Larry Coon: Damian Lillard one of NBA’s most underpaid players
Larry Coon, a writer for ESPN.com and the author of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement FAQ, put out a piece today for their insider NBA section on which players are the most overpaid and underpaid in the NBA.
The list Coon put together is supposed to accompany the NBA Rank series that ESPN.com just ended, using the NBA rank and the actual salaries of the players to determine which players are overpaid and underpaid. Damian Lillard was ranked 30th in this edition of the NBA rank and made the list for the most underpaid players both in dollar amount and by percentage of his expected salary.
Look at the rightmost value in the graph, right above 10.0 on the X axis. That’s LeBron James. His actual salary is just below $20 million. But look at his expected salary, based on his #NBArank. It’s literally off this chart at about $35.4 million. This is the NBA’s maximum salary rules at work — in a truly open market, James should be paid about $16.4 million more than he actually makes.
Here are the most underpaid players in the league, based on the amount by which they are underpaid:
NBA’s most underpaid players
Player #NBArank Score Expected salary Actual salary Difference LeBron James 1 10.00 $35,446,024 $19,067,500 $16,378,524 Kevin Durant 2 9.83 $32,771,765 $17,832,627 $14,939,138 Kyrie Irving 8 8.69 $19,472,166 $5,607,240 $13,864,926 Paul George 13 8.39 $17,004,743 $3,282,003 $13,722,740 Stephen Curry 6 8.72 $19,751,878 $9,887,642 $9,864,236 Chris Paul 3 9.48 $27,984,788 $18,668,431 $9,316,357 Kawhi Leonard 34 7.27 $10,186,477 $1,887,840 $8,298,637 James Harden 4 8.94 $21,825,654 $13,701,250 $8,124,404 Damian Lillard 30 7.46 $11,141,881 $3,202,920 $7,938,961 Kenneth Faried 47 6.84 $8,393,844 $1,367,640 $7,026,204
Next, Coon takes into account the percentage of the salary.
So it’s important to look at the results by percentages as well. Here are the most underpaid players in the league based on the percentage by which they are underpaid. For example,Chandler Parsons is paid just 12.7 percent of his expected salary.
NBA’s most underpaid players
*Based on percentage by which they are underpaid
Player #NBArank Score Expected salary Actual salary Percentage Chandler Parsons 58 6.54 $7,292,972 $926,500 12.70 Kenneth Faried 47 6.84 $8,393,844 $1,367,640 16.29 Jimmy Butler 66 6.27 $6,447,177 $1,112,880 17.26 Kawhi Leonard 34 7.27 $10,186,477 $1,887,840 18.53 Paul George 13 8.39 $17,004,743 $3,282,003 19.30 Lance Stephenson 121 5.34 $4,224,332 $1,005,000 23.79 Isaiah Thomas 153 4.89 $3,445,645 $884,293 25.66 Patrick Beverley 174 4.59 $3,005,965 $788,872 26.24 Damian Lillard 30 7.46 $11,141,881 $3,202,920 28.75 Kyrie Irving 8 8.69 $19,472,166 $5,607,240 28.80
Some of the most overpaid players include the Lakers Kobe Bryant and New York’s Amar’e Stoudemire.
Erik Gundersen
Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.