By midnight last Friday — the first day teams can negotiate with free agents — NBA owners and GMs had agreed to pay available players a total of $1.7 billion worth of contracts at an unthinkable average salary of $17 million per season. No, Brick Tamland didn’t kill anybody, but needless to say it was a frenzied introduction to a free agency period that, it turns out, was only getting started.
By Monday the numbers were absolutely staggering:
Nine thousand dollars per second!? More than $3 billion spent in 96 hours??? We knew going in that the money would be flowing at Niagara-like levels, but it didn’t make it any easier to wrap your head around the extent of the NBA’s spending spree.
Given 21 teams had maximum cap room (and arguably only one player on the market, Kevin Durant, deserved such a deal) we also knew that the market would leave sub-stars and role players making serious scratch. $50M from Brooklyn to Tyler Johnson (the eighth man on Miami’s depth chart last season); $70M for the right to bring Bismack Biyombo off the bench in Orlando; $15M for one year’s worth of Jeff Green. Welcome to the new NBA.
So you’d be justified in looking at those numbers from afar and assuming that NBA general managers have taken up snorting bath salts in their free time. But compared in context, not all deals were altogether outrageous and some acquisitions were flat-out great, at virtually any price.
So without further ado here’s a look at some of the best and worst deals of NBA free-agency (in order from best to worst):
The Warriors land Kevin Durant
…Obviously. Though I was tempted to move No. 2 on this list up to the top spot, it’s impossible to deny the magnitude of Golden State keeping its core intact and adding a generational superstar and top-3 talent in Durant. Some of the moves below turned teams into contenders. The Durant signing practically ensured there is no longer such a thing as a “contender” outside of Oakland.
Al Horford joins the Boston Celtics
The Celtics failed to parlay their plentiful draft assets last week into a star-level player that can help them win now. So they waited until free agency, and landed the best defensive player available in Horford, who happens to be nearly as impactful on the other end of the floor, too.
With Horford in tow and a bevy of young players and future picks still at their disposal in a trade, Boston is poised to be a threat in the East. They still have to sort out their rotations, and have a glut of wings and power forwards whose place on the depth chart is somewhat unclear, but a player of Horford’s calibre is a major puzzle piece for the franchise. And hey, at $28M per season that’s only $8M more than Ryan Anderson makes.
DeRozan wastes no time returning to Toronto
He said he was coming back, and then he put his money where his mouth was. Or, more accurately, I guess it was the Raptors who put their money where DeRozan’s mouth was. Or… nevermind you know what I’m trying to say.
Re-signing DeRozan was always a priority for Masai Ujiri, and for good reason. Under the safe assumption the Raps were never players for Durant, bringing DeRozan back into the fold was just about the only way Toronto could ensure they’d have a crack at another trip to the Conference Finals, and continue to try to build a title contender around their all-star backcourt (and the emerging Jonas Valanciunas).
DeRozan’s $27.8M per year salary may seem steep, but for a top-10 scorer who excelled as his team went deeper into the playoffs last season, it’s a fair market-value deal. For context: DeRozan will make just $3M more per year than Charlotte’s Nic Batum.
Dirk: Mav for Life
Nowitzki reportedly agreed to a two-year/$40M deal to return to the Mavericks for what will be his 19th and 20th season in Dallas. He’ll be 40 when the contract expires, and yet the $20M per season he’ll earn is relatively great value given the 13-time All-Star is fresh off season averages of 18.3 points and 6.5 boards. Thanks to Nowitzki the Mavs surprised everyone by grabbing the sixth seed in the West last season and his game shows no signs of degeneration.
Warriors replace Bogut on the cheap
In order to make room for Durant, Golden State had to shed some salary, and was forced to send starting centre Andrew Bogut and his $12M per year contract to Dallas. Bogut is on the tail end of his career, but his absence left a hole in the Warriors roster, suddenly in need of a seven-foot rim protector/chess piece. Enter: Zaza Pachulia, at age 32 quietly as effective as ever. He’s this high on the list because he signed a one-year deal worth just $2.9M, or $14M less than the Wizards are paying Ian Mahimni per season. Reports that the Warriors will also be able to bring star reserve Shaun Livingston back in the fold cements the Dubs’ status as the major winners of the off-season to date.
Jennings, Lee, fortify new Knicks backcourt
Neither Brandon Jennings nor Courtney Lee will singlehandedly win many games for New York, but they are both excellent value pick-ups (Jennings at a paltry $5M next season, while Lee locked in for four years at roughly $13M per) that will provide depth and experience to a Knicks team in need of both.
Whiteside stays put
One of the most coveted free agents, Whiteside’s game may be fairly one dimensional (alley-oops on offence, blocking shots on defence), but he does what he does very well and will be paid handsomely for it. You won’t convince me that Whiteside is a max player, though Miami is paying him max money. Still, you can’t fault their decision given how much worse off they’d be in the short- and long-term had Whiteside walked — even truer in light of the Dwyane Wade-to-Cleveland rumours.
Curry switches teams, but stays in the West
Seth Curry, younger bro of Steph, quietly had a very strong end to the 2015-16 season, starting nine of 11 games for the Sacramento Kings and averaging 15 points, four assists, one steal, and shooting more than 45 per cent from deep. It may have been a classic “good stats, bad team, in garbage time” situation, but the Dallas Mavericks only have to pay $6M over two seasons to find out.
