FanNation - The Republic of Sport

pingzing said 11/02, 10:05 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, the 2009-2010 All-NBA Overpaid Team:

The 2009-2010 New York Knicks!

G Cuttino Mobley: $9,500,000
G Larry Hughes: $13,655,268
F Jared Jeffries: $6,466,600
F Al Harrington: $10,026,875
C Eddy Curry: $10,500,423

All these contracts are terrible and are what's killing the Knicks.

Here's a fun fact: the Knicks paid $50,149,166 last year for 38.9 ppg when Dwayne Wade scored 30.2 by himself. That's ludicrous.

But in all seriousness, here's my team:

G Bobby Simmons: $11,242,666*
Was paid nearly $3 million more than Devin Harris last season and only scored 7.8ppg.

G Tracy McGrady: $23,239,561
Can be a great player, but injuries just keep mounting while the salary and off-court problems stick around.

F Jared Jeffries: $6,466,600*
Is a career 5.3 ppg scorer worth $20+ million?

F Mark Blount: $7,967,375*
A seven-footer who has never averaged more than 7.2 rpg. Has the Ratliff Contract turned into the Blount Contract?

C Erick Dampier: $12,115,500*
Dampier hasn't averaged more than ten points or rebounds per game since his days with Golden State. He is Dallas's 2nd highest paid player.


You waited to argue, so I'll do the same.

pingzing said 11/04, 01:12 AM
Since you discussed my picks, I'll go ahead andd defend them.

First, about Jeffries. You're right that there are a lot of overpaid guys in the $5-8 million range, but how is he any better? Last year's averages:

5.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg, and 0.8 bpg in just 56 games.

As a forward! He's even doing worse so far this year. And how much does he get paid? $6.5 million! I'd say that's a lot of money for riding 26 games worth of pine. Not only that, Jeffries' contract (among others) has hampered NY's LeBron chances. They now have little real cap space.

And why is Blount's contract "normal"? Is there anything normal about paying a 2nd-rounder with career averages of 8.2ppg/4.6rpg $8 million?

I agree that over the last few years O'Neal has been overpaid, but this is the 2009-2010 Overpaid team, and so far he's kind of earning the money. I know it's only been five games, but he's apparently in great shape and averaging 17.3ppg and 10.3 ppg. The jury's out, but compared to Dampier's 9.3/8.7, O'Neal is elite.

Considering Simmons got traded for Jefferson, and all he has to show for it is 8ppg, he's pretty bad.

Did try to find a PG (Kidd?), but it was tough, so Simmons fits.


MTC

pingzing said 11/04, 05:31 PM
Kirilenko probably is overpaid, but he at least is a contributer to both Utah's offense and defense. He's still throwing up roughly 12ppg/5rpg/3apg/2bpg this year, which isn't too far off of his 15ppg/7rpg/3apg/3bpg.

So while he hasn't made a giant leap to superstardom, Kirilenko is still a multi-talented player. He still plays good perimeter defense and can score in the paint. He has mainly been bashed because of his issues with Jerry Sloan. He was given a large contract with high expectations, but as soon as he slipped a bit he was in Sloan's doghouse.

And as history shows, that's hard to get out of. So is AK47 overpaid? Probably, but at least he still contributes and doesn't ride the pine a la Jeffries.

As for KMart, he's also making a stack of cash, but he was relatively productive last year.

He scored well alongside Nene in the paint, fit well into the offensive pick-and-roll scheme with Billups, finally bought into some defense, and Denver excelled as a result.


Bottom line is, to be overpaid you not only need to have a large salary, but you need to be conversely bad for your team.


At least AK47 and KMart contribute. Jeffries and Blount just burn money.