Stephen Curry and Lebron James among the list of names that didn’t deliver but got money for Cancun as….
In the 2023-24 NBA season, only one of the Top 15 paid players from this season made the Final Four. Rudy Gobert is the sole player from that list to continue. Of the top 15 contracts, 11 belong to players on the West conference and only four on the East (Joel Embiid, Damian Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jimmy Butler). Including Gobert, only Nikola Jokic played in the conference semifinals, and looking at the top 20, only Luka Doncic would join Gobert.
The list’s top 15 players belong to 10 teams. Let’s take a look at some reasons of why the highest-paid players, who are theoretically the best, haven’t reached the conference finals.
There could be many excuses, such as injuries (Kawhi, Giannis), others not reaching the expected level (Beal, George), or not having the team to compete (LeBron, Davis). The point is that none of them reached the goal or even came close (Stephen Curry), and in a way, it doesn’t reflect well on the league when your best players are in Cancun resting when the best basketball is being played. We’ll see if they have a thirst for revenge because the new generation of players is already dominating the league.
As for the four remaining teams here’s how they look in the list of the top paid players.
In the Eastern Conference finals are the Pacers, runner-up of the first in-season tournament, their highest-paid player is Myles Turner ranked 64th this season. Pascal Siakam (71), acquired via trade in January follows, and T.J. McConnell (154) completes the top three. This is because the Pacers are, on average, a young team, as they started the season as the eighth youngest in the league.
The’re led by Tyreese Haliburton, who earns just under 6 million this year and is still on his rookie contract. Haliburton signed a 5-year, $204,450,000 contract with the Indiana Pacers, including $204,450,000 guaranteed, making him one of the top 35 highest-paid NBA players for next season.
