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Press pause on your post-NBA draft takes. Free agency is now beckoning, and it promises to be wild.
If the start of the Association's transaction period is any indication, free agency is actually going to be wilder than wild. Cap space is in short supply, but teams are already flexing their trade muscles, and a smattering of unexpected scenarios continue to bubble toward the surface.
Keeping up with the frantic chain of events yet to come can be overwhelming. Don't sweat it. We're going to be here every step of the way, offering the latest updates and dropping takes galore, all in real time.
So strap in and find your favorite source of caffeine. Free agency is here, and a tumult of surprises, small and seismic, are coming with it.
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The Blazers have been short on wing and frontcourt defense since the Al-Farouq Aminu-Moe Harkless tandem disbanded following the 2018-19 season. Now, after swinging a deal for Robert Covington and inking Derrick Jones Jr. to a two-year, $19 million agreement, as first reported by The Athletic's Shams Charania, the Blazers have improved significantly on the original model.
Jones keyed the Miami Heat's highly effective zone defense last season, leveraging his length, quickness and supreme athleticism at the point of attack. He was a disruptive force regardless of how the Heat deployed him, which his block and steal numbers reflect. The 6'6" forward ranked in the 87th percentile in steal rate last season, and lest we undersell his bounce, he's been in or above the 91st percentile in block rate at his position in all four years of his career.
It's rare for an impactful 23-year-old to hit unrestricted free agency, and you would have thought Jones was in line for much more than a two-year deal at the MLE. Even with a player option on the second year, as The Athletic's David Aldridge reported, this is a steal of a signing for Portland.
Jones is going to run amok in transition, and he and Covington are on the short list of the most intimidating defensive forward combos in the league.
Grade: A-
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Montrezl Harrell is moving across the hall. The reigning Sixth Man of the Year is signing a two-year, $19 million deal with the Lakers, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. His second season is a player option.
Poaching Harrell from the Clippers for only the mid-level exception is great value in a vacuum. He doesn't space the floor, but he's a versatile finisher in his own right. He will lay down the boomstick rolling off screens, can put the ball on the floor in open spaces and has a semblance of a post game. The Lakers' opportunism in transition should serve him well, and on most nights, they won't field anyone with a fiercer motor.
Completely celebrating this deal mandates you ignore the prospective wonky fit. Harrell will shrink the floor if the plan is to play him beside Anthony Davis. Then again, the Lakers just did that with Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee, and it held up.
Looking at Harrell strictly as a backup center renders this a rosier decision. He is a demonstrative offensive upgrade over Howard and McGee, and the Lakers aren't paying him so much money they'll feel obligated to have him on the floor during crunch time, when Davis-at-center arrangements seem to make most sense.
Anyone entirely against this is probably more rankled by what Los Angeles could have done. That's fair. The MLE was its best spending tool. Parlaying that money into Harrell rather than a big who can shoot threes or another wing is questionable. But the overarching value, coupled with the fact that the Lakers just stole a Clippers rotation player, makes the move justifiable.
Grade: B
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Malik Beasley is returning to the Timberwolves on a four-year, $60 million deal, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. That is...quite the price tag.
Wings under 25 who can stroke threes and move on defense command premiums. That's a given. And Beasley averaged 20.7 points while drilling 42.6 percent of his triples through 14 games in Minnesota last season. His offensive fit remains divine even after the acquisitions of Anthony Edwards and Ricky Rubio. He is a battled-tested off-ball threat, dating back to his time with the Nuggets.
Still, around $15 million per year is a lot for someone who might be a one-position player. The Timberwolves can certainly get away with using Beasley as the 3, but he's not incredibly long and doesn't have the ready-made strength to hold up against power wings.
Absent any leverage on his part, it's tough to reconcile the final number. The Knicks are the only team at this writing who can afford to go this high. Maybe sign-and-trade interest landed around this number, in which case the Timberwolves know they can move him later. Overall, though, this feels like a fairly appreciable overpay until Beasley proves he can hang defensively in lineups that feature two of Edwards, Rubio and D'Angelo Russell.
Grade: C-
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Trey Burke's 14-game stint (playoffs and regular season) with Dallas at Disney World was enough to earn him another contract. He's re-signing with the Mavericks on a three-year, $10 million deal, according to the New York Times' Marc Stein.
They are giving Burke quite the vote of confidence. This isn't a huge number, but they couldn't use Bird rights to re-sign him, so this eats into their mid-level exception. That's not an insignificant decision after such a small sample.
Perhaps it helps that this was their second go-round with Burke, the first coming in 2016-17. Or maybe he was just that convincing. He averaged 12.0 points and 3.8 assists while swishing 43.2 percent of his threes through eight regular-season appearances in the bubble, admirably filling the reserve spark-plug role amid the absence of the injured Jalen Brunson.
Burke likely sealed this return during the playoffs. He had three games in which he scored 15 or more points and converted 47.1 percent of his threes during the Clippers series. The Mavericks had him in the starting lineup by the end of their first-round set.
Running it back at this number seems fair. If anything, it tilts toward team-friendly. Burke isn't the answer to the Mavs' shot-creation problems behind Luka Doncic, but he's the best secondary from-scratch option they have as of now.
Grade: B+
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Dwight Howard is leaving the reigning champs to sign with the Sixers on a one-year deal, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. He will be getting the veteran's minimum, per ESPN's Bobby Marks.
It turns out you don't need to offer nine-figure contracts to adequately fill the minutes behind Joel Embiid. Who knew?
