NBA free agency is right around the corner, and there is sure to be a lot of money thrown around this summer. Free agency can be an exciting time for fans as they eagerly wait for their favorite team to sign an impact player to an affordable contract.
Of course, that doesn’t always happen, and signing a player to a bad contract could have long-term negative ramifications for a team. So much so that previous collective bargaining agreements between the owners and the NBA Players Association have often included rules to prevent teams from making costly mistakes. In fact, the most recent CBA added several new rules to try and limit a team’s ability to give out bad contracts.
Even then, there have still been plenty of awful deals given out over the years. Oftentimes, teams gamble big on a relatively unproven player, or perhaps one that is past their peak. That will likely continue to be the case, though hopefully in smaller numbers going forward. With that being the case, let’s take a look at the 20 most disastrous free agent signings in NBA history.
NBA #20. Jermaine O’Neal 7 years, $126 million
Few players can say that they had as interesting of a career as Jermaine O’Neal. O’Neal was drafted out of high school by the Portland Trail Blazers and spent four seasons there but barely played. He didn’t make much of an impact until his fifth season after being traded to the Indiana Pacers.
There, he quickly emerged as a star. After making the all-star team in 2001–02 and 2002–03, the Pacers re-signed O’Neal to a massive 7-year, $126 million contract. Initially, it looked like a good deal for the Pacers, with O’Neal leading the team in scoring and rebounding while finishing third in MVP voting en route to 61 wins. There were high hopes the following season, only for the Malice at the Palace to derail the Pacers’ year.
O’Neal served a 15-game suspension for punching a fan and then missed time after spraining his shoulder. As a result, he missed 38 games, and Indiana was eliminated in the second round. He would make another two all-star games, but he showed a sharp drop-off in the 2007-08 season, averaging just 13.6 points on 43.9% shooting.
Rather than pay a declining O’Neal, Indiana traded him to Toronto, and then he was dealt to Miami less than half a season later, with his numbers dropping with each stop. By the time his deal was up, O’Neal had gone from an MVP candidate to a role player. Over the seven-season contract, O’Neal averaged a solid 17.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks. While that is far from bad, he ultimately didn’t live up to that massive contract after a promising start.
NBA #19. Michael Redd: 6 years, $91 million
Former Milwaukee Bucks star Michael Redd was one of the better shooters and offensive guards in the NBA during the early-to-mid 2000s. In fact, during his contract year in 2004–05, Redd averaged a then-career-high 23 points per game, leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to heavily recruit Redd to pair him with LeBron James after his second season.
Redd opted to stay in Milwaukee, agreeing to a 6-year, $91 million contract in 2005. While it was seen as an overpayment at the time, Redd was an all-star in his twenties, and the Bucks had no better option than to keep him and hope for the best. For the first half of the six-year deal, Redd actually played very well. In his first season, he averaged 25.4 points per game and scored a franchise-record 57 points in a game against Utah, a record that still stands.
He was even better the following season, posting a career-best 26.4 points per game. Unfortunately, injuries took their toll after year three of his contract, in which he averaged 23 points per game. In the final three years of his deal, Redd appeared in only 61 of 246 possible games. Had Redd managed to stay healthy, he probably would’ve still underperformed his big deal, even after putting up big numbers.
While he was good, he simply wasn’t worth a max contract that paid him around 30% of the salary cap. Factor in that he played in fewer than 25% of his team’s games over the back half of his contract, and it tipped an already questionable deal into negative territory. He ultimately finished his career in Phoenix, marking a disappointing end to an otherwise good career.
#18. Joe Johnson: 6 years, $123.6 million
The decision to re-sign Joe Johnson to a massive six-year contract was controversial even at the time. It was pretty much agreed that Johnson wasn’t worth nearly $124 million, but the Atlanta Hawks didn’t want to lose him for nothing, so they opted to re-sign him. Although Johnson is better than many players on this list, he wasn’t a franchise player, even though he was paid like one.
That limited the Hawks’ ceiling to being a first or a second-round playoff team. Luckily for Atlanta, the Brooklyn Nets were desperate for star power and agreed to take him off their hands in exchange for five players. Brooklyn even gave up a first-round pick for the privilege. Johnson would spend the next three and a half seasons there, putting up solid numbers and making an all-star team, before being brought out and later signing with the Heat.
