R.S. De France is a College and University instructor of English Composition. He has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Rhetoric, Composition, and Writing. One of his life-long pursuits has been writing and covering anything related to sports, specifically the NBA. Recently, De France, his wife, and another colleague started an internationally read magazine at Shwibly.com.
A general manager’s worst nightmare is when you sign a perfectly healthy player to a max contract, and they come down with a serious injury, a series of serious injuries, or the player experiences a massive drop in production for any number reasons.
With the start the 2009-2010 season just around the corner, here are several players who should feel guilty enough about their salaries that they just might try playing harder or staying healthier. If these players do not pick their numbers up, they should start returning their pay checks.
There are a lot of factors to consider in ranking these players: who has missed the most games, has had the biggest drop in production, how has the temporary loss of this player affected their team’s ability to win games, and, of course, how much they make. With one exception, these players all make a great NBA salary by today’s standards, but are they earning it? There is very little surprise with number one, so we’ll start there.
1. Gilbert Arenas, Washington Wizards, 22.8 ppg career
The Wizards owe Arenas roughly $90 million over the next five years. In fact, since he signed his $111 million contract a couple years ago, he really has not been healthy enough to produce. Although in ’07-’08 he averaged 19.4 ppg, Arenas only played 13 games. This year Arenas will make $16.1 million, so let’s hope he scores more than the 13ppg last year (in two games). Once a key scorer and clutch performer for a competitive playoff team, Arenas is starting to look a little like another Grant Hill. Let’s hope his knee is fully recovered this time. With him, they competed against the Cavs in the playoffs for a couple seasons; without him, they won’t make the playoffs this season.
2. Eddie Curry, New York Knicks, 13.4 ppg career
In ’06-’07, Curry looked like he might have a decent career with the Knicks, by putting up 19.5 ppg, but otherwise his tenure with the Knicks has been anything but stellar. After a couple years of letting his scoring average drop to around 13 ppg, last year in ’08-’09 Curry’s numbers bottomed out: 1.7 ppg and 1.3 ppg. When your scoring average is the same as your foul average (also 1.7), it might be time to step your game up. Only one number, of late, has been high for Curry—his weight. Dime Magazine reported that Curry ballooned to almost 360 lbs. last season, a season where he missed 80/82 games (http://dimemag.com/2009/09/eddy-curry-will-help-the-knicks-in-09-10/). It was a surprise to no one that, in the Knicks first preseason practice, Curry went down with an ankle injury. He’s just carrying too much weight on those legs. Team physicians really need to monitor his B.M.I. (Body Mass Index). For the Knicks’ sake, I hope that Curry will at least produce enough points and rebounds combined to add up to his $10.5 million salary this season. Its an old basketball adage that players want to add something to their game in the off-season, but someone should tell Curry that, in his case, we’re not talking about adding more weight (maybe in Stephon Curry’s case, but that’s another issue and he’s only a rookie).
3. Andrew Bynum, Los Angeles Lakers, 8.8 ppg career
This year the frail knees of Bynum will make him $12.5 million. If he could average his salary in rebounds, I’d be impressed. That seems unlikely, especially since he’s playing with the “B” team in practice. Fortunately for the Lakers, they are built well enough to withstand the Bynum injuries since Lamar Odom reliably fills in for him. In the last two seasons, Bynum averaged 13.1 ppg and 10.2 rpg in ’07-’08, and then 14.3 ppg and 8 rpg in ’08-’09, which might not be too bad except that he’s only played 85 of a possible 164 regular season games. I suppose it’s a good thing the Lakers signed him to the max extension because you don’t want to let go of a player who gives you less then 6 ppg in the playoffs for his career.
4. Tracy McGrady, Houston Rockets, 22.1 ppg career
For years, T-Mac has been a deadly scorer in the NBA. Unfortunately, he’s also been hit by some recent injuries, preventing him from playing more than 71 games in any of the past four seasons. Last year, he only played in 35; two years before that it was 47 games. Even with McGrady out part of last season, the Rockets made a brilliant run to the Western Conference Semi-Finals, where they would lose in 7 to the 2009 NBA champion the Los Angeles Lakers. After putting up 15.6 ppg in his 35 games last season, McGrady is set to make $23.2 million this season. Will he be strong and healthy enough to restore his career scoring average, or was last year an indicator of a precipitous fall in production for T-Mac? This is one team that, if healthy—I feel like we’ve been saying this for years—could be very dangerous. It’s that health thing that keeps getting in the way.
5. Elton Brand, Philadelphia 76ers, 20 ppg and 10.1 rpg career
Once looked at as the new “Iron Man” of the NBA, Brand has been hampered by two serious recent injuries (knee and shoulder). After leading the Clippers to the playoffs, once, Brand signed a 4-year, $80 million contract while recovering from a knee injury. That season Brand averaged 17.6 ppg and 8 rpg in 8 games with the Clippers. He then separated his shoulder in his first year with the 76ers, a season in which Brand played 29 games, averaging 13.8 ppg and 8.8 rpg. Now, Brand has had trouble staying healthy and meshing with A.I. and the 76ers up-tempo style. This season Brand is set to earn 14.8 million, but how much can he give the 76ers? Since they have not played a full-season with Brand, it is hard to determine exactly how much his absence has hurt them.
6. Luke Walton, Los Angles Lakers, 5.6 ppg career
Since the Lakers are so deep and the small forward position, they almost do not even need Luke Walton anymore. However, when the team is experiencing any problems with chemistry or ball movement, Phil Jackson likes to mix up the lineup by increasing Walton’s role. Aside from that, the Lakers do not seem affected by Walton’s lack of production. Walton signed a 5 year, 50 million contract after averaging 11ppg in ’06-’07. Since then, he’s averaged 7.2 ppg in ’07-’08, and 5 ppg in ’08-09. This year Walton will make 4.8 million, but, if this trend persists, he might average less than 4.8 ppg.
No matter which way you slice it, these seven players really need to step up their games in 2010.
Source for Salary Information: Hoopshype.com
