NFL
By: Evan Singleton
This NBA free agency class certainly includes some notable names. Within those notable names, there are plenty of players that truly deserve a contract of the maximum amount. However, simply being a “notable” player in this free agency class seems to lead to a receiving max deal. Some of these players, quite frankly, do not deserve to be paid the largest amount. Three players stick out when considering this. Chandler Parsons, Dwight Howard, and Harrison Barnes are most likely going to receive multiple max deal offers that they don’t truly deserve.
Chandler Parsons is, in my mind, on the brink of being excluded from this list. However, he finds himself on it for now. Parsons is unarguably a great player, when he is actually on the court that is. Parsons has never played a full 82-game season since entering the league in 2011. More notably, he has missed just short of 40 games in the past two seasons played.
For injury reasons only, Chandler Parsons does not deserve a max contract. Yes, when healthy he deserves to be paid. However, this is a guy that is never fully healthy. He is a large small forward that shoots around 40 percent from behind the arc. He also is a fairly good rebounder and passer. Had it not been for his history of injuries and high potentiality of future injuries, Parsons would indeed deserve a max contract. Simply put, that is not the case.
Dwight Howard…where to start? This guy is a has been. Must any more be said? Howard did indeed average a double-double in last NBA season, but 13.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game does not warrant a max deal. Howard is a 30-year-old player that struggles with back pain. That does not sound like a player that deserves to be paid a max amount. Howard is also what seems to be a team wrecker. He showed this during his later years in Orlando and also in his recent years with Houston.
Howard is not the player that he used to be. That is no secret. So why pay him like he is? Howard is the third best center in the 2016 free agency class, so that seems to be why the money is there. However, a player that is on the steep decline in his career does not deserve a max contract. Howard is an old, injury prone, team chemistry killer.
Harrison Barnes fully deserves to be mentioned here. Let’s start by stating how awful Barnes played in the 2016 NBA Finals. Barnes is still very young and has not proven anything yet. He has not shown he can be a number one option for a team. Max contracts should go to players that can be top guys. He may in fact be a complete product of the system in Golden State.
Barnes has certainly improved in all aspects of his game. Yet, he is still very young. There is no guarantee paying him would ever be worth it. He seems that he has a long way to go before getting to a point where he deserves this ind of money.
These three players are good players. However they are not max contract players. It is obviously perfect timing that these guys are becoming free agents when they are, because in most free agency classes we would not be seeing Parsons, Howard, or Barnes getting offered max contracts.
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