By the end of his contract, Johnson had made three all-star teams, albeit in a less talented Eastern Conference. Even then, his best seasons were the three that preceded his signing the $124 million deal. He also never averaged more than 18.8 points in any season under the contract, despite being nicknamed “Iso Joe” for his ability to score one-on-one.
The Hawks overpaid for past production, which is a big no-no. They were fortunate to get off the final four years of his contract, which paid out $89 million, while the Nets were misguided in taking on his awful deal.
#17. Allan Houston: 6 years, $100.4 million
Former New York Knick star Allan Houston missed just 14 games in his first eight seasons while proving to be a talented scorer. Factor in that he had recently helped lead them to the NBA Finals as an 8th seed, and he probably seemed like a safe bet when the Knicks gave him a 6-year, $100.4 million extension in 2001.
While it was a clear overpay, especially considering the salary cap was only $40.2 million at the time, Houston initially played well. In fact, he had a career year in 2001-02, averaging 20.4 points while shooting 39.3% from three, only to have an even better year the following season. Unfortunately, Houston began to break down.
He missed 32 games in 2003–04, 62 games in 2004–05, and didn’t play at all over the final two years of his contract after being waived by the Knicks. Of course, he was still paid through the 2005–06 season even though he missed a total of 263 out of 492 possible games. Ultimately, even if Houston stayed healthy, he still might’ve underperformed under his big contract. After all, he was essentially paid like a max player, even though he was a tier below that.
#16. Rashard Lewis: 6 years, $118 million
It’s a shame that Rashard Lewis appears on this list despite being a two-time all-star and one of the best-shooting big men in NBA history. Lewis spent the first nine seasons of his career in Seattle after being drafted out of high school in 1998. At 6’10, he developed into a deadly sharpshooter, which was incredibly rare at the time. Alongside Ray Allen, the pair formed one of the most dangerous pre-Splash Brothers shooting pairings in the NBA.
That changed when Lewis was signed and traded to the Orlando Magic in the summer of 2008. His contract—a 6-year, $118 million deal—seemed astronomical at the time and certainly hasn’t aged well. While Lewis was brought in to be a veteran star who could perfectly complement then-franchise center Dwight Howard, he was instead just a capable role player on several good Magic teams.
To his credit, he did make an all-star team in Orlando and hit a game-winning shot in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. That shot resulted in the Magic stealing Game 1 and eventually the series, robbing us of a Kobe Bryant-LeBron James NBA Finals matchup. Orlando was ultimately beaten by the Los Angeles Lakers, but Lewis averaged 17.4 points per game, and they wouldn’t have made it that far in the playoffs without him.
All that said that one season doesn’t make up for underperforming his contract. Lewis made, on average, $19.6 million over six seasons, during a time when the salary cap was between $57 million and $63 million. That means that he was eating up around 30% of the cap every season, or, as we call it now, a max contract. In four seasons in Orlando, Lewis averaged a respectable but not max-level 16.5 points and 5.1 rebounds while shooting nearly 40% from three.
He was later traded to the Wizards to finish out his contract, and over the entire life of the deal, he averaged 15.1 points on 38.9% shooting from three and 5.1 rebounds in 317 games. Those would otherwise be perfectly solid numbers, but not for a player on that type of contract.
#15. Juwan Howard: 7 years, $105 million
As a member of Michigan’s famed “Fab Five,” Juwan Howard proved worthy of the Washington Bullets taking him with the 9th overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft. He made an immediate impact, including averaging 22 points per game in just his second season. When it came time to pay him, the Bullets didn’t hesitate to give him a 7-year, $105 million contract.
Perhaps they should have. While Howard had a good career, he never became a player worthy of signing a $100+ million contract. Actually, considering he made $15 million on average over the life of that contract, with inflation, it would be the equivalent of a $200 million contract now.
Worse yet, the salary cap back in 1995 was only $40 million, meaning he ate up more than one-third of that, which is effectively a super-max contract now. To Howard’s credit, he did average 17.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3 assists in 503 games over the life of that contract, but he never made an all-star or all-NBA team during that seven-season stretch. Imagine being stuck paying a merely good but far from an elite player for seven seasons—not great.
