This year’s NBA free agency didn’t have as many big names as we saw last year, but that hasn’t prevented teams from pulling the checkbook and hand big contracts to players trying to get better ahead of a challenging 2020/21 NBA season.
While some teams landed a couple of good names, others made sure to retain key figures. They didn’t hesitate to spend big and even though the league was hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, franchises are making good moves and spending good money to land their desired assets. Some would imagine they have done more than expected and necessary seeing the amount of money the top 10 highest-paid free agents have received so far compared to their accolades.
One Redditor called ‘ZandrickEllison’ did the research and found out that the 10 highest-paid free agents so far had contracts that will get them $543 million. That was before Gordon Hayward and Fred VanVleet’s deals, so that number is bigger now. In total, teams will pay $698.5 million to the players that currently make the list.
10. Christian Wood – $41M
9. Jordan Clarkson – $52M
8. Malik Beasley – $60M
7. Jerami Grant – $60M
6. Danilo Gallinari – $61.5 M
5. Marcus Morris Sr. – $64M
4. Joe Harris – $75M
3. Davis Bertans -$80M
2. Fred VanVleet – $85M
1. Gordon Hayward – $120M** (Deal reportedly still in works)
Something incredible about this is that only one player on the list has actually made it to the All-Star Game. Gordon Hayward earned the call in 2017, where he still was with the Utah Jazz and that has been the only time he made it to the big event. As for the rest of the players, none of them have made it to the ASG and the only champion on the list is VanVleet, who won the title with the Toronto Raptors in 2019.
As Ellison clarifies, this list is made before Anthony Davis signs a deal with the Los Angeles Lakers and Bogdan Bogdanovic finds a new team in the league. These players will increase the number of due money, but only AD will add more All-Star appearances (7).
This has been a strange offseason for all the things happening outside the league but also because of the things taking place within the NBA world. Some of these contracts are crazy in the eyes of many, but some teams are willing to pay big to try to create a competitive squad.
**Salaries via Spotrac**
