It only took a matter of moments after the clock struck 12:01 AM on July 1, 2015. The Pelicans announced a massive, deserved maximum contract extension for budding superstar Anthony Davis and the rest of the league went bananas shortly after that.
The NBA front office even went bananas as it started to circulate in the early hours of July 1 that the salary cap for the 2015-16 season, which was projected at around $67 million, could actually be as much as $2 million higher, reaching $69 million.
To make sense of all of activity in the first 72 hours of free agency, there are probably three categories to describe where the process stands for the league’s lottery teams.
The Obvious
This category could also be known as The Boring. LeBron James is going to play for Cleveland. Marc Gasol is going to play for Memphis. Draymond Green is going to play for Golden State. Jimmy Butler is going to play for Chicago. Kawhi Leonard is going to play for San Antonio. All of these players re-upped with teams that had good to great seasons. Among the lottery teams, things are usually less obvious for unrestricted free agents (UFA), while it would be a mild shock to see restricted free agent (RFA) of note change jerseys.
Every single player who had an option with their team took it. Maybe a lot of these players really believe in their teams, but it is more likely that everyone wanted to grab one more guaranteed payday before the major cap increase next season. Teams are also planning for a larger cap, a lot of big contracts were handed out in the first two days of free agency and most of these contracts will probably be seen as either a bargain or market value.
The Nets continue to linger in the borderlands between playoff threat and team not named Kings to give away lottery picks. The team basically handcuffed themselves regarding cap space and draft picks so they did what they could by re-signing center Brook Lopez (3yr/$60m) and forward Thaddeus Young (4yr/$50m) to anchor their team. They also added forward Thomas Robinson (2yr/$2m) and guard Shane Larkin (2yr/$3m). The Nets are generally not much worse or better than last season at this point, but keeping Lopez and Young was both and obvious and necessary move.
The Magic locked up Tobias Harris with a four year deal worth $64 million. A solid move that keeps talent and youth in Orlando, two things that rebuilding franchise currently has in abundance. Rumors put teams like Boston and Detroit in the hunt, but nothing appears to have materialized so the Magic got their man and Harris has himself a nice, big paycheck.
The Unknown
With four of the top free agents on the market still unsigned, there is still room for some shake up in the league’s status quo, however, we already know that James and Gasol aren’t leaving their teams so we have to drop to the next tier of free agent talent to see what might happen. DeAndre Jordan really ended up in Dallas, thanks to Dirk Nowitzki came home early from vacation while Chris Paul vacationed with Lebron.
Meanwhile, Lamarcus Aldridge and Rajon Rondo are the great unknowns for some of the league’s lottery level squads. Aldridge has held interviews with several teams; seemingly passing on the Lakers and Raptors, canceling on the Knicks, meeting with the Suns and Spurs, and then meeting again with the Lakers, only to find out that the Miami Heat are now interested. The smart bet would be Aldridge taking a deal with the modern NBA dynasty, San Antonio, but the Phoenix Suns are making a late push for his services and the recently awful Lakers must feel pretty good about getting a second chance at the biggest talent still available to them. More on Phoenix in a bit.
Rajon Rondo is headed for the Sacramento Kings. While it is hard to really understand anything about Rondo or the Kings, the best approach to this possibility might be “Why Not?” More on Sacramento in a bit.
The Celtics broke into the playoffs last year and their futile effort against the Cavaliers said “hungry” more than it said “sorry.” Keeping with their desire to evolve, the Celtics added Amir Johnson on a two year, $24 million deal. The Celtics also kept Jae Crowder (5yr/$35m) and Jonas Jerebko (2yr/$10m). Boston has kept two of their free agents and added one new face, only forwards Gigi Datome and Brandon Bass remain unsigned for their upstart playoff team of last year. Consistency and a possible upgrade at forward will make the Celtics a tough team to peg as Brad Stevens looks to continue the rebuild in a sneakily improving Eastern Conference.
The Intriguing/Shocking
By now, writing about the Vivek Ranadive hellscape seems like it would have run its course. But, it has not. The Kings fired Demarcus whisperer Mike Malone early last season, then dropped replacement Ty Corbin not long after. Now, they are somewhere between What Have We Done and How Far Can We Go. The Kings seem bent on destruction, or Rajon Rondo. Either will do for them, really. After Monta Ellis spurned their offer and opted for the Pacers, they Kings are also in hot pursuit of Wesley Matthews who is fresh of a serious Achilles injury. Matthews is certainly capable of recovery and would be a nice addition to any team in this league, so let’s just move right on to the whole idea of trying to sign the same Dallas backcourt that tried to eat itself for the second half of the 2014-15 season. Everyone saw what happened when Rondo and Ellis were paired in Dallas, right? I would like to know what Ranadive/Divac saw in that combination that everyone else missed.