Contracts like his led to the NBA lockout in 1999, with owners fighting to save themselves by limiting the length of contracts to six seasons instead of seven. Had that rule not been changed, teams’ fan bases would still be saddled with albatross contracts, so, in a way, his terrible contract helped save the NBA.
#14. Elton Brand: 5 years, $82 million
Newer fans of the NBA may know Elton Brand as the G.M. of the Philadelphia 76ers, but during his prime as a player, he was an all-star. Brand was drafted by the Bulls and later traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, where his career took off. Over seven seasons as a Clipper, he averaged an impressive 20.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks in 459 games. He parlayed that strong Clippers run into a 5-year, $82 million contract with the 76ers.
Injuries quickly derailed his time with the 76ers. He missed 76 games—almost a full season—over the span of the deal, and he was a shell of his former self in his four seasons in Philadelphia. It wasn’t all bad; Brand served as the anchor of a then-up-and-coming team that featured Jrue Holiday, Thadeus Young, and Evan Turner, even making the Eastern Semi-Finals in 2011 before losing in game 7 to the Celtics.
Still, he wasn’t the 20-point, 10-rebound, and 2-block-per-game player that he was in Los Angeles. As a result, Brand was later amnestied and claimed by the Dallas Mavericks. He finished out the contract in the 2013–14 season and averaged just 11.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks over the course of the deal in 318 games.
He lasted only three seasons after that, playing as a backup in Atlanta for a couple of years before returning briefly to the Sixers to end his career. As the GM of the Sixers, all is clearly forgiven, but his contract with Philadelphia definitely still makes the cut.
#13. Jerome James: 5 years, $30 million
Few people probably remember journeyman center Jerome James, but he is a legend at the bank after fleecing the New York Knicks. James started his NBA career in 1998 with the Sacramento Kings but played just 16 games for them. He missed the entire following season before joining the Seattle Supersonics.
There, he carved out a role for himself over four seasons, even starting 80 games during the 2004–05 season. Despite that and being 7’1, James wasn’t all that productive. That season, he averaged 4.9 points and 3 rebounds per game, but that changed in the playoffs. In 11 games against the Kings and San Antonio Spurs, James increased his production to 12.5 points and 6.8 rebounds.
James played well, but it seemed clear to everyone but the Knicks that it was a flash-in-the-pan playoff run. That summer, New York offered him a big 5-year, $30 million contract, which he quickly accepted. Although that doesn’t seem like a lot now compared to modern deals, his $6 million per season ate up about 11% of the cap.
For comparison, that same percentage of the salary cap would equal about $13.4 million. Just imagine your favorite team tripping over themselves to sign a mediocre center who played over his head to a five-year contract. That’s exactly what the Knicks did, and it was a big mistake.
Over the next five seasons, James played a total of 90 games out of a possible 410, and only some of that was due to injury. James struggled with his weight (who hasn’t?) and showed up to training camp completely out of shape. The extra weight likely contributed to his missing 27 games due to injury and averaging just 3.1 points per game in his first season as a Knick.
It was all downhill from there. He played 41 games the following season and a total of four games over the final three seasons of his deal (and his career). Imagine making at least $16 million over three years just to play 15 minutes of basketball. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: legend at the bank.
#12. Evan Turner: 4 Years, $70 million
Former No. 2 pick Evan Turner was selected by the 76ers, but he didn’t end up panning out. Instead, he was traded to the Pacers and later signed with the Celtics, where he managed to rehab his value enough to convince the Portland Trail Blazers to shell out an eye-popping $70 million in the summer of 2016.
It didn’t go well for the Blazers, who found themselves with significant cap space only to use it to sign Turner. Turner was brought in to help Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum by serving as a point forward, but he had minimal impact over his three seasons with the team. His best season saw him score just 9 points per game while making an average of $17 million per season.
Although Portland spent poorly, they were wise enough to eventually cut their losses and trade him to the Hawks to finish out his overpaid contract. All in all, the summer of 2016 saw several teams temporarily lose their collective minds but giving that much money to a player who was already deemed a bust at the time is really hard to justify.
