The NBA's Most Overpaid Players at Every Position

If we learned anything from the 2026 NBA offseason, it's that teams are more terrified than ever of overspending.

The Boston Celtics dealt Jaylen Brown at least partially because they were worried about giving him a lucrative extension, and teams are leveraging the power of restricted free agency to tamp down salaries for their own talent like never before.

With that as a backdrop, let's scan the league for the best walking embodiments of financial fear. These are the players who, based strictly on their 2026-27 salaries, figure to provide the least dollar-to-production value at each position.

Point Guard

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Trae Young

Trae Young, Washington Wizards: $49.5 million

The Washington Wizards didn't have to surrender a single draft pick to land Trae Young from the Atlanta Hawks, a dead giveaway that the league didn't value him as anything close to a star. That makes Washington's decision to hand him a four-year, $213 million extension all the more confounding.

Young has a track record as a powerful offensive engine, but his shoddy defense and history of rubbing teammates the wrong cut against his value.

Nobody else was going to pay Young like the Wizards did, and this contract has a chance to rate among the worst in the league if his three-point shooting, which hasn't topped 34.0 percent in three of his last four seasons, continues to underwhelm.

De'Aaron Fox, San Antonio Spurs: $49.8 million

The respective rises of Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle aren't the only reasons De'Aaron Fox profiles as a likely trade candidate sooner than later. A pay rate of $49.8 million, with annual raises through 2029-30, is the other.

Victor Wembanyama just took a discount on his rookie-scale deal, likely with an eye toward preserving some cash for Harper and Castle when they reach extension eligibility.

Fox's massive deal, which is particularly outsized in the wake of his playoff failures last year, will only look worse if his younger backcourt teammates take less when they reach new deals.

Ja Morant, Portland Trail Blazers: $42.2 million

For a player who once looked like a future franchise centerpiece and potential MVP, Morant's recent efficiency and availability decline—along with well-documented off-court issues—culminated in a late-June trade to the Portland Trail Blazers, as Memphis reshaped its cap sheet and added a more reliable veteran wing in Jerami Grant.

Redemption is possible for Morant, but we'll need to see some extended All-Star flashes before he makes it off this list.

Shooting Guard

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Zach LaVine

Zach LaVine, Sacramento Kings: $49 million

That Zach LaVine had to settle for picking up his $49 million player option says everything about his market value. Despite the Kings telling him he isn't a long-term piece of the puzzle and expressing no interest in an extension, he had to opt in because no other team was going to come remotely close to his current annual salary in free agency.

LaVine is a brilliant three-point shooter, sitting at 39.1 percent on 6.0 attempts per game for his career. But he is among the league's worst defenders at either guard spot, has never been confused for a facilitator and has a negative on-off differential in 10 of his 12 NBA seasons.

He's a sixth-man shooting specialist being paid like a sure-fire All-Star.

Jalen Green, Phoenix Suns: $36.3 million

Health is part of the picture here, as recurring hamstring troubles cost Green 50 games last season. But efficiency is the main reason the former No. 2 overall pick is overpaid.

Green owns a 54.0 true shooting percentage since entering the league in 2021-22. That rates dead-last among players who've attempted at least 5,500 shots in that span.

Jordan Poole, New Orleans Pelicans: $34 million

The four-year, $140 million extension the Warriors gave Jordan Poole came in the wake of him playing a significant role on a championship winner.

Even though he's had a pair of 20-point seasons since, the bold and crafty shot-creator's often laughably disengaged defense and penchant for head-scratching gaffes make him wildly overpaid.

Last year with the Pelicans, Poole started just eight of the 39 games he played and shot an abysmal 37.2 percent from the field.

Small Forward

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Jimmy Butler

Jimmy Butler, Golden State Warriors: $56.8 million

This is mostly a technicality, as Butler underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL on Feb. 9, 2026 and therefore figures to miss half of the upcoming season.

Considering he'll be 37 before the campaign even starts, it's hard to imagine that shelf-time estimate is on the low end, and it's also tough to envision him sustaining the level of play he showed last year.