Conley agrees to richest NBA contract ever
Mike Conley is a very good point guard, but is in the bottom half of the list of top 10 players at his position in the NBA. He will earn and, when they’re firing on all cylinders, may not be his team’s best player. The Grizzlies paid Conley because letting him walk would have meant blowing it up and starting all over again, a shame for a team that might have one more crack at getting deep into the playoffs. So the deal makes sense, I suppose, even if it is, well, a tad exorbitant at $30.6M per year.
Batum gets PAID
As mentioned above, Batum is nearly making DeMar DeRozan money, set to earn an expected $24M per season. It’s hard to fault the Hornets, who finally cracked the playoffs last season thanks in part to Batum, who was traded to Charlotte last summer and was the team’s second leading scorer and averaged more assists (a team-high 5.8) than point guard Kemba Walker. The Hornets would have almost surely regressed had they let Batum walk, even if he’s most likely not worth that kind of money.
Knicks bring Joakim Noah home
Noah is about to make more than $18M a year (aka Biyombo money), a massive sum for a player with a ton of miles on him coming off a severe injury that limited him to just 29 games last season. Yet if healthy, Noah, who projects to start, can still be a defensive force down low and provides serious playoff experience to a Knicks team that might, improbably, be making a post-season appearance after an off-season overhaul.
Grizzlies to pay Parsons the max
Chandler Parsons and Harrison Barnes, two young, underachieving small forwards, both signed four-year, $94M deals. Barnes is the better prospect of the two, but the reason Parsons’ deal ranks higher on this list simply comes down to fit — he’ll be leaned on heavily to create with and without the ball on a Memphis Grizzlies offence that desperately needed what he brings to the table. Like Barnes, Parsons is a major risk for that kind of money but his impact on his new team outweighs Barnes’.
Biyombo chooses Orlando
We’re now firmly into “worst” territory, and it’s not a condemnation on what Biyombo brings to the table as a player. As we all saw last season, Biyombo can be a game-changer and was the Raptors’ spirit animal throughout their playoff run. What’s more, I have zero problem with the terms of his deal (four years, $70M), which is a very safe gamble on the part of the Magic, who hope he’ll infuse their team with the same swagger he helped bring to Toronto.
What I don’t quite understand is the fit. Assuming there was more than one team willing to offer a deal to Biyombo, the Magic are a puzzling choice given their current frontcourt depth chart. It’d be hard to imagine Biyombo supplanting budding star Nik Vucevic as Orlando’s starting centre, and it’s hard to picture him starting at power forward in a league going smaller and smaller that values shooting at that position (besides, the team just traded for Serge Ibaka). So Biyombo will likely be coming off the bench again, which is questionable given teams like Portland are in need of a starting centre and have the money to pay Biyombo to fill that role.
E’Twuan Moore to play backup in New Orleans
The Pelicans signed Moore to a four-year deal worth $34M, which is very close to the same deal that ex-Cavs point guard Matthew Dellavadova (who has playoff experience, plays better defence, and practically shoots just as well) agreed to with Milwaukee.
Near-Raptor killer Hill joins Pelicans
Because $14M a year is suddenly passable, Solomon Hill is worth the gamble given the flashes he’s shown. But the fact that this is New Orleans’ marquee addition (so far) this summer, it’s a depressing reality that perfectly illustrates how badly that team is squandering their opportunity to put a decent team around superstar forward Anthony Davis. $82M combined for Hill and Moore? The worst part, for Davis, is that he’s locked in until the summer of 2021 (here’s betting he’s already started counting the days until he’s liberated from the Pelicans).
Mavericks agree to pay Harrison Barnes the max
Turns out a putrid Finals performance did nothing to cool teams off of Barnes, the 24 year-old ex-Warriors small forward. Dallas had plenty of cap space, and (as is becoming tradition) whiffed on more coveted free agents like Hassan Whiteside. Barnes will make $23.5M per season for the next four years, and we’re not even sure he can be the fourth best player on a playoff team.
Houston has a problem
Ryan Anderson is one of my favourite players to interview — he’s open, honest, extremely conversational — but even in today’s NBA he isn’t a $20M-calibre player. That kind of money should go to a player who can play a significant role in leading your team on a playoff run, whereas Anderson’s best fit is as a situational stretch-four. Still, that didn’t stop the Rockets from agreeing to an four year, $80M deal to land their next starting power forward.
Houston also signed another ex-Pelican, Eric Gordon, for $53M. I was a huge fan of Gordon’s coming out of his lone year at Indiana, and was buying Gordon stock by the boatload after his first two seasons with the Clippers. But since then Gordon hasn’t been able to stay healthy, and when he is on the floor has been wholly inconsistent. $133M for a pair of players best suited to come off the bench is tough to swallow, even if it does make the Rockets marginally better next season.
Lakers sign DeRozan, Barnes, Whiteside, Mozgov
Despite rumours linking them to most top free agents available, the Lakers most notable signing will turn out to be Timofey Mozgov, fresh off a non-existent performance for the Cavs in the 2016 playoffs. The Lakers had money to spend, but nobody of influence to spend it on, and so they settled on Mozgov, who’ll earn $16M a year between now and 2020 to clog the paint. Maybe the biggest thing we learned in free agency this year was that, in the Internet age, where each team is as accessible to fans than the next, an area code isn’t enough to lure players anymore.
Given the bevy of deals handed out, it feels like I’m hardly scratching the surface, and am sure I’ve left some deals worthy of cracking the list (…for better or worse) out of this article altogether. Let us know which deals you liked or loathed in the comments below.
