Following up on the last analysis of Okafor for Chandler, we will today be looking at another aspect of Okaforce’s (No?) contributions. Emeka’s long term deal for big bucks was the primary reason he was traded away from Charlotte, and has been one the biggest concerns amongst Hornet fans since his arrival in the Big Easy.

When discussing if a player is overpaid, it’s common to look into the future, especially in regard to the years remaining on a contract, but with Okafor only 27 years old and still trying to fit into a new system, it’s unclear how he will fare in the next couple of years. That being said, let’s take a look at how Emeka’s salary and performance compare against other centers, this year specifically. I’ll be using a statistic that I think I made up called Salary Value, or S-Value if you will. For now this is a very raw formula, really for use in evaluating guys who play the same position. In the future I will certainly spend some time getting into more detail.

S-Value Formula= Win score/ (Salary/100,00)

Win Score Formula= (Points)+(Rebounds)+(Steals)+(½Assists)+(½Blocked Shots)-(Field Goal Attempts)-(Turnovers)-½(Free Throw Attempts)-½Personal Fouls

Win score certainly has it’s downfalls, especially when it’s used to compare players at different positions, but it also has a lot of positives. I like it for this because it’s a pretty much all encompassing stat that accounts for playing time. As I said, it’s not the end-all stat, so there might be some strange results, but it seems like the best single stat for the purposes of this comparison. Again, I’m trying to see how the productivity of a player compares to salary.

Because guys with lower salaries have a huge advantage in this, I’ve taken only the 24 highest paid centers in the game, or guys making over 7 million per year. Since rookie deals are pretty standard, and rarely as high as second contracts for centers, I’m looking only at guys who are no longer on their first contract.

Here we go.

Player	Salary in 100,000’s	Win Score	S-Value
Jermaine O’Neal	230	396	.58
Tim Duncan	222	711	3.2
Shaq	210	312	1.48
Yao Ming	163	0	0
Amare Staudemire	163	604	3.71
Dwight Howard	152	891	5.86
Big-Z	125	205	1.64
Andrew Bynum	125	534	4.27
Brad Miller	122	239	1.95
Erick Dampier	121	334	2.76
Samuel Dalembert	120	551	4.59
Al Jefferson	120	522	4.35
Tyson Chandler	117	126	1.07
Emeka Okafor	108	572	5.3
Ben Wallace	108	585	5.4
Eddy Curry	105	-9.5	< 0
Nene	105	619	5.9
Chris Kaman	104	430	4.13
Andrew Bogut	100	567	5.67
Marcus Camby	93	731	7.86
Andres Biedrins	90	256	2.84
Mehmet Okur	90	329	3.65
Mark Blount	80	82	1.03
Etan Thomas	79	40.5	.51
David Lee	70	817	11.67

So here are the ten big guys, earning big contracts, who according to their S-Value, pull the most weight.

1. David Lee- I can’t believe this guy couldn’t get a real contract this off season. Can the Hornets get him, please?
2. Marcus Camby.
3. Nene
4. Dwight Howard
5. Andrew Bogut
6. Ben Wallace
7. Emeka Okafor
8. Dalembert
9. Al Jefferson
10. Andrew Bynum

Here are the top 10 centers in win-score, so you can get an idea of how much more big men get after their first contract.

1. Dwight
2. Lee
3. Duncan
4. Marc Gasol
5. Al Hortfod
6. Nene
7. Brook Lopez
8. Ben Wallace
9. Emeka
10. Bogut

Bogut and Duncan are the only two of them not to play at least 60 games this year.

So as you can see, Emeka really isn’t overpaid compared to other NBA centers. Sure you can look at his eight figure annual deal and say “Oh man, 10,500,000 million for Okaforce, that’s way too much.” and nobody will argue with you.

Of course 10,500,000 dollars is excessive when comparing his salary to a school teacher or construction worker, but this is American professional sports. It’s rare to find someone who isn’t overpaid (BUCKETS!) for what they actually do. When judging who is overpaid and who isn’t you have to compare players to their peers, and in this case it’s clear that Emeka’s salary is better than average, this year at least.