Four Years Ago, Dennis Schroder Turned Down An $84 Million Contract. He Just Signed For Much Less Than That.

ByJoey Heldon July 2, 2025inArticles›Sports News

NBA free agency is in full swing, and we’ve already seen several big deals handed out. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning league MVP, is staying in Oklahoma City after agreeing to a massive $285 million contract extension. James Harden opted out of his contract with the Los Angeles Clippers and re-signed with the team for over $40 million per year.

Dennis Schroder also signed a new deal, joining the Sacramento Kings on a three-year, $45 million contract. That’s not a bad chunk of change, although Schroder might still feel some regret from a decision he made four years ago.

Back in 2021, Schroder was playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. The team reportedly offered him a four-year extension worth between $80 and $84 million. Schroder turned it down, betting on himself to finish out the year with a strong performance and score a larger contract in free agency.

Steven Ryan/Getty Images

Instead, Schroder struggled on the court. His points per game, field goal shooting, and three-point shooting all saw notable drops, and his playoff performance wasn’t anything special, either. When free agency came, Schroder watched other players get signed while he sat without a team—or a big contract.

Schroder eventually agreed to a one-year deal with the Boston Celtics worth $5.9 million. He missed out on about $78 million.

Since that decision, Schroder has bounced all over the NBA. He didn’t even finish a full season in Boston before the Celtics traded him to the Houston Rockets. The following year, Schroder signed a one-year, $2.64 million contract to return to the Lakers. He joined the Raptors one season later on a two-year, $26 million deal; the Raptors sent him to the Brooklyn Nets midway through the first season of that contract.

He finished out last year with the Nets and started this season in Brooklyn, yet he was traded twice during the 2024-25 campaign. He played 23 games with the Nets, 24 with the Golden State Warriors, and 28 with the Detroit Pistons.

Whether you’re a math whiz or not, you probably can surmise that even after all of those contracts, Schroder has not reached the $84 million he turned down. Add in the $45 million from this new deal and he’ll still have made less in seven seasons than he would have in four if he had taken the Lakers offer.

The good news is that Schroder is only 31 years old, and he’s already earned over $103 million in the NBA—and that’s before this new contract kicks in. He’ll be approaching $150 million the next time he hits free agency, with 15 NBA seasons under his belt. Most players would love to have a career like that.

• Here’s How Much Money Dennis Schroder Has Made Since Turning Down $84 Million
• Eleven NBA Players Made The List Of The 100 Highest-Paid Celebrities This Year
• The 10 Highest Paid NBA Stars Will Each Earn $40+ Million Next Season
• Victor Oladipo Should Be Making $30 Million Next Season. Instead He Just Signed A $2.4 Million Veteran Minimum Deal
• Kawhi Leonard Is Giving Up $39 Million – And It’s A Brilliant Move
• The Oklahoma City Thunder Are Giving Chet Holmgren A Contract That Could Reach A Quarter-Billion Dollars

The 10 Highest Paid NBA Stars Will Each Earn $40+ Million Next Season

ByJoey Heldon September 2, 2021inArticles›Sports News

The frenzy of NBA free agency is behind us, and teams are now starting to look toward the upcoming season. Before things tip off, every team is buzzing with excitement; even the worst squads in the league have hope when the games haven’t yet been played.

Players will be excited to get back on the court, and some are more amped than others. That’s because, for the first time in NBA history, the league’s top stars are all going to be making huge dollars. Ten players will take home at least $39.3 million with their contracts. Paired with possible incentives, endorsement deals, and other perks, they’ll all easily clear $40 million.

Here’s a look at the league’s highest-paid players for the 2021-22 season, with salaries rounded to the nearest $100,000:

Steph Curry , Golden State Warriors — $45.8 million

If you think Steph Curry makes an absurd amount of money, you’re not wrong — but the Warriors likely consider it payback for the beginning of his career, when he was wildly underpaid. Curry was on a four-year, $44 million contract that kicked in during the 2013-14 season. That means he was making just $11 million per year during the Warriors’ first championship run, the season they went 73-9, and their second championship. He signed a four-year, $215 million extension this summer, which will pay him just under $60 million during the final season of the contract.

