Overpaid NBA Stars

Rashard Lewis is the second highest paid player in the NBA. If you believe he’s worth it, raise your hand. Okay, Rashard, put your hand down. Now that there aren’t any more hands raised, let’s consider how he compares to some of the other players in the NBA who are overpaid.




This is according to Kelly Scaletta:
So I got to wondering, how do you define “overpaid.” Is Elton Brand overpaid? I imagine some would say so, but in some ways you could say that Kobe Bryant is overpaid too, depending on how you define it.
I thought a fair way to define it would be players who make above average money, but give you below average results. So I went and found all the players that are making over $7 million but were producing at a below average PER. I discounted players who were injured like Gregg Oden.
Based on that, came up with a list of 18 players. This is how much they are making per minute played.
Player Salary/G Salary/Minute
Rashard Lewis $ 335,636.36 $ 12,713.50
Beno Udrih $ 140,909.09 $ 8,387.45
Andris Biedrins $ 136,363.64 $ 7,792.21
Lamar Odom $ 134,848.48 $ 6,421.36
Mehemet Okur $ 165,151.52 $ 6,208.70
Ben Gordon $ 175,757.58 $ 5,781.50
Corey Magette $ 155,484.85 $ 5,553.03
Devin Harris $ 140,909.09 $ 5,504.26
Hedo Turkoglu $ 160,606.06 $ 5,164.18
Brandon Haywood $ 115,151.52 $ 5,117.85
Boris Diaw $ 136,363.64 $ 4,818.50
Stephen Jackson $ 140,303.03 $ 4,804.90
Jason Kidd $ 128,787.88 $ 4,503.07
John Salmons $ 128,787.88 $ 4,440.96
Tyrus Thomas $ 110,606.06 $ 4,303.74
Raymond Felton $ 113,636.36 $ 3,453.99
That gives us an idea of the most overpaid player per minute, but they don’t all produce at the same level. That got me to wondering, how much production value per dollar do they give you. So this is a list of an estimated cost per point per minute based on PER.


Player Salary/G PER Cost per Point per Minute
Rashard Lewis $ 335,636.36 10.4 $1,222.45
Andris Biedrins $ 136,363.64 11.0 $708.38
Mehemet Okur $ 165,151.52 8.8 $705.53
Beno Udrih $ 140,909.09 12.0 $698.95
Lamar Odom $ 134,848.48 10.1 $635.78
Coery Magette $ 155,484.85 9.7 $572.48
John Salmons $ 128,787.88 7.8 $569.35
Jason Kidd $ 128,787.88 9.5 $474.01
Stephen Jackson $ 140,303.03 10.2 $471.07
Ben Gordon $ 175,757.58 12.3 $470.04
Tyrus Thomas $ 110,606.06 9.6 $448.31
Devin Harris $ 140,909.09 13.2 $416.99
Boris Diaw $ 136,363.64 11.8 $408.35
Hedo Turkoglu $ 160,606.06 12.8 $403.45
Brandon Haywood $ 115,151.52 13.2 $387.72
Raymond Felton $ 113,636.36 10.8 $319.81