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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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Kenyon Martin, Denver Nuggets
Kenyon Martin, Denver Nuggets. Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images /

Worst free agent signing in Denver Nuggets history: Kenyon Martin

7 years, $92 million

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft, Kenyon Martin had a very interesting career. As a young player in the league, the former Cincinnati Bearcat was a piece of an elite New Jersey Nets defense that fought their way to the NBA Finals.

At the end of the 2003-04 NBA season, however, the Nets needed to reload their cupboards and traded Martin to the Denver Nuggets for three first-round picks. New Jersey fans were upset to lose a beloved player, but in trading him they avoided giving him his next contract. Denver promptly signed him to a long-term deal, to the tune of seven years and $92 million.

The Nuggets were supposed to place Martin as the power forward between Marcus Camby and Carmelo Anthony, a very talented collection of players. Martin did at times, but he was hampered by nasty knee injuries and frequent surgeries. He missed 118 games over his first four years in Denver due to microfracture surgeries on both knees.

He was never the same player again; the Nuggets may have slightly overpaid him at first, but the injuries meant this contract ends up as the worst in franchise history.