John Wall , Houston Rockets — $44.3 million

The second-highest-paid player on this list, Wall also may be the most fragile. He suffered an Achilles injury during the 2018-19 season which forced him to miss 50 games that year, the entirety of the following season, and 42 games this past season. But he’s looking for a second chance at stardom in Houston, which could land him another lucrative deal after this one’s up (though it likely won’t be worth nearly as much). Wall has a player option next season for more than $47.3 million — it would be absolutely shocking if he turns that down.

James Harden , Brooklyn Nets — $44.3 million

James Harden started last season with the Rockets — where he signed an extension worth $228 million in 2017 — before being traded to Brooklyn. Harden has a player option for the next season worth $46.8 million, though he may decline it to sign a longer deal with the Nets. His first season on his new team didn’t go nearly as smoothly as he’d hoped. He missed games during both the regular season and playoffs due to injury, and he enters this year still searching for his first-ever NBA title.

Steph Curry (L) and Kevin Durant (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Russell Westbrook , Los Angeles Lakers — $44.2 million

In acquiring Wall, the Rockets traded one $40+ million man for another. Westbrook signed a massive deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and since inking that extension he’s moved on to the Rockets, the Washington Wizards, and now the Los Angeles Lakers. It’ll be fascinating to see how he fits alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis . But one thing’s for sure: the team is going to have a ton of guys that aren’t afraid of taking over a game.

Kevin Durant , Brooklyn Nets — $42 million

Durant came one toe on the line away from sending the Nets to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they likely would have been favorites to win the NBA title. He’ll get another crack at it this year, though he’s hoping he has a healthy surrounding cast, including Harden and Kyrie Irving . On top of next year’s salary of $40.9 million, Durant can also earn $1.1 million in likely incentives. He may be the best player in the NBA right now and just inked a long-term deal to stay in Brooklyn through the 2025-26 season.

LeBron James , Los Angeles Lakers — $41.2 million

James has had a rollercoaster of a career in Los Angeles since joining the Lakers back in 2018. He suffered an extensive injury his first year as the Lakers missed the playoffs entirely, but bounced back to capture his fourth NBA championship and Finals MVP in the NBA Bubble. This past year, the Lakers made the play-in tournament, defeating the Golden State Warriors to earn the seventh seed. They were eliminated in the first round by the Phoenix Suns, but are back to being among the title favorites heading into this season. James is also perhaps the most popular player across the world; with the revenue and number of fans he brings to the league, he’s arguably wildly underpaid .

Giannis Antetokounmpo , Milwaukee Bucks — $39.3 million

The reigning Finals MVP has been living the good life in Milwaukee. He helped end the city’s 50-year championship drought and re-upped to stay in town for the long run. With an extremely likable personality off the court, Antetokounmpo will likely add on quite a bit to next year’s salary with new sponsorship and endorsement opportunities.

Paul George , Los Angeles Clippers — $39.3 million

Though George may not have fully shaken off the “Pandemic P” nickname during this year’s playoffs, he did help lead the Clippers to the franchise’s first Western Conference Finals while his teammate Kawhi Leonard sat out with a knee injury. George and Leonard joined the Clippers together back in 2019. The former signed an extension before the start of last season while the latter just agreed to a four-year deal this summer. Both of the Southern California players are set on one thing: winning a championship in front of their hometown fans.

Kawhi Leonard , Los Angeles Clippers — $39.3 million

Leonard is probably the best two-way player in the league, though he comes with the caveat that he’s going to miss several games every year. Whether through load management or an injury, Leonard has sat out 73, 22, 15, and 20 games during the past four seasons. He’ll likely miss most or all of this upcoming season while recovering from his latest knee injury, but he offers enough when healthy that the Clippers were comfortable signing him to a massive deal.

