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NBA free agency: Each team’s worst signing in franchise history

By Josh Cornelissen

Eddy Curry, New York Knicks, Ben Wallace, Chicago Bulls. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Eddy Curry, New York Knicks, Ben Wallace, Chicago Bulls. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /
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Andris Biedrins, Golden State Warriors
Andris Biedrins, Golden State Warriors. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Worst free agent signing in Golden State Warriors history: Andris Biedrins

6 years, $54 million

The Golden State Warriors drafted Andris Biedrins and had a front-row seat to his early career. Unable to avoid foul trouble early on, his start was an inconsistent one, but by his third and fourth seasons, he was a regular starter at center and often pulled down double-doubles inside.

Biedrins was a key part of the “We Believe” Warriors upsetting the Dallas Mavericks. A year later, the Warriors decided to keep him around on a long-term deal. In the summer of 2008, he was re-signed on a six-year contract worth $54 million.

The Latvian center responded with a career year in 2008-09, averaging 11.9 points and 11.2 rebounds per game. Then, however, nagging injuries began to flare up in his back and groin. His free throw shooting, always poor, plummeted to unplayable levels.

Eventually, the Warriors would have to move on from Biedrins in order to pursue other free agents, specifically DeAndre Jordan or Dwight Howard — replacements at Biedrins’ position.

Although the newly-minted collective bargaining agreement gave the team an amnesty option to wipe a contract off the books, the Warriors used that on the small contract of Charlie Bell and kept Biedrins around a little longer.

By 2013, the Warriors’ time with Biedrins was over, and he was traded to the Utah Jazz in a cap-clearing move for Golden State to sign Andre Iguodala. That was effectively the end of his career, as he played just six games for the Jazz. Flashes of potential and some real production were too infrequent to make this anything more than a bad contract.