The folks at Freakonomics.com took a look production in the NBA and actual salary and determined that LeBron James was the most underpaid player in the league this past season, making $14.9 million less than he was worth. But while James may have been worth $30.9 million, this doesn't consider the implications of the salary cap.
Instead, let's take Heat's $75.3 million payroll and "redistribute" that in a manner that is reflective of each player's importance to the team.
James led the Heat with 14.5 Win Shares (a measure of all-around production) this season. That was 30.1% of the team's production. We could then say he was worth 30.1% of the payroll, or $22.7 million. This suggests he was underpaid by $6.7 million.
Below we apply that same logic to every player on the Heat roster, comparing how much they were actually paid, to how much they actually deserved. Interestingly, both Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were overpaid, by a combined total of $8.8 million, while several of the role players were considerably underpaid...
Data via Basketball-Reference.com
Please follow Sports Page on Twitter and Facebook.