#11. Shawn Kemp: 7 years, $107 million
Power forward Shawn Kemp is best known for his terrific eight seasons with the Seattle Supersonics, where he made the all-star team five times and formed a dynamic duo with Hall of Famer Gary Payton. However, he is also known for being signed to a monster 7-year, $107 million deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers, which proved to be a terrible investment on the team’s part.
Kemp wasn’t the same freak athlete in Cleveland that he was in Seattle, and while he still put up big numbers and made another all-star team, he struggled with weight problems. He was traded to Portland in 2000, and the wheels really began to fall off. He went from averaging 17.8 points to averaging only 6.5 points and struggled with weight, drug, and alcohol issues.
He lasted two seasons there before finishing out his contract and his career in Orlando. Even though he didn’t play past the 2002–03 season, he still got paid 14.3 million to sit at home. In 426 games over those six seasons, Kemp averaged just 12.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, certainly failing to live up to the $107 million deal that he signed.
#10. Kenyon Martin: 7 years, $93 million
The 2000 NBA draft is widely considered to be one of the worst in NBA history and was headlined by Kenyon Martin. Martin isn’t a bust in the traditional sense since he made an All-Star team while in New Jersey, but he wasn’t all that impactful.
In 2004, Martin signed a 7-year, $93 million deal and was then traded to the Denver Nuggets. What followed was disappointment. His best season with the Nuggets proved to be his first, averaging 15.5 points and 7.3 rebounds. Unfortunately, things didn’t get better. In the summer after his first season with the team, Martin had microfracture surgery, and it appeared to affect his superior athleticism and his production.
He never averaged more than 12.9 points in the remaining six seasons of his deal and often missed significant time with injuries, including in 2006–07, when he missed 80 games after needing microfracture surgery in his right knee.
Two major knee surgeries didn’t help Martin, and he simply failed to live up to expectations in Denver. After his contract was up, he bounced around from team to team but failed to make much of an impact. Overall, Martin thoroughly underwhelmed as a former number-one pick, and the Nuggets wildly overpaid him.
#9. Eddy Curry: 6 years, $56 million
The decision to sign center Eddy Curry to a 6-year, $56 million deal proved to be a reckless one by the New York Knicks. Curry played well in Chicago, but a heart condition kept him out of the final dozen games of the 2004–05 season as well as the playoffs. He later refused to do testing with the Bulls to determine the extent of his condition since there was a risk of it affecting his value. The Knicks didn’t seem to care and offered him nearly $10 million a season to come to New York. Curry had a poor 2005-06 season, though he had a career year the following season.
It wouldn’t last, however, and he showed up to training camp overweight in 2007, causing him to be benched. He would only play 59 games, and his production dropped again. Things didn’t get better. Over the next three seasons, he played just 10 games, including none at all in the 2010–11 season, with the Knicks paying him not to play.
He would later get in shape and resume his career in Miami, playing 14 games for them and winning a championship in 2012, but he only played two games the following year before unofficially retiring. Ultimately, Curry’s lack of work ethic doomed him, and the Knicks were stuck paying an underperforming player for six seasons.
#8. Bismack Biyombo: 4 years, $72 million
Center Bismack Biyombo was taken seventh overall in the 2011 NBA draft and was expected to be a project. He definitely was, and it took until the 2015-16 season for him to come into his own. Biyombo had a strong regular season and playoff run with the Toronto Raptors. He averaged 6.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in just 25.3 minutes, proving that he could be a terrific rim protector and rebounder.
Still, the decision by the Orlando Magic to sign him to a 4-year, $72 million deal was suspect at best in the summer of 2016. Two other players that were signed that summer also make the list, for the same reasons as Biyombo.
Biyombo, while good at the time, simply wasn’t worth the inflated contract, even though the salary cap had spiked. It quickly became apparent that he wasn’t worth $17 million a year, and he was traded back to Charlotte, where he had started his career, to finish out his contract.
All in all, he averaged just 5.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1 block over the course of four seasons, which is good for a backup center but not one making $72 million. To his credit, unlike many players on this list, Biyombo still had a career after underperforming on a big contract. He is a capable and cheap backup center in Phoenix, a role he is much better suited to play.
#7. Luol Deng: 4 years, $72 million
Luol Deng spent the first decade of his career in Chicago, playing on several good Bulls teams. He was then traded to the Cavs and later signed with the Heat. There, he played well enough to earn a big 4-year, $72 million contract in the summer of 2016 from the Los Angeles Lakers.
