Isaiah Thomas Has Lost Hundreds Of Millions In Just One Year
ByJoey Heldon July 22, 2018inArticles›Sports News
During the 2016-17 season, Isaiah Thomas was one of the best stories in the NBA. He had gone from the very last pick of the 2011 draft to a top player in the league. He averaged 28.9 points, 5.9 assists, and posted a line of 46/38/91 en route to a fifth-place finish in MVP voting. The point guard even helped lead the scrappy Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals and looked poised to receive a massive contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars when he entered free agency this summer.
The Celtics reportedly were willing to give Thomas a three-year, $100 million contract. Thomas thought he could do better than that. In fact, he even said he expected the Celtics to “back up the Brinks truck” with their offer, which could have been in the neighborhood of five years and $200 million.
But then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. And now, Thomas just signed with the Denver Nuggets for the veteran’s minimum: one year, $2 million.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Thomas suffered a hip injury during the playoffs. Though he attempted to play through it, he ultimately missed the final three games of the postseason. Trying to tough it out may have actually cost him in the long run.
The Celtics, worried about Thomas’s overall health, traded him in a deal for Kyrie Irving . Once in Cleveland, Thomas struggled both on and off the court. He shot just 36 percent from the field and 25 percent from three and was allegedly part of some internal locker room tension. And that was after sitting out the first two months of the season.
His stint in Cleveland was a short one. After just 15 games with the Cavs, Thomas was sent to the Los Angeles Lakers. Though his play improved a bit, Thomas underwent hip surgery in March, missing the rest of the season – and putting his NBA future in doubt.
Hip injuries are notoriously difficult to come back from in the NBA. For a player like Thomas, who stands at just 5'9″, he needs a quick first step. If his hip prevents him from getting that burst, he has few options.
That’s why this season in Denver is essentially Thomas’s last shot. He had few, if any, other offers. If he can regain the level of play that he had with the Celtics, he’ll parlay that into a nice deal next offseason. If he can’t, then he may find himself out of the league by next summer.
Luckily, Thomas has all the confidence in the world, and he’ll have a great opportunity with the Nuggets. He just needs his hip to cooperate.
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Victor Oladipo Should Be Making $30 Million Next Season. Instead He Just Signed A $2.4 Million Veteran Minimum Deal
ByJoey Heldon October 6, 2021inArticles›Sports News
One of the major stories of the NBA offseason was the saga of Dennis Schroeder. The guard reportedly turned down a four-year contract extension from the Los Angeles Lakers worth $80 to $84 million. He believed he could find a better deal in free agency. Unfortunately that offer never came. Schroeder eventually settled for $5.9 million on a one-year deal from the Boston Celtics.
That’s certainly some humble pie, but another guard may have missed out on even more money.
Victor Oladipo , the second pick of the 2013 NBA Draft, seemed to be poised to take the next step in his career. He had helped the Indiana Pacers become a competitive team, going toe-to-toe with the LeBron James -led Cleveland Cavaliers.
But, as has been the case for large portions of his career, the injury bug hit Oladipo. He never truly returned to his pre-injury form, yet he still believed he could. And so, he bet on himself.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Oladipo reportedly turned down a four-year, $112 million extension from the Indiana Pacers. He didn’t think the team was a contender and wanted to play for someone with a better shot of winning the championship. The Pacers started shopping him around and eventually sent him to the Houston Rockets in the James Harden trade.
In Houston, Oladipo played fairly well, besting his career averages in points, rebounds, and assists. The Rockets weren’t the title contender they had been just a couple of years earlier, though they still wanted to keep Oladipo for the long-term. They offered him a two-year, $45.2 million deal, which was the most they could offer at the time under the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
Oladipo turned that deal down, too.
After 20 games, the Rockets sent Oladipo to the Miami Heat in another trade. But thanks to injuries, Oladipo played in only four games for the Heat. And despite reaching the NBA Finals in 2020, the Heat got swept in the first round by the Milwaukee Bucks the following postseason.
As the offseason began, Oladipo hoped to score a lucrative multi-season contract. However, the free-agent market eventually dried up as he watched other players score big money, either via free agency or sign-and-trade deals.
No one came calling for Oladipo, though. His lone offer came from the Miami Heat — the veteran’s minimum worth $2.4 million. Had he signed that $110 million Pacers contract, he would be making nearly $30 million per year.
I wouldn’t feel toooo bad for Victor just yet. Even with these contract snafus, he has already earned around $105 million from salary alone during his time in the NBA.
But clearly thi s season will be the ultimate “prove it” year for Oladipo. He’s only 28 years old; if he can return to form, he may yet get a bigger deal next season. But if injuries still continue to dog him, it’s going to be mighty hard to stomach what he gave up.
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- Isaiah Thomas Has Lost Hundreds Of Millions In Just One Year
