While plenty of well-intentioned Boston Celtics and NBA fans complain about how much some players they see as underperforming are making, the truth is that with the artificial limit on player compensation created by the luxury tax and other similar mechanism’s in the league’s collective bargaining agreement, many players in the association are actually underpaid.
To calculate the degree of that underpayment, HoopsHype’s Alberto De Roa put together a metric called “Real Value” that was designed to, as HoopsHype analyst Frank Urbina writes, allocate “earnings just based on performance on the court.” In other words, the “only constraint is that salaries are distributed taking into account how much NBA teams spent on player contracts each season.”
Among the most underpaid players in the history of the league can be found several Celtics alumni — let’s dive into these cases.
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No. 23 - Jayson Tatum
Seasons overpaid vs. underpaid: 0-5
Real Value: $103,621,814
Career earnings: $58,176,820
Difference: $45,444,994 (78.12%)
“By Year 3, Jayson Tatum was already an All-Star who had led the Boston Celtics on multiple deep playoff runs,” writes Urbina.
“It was in that third season of 2019-20, the first All-Star nomination of his career, that Tatum was truly underpaid, making just $7.8 million in a year in which he averaged 23.4 points and 7.0 rebounds. Real Value believes he should have made $26.5 million that year, $18.6 million more than he was actually paid.”
“At least the Celtics were able to use the value of that contract to reach the Eastern Conference Finals,” suggests the H/H analyst.
No. 22 - Sam Cassell
Seasons overpaid vs. underpaid: 3-13
Real Value: $104,066,449
Career earnings: $58,419,775
Difference: $45,646,674 (78.14%)
“Sam Cassell is unique in this exercise, as not only was he a late bloomer in the NBA, but his most underpaid season didn’t come until his 11th NBA campaign, surprisingly not while he was on a rookie-scale contract,” notes the author.
“In 2003-04, the first and only All-Star year on Cassell’s resume, the former Florida State star averaged 19.8 points and 7.3 assists while making $5.1 million, when Real Value had him at $14.3 million for a $9.2 million difference.”
“Cassell’s value contract that year was a big reason why the Timberwolves were able to make a run to the Western Conference Finals,” says Urbina.
No. 16 - Chauncey Billups
Seasons overpaid vs. underpaid: 5-12
Real Value: $161,207,188
Career earnings: $106,227,720
Difference: $54,979,468 (51.76%)
“It’s common knowledge that it took a long time for Chauncey Billups to establish himself in the NBA but once he did, he was a hugely valuable and impactful point guard,” writes Urbina.
“Unfortunately for him, Billups only started making star-level money late in his career. According to Real Value, Billups was most underpaid in 2005-06 when he made $5.9 million while averaging 18.5 points and 8.6 assists and leading the Pistons to the Eastern Conference Finals.”
“Real Value had Billups worth $20.0 million that season for a huge $14.1 million disparity,” adds the H/H analyst.
No. 12 - Isaiah Thomas
Seasons overpaid vs. underpaid: 1-9
Real Value: $96,130,712
Career earnings: $32,220,179
Difference: $63,910,533 (198.36%)
“Thomas, super unfortunate for him, got injured at the end of his second Team All-NBA season of 2016-17 when he even finished fifth in MVP voting following a spectacular 28.9-point, 5.9-assist regular season,” recounts Urbina.
“With one year left on his deal, he was traded to the Cavaliers (who traded him to the Lakers after just 15 games), where he was unable to regain his All-Star form. Gunning for a max deal, Thomas instead had to take a minimum deal from the Denver Nuggets in the summer of 2019. Thomas never regained the form that he had in 2016-17.”
“Regardless, Real Value valued Thomas at $29.1 million for that second Team All-NBA campaign when he actually earned $6.6 million, the 15th biggest disparity in our database,” adds the analyst.
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