The 2014-2015 NBA season tips off late October-- just high time to see each team's roster and find out who are the players with the worst contracts entering the new basketball year.
In the Eastern Conference, it looks like the state of New York is the unluckiest franchsie as three of five worst contracts in the league are playing for the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. Two other veterans-- one has proven nothing in the NBA while the other is in the twilight of his career-- are also part of the list.
Part 1 of this series featured players from the Western Conference.
READ ALSO: Jeremy Lin, Kobe Bryant Among The Top 5 Overpaid Players In The NBA (Part 1 - Western Conference)
(All salaries via spotrac.com, a website dedicated to recording salaries in the American sports leagues)
View the slideshow to see which Eastern Conference players have teh worst contracts in the league.
Josh Smith was signed by the Detroit Pistons to a four-year $54M contract in 2013. The good news is that Stan Van Gundy has joined the franchise as head coach/general manager. The bad news is that SVG arrived a year late and Detroit still has to pay J-Smoove for the next three years. Maybe Van Gundy finds a good way to use Smith, who may finally find his jumpshot. For the meantime, $13.5M a year doesn't sound to good for the Pistons, which is in Year One of Rebuilding ModeReutersAmare Stoudemire will be the second highest paid player in the league in the 2014-15 NBA season after Kobe Bryant ($23.5M) and earns more than his teammate, franchise player Carmelo Anthony ($22.45M) in the same year. The good news for New York is that Stoudemire is now in the fifth and final year of the nearly $100M contract he signed in 2010. ReutersJoe Johnson is the leader of the Brooklyn Nets. Not surprisingly, he also leads the same team that has the highest payroll ($88,936,491) in the league. The shooting guard is not entirely a bad player (read: scrub) but he makes superstar money even though he hasn't led any squad to significance (read: Johnson's previous team, Atlanta Hawks).ReutersWith a backcourt of Joe Johnson and Deron Williams, there is no other PG-SG combination that is more expensive than the Nets' pair. Williams was in the best court general discussion years ago (against Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers) but there's no argument on that now as CP3 has consistently helped his team to title contention while Williams is struggling with leading the Nets past mediocrity and personally, struggling to keep an ideal game weight.ReutersDespite a poor showing in the 2014 NBA Finals, the Miami Heat still gave Dwyane Wade a rich two-year $30 million contract in the offseason. Similar to Kobe Bryant, he's being paid not because of future contributions but rather what he brought to the franchise in the past. The Heat can still contend for a playoff spot but that will not be because of a washed-up Wade.Reuters
