{"id":37487,"date":"2021-02-21T12:22:53","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T17:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=37487"},"modified":"2026-03-10T21:50:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:50:59","slug":"three-of-the-worst-current-nba-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2021\/02\/21\/three-of-the-worst-current-nba-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Three of the Worst Current NBA Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NBA offers riches for the leading superstars in the league, who provide entertainment and excellence on the court. The best players in the NBA are worth their weight in gold to their respective franchises, bringing success and a chance to compete for the crown every season. They end up getting huge NBA contracts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Names alone fill out stadiums and generate millions of dollars in revenue from merchandise sales. Teams offer lucrative contracts in order to retain their star men to reward them for past performance and with hope for maintaining their standards in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, some contracts do not always go to plan.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A look at highest paid athletes<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the NBA has shown that some players in the league are not living up to the billing for their teams based on their performances. We\u2019ll now look at some of the worst contracts that teams have taken on in the 2020-21 campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Worst Current NBA Contracts<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Kevin Love (Cleveland Cavaliers)<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Kevin Love<\/strong> was a central figure in guiding the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/cavaliers\/\" target=\"_self\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> to their inaugural NBA crown in 2016, and their subsequent two trips to the NBA Finals. After the departure of <strong>LeBron James<\/strong> in 2018, the franchise moved to lock down the center to a four-year $120m (\u00a386m) deal as noted by<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/report-kevin-love-signs-four-year-120-million-extension-cleveland-cavaliers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NBA.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. However, Love has not lived up to the billing and is currently the 20th highest-paid player in the league.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GFnMlX5JgsU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since signing his deal, the 32-year-old has struggled for fitness, while his production has decline ten-fold. Love has another 18 months left on his contract, which will certainly hinder the Cavaliers&#8217; ability to turn over their roster unless they are able to find a way out from the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Kemba Walker (Boston Celtics)<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Kemba Walker<\/strong> was signed by the Boston Celtics as a replacement for <strong>Kyrie Irving<\/strong>. The point guard penned a four-year contract worth up to $141m (\u00a3101m). Walker\u2019s initial performances were impressive during the regular season, averaging a solid 20.4 points per game, while allowing <strong>Jayson Tatum<\/strong> and <strong>Jaylen Brown<\/strong> to flourish alongside him. However, his displays in the post-season were lackluster, especially in the Eastern Conference Finals against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/heat\/\" target=\"_self\">Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Walker has since suffered knee problems that have limited his time on the court, leaving Boston wondering where their value for money is regarding the 14th highest-paid player in the league. The Celtics have suffered as a result of his absences among others as explained on<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nba\/news\/kemba-walker-admits-celtics-just-are-not-good-right-now-after-losing-for-10th-time-in-last-15-games\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CBSSports.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, although their odds will favor an outside wager on Brad Stevens\u2019 men.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Blake Griffin (Detroit Pistons)<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Six months after signing a five-year $173m (\u00a3124m) deal with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/clippers\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, <strong>Blake Griffin<\/strong> was traded to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/pistons\/\" target=\"_self\">Detroit Pistons<\/a>. It\u2019s fair to say the move has not worked out for Detroit, who have failed to compete in the Eastern Conference with the centre in their ranks. The franchise got the best season of Griffin\u2019s career in the 2018-19 campaign, but he was unable to sustain that form into the next term.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hoarqsrBULo\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 31-year-old has struggled with a litany of injury problems over the last two years. He is the ninth highest-paid athlete in the NBA, earning $36m (\u00a326m) this term alone. On his day Griffin is a potent player, but he\u2019s not worth the deal that Detroit took on in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teams can have the best of intentions when splashing the cash to land free agents or reward their stars. However, the three contracts above highlight that franchises do not always get value for money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"h0y8b1TKRv9P5a_fC4pBZA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/970038664\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'h0y8b1TKRv9P5a_fC4pBZA',sig:'pCx9BxTU-Vy5W8SpQcpD2CD93n-832cN_VCgfpTEjGM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'970038664',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NBA offers riches for the leading superstars in the league, who provide entertainment and excellence on the court. The best players in the NBA are worth their weight in gold to their respective franchises, bringing success and a chance to compete for the crown every season. They end up getting huge NBA contracts. Names [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1675,"featured_media":37488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,5,9,10],"tags":[226,169,227,2113],"class_list":["post-37487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-celtics","category-cavaliers","category-pistons","tag-blake-griffin","tag-kemba-walker","tag-kevin-love","tag-nba-contract-extension"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180802,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37487\/revisions\/180802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}