The second-apron era is supposed to make front offices more disciplined, but 2026 NBA free agency has already produced a reminder that spending habits do not always change as fast as the rules do. Bleacher Report’s early list of the five worst overpays so far included John Collins and Ayo Dosunmu, two names attached to very different contracts and very different levels of risk.
Collins is the bigger headline because of the size of the commitment. The Detroit Pistons gave him five years and $112 million, with a player option, after a season in which the Los Angeles Clippers were 3.9 points worse per 100 possessions with Collins than without him in 2025-26. That is not a perfect verdict on a player’s value, but it is the kind of number that tends to matter when teams are trying to justify long, expensive deals in a tighter cap environment.
Why Collins drew the sharper criticism
The case against Collins is not that he is unusable. It is that the flaws Bleacher Report pointed to become more expensive when the contract stretches across five years. The concern centered on his limited self-creation, playmaking and matchup versatility, which makes him more dependent on fit than on individual shot-making. In a league where flexibility is at a premium, that is a hard profile to pay like a centerpiece.
That is also why the comparison point is bigger than one player. In the second-apron era, teams cannot afford many contracts that look solid only in a narrow role. If a player is not helping create offense, is not bending defenses on his own and is not giving you clean matchup answers, the margin for error gets thin quickly. Collins may still help a team, but the question is whether five years and $112 million is the right price for that help.
Dosunmu was a different kind of case, and that distinction matters. Bleacher Report framed him as a useful secondary piece whose playoff burst may not reflect his broader production. In this year’s opening round, he delivered special games against the Denver Nuggets, then in the second round he averaged 9.4 points on 36/27.8/85.7 shooting against the San Antonio Spurs. Those flashes are real, but they do not automatically define a full-season baseline.
That is the tension with a lot of early free-agency grades: the best stretches often get priced as if they are the new normal. Dosunmu’s recent run was strong enough to make him look more valuable, but the production Bleacher Report highlighted suggests the larger sample is still doing some of the work. If a team pays for a playoff spike without enough evidence that the spike is permanent, the overpay risk rises fast.
There is another layer here, too. Minnesota’s need for perimeter depth was linked to Donte DiVincenzo’s torn Achilles, which shows how quickly roster pressure can alter the market. Injuries and urgency often push teams toward decisions that look reasonable in the moment and expensive later. That is the kind of backdrop that makes early free-agency judgment harsher, especially when the league’s financial rules punish dead money and immovable contracts.
So the larger story is not just that Bleacher Report singled out John Collins and Ayo Dosunmu. It is that the market is already showing how difficult it remains to pay for recent production without overcommitting to future decline or uncertainty. In a summer shaped by the second apron, the difference between a smart bet and a costly one can be uncomfortably small.
