The NBA and its teams have nearly overcome the summer of 2016, when owners and general managers handed out massive contracts like candy on Halloween to the most average of role players.
The key word in that sentence is "nearly," as five of the 10 contracts on this list of overpaid players are still a product of that regretful NBA offseason. Four of those five contracts come off the books after this season, while Hornets fans say a prayer that Nicolas Batum declines his $27.1 million player option this upcoming summer. (Spoiler alert: he won't.)
MORE: Ranking the top 15 NBA players for 2019-20
A few rules here: Players whose contracts have been bought out are not included on this list. Players whose previous seasons were riddled by injuries will also be excluded.
For example, Hawks forward Chandler Parsons no longer falls under that umbrella because he was a healthy scratch for the majority of the season. However, John Wall is not eligible because he had a season-ending injury (which, by the way, doesn't look great with his four-year, $171.1 million extension starting this year while he misses another season due to that same injury).
With that being said, let's take a look at the 10 NBA players who will rack up the big bucks this season but may not produce the stats to back up their paychecks.
1. Andrew Wiggins, Timberwolves
Every offseason since he entered the league in 2014, there has been a conversation in Minnesota centered around this question: "Is this the year that Wiggins takes the leap?" So far, the answer is always "nope."
After being forced to trade Jimmy Butler only 10 games into last season, the Timberwolves could've used Wiggins' production to give franchise player and budding star Karl-Anthony Towns some help. Unfortunately, the Canadian forward couldn’t take over that No. 2 role. The result: Minnesota missing the playoffs for the 14th time in its last 15 seasons.
Yes, Wiggins was the team's second-leading scorer at 18.1 points per game, but that number came at the price of the worst field goal percentage of his career (41.2 percent).
Last season was the first of his five-year, $147.7 million extension, so he still has four more years to prove he is worth that contract. Wiggins is set to make another $27.5 million next season, and that number only increases annually through 2023, so the Timberwolves better hope his production rises with salary.
2. Nicolas Batum, Hornets
The Hornets have been handcuffed by bad contracts, and Batum's five-year, $120 million deal from that summer of 2016 has played a major role in Charlotte's inability to be active in free agency the past few seasons. They inked Batum to that deal after he helped the Hornets make the playoffs in 2016, and his production has been on a steady decline since.
This past season, he only averaged 9.3 points per game, the lowest mark of his career since his rookie season with the Trail Blazers. His field goal and 3-point percentages went up from the previous year, but he also took his lowest number of field goal attempts per game (7.5) since 2010. In plain terms, he was no longer a major part of the offensive game plan — not exactly something you want to see from your team’s 120 million dollar man.
Making $25.6 million this season, Batum will again be the highest-paid player on the Hornets. This upcoming offseason he faces an easy decision in picking up his $27.1 million player option on the final year of his contract, and when he does, you'll see his name on this list again ahead of the 2020-21 season.
3. Chandler Parson, Hawks
Parsons has avoided this list in seasons past due to an unfathomable number of injuries since signing a four-year, $94 million contract with the Grizzlies in 2016. Unfortunately for him, his name lands near the top of this list heading into the 2019-20 season because it wasn't injuries that kept him sidelined last year — it was the dreaded "DNP Coach's Decision" and healthy "inactive" scratches.
Parsons played in just 95 of the Grizzlies' 246 regular season games while he was on the roster, averaging a mere 7.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists. It doesn’t take an expert to realize those numbers don’t scream "94 million dollars."
Parsons will get a change of scenery this season after being traded to the Hawks in a salary dump. He’s in the final year of his contract and will take $25.1 million from Atlanta before becoming an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
Whether he’ll get a chance to showcase some value with the Hawks is to be determined.
4. Bismack Biyombo, Hornets
Biyombo was traded from the Magic to the Hornets in the summer of 2018, two years into a four-year, $72 million deal he signed in 2016. Biyombo was essentially paid for one solid playoff run with the Raptors — he posted three double-doubles and eight games with double-digit rebounds, including a 26-rebound performance against the Cavaliers in Game 3 of the 2016 Eastern Conference finals.
His production has not been the same since then. He has failed to take on a consistent starting center role despite making starting center money.
Biyombo only appeared in 54 games for the Hornets last season, notching double-digit rebounds or points five times apiece. He played just 14.5 minutes per game despite being the second-highest paid player on the team, and his role on this year’s squad should be similar.
The 27-year-old will make $17 million this season in the final year of his contract before becoming an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
5. Allen Crabbe, Hawks
Crabbe signed a four-year, $75 million deal with the Trail Blazers in — you guessed it — the summer of 2016.