Even if he returns and matches 2025-26's averages of 20.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 27.4 pump fakes per game, the Dubs will only enjoy 30 or 40 games' worth of them. As intelligent, competitive and accomplished as Butler is, that's not worth the 10th-largest salary in the NBA.

Paul George, Boston Celtics: $54.1 million

George played 37 games last year and 41 the season before. He's topped 56 just once since 2018-19 and is entering his 17th NBA season. You get it: The trend line here, both in terms of ability and availability, is headed down.

That's not to say George is without value. He's still a quality starter who impacts games with his three-point shooting, off-ball defense and accomplished passing at a forward spot. But the volume of those contributions is almost guaranteed to fall short of justifying his salary.

De'Andre Hunter, Sacramento Kings: $24.9 million

This is a lower-stakes case, as Hunter will earn less than half of what Butler and George collect next year. He's still overpaid for his production, and that's before considering he, too, has major durability issues.

Hunter played 45 games last season and has averaged 53 per year since coming into the league in 2019-20. He shot just 30.5 percent from deep last season and has never been as good defensively as a role-playing small forward needs to be.

Power Forward

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Jerami Grant

Jerami Grant, Memphis Grizzlies: $34.2 million

The lesser salary in the "let's exchange unwanted goods" trade that sent Ja Morant to the Blazers, Grant's $34.2 million is still beyond what his play warrants.

Credit the 32-year-old Grant for proving 2024-25's 37.3 field-goal percentage was an anomaly, but don't pretend a power forward who averages 3.9 boards per game for his career and posted a one-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio last season should be paid like a high-end starter.

Kyle Kuzma, Milwaukee Bucks: $20.3 million

Kuzma has scored in double figures every year of his career and sits at 16.6 points per game across nine seasons, but he can't pass and can't be relied upon to hit threes consistently. Paired with nonexistent defense, that offensive profile has led to negative Value Over Replacement Player ratings in each of the last two seasons.

Last year was the first in Kuzma's career where he didn't post a below-league-average true shooting percentage. Maybe things are trending up?

Patrick Williams, Chicago Bulls: $18 million

Draymond Green, Zion Williamson, Julius Randle and Keegan Murray should all thank Williams for grabbing this last spot and saving them from the shame of inclusion.

Though each of those players makes more than Williams' $18 million, all of them have the ability to make starting-caliber on-court contributions.

Williams, however, has averaged single digits and shot below 40.0 percent from the field in each of the last two seasons. Chicago, a bad team to begin with, was 10.8 points per 100 possessions worse with him on the floor last season.

Center

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Joel Embiid

Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers: $58.1 million

Recent history says the Sixers won't get 40 games from Embiid, and the dramatically reduced mobility and lift he showed last year suggests those contests won't feature a version of Embiid who sustains All-Star-caliber form.

Maybe if there were a way to believe Embiid could pick his spots and preserve himself for a superstar run during the postseason, you could justify paying him $58 million. Because he's assured of missing time and highly likely to continue his physical decline in his age-32 season, it's just too hard to believe in that possibility.

Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento Kings: $45.5 million

The iron-man quality that partially offset Sabonis' poor defense and lack of off-ball value abandoned him last season when a torn meniscus limited him to 19 games. Now entering his age-30 season with plenty of miles on the tires, it's hard to see him making another All-Star Game.

Sabonis has always gotten his numbers, and he's a good bet to pull down at least 10.0 boards per game. But both the Pacers and Kings have proved that his specific weaknesses make it too hard to build a sustainable winner with him in a prominent role.

Sabonis is a pretty good player, but he's paid like a great one.

Jakob Poeltl, Toronto Raptors: $19.5 million

At $19.5 million, Poeltl's 2026-27 salary is only a moderate overpay. He's in line to forever lose his starting spot to Collin Murray-Boyles and is no longer good enough defensively to offset his inability to shoot outside the restricted area or make free throws.

We said at the outset that we're not considering salaries beyond this season, but it's impossible to think of Poeltl's finances without acknowledging the extension that'll pay him an average of $28 million per year through 2029-30.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.