The 2020-2021 NBA season is likely to start earlier than expected, since the league is now targeting December 22 for the resumption. It is already time to look at the contracts which unfortunately have a chance of getting pretty strong for some franchises. The intrinsic level of the players is not always to be called into question, but the return / salary ratio is sometimes quite disarming.
Here are a few players whose franchises are going to have a bit of a hard time meeting their salary with a smile in 2021 if they don’t trade or decide to activate their lucrative option.
Andre Drummond (Cleveland Cavaliers)
NBA salary 2021: 28,75 millions de dollars (player option)
Spoiler alert: Andre Drummond will activate his option because there is hardly any chance that another team will offer him so much money over a season now. The era of dominant old school interiors is over and a pivot unable to stray even a minimum can no longer be a franchise player or a player paid nearly 30 plaques a year.
Three franchises on the spot to recover Andre Drummond?
Twenty years earlier, Drummond might have been a staple in the league, as he captures rebounds with his eyes closed and is capable of being a true inner strength when he takes his hands out of the shorts. No matter how much the Cavs say they are considering overtime for the former Detroit player, the boy is quite likely to be traded to a slightly more ambitious team in the short term and one that will let him quietly test the market in the end. next season.
Strictly statistically, Andre Drummond still averaged 17.7 points and 15.2 rebounds last season. Nice figures which unfortunately do not prevent us from considering that this salary is not (or more) its value in 2021.
Steven Adams (Oklahoma City)
NBA salary 2021: $ 27.5 million
We really like Steven Adams, his very New Zealand mentality, on and off the field, and what he has brought to the Thunder since he joined the NBA. Sadly, Adams is not on a particularly encouraging slope. He still remains valuable in terms of combat and leadership, but then again, having an old school hub paid $ 27.5 million when all of OKC’s rivals in the West or so are betting on more modern interiors is complicated.
His stats are not at all disastrous (10.9 points and 9.3 rebounds), but we imagine less and less Steven Adams on the field in key moments against the Lakers or opponents of this caliber. There is no chance that his next contract – when he is only 27 years old and is theoretically in his prime – will be of the same order. The Thunder project seems more focused on young players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
And if Sam Presti continues to operate the facelift started last season with the departures of Russell Westbrook and Paul George, it’s a safe bet that the brave Adams is in the cart.
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