NBA Players Who Will Never Live Up to Their New Free-Agency Contracts
Sometimes, the best way to avoid spending too much money is to not have any money to spend. With a number of NBA teams falling into that category during free agency, 2018 hasn’t been the worst for bad contracts.
Still, even in a year when most franchises have shown thrift by necessity, there are certain deals teams will be eager to watch expire…eventually. Not all of these deals will look rough right away, but as players fail to live up to expectations—whether because of age, health, one-dimensional play or overall production—fans will ogle their newfound cap space when these contracts are no longer on the books.
Though there are a number of eyebrow-raising contracts around official nfl jersey the league, we won’t focus on deals that aren’t for much money or are only for one year.
Here are six players who will struggle to be worth their dollar amount at some point in their contracts. They’re listed in ascending order of how likely their respective teams are to be in states of regret by the end of the deals.
In a “never thought I’d see the day” highlight of the summer, Los Angeles Lakers fans around the world celebrated as Kobe Bryant’s biggest rival agreed to save the franchise from its state of demise.
The idea LeBron James’ contract is something the Lakers will eventually regret sounds preposterous right now. Even at age 33, the King just had one of the best years of his career, finishing second in the MVP voting. And sure, he may cover the cost cheap womens nfl jerseys of the Lakers’ investment in off-court value alone, but we’re here to judge its basketball merits.
There’s a decent chance he won’t live up to his four-year, $154 million deal.
With each subsequent season, that contract will look more precipitous. To put things in perspective, James has already played 54,347 combined playoff and regular-season minutes—the most of anyone through their age-35 season, according to Basketball Reference.
What’s remarkable is James has two more seasons to go.nfl jerseys cheap collection
In fact, he’s ninth in total minutes played, and he’s just 2,931 behind Kobe Bryant for third all-time. Bryant trails only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (66,297) and Karl Malone (62,759). If James averaged the same number of minutes over the next three years as he played this year (3,948), he’d pass Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time lead with nearly a year to go on his contract.
Sure, he’s been superhuman his whole career and avoided injuries, but that’s part of why he’s also played so many minutes. And while he might seem more machine than man at times, he’s made of flesh and blood, and there will be a time when he’s not the same anymore.nfl jerseys authentic
It’s probably going to happen within the next four years, and the Lakers will pay $41 million on the last year of that contract.nfl womens jerseys
You can argue that if he brings a title to L.A., it won’t matter. But there’s a chance he never will. If he doesn’t and only adds dead weight the final year or two of the contract, Lakers fans’ joy could get exhausted.