this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Worst individual season relative to salary in NBA history? (alien.top)
submitted 11 months ago by OkKindheartedness769@alien.top to c/nba@nba.space
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In 2015-16 Kobe had the highest salary in the league at $25 million.

He put up 17.5/4/3 with the 4th highest usage rate that year playing around 28 MPG. Shooting splits of 36/28/83 for the 7th lowest TS% in the league. Meanwhile, the lakers finished bottom of the West with a 17-65 record.

Looking at advanced metrics: 2nd worst plus minus per game, 4th worst defensive box plus minus, 7th lowest win shares and 2nd lowest WS/48 (both negative) and all of which are the worst among Lakers players that year.

I understand he was injured and it was a farewell tour but purely from a production relative to salary perspective is this the worst season by a player ever or would it still be better than e.g a star being injured all year or refusing to play but making the max.

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[–] Teleporter456789@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (5 children)

John Wall was paid 44m to not play for the Rockets

[–] lol125000@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Ye that is the one. Kobe was a clear net negative, but on a tanking team it doesnt matter that much. But his "farewell tour" made Lakers watchable and boosted ticket sales and merch sales.

Wall was tied #2 highest salary (Steph 1, Harden had same salary as JW) and he made Rockets not clearly worse, but did not boost sales whatsoever. so he was stuck cos he was one of most negative assets in the league (he still had PO year left at this point, which he obviously took) and was untradable and useless for tanking team so he sat.

[–] amppy808@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Case closed. Why didn’t they play him?

[–] guitmusic12@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

To get Jabari smith…

[–] MiyagiBro@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

  1. Tanking

  2. Reps for younger guys

He had no place in the Rockets' future, so it makes sense that Wall would shit on the team after leaving. He was a "has-been" who was trying to salvage a last bit of his credibility of a player by trashing the organization.

[–] savagexmyfavorite@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

He wanted to play and help and they told him to fuck off.

Crazy he said fuck you to them lmao

[–] bardicjourney@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

He also could have just read the room lol

[–] Sharcbait@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago
  1. he was awful.
[–] Magnetronaap@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

If he didn't play he did what the Rockets wanted, technically making it a good performance from their perspective.

[–] NotAn0pinion@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

They did all of that losing without him, who was the highest paid player who contributed to a lot of losing?

[–] RTLT512@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Counterpoint that Kobe's season mentioned by OP is worse:

  1. Kobe had a negative BPM and WS for the season. Wall was obviously at 0 for both since he didn't play. Is it better that we just didn't play Wall instead of playing a "negative" player (in the eyes of advanced stats) a heavy number of minutes?
  2. Wall wasn't the highest paid player in the league was like Kobe was in 2015-16
[–] BubbaTee@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Kobe sold tickets, though