In 2015-16 Kobe had the highest salary in the league at $25 million.
He put up 17.5/4/3 with the 4th highest usage rate that year playing around 28 MPG. Shooting splits of 36/28/83 for the 7th lowest TS% in the league. Meanwhile, the lakers finished bottom of the West with a 17-65 record.
Looking at advanced metrics: 2nd worst plus minus per game, 4th worst defensive box plus minus, 7th lowest win shares and 2nd lowest WS/48 (both negative) and all of which are the worst among Lakers players that year.
I understand he was injured and it was a farewell tour but purely from a production relative to salary perspective is this the worst season by a player ever or would it still be better than e.g a star being injured all year or refusing to play but making the max.
The wizards had Rashard Lewis sit out about 2 years on a max salary because they had to reach the cap floor
Russell Westbrook 2022 Lakers.
He was at one point, the worst player in the league. His negative impact was compounded by the minutes he was undeservingly getting.
He was a bad fit but worst player in the league? C’mon. There are players who don’t even get minutes.
Yeah those players weren’t actively costing their team wins. At one point discrete, identifiable decisions at the end of close games by Westbrook cost the Lakers like three wins in a two week period.
Edit: I don’t know if I think he was actually the worst player in the league but he was actively costing his team wins in a way that I don’t think many players do.
In advance, I understand the question, but given the subject matter and the player you chose as an example, it comes across as a bit of an attempt at engagement mining.
Kobe made more money for the Lakers than what they could’ve ever given him on his farewell tour…Kobe is STILL making them money even though he is no longer here.
Again, I understand the question but you didn’t choose a great example. You went with something more akin to a hot take.
Just my .02 cents.
So what if he made them money that wasn’t the question 😂 Everyone knew how bad Kobe played that year it’s a great example to show some one who got payed a lot and there performance not adding up
The classic Conor McGregor take: ‘He didn’t actually lose because look how much money he made!’
We’re talking basketball here and his season was not good.
No it’s a fair critique, I’m not a fan of legacy contracts so that probably factored into why I used the example and like you said he put enough people in seats to makeup the money anyway
I don’t know if culture matters as much in basketball anymore because a lot of players move around so much now, but it does set a good precedent as an organization to take care of your own later in their career. It can attract future players at least theoretically
I guess it depends on what kind of culture you want to promote, Timmy D took major salary cuts as his production dropped and he got older which atleast in my head is sending out the message of here the team and it’s performance always comes first. Obviously you can’t blame Kobe for taking the bag he was offered but I just don’t like organizations promoting the star is bigger than the team
Bill Bradley was the highest paid player in the league as a rookie in 1968.
He averaged 8/3/3 on below average efficiency in the regular season and 6/1/0 in the playoffs.
Okay, but I bet he made like $20k per year lol.
$20k was a lot back then.
still “just” about 200k. Question is how much of the salary cap was that, and if the league even had a salary cap then
Bill Bradley; the least deserving basketball hall of famer.
Crazy that $25 million was the highest salary in the league and it wasn’t even that long ago. Now Giannis is signing for over $60 million.
Wonder how retired players feel like are they happy for the next generation or do people like Scottie end up bitter that they made less than league minimum
Scottie probably bought his mansion for $250,000 so you know
Scottie was bitter about the money he made while he was still playing. He signed some ungodly 8 or 10 year contract and by year 4 or 5 he was already extremely underpaid. It became a big point of contention after Michael left.
All of those details were from memory so I might not be exactly correct but that’s the gist.
Probably all bitter, plus they all seem think they are better basketball players overall. This makes me appreciate Charles Barkley even more - im paraphrasing, but he said something along the lines of : we’re getting paid to play basketball, that’s easy. There’s plenty of other jobs that are much harder and get paid almost nothing, and all these players are complaining
The Dallas Mavericks traded for Davis Bertans who made 17 million to score 4.6 ppg in 10 mpg.
There are far worse contracts, but no one EVER mentions how useless the Bertans contract is for Dallas that is in win now mode
This is a good one. Nobody talks about how bad the Porzingis for Dinwiddie/Bertans trade was for the Mavs
Nobody talks about how bad the initial KP trade was for DAL, they were still on the hook for the Luka trade and they go ahead and trade two more firsts.
You know he’s in OKC now, right?
Nic Batum hornets. Several years he was getting paid and his stats were for another team. So technically it was negative stats while getting paid by the hornets.
Yeah I think you’re right this situation is probably the worst of all, getting paid to score on the team paying you is crazy
I’m understand why you guys didn’t trade him for Hayward on the Player option, a couple of 2nd rounders to Boston to avoid the dead cap would have been so worth it.
It’s gotta be Mozgov, Luol Deng, or Gilbert Arenas right?
Matt Geiger got paid for a lot of zero years
Ask any other GM if they would have paid Kobe that money lol
Kobe sold out stadiums even on the road, he deserved way more
The 2016 free agent class had lots stupid money thrown around to players never worth the money due to the huge jump in salary cap:
Timofey Mozgov 4 yrs/$64M Hassan Whiteside 4 yrs/$94M Mirza Teletovic 3 yrs/$30M Andre Drummond 5 yrs/$130M Nicolas Batum 5 yrs/$130M Chandler Parsons 4 yrs/$94M Solomon Hill 4 yrs/$48M Luol Deng 4 yrs/$72M Jon Leuer 4 yrs/$42M Bismack Biyombo 4 yrs/$72M Ian Mahinmi 4 yrs/$64M Ryan Anderson 4 yrs/$80M
Jim Buss picked a terrible deadline for himself to turn around the Lakers. Desperation makes bad decisions.
Biyombo was on his way out of the league until that playoff game against Lebron
These ppl all robbed the NBA 😂
How is Ben Simmons 2021-22 OR 2022-23 not #1 here?
Not the worst but man I was disappointed in Ben “Jordan” Gordon on the Pistons. Dude fell off a cliff
Oliver Miller was paid actual money to play professional basketball
Didn’t the Lakers pay Luol Deng for like 6 years after he stopped playing?