Dennis Schroder: 4 Players who made worse contract decisions
By Ronald Agers
Dennis Schroder would have taken the $113 million offer the Indiana Pacers offered Victor Oladipo!
Any real NBA fan knows the backstory of Isaiah Thomas and the millions that he lost and the huge struggle he’s undertaking just to get a training camp invite. Well, Victor Oladipo came one offseason veteran’s minimum contract from the Miami Heat from being in the same boat.
But a few years back, things were so much different in Indianapolis where he was wanted and was going to get paid as such.
Well just before the Los Angeles Lakers made modern history by making a superstar (James Harden) quit in the middle of a basketball game and put forth a “Trade me” performance, the Indiana Pacers were testing the waters to see if Victor Oladipo would leave in free agency.
Radio.com’s Ryan McDonough reported:
"Here’s what my sources tell me about Oladipo, that the Pacers offered Oladipo an extension over the last three to six months. The extension would’ve started in the mid-20-million-dollar range, in the 25-million-dollar range and gone up eight percent a year. That’s the most the Pacers can do under the rules. Oladipo turned down that extension."
The largest extension Indiana could have offered Oladipo based on this report was a starting salary of $25.2 million adding up to a total value of $112,896,000 over four years. It was not known on how much was guaranteed. If the money was fully guaranteed, Oladipo probably was gone.
Oladipo thought he could get more in free agency to the tune of a max of about $145 million over four years even if had changed teams and possibly more if the NBA-wide revenue was higher than projected. By the time the offer came through, his health was part of the equation.
But when the offer was rejected, Oladipo became a part of the blockbuster deal that sent James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets and landed him in Houston. The Pacers received Caris Levert.
Oh it gets better…when Victor got to Houston, the Rockets offered him a two year, $45 million contract. He turned that down too. The Rockets then traded him to Miami at the trade deadline and he got injured soon after.
Think this is bad? Oh it is, but here’s the worst. This one player turned down a deal and has not been seen in the NBA since. Read on…