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Hollinger: Worst Contracts still on the Books

ESPN's John Hollinger (Subr. Req.) wrote an article detailing the worst contracts that teams are still paying for.  As you'd expect the Knicks were well represented with a section for the current Knicks players and a section for former Knicks players.  Here are the Mavs related bad contracts.

Michael Finley, Mavericks ($16.1 million)
Contrary to what you might think, the worst-case contract scenario isn't paying a lot of money to a guy who can't play. It's shelling out for a guy who can play and then waiving him, allowing him to sign a below-market contract with your closest rival for the championship. That's the case for the Mavs, who are paying Finley superstar money to try to beat them as a Spur. Blame the luxury tax amnesty rule, which offered the Mavs so much savings that they couldn't afford not to cut Finley.

Calvin Booth, Bucks ($6.6 million)
Booth's still getting the Bucks' bucks after they made him a luxury tax amnesty cut in 2005 -- just months after the Mavs had dumped Booth on Milwaukee in the Keith Van Horn trade.

Raef LaFrentz, Trail Blazers ($11.5 million, two years left)
The Mavs' decision to give LaFrentz a seven-year, $70 million deal in 2002 was generous, yes. But it didn't seem like too obscene a stretch at the time -- people forget now, but he nearly led the league in blocks and was deadly from outside. But what Dallas didn't know was that LaFrentz's knees were about to betray him. He's only 30 now, but it's 30-going-on-90 -- LaFrentz is shooting 23.7 percent in 17 games for Portland.

Austin Croshere, Mavericks ($7.3 million, expires this year)
Sample Size 101: Like a lot of guys on this list, Croshere was paid based off one strong stretch of play (the 2000 Finals), despite a much larger body of work that was far less impressive. Not surprisingly, he's disappointed since.  He's shooting 35.2 percent as a deep sub for the Mavs this season, though he did have one glorious night when he exploded for 34 on the Sonics. But he has only four other double-figure games this season.

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