Overpaid, underpaid: 10 good NBA players on bad contracts

1. John Wall

In case you forgot, Kevin Durant is not the only NBA star recovering from an Achilles injury that will likely keep him out for all of the 2019-20 season.

John Wall is in the same position as Durant, but for whatever reason, the Washington Wizards’ franchise point guard quickly went “out of sight, out of mind” to the collective basketball fan base after he got hurt last year.

When Wall’s name does surface on the radar, it’s often tied to commentary about how and why the Wizards need to trade him and his massive contract, and about how and why it will be difficult to find a team willing to take him and it.

In 2017, Wall signed a four-year, $171.1 million contract extension. He is slated to make $38.2 million this season, and his salary will escalate to $47.3 million in 2022-23 if he takes his player-option. (Spoiler: You already know … )

At the time he secured his future, Wall was on the cusp of being a truly elite force in the league.

He had just come off a season in which he averaged 23.1 points, 10.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game and had the Wizards one win away from the Eastern Conference Finals.

Had the Wizards won their second-round series over the Celtics, a healthy Wall might be viewed right now as being on the same level as a Damian Lillard or Paul George. He might not have an MVP or a title ring, but he’d be a made man and a bona fide superstar.

Instead, it’s been downhill ever since.

The Wizards lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2018, then missed the playoffs last season. Wall is on the shelf for the foreseeable future and — as a player whose greatest assets are his speed and explosiveness — he may not be the same when he does make it back on the court.

Meanwhile, Wall’s monstrous contract may be impossible to trade, and that’s making it hard for Washington to rebuild in his absence or prepare for his return.