Damian Lillard , Portland Trail Blazers — $39.3 million

We know Damian Lillard will make $39.3 million this season. We don’t know if he’ll still be on the Blazers when all is said and done. The team’s star player has expressed frustration with the franchise as they made offseason personnel moves, including bringing in Chauncey Billups as head coach. There have been rumblings of a potential trade request, though it’s unclear how much validity there is to those rumors. Regardless of where Lillard plays, you can bet he’ll have at least one clutch shot that we’re all celebrating at some point this season.

• Kevin Durant’s New Contract Will Help Him Reach An Incredible Milestone
• These Are The Top 10 Most Valuable NBA Franchises
• Anthony Davis Just Signed The Largest NBA Extension Ever, Next Season He’ll Make 70% Of Michael Jordan’s NBA Career Earnings
• The 12 Players On Team USA’s Roster Will Make Over Half A Billion Dollars Next NBA Season
• The Highest-Paid NBA Players Of 2021: All Hail King LeBron James
• Four Years Ago, Dennis Schroder Turned Down An $84 Million Contract. He Just Signed For Much Less Than That.

Victor Oladipo Should Be Making $30 Million Next Season. Instead He Just Signed A $2.4 Million Veteran Minimum Deal

ByJoey Heldon October 6, 2021inArticles›Sports News

One of the major stories of the NBA offseason was the saga of Dennis Schroeder. The guard reportedly turned down a four-year contract extension from the Los Angeles Lakers worth $80 to $84 million. He believed he could find a better deal in free agency. Unfortunately that offer never came. Schroeder eventually settled for $5.9 million on a one-year deal from the Boston Celtics.

That’s certainly some humble pie, but another guard may have missed out on even more money.

Victor Oladipo , the second pick of the 2013 NBA Draft, seemed to be poised to take the next step in his career. He had helped the Indiana Pacers become a competitive team, going toe-to-toe with the LeBron James -led Cleveland Cavaliers.

But, as has been the case for large portions of his career, the injury bug hit Oladipo. He never truly returned to his pre-injury form, yet he still believed he could. And so, he bet on himself.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Oladipo reportedly turned down a four-year, $112 million extension from the Indiana Pacers. He didn’t think the team was a contender and wanted to play for someone with a better shot of winning the championship. The Pacers started shopping him around and eventually sent him to the Houston Rockets in the James Harden trade.

In Houston, Oladipo played fairly well, besting his career averages in points, rebounds, and assists. The Rockets weren’t the title contender they had been just a couple of years earlier, though they still wanted to keep Oladipo for the long-term. They offered him a two-year, $45.2 million deal, which was the most they could offer at the time under the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

Oladipo turned that deal down, too.

After 20 games, the Rockets sent Oladipo to the Miami Heat in another trade. But thanks to injuries, Oladipo played in only four games for the Heat. And despite reaching the NBA Finals in 2020, the Heat got swept in the first round by the Milwaukee Bucks the following postseason.

As the offseason began, Oladipo hoped to score a lucrative multi-season contract. However, the free-agent market eventually dried up as he watched other players score big money, either via free agency or sign-and-trade deals.

No one came calling for Oladipo, though. His lone offer came from the Miami Heat — the veteran’s minimum worth $2.4 million. Had he signed that $110 million Pacers contract, he would be making nearly $30 million per year.

I wouldn’t feel toooo bad for Victor just yet. Even with these contract snafus, he has already earned around $105 million from salary alone during his time in the NBA.

But clearly thi s season will be the ultimate “prove it” year for Oladipo. He’s only 28 years old; if he can return to form, he may yet get a bigger deal next season. But if injuries still continue to dog him, it’s going to be mighty hard to stomach what he gave up.

• Victor Oladipo Net Worth
• With One Shot, Victor Oladipo Cost Vegas Millions Of Dollars
• Four Years Ago, Dennis Schroder Turned Down An $84 Million Contract. He Just Signed For Much Less Than That.
• After Playing Zero Games This Season, John Wall Could Make $47+ Million Next Year
• Being A Locker Room Glue Guy Has Turned Into A VERY Lucrative NBA Career
• Isaiah Thomas Has Lost Hundreds Of Millions In Just One Year