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Somehow, after the first day of free agency, the big story isn’t free agency at all.
Kevin Durant made sure of that when he called for a trade from Brooklyn just hours before free agency began Thursday at 6:00 p.m. ET. (Actually, the free hand started a few weeks ago, but we’re not supposed to say that part out loud).
As a result of this and the shockwaves that radiated outward, Kyrie Irving-Lakers scenarios, complex sign-and-trades by Deandre Ayton, and teams from Boston to Miami were reinvented golden state Memphis envisioned how they could nail a deal for a superstar who would remain under contract for an entire Olympiad – the first day of free agency understandably fell short.
Which is fair to a certain extent. Since the goals of the big names were already known (though we enjoyed the performance art over Jalen Brunson’s “Decision Day” as the Knicks belatedly swam against the tide of a tampering allegation), there wouldn’t be a single free-agent move that would take us out kick the socks. Anything that happens to Durant is orders of magnitude larger than the other things that happened on June 30th.
Nonetheless, a few moves caught my eye right away on day one, both good and bad. Let’s go through some of the biggest:
Thumbs Up: Kyle Anderson to the Timberwolves (Two Years, $18M)
Kudos to Minnesota for hands down the best offer of day one. Anderson’s BORD$ is more than double the annual value of this contract, and there’s a good reason for that. While not a great shooter, “Slo-Mo” is a plus in almost every other category, especially as a defender.
That’s the review site, but the fit is an even bigger win. Anderson can clog offense when paired with other non-shooters, but when he’s playing alongside the league’s best-shooting center and three guards who can rip it from the deep, he should be a big asset with his slanting slashes to the cup. Anderson is also a key upgrade for a team that struggled on defense last season and lacked quality in both forwards.
Meanwhile, it was a tough day for Memphis at the Power Forward Spot. The Grizzlies had an all-timer news dump when, just prior to the free agency tip, they announced that Jaren Jackson, Jr. needed surgery for a stress fracture and would be out for several months, and then Slo-Mo — who is so competent had filled in for Jackson during his relatively frequent injury breaks – fled to Minnesota hours later.
Oddly enough, the Grizzlies will have 16 players under contract once they sign rookies Jake LaRavia, David Roddy and Kennedy Chandler, after also agreeing to re-sign Tyus Jones. Once they presumably do without the injured Danny Green, they will be around $5 million under the ceiling despite having a full roster and a likely contender in the West. One possible use for that money: A renegotiation and extension of Dillon Brooks’ expiring $11.4 million deal.
Thumbs Down: Marvin Bagley to the Pistons (Three Years, $37M)
It’s oddly frustrating to see that the Pistons mostly get the big picture right while still stepping on various rakes. Her bizarre obsession with Bagley is a perfect example.
Detroit traded two second-round picks just to get his limited free agent rights at the 2022 close, though his team at the time pretty clearly had no intention of keeping him. They then doubled as the free hand began, waging a bidding war on steam as soon as the opening bell rang. The few teams with Cap Room didn’t seem to need or want Bagley, but the Pistons paid him anyway. The Pistons don’t need Bagley much either, as they already have three better centers (Jalen Duren, Isiah Stewart, and Kelly Olynyk), and he’s never demonstrated the skill required to play the 4.
On a glass-is-4-percent-full note, Bagley is young and can score, so maybe he’s adding enough empty calories to somehow not make this contract look terrible. In any case, the Pistons’ cap situation is so clean going forward that the contract probably won’t hurt them. He might even inadvertently help their long-term prospects if he plays the way he did in Sacramento and keeps them in the best tanking position. But there was a better use of two seconds and better money gambling over MLE than this.
Thumbs Up: Philadelphia Gets The Band Back Together (PJ Tucker, Three Years, $33 Million; Daniel House, Two Years, $8 Million)
It’s arguable that there’s a bit of Buddy Ryan syndrome at play here, as Sixers general manager Daryl Morey revisits his biggest hits from the Houston days by bringing back Tucker and House to join James Harden and his to join one-time draft pick De’Anthony Melton. However, it’s also more emphatic to argue that with the additions of Tucker, House and previously acquired Melton, the Sixers finally have some wings to match their Harden-Embiid-Harris-Maxey core.