The Blazers re-signed the sharpshooting 3-and-D forward after he averaged 10.3 points per game while shooting nearly 40 percent from beyond the arc in 2016. The following season, he shot a career-high 44.4 percent from 3-point land, but Portland traded the forward and his contract to the Nets in a salary dump anyway.
He shot 37.8 percent from 3-point range over two seasons in Brooklyn, but he missed most of last season after a knee procedure. In an attempt to clear as much space as possible to sign Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in free agency, the Nets moved Crabbe to Atlanta, a hotbed for bad expiring contracts.
It's uncertain if he'll even get playing time on a young, up-and-coming team, but regardless, Crabbe will make $18.5 million before becoming an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
6. Tyler Johnson, Suns
Johnson was another product of the summer of 2016, inking a four-year, $50 million contract with the Heat — a confusing signing for a player who had only played in 36 games the previous season, averaging 8.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
Johnson had two-and-a-half decent seasons in Miami before the Heat traded the shooting guard to the Suns at last year's trade deadline. The Suns thought they might be able to turn Johnson into their point guard to run alongside Devin Booker, but after a poor 13-game start in which he averaged 11.1 points and 4.2 assists per game while shooting (gulp) 36.8 percent from the field, it became clear that wasn't the case.
Phoenix decided to sign another point guard in Ricky Rubio this offseason, forcing Johnson to come off the bench despite making $19.2 million in the final year of his contract.
7. Tim Hardaway Jr., Mavericks
The Knicks signed Hardaway to a four-year, $71 million contract in 2017, but he only lasted a season-and-a-half before being traded. Hardaway was thrown into the trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis to the Mavericks, as his big contract helped make the salary swapping work in the six-player, two-pick deal.
Sure, the high-volume scorer will still add production to this promising Mavericks team built around Porzingis and future superstar Luka Doncic, but are his numbers with the Knicks and Mavericks from last season (18.1 points on less than 40 percent shooting) worth $20 million this season? Not exactly.
Hardaway is an offensive-minded shooting guard who has shot 41.8 percent from the field and 34.3 percent from 3-point land over his six-year career. The Mavericks' offense is going to run through Doncic and Porzingis with Hardaway getting shots here and there. It's a heavy price to pay for an inefficient third option.
Following this season, the 27-year-old has a nearly $19 million player option, meaning the Mavericks should have him on the books again in 2020-21.
8. Reggie Jackson, Pistons
Jackson was traded from the Thunder to the Pistons in 2015 and signed a five-year, $80 million contract with Detroit the ensuing offseason. It's not that Jackson has been a bad player since signing that deal — it's just that he hasn’t been the difference-maker the Pistons hoped he would be.
Detroit has only made the playoffs twice in the last four years with Jackson at point guard, and the Pistons were swept out of the first round each time. After averaging 18.8 points per game in the first year of his contract, he has yet to match that scoring output.
He's remained inefficient, shooting 42.6 percent from the field and 35.4 percent from 3-point range in those four seasons, and his assists have dropped every year, with last season's 4.2 assists per game being his lowest mark since 2014.
Jackson will make $18.1 million in the final year of his deal before becoming an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
9. Chris Paul, Thunder
This one comes with somewhat of an asterisk, as Paul still has what it takes to be one of the best point guards in the NBA when he's healthy.
However, Paul is 34 years old and will be 35 in May. This is the second year of his four-year, $159.7 million contract, and he hasn't played over 61 games in a season since the 2015-16 season. He's set to earn $38.5 million (!) this year, making him the second-highest paid player in the NBA behind Stephen Curry. He'll make another $41.4 million in 2020-21 and has a player option worth $44.2 million for 2021-22 when he'll be 37 going on 38 years old.
Paul is great when he's on the floor, but any 38-year-old NBA player — especially one with a significant injury history — making $44 million is outlandish. This name will only climb on this list in the coming years.
10. Harrison Barnes, Kings
Barnes turned heads this summer when he declined his $25 million player option with the Kings. Sacramento then turned even more heads when it offered Barnes a four-year deal worth $85 million.
Don't get me wrong, Barnes has been fine over his seven-year NBA career. But that's all he's been — just fine.
When Sacramento traded for Barnes last season, the Kings were in the playoff hunt. They believed the veteran forward could be exactly what they needed to make a late push, but the Kings went 11-17 after the deal and fell out of the playoff picture.
Barnes is a former NBA champion with 64 games of playoff experience, which bodes well for his role on this young team, but he's going to need to average more than 14.3 points and 5.5 rebounds (his numbers with the Kings last season) to live up to the $24.1 million he's making.
