Overpaid, underpaid: 10 good NBA players on bad contracts
By Amaar Burton
6. Nicolas Batum
The Charlotte Hornets could be the worst team in the NBA this season and the highest-paid player on the team is guard/forward Nicolas Batum.
In a related news, Batum was the sixth-leading scorer on the Hornets last season, failing to crack double-digits while averaging 9.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.
That’s not good value for the team, any way you try to slice it.
When Batum signed a five-year, $120 million contract in 2016, he was viewed as a young star on the rise who could help a young Hornets team that was on the rise. He had just averaged a career-best 14.9 points to go with 6.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game.
Athletic and rangy with the tools to be a lockdown defender, Batum was like a poor man’s Scottie Pippen — playing for the team owned by Michael Jordan.
Today, Batum is 30 years old and his stats have declined each year since he signed that hefty contract.
The Hornets missed the playoffs in each of the three years since Batum signed his deal and now the team has taken a big step back after losing All-Star point guard Kemba Walker in free agency.
The Hornets owe Batum $25.5 million this season, and he has a player option for $27.1 million next season. (Another spoiler: Batum is going to take that money.) That’s a lot to spend on someone who’s gone from showing shades of Scottie Pippen to looking more like Scott Burrell.