Wizards that Didn’t Live up to their 2021-22 Salaries

The Washington Wizards’ 2021-22 season was quite the rollercoaster. They entered the season with a roster that was full of new faces but got off to a blazing start.

Obviously, things went south quickly and some of those new faces didn’t even remain on the team after the trade deadline. It’s not shocking that a number of players who were dealt ahead of the trade deadline make the cut as players who did not live up to their salaries for the Wizards.

We’ll start with the obvious, two players that were shipped out at the deadline and have already proven much better fits with their new franchise.

All salary numbers via HoopsHype.

Wizards that Didn’t Live up to their Salary: Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans

The following salaries are what both players made over the course of the entire season, not just what the Wizards paid them for their time in Washington.

• Davis Bertans –  $16,000,000
• Spencer DInwiddie -$17,142,857

As Wizards, there’s no case to be made that either Dinwiddie or Bertans played up to their compensation. There are a number of reasons for that, but it is good to see both of them finding much more success as members of the Dallas Mavericks.

The Wizards are happy with their return for the (then) struggling duo. They were moved in the Kristaps Porzingis deal.

Bertans was never going to live up to his contract year in and year out with Washington. He was given a massive contract due to his shooting skillset, a skill set that is obviously very valuable in today’s NBA.

Unfortunately, the lack of impact he could make anywhere else made it nearly impossible for him to live up to his contract. He still could have been a useful player, just an overpaid one.

Instead, Bertans struggled to carve out a role in the rotation this year. When he did play, he didn’t do the one thing he was brought in to do; knock down shots from the outside. He connected on just 31.9 percent of his 3PT attempts with Washington this season before being traded.

Dinwiddie can’t fully be blamed for not living up to his contract, but the locker room issues that reportedly involved him can’t happen.

I say he can’t fully be blamed because he didn’t offer himself the money he signed for, that would be a decision made by the Wizards front office. He was coming off of a major injury and that inevitably played a role in his lack of production early in the season.

Besides the locker room stuff, Dinwiddie was not cutting it on the court. It’s almost unfair to think he could have lived up to his salary early in the season. Was it going to get better? Not much, if at all.

The Wizards picked a bad fit both on and off the court and they gave him a lot of money. It might not be fair to him, but it’s a fact. He did not live up to his salary as a member of the Wizards early in the season.