The Sixers needed James Harden to turn down his $47 million for the season to pull this off (as our Shams Charania reported he will do) and will have a hard cap for the rest of the season, but can put Harden on a three bring back -year deal for around $110 million and are at least getting through the season fairly comfortably. Philly is probably still struggling to get to the level of the Bucks, Celtics and Heat in the East, but between those additions and a deduction or two (including a name below), this is a much more cohesive roster than it was a year ago.
Thumbs Down: DeAndre Jordan to Denver (at least a year)
What are we doing here? Jordan was terrible last year, turns 34 on opening day and can’t jump anymore. Why do you rush to sign him on day one of free agency?
Unfortunately, I think I know why: Because the Nuggets will only do minimum contracts so they can avoid the luxury tax, which would also explain why they gave up a future first-round pick to drop JaMychal Green and followed that up with another Money-saving move trading Monte Morris and Will Barton for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith.
Denver also signedDavid Reed on a minimum contract (yay?) even though he was actually a useful player last season. Unless we see evidence to the contrary, we can assume they’re pretty much done. (The Nuggets have an open roster spot that will be filled by either limited free agent Vlatko Cancar or another minimum-contract player). That would still leave the Nuggets above the tax limit, but accommodated by trading Smith later in the season. They’ll avoid the tax, but more than that, they’ll also avoid maximizing the prime years of the best player in franchise history.
Thumbs Up: Fast Work in Milwaukee (Joe Ingles, Bobby Portis, Jevon Carter and Wes Matthews)
Ingles is working his way back from a cruciate ligament tear, but the Bucks don’t need him for regular-season wins. The idea is to have a menacing shooter who can help them in playoff games, and getting him at the taxpayer’s mid-tier for a year is good value if he’s got something in the tank post-op . Adding Matthews and Carter to near-minimal deals (Matthews for a year, Carter for two) locks in solid defenders to fill out the back end of the rotation at the only price the Bucks could pay for being in tax.
Milwaukee also kept Portis on a four-year, $49 million deal — the most they could pay him — and received an unexpected bonus when Pat Connaughton signed his contract for $5.7 million that year. The latter likely came with stipulations in the form of an extension that would come into effect in a year, but in the short term keeps what could have been a staggering luxury tax bill to something quasi-reasonable. The Bucks will put $26 million in taxes for the year, which would result in a $65 million check to the league — heady stuff for a small market. We’ll see if they hold out or if they take money during the season (George Hill or Grayson Allen maybe), but the 2021 champions are well positioned to reclaim their place.
Thumbs down: Extension of Lu Dort (five years, $87 million)
This was quite an extravagant extension considering they didn’t even have to do one: Oklahoma City could have just allowed Dort to play on their $1.9 million deal this year and then either had him in the free Agency newly signed or, more plausibly, renewed for four years starting at $12.95 million per year.
There has improved as a shooter, but the vision of him as a high-level 3-and-D guy is still a long way off. We haven’t seen the Thunder play a real, meaningful game in a couple of years, but he’s still a player that opponents will dare shoot from the perimeter and not fear as a finisher or creator. He’s a wall in isolation defense, but his batting stats suggest he might be overrated in that regard, too.
Contrast this, if you will, to the similar contract Houston signed for a relatively similar (albeit slightly older) player, Jae’Sean Tate. As there, his team turned down a team option for the minimum to push him to a longer contract, but it costs barely a quarter of the amount: $22 million over three years.
Oklahoma City may have maximum or near maximum scope next summer regardless of the contract there, but it feels like they’ve topped several millions a season here. I had a BORD$ value for Dort of $7.2 million – exactly what Tate got but half what Thunder paid there.
(Photo by James Harden and PJ Tucker: Sam Navarro – USA TODAY Sports)
