The 2025-26 NBA season is all but over, with only six teams remaining in contention for the NBA Championship.
The Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons are one loss away from their seasons also being over, so the list of players who’ll end the season feeling disappointed is going to grow longer. However, at least the Wolves can feel proud of their run in the Playoffs despite injury, and the Pistons can feel proud of a 60-win regular season campaign.
Most other NBA teams and stars don’t get silver linings to help make the results of a losing season go down easier. What might help is their contracts, as any player would likely endure losing seasons when they make over $50 million in annual contractual income. The biggest contracts go to the best players, but the 2026 NBA Playoffs are devoid of any players who rank among the highest-paid players in the league this season.
Let’s analyze who the top-ten highest-paid players in the NBA are and how their 2025-26 season ended.
10. Devin Booker – $53,142,264
Devin Booker averaged 26.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 6.0 assists for the Phoenix Suns, shattering expectations by leading the franchise to the 2026 NBA Playoffs. However, Booker’s Suns were easily swept out of the first round by the OKC Thunder. Their 4-0 series loss saw Booker have a pretty bad performance, averaging 21.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in the Playoffs.
Booker is on a supermax contract and will be the franchise cornerstone for the Suns for as long as he’s still producing at an All-NBA level. However, a roster made up of wings and other off-ball scorers like Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green was bound to fail in the Playoffs, especially with the lack of any real forwards.
Booker will hope the Suns can improve their team in time for next season after proving he can drag his current roster to the Playoffs, but not to a single Playoff win.
9. Jaylen Brown – $53,142,264
Jaylen Brown is a former Finals MVP, but he had a breakout season this season. With co-star Jayson Tatum out with a ruptured Achilles, Brown excelled as the team’s No. 1 option, averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists and leading the Boston Celtics to 56 wins. However, their season ended in the worst possible way when they blew a 3-1 series lead to bitter rivals Philadelphia 76ers in the first round.
Brown’s MVP push fizzled out at the end of the season, and now his validity as a No. 1 option is being questioned just weeks after people were throwing his name around to win MVP.
He averaged 25.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in the postseason, so the Celtics’ loss can’t be blamed on him. However, he did play a huge role in their inability to make this comeback, especially after Tatum reinjured himself towards the end of the series.
8. Jayson Tatum – $54,126,450
Tatum signed a supermax contract with the Celtics one season after Brown, so season-to-season cap inflation gives him a slightly higher salary than his teammate.
One could argue that Tatum’s season didn’t end disappointingly because of his unprecedented return from an Achilles injury, but they’d be ignoring the fact that he also played a role in the Celtics’ 3-1 first-round collapse before picking up another injury to miss the pivotal Game 7.
Tatum pushed to return early because he believed the Celtics had a chance to win a title. That chance was blown out of the water in the first round, an outcome that nobody would’ve predicted when they took a 3-1 series lead over the 76ers.
Tatum averaged 21.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in 18 regular season appearances and 23.3 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 6.8 assists in the postseason, but even he’d admit that the ending was as disappointing as possible for him after he risked his health to come back as part of a championship run.
7. Anthony Davis – $54,126,450
Anthony Davis had probably one of the worst seasons of anybody on this list. After being a villain in the eyes of the fans of the Dallas Mavericks, the franchise moved on from Davis after averaging 20.4 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks in 20 games this season by salary-dumping him to the Washington Wizards.
Davis’ contract was such an albatross that the Mavericks took on expiring contracts and low-value first-round picks just to move on from him.
Davis ended the season injured while watching his franchise tank to the bottom of the standings for Draft lottery odds. The tanking worked in their favor, with the Wizards having the No. 1 pick now, so it wasn’t all disappointing. But for Davis, it was easily the worst year of his career.
He’s still linked to trade rumors, so we might see Davis get traded to a fourth team in less than two years by the end of the offseason.
6. Jimmy Butler – $54,126,450
Jimmy Butler’s season with the Golden State Warriors wasn’t just disappointing; it was heartbreaking. The 36-year-old forward became the oldest player to tear his ACL in an NBA game in January 2026, ruining any chances of a Warriors title run this year.
Butler was averaging 20.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.9 assists in the regular season, which was disappointing, but everyone knows he’s a postseason specialist. He didn’t get the chance to do that for the Warriors this season, as the franchise missed the Playoffs by going 14-30 without him this season.
Butler will likely miss most of next season as well, so one of the best-paid players in the NBA will have to watch helplessly as his teammates try to contend without him in 2026-27 as well.
5. Giannis Antetokounmpo – $54,126,450
Giannis Antetokounmpo averaged 27.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 5.4 assists this season with the Milwaukee Bucks. This might be his final season with the franchise, with Antetokounmpo having massive disagreements with the franchise towards the end of the year after they forced Antetokounmpo to miss games during their late-season tanking efforts.
Not only was this a disappointing season because Antetokounmpo missed the Playoffs for the first time in a decade, but it was also disappointing because it was the season that confirmed there’s no future for Giannis on the Bucks. His $54.1 million contract will be on the trade block, with a contending team hoping to acquire him in the offseason.
4. Kevin Durant – $54,708,609
Another one of the NBA’s highest-paid stars saw his season come to an end due to an injury. Kevin Durant averaged 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in his first full season with the Houston Rockets, but would miss five out of the six Playoff games they played in the first round due to knee and calf injuries.
Not only was Houston’s shocking Playoff elimination to a shorthanded LA Lakers squad disappointing enough, but Durant was also responsible for locker room unrest with an alleged burner scandal in the middle of the season.
With limited opportunities to secure another NBA Championship, the 38-year-old Durant has to be mightily disappointed with this season.
3. Nikola Jokic – $55,224,526
Nikola Jokic is coming off arguably the worst postseason performance of his 12-year career with the Denver Nuggets. The 31-year-old forward averaged a historic 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 10.7 assists this season, finishing as an MVP finalist.
His title as best player in the world was convincingly knocked out of his hand after his Nuggets couldn’t eliminate a Timberwolves squad beaten down with injuries during their first-round clash in the 2026 NBA Playoffs.
Jokic put up big numbers, but looked the most inefficient he has ever been on an NBA floor. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander likely crowning himself as the ‘best player in the world’ over Jokic definitively this season, this has to be considered an incredibly disappointing season for the three-time league MVP.
2. Joel Embiid – $55,224,526
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid missed 44 regular-season games this season and four playoff games as the second-highest-paid player in the NBA.
The former MVP had yet another season riddled with injuries, averaging 26.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 3.9 assists. While getting the first Playoff series victory of his career over the Celtics was a reward, the fact that Embiid missed the Conference Finals yet again has to be a massive disappointment.
The 76ers were convincingly swept by the New York Knicks in the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs, with Embiid’s presence making little difference to the outcome. His window as a contender in Philadelphia is shrinking, so another season where they fell short is something to be upset about for Embiid.
1. Stephen Curry – $59,606,817
Stephen Curry might have the most disappointing season of anyone on this list. The 38-year-old Golden State Warriors guard averaged 26.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 4.7 assists this season, but a knee injury made him miss a majority of the second half of the season.
His absence alongside Butler’s torn ACL meant the Warriors wouldn’t stay in contention for a spot in the NBA Playoffs, getting eliminated in the Play-In Tournament.
Curry has to be disappointed in what happened with Butler, but also the general failure of the Warriors’ front office to land elite talent to help him. The franchise is expected to make major changes in the 2026 offseason to help Curry return to contention, which is very necessary if Curry wants to avoid another disappointing end to the few seasons he has left in the NBA.
