Forbes: The NBA's most underpaid players 13-14 season

[Legends66NBA7]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanri...aid-players-2/

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eddf4...ing-their-due/

Phoenix Suns’ guard P.J. Tucker has had an unusual NBA career, to say the least. An early second round pick by the Toronto Raptors out of Texas in the 2006 NBA Draft, Tucker struggled as a rookie before the Raptors demoted him to the their NBA D-League team in Colorado in January 2007, and then released him outright a month later.

Tucker spent the next five years playing for various professional teams overseas, his chance at an NBA career seemingly dead. But then in 2012, at age 27, he got a shot with the Suns’ Summer League team, where he impressed the coaches enough to earn a contract offer: two years, $1.6 million, with only some $150,000 guaranteed. He’s parlayed the opportunity into a starting role, where his strong rebounding and avoidance of turnovers from the backcourt, in addition to 9.4 points a game, blend perfectly into new coach Jeff Hornacek’s team-oriented system, one that’s boosted the Suns to a 35-25 record this year despite a shortage of marquee talent.

Tucker will wind up collecting the full $1.6 million, including $884,000 this season. Considering where he was a few years ago, it seems like a nice haul. But it’s actually a pittance compared to his contribution to this year’s Suns – enough to make him the most underpaid player in the NBA this season. The numbers estimate that Tucker has contributed 7.4 wins to his team this year, second-most on the Suns and just a hair behind high profile mega millionaires like the Clippers’ Blake Griffin and the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony.

To round up our list of most underpaid players, we went around the league comparing salaries to a stat called “Wins Produced,” an advanced metric cooked up by University of Southern Utah economics professor David Berri, who is also co-author of the book “Stumbling on Wins,” a look behind traditional stats that measure a player’s contribution toward winning games by fitting his numbers into the context of the game. Example: the number of rebounds a player grabs in a game is less meaningful than the percentage of available rebounds he gets based on the number of opponent’s missed shots. Efficient (i.e. high shooting percentage ) scoring and avoiding turnovers are also valued.

Because the NBA salary scale pays out less to younger players, we excluded those players still on their rookie contracts, which typically last three year plus an option. Hence, the list won’t include productive young players like Indiana’s Lance Stephenson, Houston’s Chandler Parsons and Detroit’s Andre Drummond .


So who does make it, for the most part? Players like Tucker – those who come cheap on the market thanks to a lack of gaudy career stats, whose teams then find ways to blend their talents and roles into a system that maximizes their contributions to winning.

The Miami Heat has done it with Chris “Birdman” Andersen, the tattooed veteran who climbed out of substance abuse problems several years ago to resurrect his career. Andersen’s energy, defense, and 4.7 rebounds in 19 minutes a game add up to 5.1 wins, according to Berri’s reckoning. That makes him a bargain as a $1.4 million compliment to Miami’s renowned “Big Three.”

Also fitting the mold: Brooklyn’s Shaun Livingston (4.3 wins), a high draft pick ten years ago whose career careened into journeyman territory before the Nets plucked him for $1.3 million and watched him fill in ably for injury-challenged point guard Deron Williiams. Like Livingston, L.A. Clippers’ point guard Darren Collison (4.4 wins; $1.9 million) has done a bang-up job filling in for a star: the Clips went 12-6 during a recent stretch without injured Chris Paul as Collison filled in with 32 minutes, 13.3 points and 6.5 assists per game. The run has earned him more time on the floor alongside Paul since Paul’s return.

In basketball as in other sports, advanced metrics that reflect a player’s true value, while gaining in popularity in certain segments, are not exactly weaving their way through the salary structure at warp speed. That’s good news for scorers like Carmelo Anthony and LaMarcus Aldridge and bad news for Collison, Tucker, and Andersen. If the advanced -stat stars of tomorrow manage to collect big money, maybe they’ll contribute to the retirement accounts of today’s pioneers.

P.J. Tucker

Phoenix Suns

Salary: $884,000; Wins Produced: 7.4

Quite a ride for the 2006 second round draft pick who was waived by Toronto during his rookie year and went on to five years playing overseas before resurrecting his NBA career in Phoenix in 2012. A big part of the Suns’ successful team-oriented style, Tucker brings defense and rebounding from the guard position while chipping in 9.4 points a game.



