The Most Overpaid Players and NBA Salaries

With an insane salary cap of $113 million, here are the most overpaid players and NBA salaries in the game.

most overpaid nba players derrick rose
Getty

Image via Getty/Stacy Revere

most overpaid nba players derrick rose

It seems as though the easiest route to becoming a multi-millionaire in America today is to have one halfway-decent season in the NBA ahead of free agency. Or at least that’s how it seemed last offseason, which was notable for lackluster athletes receiving substantial sums of cash for their services. Guys like Timofey Mozgov, Ian Mahinmi, and Evan Turner make contracts that could have made them the highest-paid players in The Association back in the ‘90s, despite the fact that they were only marginally-impactful players at best.

And those kinds of NBA salaries are only going to grow more common this season. With a new collective bargaining agreement that’s going to kick in, professional athlete salaries are going to rise along with a salary cap that’s shot up exponentially over the last 20 years. The cap is projected to rise to $121 million next season, up from $113 million this season. It was a mere $34 million in 1999-00 and $57.7 million in 2009-10, so that’s a pretty, pretty, pretty big jump.

Having a cap that allows these kinds of contracts means that the NBA has a high percentage of players who most would consider “overpaid”, and don't deserve the dollars they're receiving—far more than the NFL or MLB. Since revenue is divided into two pools, the players’ pool and the owners’ pool, and since the NBA has fewer players in the league than any other sport, they are naturally going to get a bigger share of the cash. But some guys are just plain overpaid, not by virtue of a CBA that benefits so-so players, but by the ineptitude of teams (usually the Knicks) or simply by virtue of injuries and age catching up to a once-great star. It was unsightly to see Kobe Bryant play as poorly as he did his last two seasons, and the Lakers probably weren’t thrilled by the fact that they had to pay him over $48 million total for that time, either.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the most overpaid players in the NBA.

Dwight Howard

most overpaid nba players dwight howard

Tim Duncan

most overpaid nba players tim duncan

Kevin Garnett

most overpaid nba players kevin garnett

Evan Turner

most overpaid nba players evan turner

Allen Crabbe

most overpaid nba players allen crabbe

Derrick Rose

most overpaid nba players derrick rose

Luol Deng

most overpaid nba players luol deng

Joakim Noah

most overpaid nba players joakim noah

Timofey Mozgov

most overpaid nba players timofey mozgov

Ian Mahinmi

most overpaid nba players ian mahinmi

Chandler Parsons

most overpaid nba players chandler parsons

Chris Bosh

most overpaid nba players chris bosch

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