When we identified the top 50 highest-paid NBA players of 2022/23 on Thursday, four names on that list were free agents who signed new contracts this offseason. Those players, who received the four most lucrative free agent deals of 2022, are as follows:
- Bradley Beal, Wizards: Five years, $251,019,650. Fifth-year player option. 15% trade kicker. No-trade clause.
- Zach LaVine, Bulls: Five years, $215,159,700. Fifth-year player option. 15% trade kicker.
- Deandre Ayton, Suns: Four years, $132,929,128.
- Jalen Brunson, Knicks: Four years, $104,000,000. Fourth-year player option. 10% trade kicker.
As our tracker shows, five other 2022 free agents received multiyear contracts that will pay them at least $15MM per year. Here are those players, along with the details of their new deals:
- Anfernee Simons, Trail Blazers: Four years, $100,000,000.
- Luguentz Dort, Thunder: Five years, $82,500,000. Fifth-year team option. Includes $5MM in unlikely incentives.
- Jusuf Nurkic, Trail Blazers: Four years, $70,000,000.
- James Harden, Sixers: Two years, $68,640,000. Second-year player option. 15% trade kicker.
- Mitchell Robinson, Knicks: Four years, $60,000,000.
These nine contracts are what we’re considering the “big-money” deals of 2022 free agency. That term is subjective, but no other free agent received a contract worth more than $50MM in total, or with an annual average value of $15MM+, so these deals are in a class of their own.
With that in mind, we want to know which of this summer’s biggest free agent contracts you view as the best and worst values from a team perspective.
The Wizards have received some criticism not just for signing Beal to a contract exceeding $50MM per year but for handing him a series of perks that will give him significant leverage if the team wants to trade him down the road. But are there other contracts in the groups above that you’d consider even less team-friendly than Beal’s?
Harden, meanwhile, has been lauded for taking a pay cut that created the spending power necessary for the Sixers to sign P.J. Tucker and Danuel House, though his average salary ($34.32MM) is still the third-highest of any of this summer’s free agent deals. Does the short-term nature of that contract and his potential ceiling make it the most team-friendly contract of these nine, or is there another one you like more?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your two cents on this year’s best and worst big-money free agent signings!
The only one I don’t get is Simons being paid by Portland. He’s probably deserving of a big contract, but Portland have only just got out from under a small two guard’s contract (CJ). Surely they aren’t paying him that much to be on the bench, so that makes for another few years of bad Portland defense.
Every single one of these smell like regret.
LaVine and Ayton’s contracts will be fine.
Wizard and Bulls will both be desperately looking to move both players 1/2 way through the contracts.
Probably Suns too.. And the Knicks. More likely than not all 4 teams will regret these deals (and sooner rather than later)
Lol any team that signed anyone will regret it eventually, man you are really goin out on a limb with that take, 13.33333% of the league made terrible signings LOL
All these contracts are awful. Paying basketball players hundreds of millions of dollars to play is ridiculous. Beal & LaVine’s contracts are particularly terrible. I don’t count either as super stars.
Who exactly would you like to get paid those hundreds of millions of dollars? Jerry Riensdorf or Ted Leonisis? Oh I know it’s James Dolan! Heaven knows those guys sure earned it. I mean when I go watch a basketball game I keep my eyes glued on the the luxury boxes to what amazing thing Jazz Owner Ryan Smith will do next
Jusuf Nurkic comes to mind on a team that likely won’t be going far into the playoffs and also wildly overpaid for him. He’s good alright, but not quite worth that money, especially when you’re going to be paying Simons and Lillard and probably Jerami Grant big money as well over the next few seasons. Brunson and Simons have interesting deals because their teams are basically paying them because of what they MIGHT do, rather that what they already have done. If it turns out those players are only slightly above average starters on offense and poor defensive players, those deals could come back to haunt those franshises. Plus, neither team seems likely to be anything but play-in contenders over the next few months, so really those are kind of risky deals for those teams.
Jalen Brunson is the 14th highest paid starting PG in the league. So if he plays slightly above average I’d say they paid him right on the nose. If he plays up to the level he’s played in the past when Luka’s been hurt then the Knicks got a hell of a bargain.
Harden was supposedly working out this offseason, but now he’s touring Europe with KD. I wonder what his level of play will be in the coming season.
Trash as usual lol
This kind of article is missing the point. In some ways the NBA is always overpaying some players as the system is based in part on seniority, per the CBA.
Injuries, role-players, and luck play a large part in whether a player ‘deserves’ the payout which the CBA entities him to. However, the system is not designed to reward excellence per se – it is designed to maintain competitive balance and with a few notable franchise exceptions it has achieved that goal. Few of the ‘Big3 superteams’ have consistently achieved their goals and most small market teams have managed to remain in business, unlike the chaotic pre CBA period where teams relocated like nomads.
Nurkic not only getting a 4 year extension but a raise. He’s not bad but he’s too inconsistent and injury prone and I really thought portland would look elsewhere. I really don’t understand their retool as it didn’t seem to make them any better
They all deserve their money as the teams have to pay the market rate for talent.
Okay Teddy
LaVine’s…big money + continuous injury history is not a good combo. Beal is 2nd for similar reasons.
Nurkic is the worst. He is always injured.
Beal’s NTC is still a headscratcher to me
Who was Por bidding against with Nurk? A full MLE? Cmon 4 guaranteed years at 17+per…just silly and completely unnecessary . A 2/35 would have done the job just as well
I’m going to be in the minority I think, but I don’t get the hate for the Beal deal. If you’re Washington, you’re not attracting big name free agents. You have a star that wants to stay, and if KP stays healthy you have a shot at being a reasonably good team. They’re not championship caliber, but it’d be a boring league if all the teams that realized they weren’t didn’t at least try.