Chris Andersen

Miami Heat

Salary: $1.4 million; Wins Produced: 5.1

The Birdman battled back from substance abuse to revive his career in Denver in 2008. Signed as free agent by Miami in 2012, he brings energy and defense off the Heat bench while making 67% of his limited shot attempts.



Shaun Livingston

Brooklyn Nets

Salary: $1.3 million; Wins Produced: 4.3

Once the fourth overall puck in the NBA Draft out of high school (in 2004 by the Clippers), Livingston’s career floundered through eight teams in eight seasons. But as a cheap free agent pickup by the Nets last summer, he’s come through as a solid fill in for point guard to Deron Williams, averaging 7.8 points, 3 assists and just 1.3 turnovers in 25 minutes a game.



Mike Miller

Memphis Grizzlies

Salary: $1.4 million; Wins Produced: 4.3

Outside sharpshooter who helped Miami to a title last season is playing his roll perfectly in Memphis this year, shooting 43.8% from three-point range.



Pablo Prigioni

New York Knicks

Salary: $1.6 million; Wins Produced: 4.3

Yes, there is such a thing as Knick with a good contract. Prigioni, a veteran signed last year out of Argentina, brings efficiency (3.5 assists vs. less than one turnover) in his 20 minutes a game off the bench.



DeMarre Carroll

Atlanta Hawks

Salary: $2.6 million; Wins Produced: 6.2

Starting regularly for the first time in his five-year career, Carroll is averaging 11 points, 5.5 rebounds and just one turnover per game.



Darren Collison

Los Angeles Clippers

Salary: $1.9 million; Wins Produced: 4.4

The product of Rancho Cucamonga and UCLA is back home in Southern California after the Clippers signed him as a free agent. He’s averaging 10.3 points and 3.6 assists in 23 minutes. The team won 12 of 18 games he started at point guard in place of injured star Chris Paul.



Josh McRoberts

Charlotte Bobcats

Salary: $2.6 million; Wins Produced: 5.5

Once included in a four-team trade that sent Dwight Howard to the Lakers in 2012, McRoberts landed in Charlotte later that year, where he’s become a regular starter. He’s helped the Bobcats improve this year with a solid all-around game with his ball movement (4.2 assists per game from the frontcourt) and dribbling ability, while averaging just over eight points.



Marco Belinelli

San Antonio Spurs

Salary: $2.75 million; Wins Produced: 5.1

Yet another nice find for the Spurs. The 6-5 guard out of Italy, picked in the first round by Golden State back in 2007, is fitting in nicely with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker & Co., averaging 11.6 points a game and shooting over 50% for the first time in his career.



Kyle Lowry

Toronto Raptors

Salary: $6.2 million; Wins Produced: 10.6

Eighth-year journeyman out of Villanova has found a home north of the border, where he’s emerged as one of the league’s top point guards by averaging nearly 18 points per game with a better than a three-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio.

[brantonli]

Journeyman kind of implies the guy just bounced around the league, which Lowry most definitely wasn't. Even when he was with the Rockets, we all knew he was very talented, a tenacious bulldog of a player, almost like Pat Bev except with a bigger frame and better PG abilities. I agree with Tucker as well, seeing him play against the Rockets is frustrating because he actually defends Harden really well and shut him down in the first game.

[wally_world]

Good article. Surprised not to see Goran Dragic on it. He's paid a little more than Lowry, but likely has a higher win share as well don't he?

[Kblaze8855]

If he were on the Knicks playing the way he has this season Mcroberts would be one of the most popular role players in the league. Comes in and just makes plays. Flying all over....crossovers in traffic...nasty passes. All as a power forward. But it seems like nobody is even aware of him.

[greymatter]

Pretty shitty list if it doesn't include Chandler Parsons. He's making 926K this year.

[greymatter]

NM. Glossed over most of the article and finally noticed they deliberately left out everyone on the rookie contracts.

[Legends66NBA7]

Good article. Surprised not to see Goran Dragic on it. He's paid a little more than Lowry, but likely has a higher win share as well don't he?

I believe the formulas are different for Win Shares and Wins Produced.

Lowry has higher Win Shares than Dragic if your asking for that stat. No idea about Dragic's Wins Produced.

[Clyde]

Pretty shitty list if it doesn't include Chandler Parsons. He's making 926K this year.

i don't think they should include players that are still on their rookie contracts


edit: i see you caught that