While he was meant to help the Lakers post-Kobe Bryant, he instead proved to be a financial albatross. He was quickly overtaken in the rotation by Brandon Ingram and barely played in his first season in Los Angeles. Ironically, that was the high point of his Laker career.
He played the first game of the following season before being benched for the remainder of the year. In the summer of 2018, Deng’s remaining two years of his contract were stretched and waived. That allowed the Lakers to spread out his owed money over five seasons instead of two.
It also allowed him to sign elsewhere while still being paid by Los Angeles. In total, the Lakers paid out $65.3 million to Deng, who played just 23 games. That essentially amounted to $2.83 million per game. Things ultimately worked out for the Lakers. Waiving him helped clear space to sign LeBron James. Nice save, but the Deng contract was a foreseeable misstep that set the team back financially.
#6. Timofey Mozgov: 4 years, $64 million
The summer of 2016 has proven notorious for the number of awful contracts that were given out. This came about after the salary cap jumped by a record $ 24 million, resulting in several teams having more cap space than they knew what to do with. The Lakers were one of those teams, and, man, did they screw up. One of the bad contracts they signed was a 4-year, $64 million deal with Timofey Mozgov.
Mozgov played a fairly big role on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2015 NBA Finals team, but his role was reduced during their 2016 championship season. Despite that, the Lakers decided to bet against themselves and offer a low-end starting center $16 million a season. Obviously, it didn’t work very well. He played just 54 games for Los Angeles before they shut him down.
They then compounded their mistake by dumping him on the Brooklyn Nets and including then-recent former second-overall pick D’Angelo Russell, only to watch Russell become an All-Star. To their credit, they did get the pick that became Kyle Kuzma, only to later trade him to the Wizards as a part of the Russell Westbrook deal.
Westbrook was, of course, traded along with the Lakers’ 2027 and 2029 firsts in a deal to bring Russell back to Los Angeles. Had they not signed Mozgov, then they wouldn’t have had to dump him, and the Lakers may have had Russell develop into an All-Star, resulting in them not trading for Westbrook and later dumping him for the cost of two future firsts. Full circle.
Ultimately, Mozgov was only a Laker for a season. Still, his contract was disastrous enough that its ripple effects will continue to dramatically alter their team for at least 13 years after he was initially signed.
#5. Larry Hughes: 5 years, $70 million
After LeBron James’ rookie season, the Cleveland Cavaliers looked towards free agency to try and find him a second option. After striking out on Michael Redd, they landed Larry Hughes. Hughes had a fantastic contract season for the Washington Wizards, averaging 22 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.7 assists while also leading the NBA in steals with a stellar 2.9 takeaways per game.
Needless to say, the Cavaliers didn’t get that player. He went from being a rising star to being a serviceable starter and being paid like a borderline all-star. For reference, Hughes ate up between 20.8% and 23.4% of the salary cap over his contract and actually made more than Hall of Famer Tony Parker during that span despite Parker making three all-star teams in that five-year span.
He lasted two-plus seasons in Cleveland before being dealt to the Bulls; he was later traded to the Knicks and then the Charlotte Bobcats. That’s four teams in five years. Hughes averaged an underwhelming 12.7 points on 39.1% shooting, 3.5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1.3 steals.
Overall, it’s clear that the Cavs overpaid for Hughes, who had an all-time great contract season and duped a team into paying him big bucks. Good for him, bad for Cleveland, which had to trade him for the next player on this list.
#4. Ben Wallace: 4 years, $60 million
It might be surprising to see four-time Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace’s name on the list, but he deserves to be. After bouncing around the NBA, Wallace found a home in Detroit and became the defensive anchor of the Bad Boy Pistons II. He helped the team make six consecutive Eastern Conference Finals, and two NBA Finals, and win a championship in 2004. Wallace also became the first undrafted player to make an All-Star team.
Despite all that success with the Pistons, they opted to let him leave in free agency in 2006, which proved to be a wise decision. The Bulls signed Wallace to a 4-year, $60 million deal, and it quickly became apparent that he wasn’t the same player anymore. His trademark hair beginning to turn grey certainly didn’t help instill confidence either. He lasted just one season with the Bulls before being traded to the Cavaliers in a deal that included Hughes.