But the Kings weren’t just looking to sign disastrous backcourt tandems, they also traded away some solid role players, swapped draft picks, and gave up on an untested player with moderate upside. In a bewildering move, the Kings sent Nik “SAUCE CASTILLO” Stauskas, Jason Thompson, Carl Landry, a top-10 protected 1st round pick, and the rights to swap two (TWO!!!) 1st round picks to the Philadelphia 76ers for Arturas Gudaitis (Lithuania), Luka Mitrovic (Yugoslavia), and a 2nd round pick. Sacramento managed to dump a whole bunch of salary into essentially the empty space of unfulfilled dreams AKA any European player currently stashed overseas. The 76ers easily won this trade and somehow it is more incredible that Cousins is still a King than that the Kings are quickly becoming a worse team than Philadelphia.
Sacramento might just be messing with all of us at this point. After the second day of free agency it looked grim for the future of the franchise. What a difference 24 hours can make. In the early hours of Friday morning, it was announced that free agent guard Wesley Matthews rejected a four year offer worth over $60 million. Batman’s eloquent butler, Alfred, once said, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” I think Ranadive was paying attention to that line. After a terrible trade, chaos between ownership and coach, and the imminent departure of Demarcus Cousins, the Kings salvaged a potential landmine point guard in Rajon Rondo and locked up the services of a shooter by grabbing ex-Spur Marco Belinelli. After making moves that seemed to doom the franchise, they now employ Rondo, Belinelli, Ben McLemore, Cousins, Rudy Gay and Willie Cauley-Stein. Some men just want to watch the NBA burn.
It’s a little dark in that part of the NBA, so let us return to the Sun(s). Here is a scenario that makes sense: Tyson Chandler, tired of the big market disaster of New York and ready to get out of the stacked Western Conference, opts to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks who are coached by former teammate, Jason Kidd. This move gets Chandler to a team that has money to spend, a clear plan for the future, and should have no trouble matching or bettering their six-seed position in the playoffs the prior year. But, that didn’t happen at all. Former Buck, Brandon Knight, got paid. And instead of becoming a Buck, Tyson Chandler also got paid by the Suns. But Phoenix isn’t done! They cleared a bunch of cap room by trading Marcus Morris (The Morrii!!!!), Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for “future picks.” A major salary dump designed to give them the ability to go hard after… Lamarcus Aldridge.
The Suns could be in the midst of a quick turnaround. Phoenix signed Chandler and Knight, have refused to part with guard Eric Bledsoe and are neck-and-neck with the Spurs for Aldridge. If they pull this off, Phoenix takes a big leap over other playoff hopefuls in the west.
The Bucks plan to #OwnTheFuture took an interesting turn on day 2 of free agency when they snatched big man Greg Monroe away from other suitors in New York and Los Angeles. Monroe should slot in nicely as the center of Milwaukee’s team of the future. Remember, he only held a forward position in Detroit so that they could put both he and center Andre Drummond on the floor simultaneously. He would be the oldest starter on the team at 25-years-old. Monroe also averaged more points out of the post last season (8) than the entire Bucks team (7.7). The offensive upgrade will be a huge win for the Bucks who have all of the defense in the world, but need more scoring punch. This will also probably see a nice improvement with the return of Jabari Parker. Things look great for the Bucks, new uniforms and all. If the Monroe experiment doesn’t work out, the deal is three years, $49.4 million with a player option for the third year. If this goes well, the Bucks filled a need at what will end up a fair market value.
On the third day of free agency, the New York Knicks finally broke through and found someone to say yes. Robin Lopez agreed to a four year deal with the Knicks, reportedly worth $54 million. In a more traditionally New Yorkian transaction, the Knicks also signed Derrick Williams for two years at $10 million.
The 2015-16 Knicks and Kings don’t look particularly promising, but their somewhat new and borderline radical rosters should make for compelling viewing for at least a week or two. And if things get weird, maybe a bit longer.
There has been a lot of movement in the first two days of free agency and no lack of entertainment for the league’s lottery teams. It looks like we probably won’t be writing much about the Suns or Bucks in the future, particularly if Phoenix pulls off the Aldridge coup, but the moves from the Kings probably herald a much different future. With all of the activity it is hard to believe that free agency is just getting started, there are lots of roster needs still to be addressed for a majority of the league. Maybe J.R. Smith ends up with Sacramento if we are lucky.
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