From LeBron to Baron: The NBA's Top 10 LVP's

When the NBA season was headed into the playoffs this year, LeBron James won a no-brainer MVP. It was pretty obvious to that James, only 24, would come home with the award in a blow-out landslide.

James had crazy stats, and rightfully deserved this victory, but shouldn't the people who are the Least Valuable players also get respect?

They see the team's massive contracts on the court from their spot on the bench. Why, Arenas is so good, that he makes millions of dollars, playing no minutes.

Was that what Agent Zero (minutes) was supposed to mean? And then we have the players who have a bigger attitude than they have game...

I decided these players also deserve some respect; hence, the top ten countdown for LVP!

Ben Wallace (Cavaliers)

I've been "proud" of the Cavs' management crew as of late, getting the Big Diesel to end the championship drought, and re-signing surprise hit Mo Williams. But last year, the Cavs made one pick that, to say the least, really didn't impress me.

The Cavs, even though it seems as if they should only pay LeBron, have one of the biggest payrolls in the league. And Wallace is the main reason why.

Last year, Wallace made $14.5 million during the season. That seems huge, but seems even bigger when someone brings up that LeBron only made 14.4...less than Wallace!

Wallace's stats: 2.9 points, and 6 rebounds. Wallace missed 26 games last season, and the Cavs took advantage winning 21 of them.

I appreciate Wallace's undrafted success in the league, but still, he's the highest paid player on the roster and makes no impact whatsoever on the court. He went to the Suns in the deal for Shaquille O'Neal.

Marco Jaric (Grizzlies)

The Grizzlies saw some potential with Jaric, so they decided to offer him $6.8 million for the season. How he responded: well, 2. 8 points, 1.4 rebounds and assists, all worst stats for his career.

He managed to pick up two more career highs: he shot 33 percent from the field, and it seemed as if he was attempting to lower that when he missed 23 straight shots at one point.

Due to "injuries," Jaric missed half the season, but it didn't make that much of a difference because even when he was there, he was only on the court for an average of 11 minutes.

Baron Davis (Clippers)

After Davis finally ended his multiple-season stint with the Warriors, he was put into the free agent pool. With several offers on his plate, Davis thought that returning to the town where he grew up, L.A, was the right decision.

What wasn't the right decision, though, was with which L.A team to sign; Davis ended up going to the Clippers, and said he would carry this team to the playoffs, ending their postseason drought.

Davis averaged 15 points, lowest since his rookie season, and shot 37 percent from the field, also the lowest since his first season.

At least we can say that Davis is confident, even though he was only shooting 39 percent from three point land, he decided to shoot 330 threes, and ended up still averaging 39 percent from downtown.

Oh yeah, and they finished second to last in the league. Not exactly playoff potential.

Wally Szczerbiak (Cavaliers)

Another reason the Cavaliers paycheck is way up. Meet the third highest paid player on the team: Waaaally Szczerbiaaak! Wally proceeded to make $13.8 million, just 7,000 less than Lebron.

Szczerbiak responded by averaging just seven points, and, according to RCS sports, Wally would make $26,444 for every point scored, $59,375 for every rebound grabbed, and a crazy $199,675 for every three pointer made.

Eddy Curry (Knicks)

The Knicks indeed have a tendency on bad contracts with low valued players. So the Knicks signed Curry, he was averaging a bit more than 13 points and five rebounds last season, and waited until he arrived into training camp.

His arrival in training camp was very big...meaning the person who arrived was very big. Curry was overweight, just as he had been last season.

D'Antoni was frustrated so he put Curry completely out of the rotation. Curry made $9.7 million last year, and played in 12 minutes...in the whole season! He was making $810,395 for each minute played.

Elton Brand (Sixers)

Brand really tried hard for the LVP this year. At the beginning of the season, Brand must have decided that this year his goal was to ruin three teams' seasons. And he managed to do it!
In 2008, Brand decided to opt out of his final contract year with the Clips. Then, he supposedly says that he and the Clippers agreed on this deal to free up cap-space.

Brand then begged Baron Davis to join the team, promising him that they would be a great duo. Then...Brand didn't sign with the Clippers and instead decided to go with the Sixers.

The result? Clippers stunk without him even worse, and the Warriors without Davis were also horrific. Only one more team to go and he would have ruined three teams.

Having gone with the Sixers, signing a $14 million deal but appearing in only 21 games, he systematically completed the trifecta.

Allen Iverson (Pistons)

I've heard some say that the Iverson, Anthony duo would be indestructible. They weren't awful, but weren't serious contenders either; so, within four games of AI's second season with Denver, he was shipped to Detroit for Chauncey Billups.

The Pistons hadn't been achieving like usual that season, and thought a superstar like "the answer" would boost them up into the right direction.

With Iverson on the squad, the Pistons proceeded to have a 20-30 record. Iverson only managed to put up 17 points per match up, around 11 lower than his before career low, and only four assists, his lowest since 2000.

On May 3, Joe Dumars, the team president, cited that Iverson would not play for the rest of the season due to continuous minor injuries. Note that Iverson was actually coming off the bench at this point.

Tracy McGrady (Rockets)

Finally! Finally T-Mac has lifted his team past the first round!

Wha-What's that? McGrady wasn't playing? And the Rockets had a better record without him?

With age comes injuries, so 35 games into the season, aging Tracy called it quits. And even before he quit, he was only putting up 15 points and six boards, all very low compared to the rest of his career (Shooting 39 percent from the field).

Did I mentioned that the Rockets did better without T-Mac? With Tracy, they got themselves a 20-15 record. Not bad, yet without him, Houston went 33-16.

Stephon Marbury (Celtics)

D'Antoni arrived. The Knicks were obviously trying to go through a major change in their roster. Gone were the players that were not serving a purpose.

The most useless player they couldn't get rid of was Marbury. What team would want this $20 million dollar player, who seems to ruin every team he touches?

So, the Knicks kept him on the roster. At first, D'antoni didn't let him play in the games, and when D'Antoni offered, Marbury refused. He ended up making $20 million for zero minutes played.

Finally, the Knicks had a buy-out for him, and a week later, Marbury, for a league low, signed with the Celtics. He didn't bother them, but didn't produce either.

Gilbert Arenas (Wizards)

After playing just 13 games in 07-08, you would think the Wizards would take the hint and not sign him...but, the Wizards really outdid themselves and offered him six years, $111 million.

Then, Arenas promptly said he would miss pre-season and the first month. No big problem. It was then promised he would be back in December...then February...then maybe not at all!

He ended up playing two games, scoring 26 points, making $563,594 per basket made. I think Arenas ended up being the real winner.