The 8 Worst NBA Free Agency Signings Of All Time

There aren’t many sports where signing a single player has the potential to dramatically improve a team’s fortunes quite like basketball, and there are a ton of instances where NBA franchises have turned things after landing a big name in free agency. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always end up being the case.

Every NBA team has a front office filled with employees who are supposed to know what they’re doing when it comes to assembling the most talented roster possible, but research and data can only go so far when it comes to predicting how things are going to pan out.

Signing a player in free agency has the potential to pay off in a big way when things go as planned, but there are plenty of instances where those decisions have backfired tremendously—including these moves that stand out from the pack.

Gilbert Arenas—Wizards

I’m not really listing these in any particular order, although you’d be hard-pressed to find any free agency signings that rival the situation the Wizards found themselves dealing with after landing Gilbert Arenas.

Agent Zero emerged as one of the most formidable offensive talents in the NBA after joining the Wizards in 2003 after playing his first two seasons with the Warriors, and there were plenty of teams in the hunt when he became a free agent in 2008.

Washington retained his talents with a six-year contract worth $111 million, but it didn’t take very long for the wheels to fall off in spectacular fashion.

Arenas was still rehabbing an MCL injury that had limited him to just 13 games the previous season when he inked the deal, and he only appeared in two games during the 2008-09 campaign.

He made his grand return the following year before the locker room gun incident that led to him being suspended for 50 games, and he only played in 24 after being reinstated before the Wizards traded him to the Magic to bring the tumultuous saga to an end.

Larry Hughes—Cavaliers

Larry Hughes was coming off a career year with the Wizards in 2005 when the Cavaliers offered him a five-year, $70 million contract in the hopes of adding a talented guard to the roster to complement LeBron James.

Hughes had averaged over 20 points per game for the second time in his career during his final year in Washington, but he didn’t really come close to sniffing that number after he arrived in Cleveland while also experiencing a decline in basically every other major statistical category.

After failing to live up to expectations, his time with the team came to an end midway through his third season when he was shipped to the Bulls in a trade.

Elton Brand—76ers

The Clippers were hoping to re-sign Elton Brand when he became a free agent after seven stellar seasons, but they were outfoxed by the 76ers with the help of the five-year, $82 million contract he got to take his talents to Philadelphia in 2008.

Brand’s stats immediately took a hit during an inaugural season where he only played 29 games before he was sidelined with a shoulder injury, and he never really came close to doing what he’d done in Los Angeles during a disappointing four-year run that ended with him being released in 2012 after the 76ers exercised their amnesty clause.

Eddy Curry—Knicks

Eddy Curry was a restricted free agent in 2005 when he refused to undergo the testing the Bulls requested to screen for a potential heart condition, and Chicago opted to send him to the Knicks in a sign-and-trade where he got a six-year contract worth $60 million.

The big man regressed during his first year in NYC before bouncing back the following season, but he took yet another step in the wrong direction thanks in no small part to the conditioning problems that led to him being relegated to a bench role and only compounded the knee injury that contributed to him playing just three games during the 2008-09 season.

Curry ultimately appeared in a grand total of 10 games during his last three years with the Knicks (he missed the entirety of the 2010-11 season) before his ill-fated tenure came to an end when he was traded to the Heat as part of the transaction that ushered in the Carmelo Anthony Era in New York.

Ben Wallace—Bulls

The Bulls had to know they were gambling when they signed a 32-year-old Ben Wallace to a four-year, $60 million contract in 2006, and it’s safe to say it did not end up paying off.

The four-time Defensive Player of the Year was clearly not the same player who’d been a force to be reckoned with on the Pistons, and his stats underwent a steady decline with each year he played in Chicago due in part to the knee injuries that hampered his performance.

The Bulls ultimately opted to pull the plug midway through his third season, as he was traded to the Cavaliers in February 2008.

Joakim Noah—Knicks

Joakim Noah was 30 years old and recovering from a shoulder injury that limited him to 29 games in his seventh and final season with the Bulls, but that didn’t stop the Knicks from giving him a four-year, $72 million contract in 2016.

His productivity had already started to take a hit toward the end of his time in Chicago, and the change of scenery didn’t end up being a magical fix. Injuries continued to hamper his performance, and he only played 53 games in the two seasons he spent with the Knicks before he was waived ahead of the 2018-19 campaign.

Luol Deng—Lakers

Luol Deng had averaged double-digit points in all of the 12 seasons he’d played before the Lakers signed the 31-year-old forward to a four-year, $72 million contract in 2016, but that streak came to a swift end once he arrived in Los Angeles.

Deng only averaged 7.6 PPG during a season that took a turn when he was benched in favor of Brandon Ingram in the final months, and he only appeared in a single game the following year before forking over $7.5 million for the buyout that allowed him to bring his NBA career to a quiet end with the Timberwolves.

Timofey Mozgov—Lakers

The Deng signing wasn’t the only misstep the Lakers made in free agency in 2016, as the team also ended up regretting its decision to give Timofey Mozgov a four-year deal worth $64 million.

The Russian big man had a pretty quiet campaign before he befell the same fate as Deng when the Lakers prioritized playing time for their younger players toward the end of the season, and his brief stint in Los Angeles came to an end after a single season when he was traded to the Nets.