He played two seasons there before being traded to the Pistons, where he played out his contract and later finished his career. Over those four seasons, Wallace posted averages of 5.1 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks. Compare that to the 8 points, 13.2 rebounds, and 2.9 blocks per game during his first stint with the Pistons, and it’s clear the Bulls and Cavaliers got the raw end of the deal.
Paying a low-end starting center $15 million now is bad, but it was downright insane back then. The salary cap was between $55 and 58 million, meaning he was making as much as 25% of the cap, which would be the equivalent of $30 million now. Great player, terrible contract.
#3. Derrick Rose: 5 years, $95 million
Former number one overall pick Derrick Rose is another surprise inclusion on this list, but it is unfortunately well warranted. After winning league MVP at just 22 years old, he signed a 5-year, $95 million rookie max extension in 2011, using a new rule nicknamed the Rose Rule. The then-newly created rule allowed eligible players on their rookie deals to sign extensions starting at 30% of the salary cap.
It’s hard to blame the Bulls for wanting to keep Rose for as long as possible, and it wasn’t like he was injury-prone prior to signing his massive extension. Actually, he initially proved surprisingly durable, missing just six games through his first three seasons.
That didn’t last, of course. He got injured in Game 1 of the Bulls’ first-round series against the 76ers in 2012. Rose missed the remainder of the playoffs and all of the 2012–13 season. He then came back for the 2013–14 season only to be later ruled out for the rest of the year with a right meniscus tear. In 2014–15, Rose tore his right meniscus again and missed significant time.
After several injuries, it was clear that he was not the same player, so Chicago traded him to the Knicks. There, he played well before a left meniscus tear ended his season. Rose ultimately missed 256 games in the five seasons after signing his max extension. To Rose’s credit, after missing 62% of his team’s games over that span with four different leg injuries, he would later evolve into a capable role player, but he failed to live up to the contract that was named after him.
#2. Grant Hill: 7 years, $93 million
The NBA career of Grant Hill has three distinct chapters. The first was his incredible six-season run with the Detroit Pistons, while the second was his disastrous seven-season stretch with the Orlando Magic. Hill was initially meant to form a big three in Orlando with Tracy McGrady and Tim Duncan. However, the Magic blew it with Duncan like they did with Shaq, and Hill couldn’t stay healthy.
After being fairly durable through his first six seasons, Hill missed a staggering number of games in his first four years with the Magic. In fact, he missed 187 games during that span before finally having a relatively healthy 2004–05 season, in which he made the All-Star team for the sixth and final time. That was short-lived, however. He played just 29 games the following year and only 65 in the final year of his seven-year deal, respectively.
Had Hill stayed healthy, he likely would have lived up to the contract. But instead, he missed the equivalent of three full seasons, making it among the worst ever signed. While things didn’t work out for Hill in Orlando, he would play four mostly healthy seasons in Phoenix before retiring with the Clippers. It’s really too bad Hill ended up on this list, given how great he was to start his career.
#1. Gilbert Arenas, Washington Wizards: six years, $111 million
At one point, during the mid-to-late 2000s, Gilbert Arenas was one of the best offensive players in the NBA. That is an impressive feat for any player, but especially one that was taken in the second round by the Golden State Warriors.
He later signed with the Wizards and emerged as a star. In fact, over his first three seasons in Washington, he averaged a terrific 27.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 1.9 steals per game. Then the wheels fell off in spectacular fashion. Unfortunately, injuries and some really bad judgment quickly caused his career to flame out.
He played 13 games in 2007-08, then 2 games in 2008-09, and then came the gun incident, which resulted in a big suspension from the league. In the first three seasons of his big contract, Arenas played just 47 games. He was later traded to the Orlando Magic in a deal that included Rashard Lewis, another player on this list. Orlando later amnestied Arenas, which allowed him to still get paid by the Magic even after signing with Memphis in 2011.
He lasted just 17 games before his career came to an end. All told, Arenas averaged only 13 points on 38.6% shooting in just 121 games over the first four seasons of his deal. However, even after his career came to an end in 2012, he continued to get paid until 2014, making $43.1 million to sit at home. That fact alone earns him the top spot on this list.