don’t have great chemistry together.
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Reggie Jackson, Detroit Pistons
5 Years, $80 Million
Jackson was an absolute revelation for Detroit after they acquired him from the Oklahoma City Thunder as he averaged 17.6 points, 9.2 assists and 4.7 rebounds in 27 games after the NBA All-Star break and there was no way the Pistons were going to let him walk away from them. However, the reality is that there really weren’t many teams that were interested in getting in to a bidding war with Detroit to land Jackson and in essence, they were bidding against themselves. Although it’s entirely possible that Jackson grows into a superstar, right now the Pistons are paying him to be one at $16 million per season and he’s not there yet.
