It’s that
time of the year again when Thirteenth Month Bonuses and, at least in some
companies, Christmas Bonuses are given out and added to employees’ regular
paychecks. Of course, these are meant to make workers more liquid as spending
tends to spike in the holidays.
Here in the Philippines, that phenomenon is magnified by the myriad of Christmas gatherings (e.g. company parties, department Secret Santas, family parties, parties with friends, etc.), and the number of people to whom one has to give presents (e.g. co-workers, friends, family, that Secret Santa person, and, of course, one’s godchildren). Bonuses tend to be hefty, but they also tend to just, quite literally, slip through one’s fingers. All it takes are a few hours of ghastly spending to burn those extra pesos.
All those
ideas made me think of the best-paid NBA players in the current season, and
whether these guys have actually been giving their respective teams the
proverbial bang for the buck.
 |
| Kobe Bryant is the most expensive player in the NBA. Is he worth it? (image by Gerald Herbert/AP) |
Let’s look
at the top 20 NBA players in terms of their salaries this season (based on
HoopsHype.com) and then measure this against their current NBA Efficiency
rating (based on HoopStats.com).
Player
|
2012-2013 Salary
|
NBA Efficiency Rating
|
Bang per 1 Million Bucks [Efficiency/(Salary/1,000,000)]
|
Kobe Bryant
|
$27,849,000
|
25.2
|
0.91
|
Brandon Roy
|
$21,459,805
|
7.0
|
0.33
|
Dirk Nowitzki
|
$20,907,128
|
Hasn’t
played yet
|
---
|
Gilbert Arenas
|
$20,807,922
|
Playing in
China
|
---
|
Amar’e Stoudemire
|
$19,948,799
|
Hasn’t
played yet
|
---
|
Joe
Johnson
|
$19,752,645
|
11.8
|
0.60
|
Carmelo Anthony
|
$19,450,000
|
21.5
|
1.11
|
Dwight Howard
|
$19,261,200
|
21.8
|
1.13
|
Pau
Gasol
|
$19,000,000
|
17.2
|
0.91
|
Elton
Brand
|
$18,160,354
|
11.3
|
0.62
|
Chris
Paul
|
$17,779,457
|
23.1
|
1.30
|
Kevin
Durant
|
$17,548,838
|
30.4
|
1.73
|
LeBron
James
|
$17,545,000
|
29.6
|
1.69
|
Chris
Bosh
|
$17,545,000
|
22.8
|
1.30
|
Deron Williams
|
$17,177,795
|
17.9
|
1.04
|
Dwyane
Wade
|
$17,024,000
|
19.1
|
1.12
|
Paul
Pierce
|
$16,790,345
|
17.6
|
1.05
|
Zach Randolph
|
$16,500,000
|
23.1
|
1.40
|
Andrew
Bynum
|
$16,473,002
|
Hasn’t
played yet
|
---
|
Rudy
Gay
|
$16,460,532
|
16.2
|
0.98
|
From this
set of data, I can draw several things:
1) It
looks like the Minnesota Timberwolves’ risk of resurrecting Brandon Roy’s
career is a long way from paying off. Roy is far from the three-time All-Star
he once was, and he’s about a month away from coming back to the roster – if at
all.
2) I’m
going to say something we’ve all known for quite some time now – Joe Johnson is
one overpaid baller. He’s good, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not exactly 20
million dollars worth of good. Not this year, and not the past two years, when
he registered just 16.0 EFF in each campaign. His shooting is a pretty good
complement to the Nets’ prospective inside-outside game, but the question I’m
asking is maybe the Nets can get someone just as good (or even better) on the
cheap.
3) The
third-best, or third-most-cost-efficient, player on this list behind KD and LBJ
is NOT Melo, CP3, Dwight, or Bosh. It’s Zach Randolph. Z-Bo is putting up about
18 points, 13 rebounds, and shooting nearly 50% from the floor. And he’s
cheaper than Melo by about 3 mill. Heck, he’s cheaper than Gilber effin’ Arenas
by more than 4 mill. In Tagalog
parlance, that’s what we call sulit (great
bang for the buck).
 |
| Zach Randolph is one of the most cost-efficient players in the Association. (image by Danny Johnston/AP) |
4) Another
reason the Heat are so good, and will continue to be good, is that their best
players aren’t exactly breaking the bank. At least not as badly as some of the
other guys on this list. They can keep their Big Three and still have some
change left to spare for some Steve Kerr or Ron Harper-type role players like
maybe DJ Augustin, Randy Foye, DeJuan Blair, or even Jermaine O’Neal – all of
which are 2013 free agents.
5) So,
aside from Roy, Johnson, and (my God!) Arenas, who else are the grossly
overpaid NBAers here? How about the Mavs’ Elton Brand? Like JJ, he’s not awful,
but, like JJ, he’s not exactly the best 18 mill player around.
Tomorrow we’ll
take a look at the next 20 guys on the salaries list. There are bound to be
some impressive and gross surprises there, too.