The NBA pays its players a lot of money.
Almost every player who makes their way into a starting lineup at some point in their career earns generational wealth. Most of it is well deserved, as NBA players are often asked to remain in peak physical form for years on end. In some cases, you can argue that stars are underpaid. LeBron James’s NBA paycheck is likely just a fraction of his actual worth to the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA.
But in other cases, there are players who have underperformed relative to the dollar sign clinging to their name, lucked into a bountiful opportunity, or are the product of general manager malpractice. There are some objectively bad contracts in the NBA— here are the five worst ones:
Years left on a contract include this current NBA season.
HM – Miles Bridges – 3yr/$75,000,000; 3 years remaining
The immorality of Miles Bridges’s contract is what earns it a spot as an honorable mention. While Bridges might be worth an Average Annual Value (AAV) of $25 million, he’s certainly not a steal at that price point.
Lest we forget, however, that back in the summer of 2022, Bridges was charged with a felony count of causing harm to a parent of a child (his own) and two felony counts of child abuse after getting off with just three years of probation and a 30-game suspension by the NBA, Charlotte decided he was good to go for the future and offered him a three-year extension, which he is currently on the first year of, before the 2023 season.
But for the Hornets, the PR hurdles and amoral behavior are just a small price to pay for the right to call themselves, still, one of the worst teams in the NBA.
5 – Grant Williams – 4yr/$53,341,500; 3 years remaining
Sticking with Charlotte, Grant Williams is somehow earning $13 million a year for the next three years.
He was given the contract in a sign-and-trade between Boston and Dallas. Even though you can’t blame him for getting injured this year, he’s on the books right now as the Hornets’ third-highest-paid player.
It’s hard to see the value in paying a player like Williams more than Herbert Jones, Austin Reaves, and Cole Anthony. His teammate, Josh Green, is in a similar price range, and you could make the argument quite easily that he could have this spot as well, given his poor production this season.
4 – Patrick Williams – 5yr/$90,000,000; 5 years remaining
Sticking with the Williams’, Patrick Williams signed a five-year extension this past summer that pays him $18 million yearly.
The thought process behind said contract had to be that as a young player, he would improve year over year and, eventually, the contract would look like a steal, factoring in things like inflation and salary cap increases on top of production.
The issue with Williams’s contract is that he isn’t improving year-over-year, and he never really has been. His 27 minutes per game has stayed steady in his five-year career. He’s never had higher than 10.2 points per game in a season, his field goal percentage of 38% is a career low, and his three-point percentage follows suit. It’s hard to see a world where Williams ever becomes worth his $18 million AAV, and he’s on the books for the next five years.
3 – Bradley Beal – 5yr, $251,019,650; 2 years remaining + player option
The Suns almost instantly knew they made a mistake when trading for Bradley Beal.
His production on the court simply hasn’t been worth his rapidly increasing yearly salary, which currently sits at just over $50 million. The bigger issue is that his cap hit puts a stranglehold on what the Suns can put around him and his co-stars, Durant and Beal, which has really made a mess of the situation in Phoenix.
Perhaps Beal can get traded somewhere and shine like he was doing in Washington, which is somehow now his heyday, but until someone is ready to cough up over $50 million for a 31-year-old shooting guard, it looks like the Suns are going to have to pray his AAV matches his field goal percentage soon.
2 – Jerami Grant – 5yr/160,000,000; 3 years remaining + player option
It’s hard to comprehend why Portland gave Jerami Grant the contract they did when they did it back in the summer of 2023.
GM Joe Cronin made the offer before Dame asked to be traded, allegedly, but after Scoot Henderson was drafted, signifying that a shift towards the future was being made. For whatever reason, Cronin wanted Grant to fit in with all of that.
Now, with Dame long gone and a slew of young, talented wings ready to prove themselves, Grant is a misfit. Not only does his age not mesh with Portland’s timeline, but his production is declining as well. He’s scoring fewer points per game than he has in five years and shooting worse from the floor than he has since his rookie season.
There seems to be no place for the vet in Portland, but who will commit to Grant for the next four seasons at an AAV of $32 million?
1- Paul George – 4yr/$211,584,940; 3 years remaining + player option
The 76ers decided to walk off a bridge with the Paul George contract— they just thought they would get a year or two of glory before said bridge jump.
In Philadelphia’s defense, George had arguably his best season in a Clipper uniform last year. He played his most games (74), shot the best percentage from the field of his career, and was upholding his scoring production admirably.
But he’s 34, and he’s not LeBron James, Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry. George has been a great player, but he hasn’t proven it at the highest of stages, at least since his Indiana Pacer days.
And he has not meshed with Philly. His scoring output is, essentially, the lowest it’s ever been, and his field goal percentages are down across the board. He looks lethargic on the court.
But the worst part about it is that he’s being paid the ninth most money in the league this year, and he’s under contract for three more seasons, with a player option worth $56 million that will keep him around until 2028. The contract looks bad at its AAV right now, and by the time it ends, he’ll be 38 years old.
Brutal for a Philadelphia team that also has Embiid on the books for the second-most money in the league but can’t get him on the court.
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