NBA Free Agency 2012: Ranking 4 Most Overrated Free Agents Who Have Signed

It happens in every offseason, for every major team sport. 

Free agency. When players' contracts expire and are allowed to test the open market. They can move to another team, or stay with their current one, it's usually a decision that comes down to dollars and cents. 

Reputation, popularity, and good old supply-and-demand can all factor into a player's eventual destination, and the contract he receives that tilts that player's decision to choose that destination. 

Sometimes those factors can create a type of "perfect storm" for the player, who ends up getting a contract that he is unlikely to ever live up to. 

Since the NBA Finals ended with the Miami Heat defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games, the NBA has seen a flurry of trades, trade rumors, and free-agent signings.

By now there have been a few free agents signed to contracts that just don't seem to matchup with the production, and resume of the player who signed the deal.

Who are the four most overrated, and thus overpaid free agents of the summer of 2012?

4. Jeff Green, Boston Celtics

The Deal: Jeff Green to the Boston Celtics for four years, $36 million. 

Yes, the Celtics are a better team with Jeff Green. Yes, he may end up being a player the Celtics really need. Paul Pierce is getting older and his contract expires the end of next season.

Green is a former No. 5 overall pick. He has yet to live up to his expectations. When he was in Oklahoma City, he was stuck behind scorers such as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden.

When he was dealt to Boston in February of 2011, he was stuck behind veterans like Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen.

Then he was dealt a real blow to his progress in the form of a heart condition that required immediate attention and caused him to miss the entire 2011-2012 season.

Now he's back in Boston, and he will need to really perform. The $9 million he will be paid is not an absurd amount, but four seasons at $9 million per is a hefty sum to invest in a player who has yet to attain consistency in either performance or health.  

3. Eric Gordon, Either Phoenix Suns or New Orleans Hornets

The Deal: Eric Gordon to either the Phoenix Suns or the New Orleans Hornets for four years and $58 million. 

Eric Gordon is young, and he's a very talented scorer. He's also a so-so three-point shooter, who offers up average defense and little in the way of rebounding or passing ability. 

In other words he's a fairly one-dimensional player, who is about to be rewarded for that style of play, with a contract that will pay him nearly $15 million a year, for the next four seasons.

That's the type of deal that will only validate his current style of play, one which quite frankly is not worthy of that type of money.

In a league that seems to be increasingly placing an emphasis on versatile players, who can do a variety of things on the court, Gordon is a fairly limited player.

He's also coming off a season in which he played in only nine games. He looked good in the nine game he played in, and his health to start next season should be fine.

Injury prone players tend to be injury prone though. Gordon only played in 56 games in the 2010-2011 season and in 60 during the season before that. In other words there is little reason to expect Gordon to maintain his health for more than three-quarters of a season.

Gordon is still a valuable commodity to any team, and his scoring is without question a valuable skill, not as valuable as the contract he will eventually sign, though.  

2. Landry Fields, Either the New York Knicks or Toronto Raptors

The Deal: Landry Fields to either the Toronto Raptors or the New York Knicks for three years and $18.7 million.  

Landry Fields just concluded his second year in the NBA. His second year numbers were worse than the ones he produced in his rookie season. 

Fields averaged 28.7 minutes a game last year. In that time he scored 8.8 points, grabbed 4.2 rebounds and dished 2.6 assists. He shot 46 percent from the field, 25.6 percent from three-point range, and only 56.2 percent from the charity stripe. 

Naturally he'd be deserving of a raise of over 500 percent then. 

That's what he's getting. Fields, who earned $762,195 last season will earn $5 million next season. It's only a matter of which team, the New York Knicks, or the Toronto Raptors are willing to pay out that absurd amount. 

As a result of Fields status as a restricted free agent we actually already know that Toronto is willing to pay it out. They're the team that set the market by extending Fields a lucrative offer sheet on July 3, 2012.

The Knicks, if they're determined to pile up a stack of bad contracts, can match the deal and retain Fields.

Why they would do that is beyond me.  

1. Jeremy Lin, New York Knicks or Houston Rockets

The Deal: Jeremy Lin to the New York Knicks or Houston Rockets for four years and $28.2 million.

Timing is everything. If you don't believe it, just ask Jeremy Lin. 

Signed as a free agent by the New York Knicks on December 27, 2011. Lin sat on the bench for most of his first month on the Knicks. 

Toney Douglas wasn't playing well, Mike Bibby didn't look good either, Baron Davis was hurt, the Knicks weren't playing well, and then everyone started to get injured. 

Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni was running out of options at guard, and so on February 4, 2012 in a game against the New Jersey Nets, Lin came off the bench, and from that point on, his basketball career would never be the same.

Lin torched the Nets Deron Williams for 25 points and seven assists in 35 minutes of playing time. He earned a start in the next game against Utah and scored 28 points while dishing eight assists.

The Knicks would go on a seven game winning streak and would ultimately win nine of the team's final 12 games entering the All-Star break.

It was "Linsanity."

As quickly as it started, it ended. Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire and Baron Davis all returned from injury. Head coach Mike D'Antoni resigned, and defensive specialist Mike Woodson took over as head coach.

Lin would continue to play plenty of minutes and the Knicks played well down the stretch. He never came close to putting up the eye-popping numbers he produced over 12 games in February.

His season ended prematurely, on March 24, 2012 when he suffered a torn MCL ligament in his knee.

Now Lin stands to make just over $5 million a year for the next two seasons, and an absurd $9 million a year for the final two years of the four-year contract, that the Knicks are widely expected to both match and eventually sign Lin to.  

Four seasons, that's 328 regular season games. Lin has started a grand total of 25.

That all adds up to a very sizable commitment, based on a very small block of games.