*Puts on serious face*
Howard is coming off a resurgent season with the Lakers, in which he binged on putbacks, crashed the glass and didn't lag on defense because he wasn't getting the ball on offense. He proved less valuable in the playoffs against more mobile frontcourts, but he successfully showed he can succeed as an accessory. Let's just hope that doesn't change in a Sixers locker that has been, shall we say, far from a billboard of synergy in recent years.
Philly's offense might be ready-made to give him actual post touches, depending on how it continues to use Embiid. That's inconsequential. Howard isn't a difference-maker on the block anymore. The Sixers would do well to work in more pick-and-rolls. That has yet to be a staple in the Embiid-Ben Simmons era, but they have the requisite shooting around the 1 and 5 spots now to make it happen.
As an aside, we need the backstory on what happened with Dwight's return to Los Angeles that wasn't. He deleted a tweet announcing it only to sign with a Sixers team that, theoretically, gave him less money but perhaps the promise of more playing time? Shrugs.
Grade: B+
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Rodney Hood is putting pen to paper on a two-year, $21 million to stay with the Blazers, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The final season is a team option.
That Hood entered free agency at all was a slight surprise. His player option would've paid him just $6 million, but he suffered a torn left Achilles in December. This didn't seem like the market to test coming off such a major injury.
His price point is even more of surprise. The Blazers didn't need to use their mid-level exception to keep him, and this can be considered a one-year deal, but it's a sizable season-over-season increase for someone working his way back from an injury that has torpedoed careers.
To Hood's credit, he was having a fine season before he went down, averaging 11.0 points while canning 49.3 percent of his threes. He adds another layer of shot creation at his peak but has shown he can feast on standstill looks. More than one-quarter of his attempts last season came as catch-and-fire triples, of which he converted 55.3 percent.
In the event Hood remains healthy, the Blazers have a wing rotation that stretches more than two capable players deep for the first time in what feels like forever. Along with Robert Covington and Gary Trent Jr., Hood gives them three viable options. Carmelo Anthony's return would arm them with a fourth.
This probably isn't the Blazers' endgame, but they could have also given Hood an annual raise knowing he can be used as a walking trade exception. He should have an implicit no-trade clause, since he was re-signed using Bird rights, but his 2020-21 cap hit will make for a nice salary-matching anchor should Portland broker a move that he approves.
Grade: B
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Danilo Gallinari is joining the Hawks on a three-year, $61.5 million deal, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. His destination comes as little surprise given Atlanta and New York were the only two teams who entered Friday with max cap space.
Signing Gallinari fits with the Hawks' attempts to enter the Eastern Conference playoff picture and what they need most to do it: another consistent shot creator. He doesn't do much to beef up their playmaking behind Trae Young, but he should allow Atlanta's superstar to move around off the ball a teensy-bit more.
Mostly, though, Gallinari assures the Hawks of spacing and a stopgap. No team shot a lower percentage from three last season, and their offensive rating placed in the 3rd percentile whenever Young was off the floor. Gallinari gives them a line to substantially improving both marks, with the bandwidth to drum up their volume at the charity stripe to boot.
What this signing says about John Collins' future is less certain. Gallinari is best deployed at the 4. The Hawks are assuming a good amount of risk giving him $20 million-plus per year on average at the age of 32 and given his injury history. This investment is a lot harder to spin if they intend predominantly to use him at small forward. For now, their grade mostly reflects the downside attached to Gallinari in a vacuum. Figuring out the lineup intricacies is a job for later.
Grade: B
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Patrick Patterson will return to the Clippers for a second season after agreeing to a one-year deal, according ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Expect him to fetch no more than the veteran's minimum.
Keeping Patterson won't make headlines but is a borderline necessity under the circumstances. The Clippers have three key players currently wandering around the open market: JaMychal Green, Montrezl Harrell and Marcus Morris Sr. Chances are they'll keep at least two of them, if not all of them, but bringing back Patterson safegaurds them against absolute disaster. Mfiondu Kabengele and Ivica Zubac are the only other frontline options under contract if you exclude Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Granted, the Clippers don't want to be in a position where they're actually counting on Patterson. The idea of him has long been better than his productivity. He drilled 39 percent of his threes last season but is no longer as matchup-proof on defense.
Grade: B+
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Derrick Favors' departure from the Jazz didn't last long. He's returning to Utah on a three-year, $27 million deal, with a player option on the final season, according to The Athletic's Tony Jones.
Spending what amounts to most of the mid-level exception on a backup center wouldn't sit right in every situation. Utah, in theory, should be one of them. It has Rudy Gobert to sponge up 30 to 35 minutes a night at the 5.
But backup center was a sore spot all last season. Ed Davis, now of the Knicks, didn't pan out, and Tony Bradley wasn't ready. The Jazz's defense cratered without Gobert as a result; opponents scored 8.2 points per 100 possessions more while shooting a preposterously high 65.7 percent at the rim when he was on the bench.
Favors completely neutralizes those minutes. He is an elite rebounder and dependable rim protector, the type of big who can steady an entire defense as the starter. His job gets even easier as a backup, and he has enough experience playing beside Gobert that Utah can steal dual-big minutes when matchups permit it.
The Jazz only need to be concerned with Favors' health. Lower back issues hindered his availability and, at times, mobility in New Orleans last season. But he's still on the right side of 30 and won't be burdened with too much responsibility. And when he was healthy, he had a hugely positive impact on the Pelicans' interior defense. This reunion is a smart one.
Grade: A-
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Jordan Clarkson is re-upping with the Jazz on a four-year, $52 million deal, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. That is...a great deal of money to invest in a sixth man.
Utah has just cause for going this high. Clarkson injected life into an otherwise comatose bench after coming over in a trade from Cleveland. Through 42 appearances with the Jazz, he put up 15.6 points while downing 54.7 percent of his twos and 39.0 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes. His efficiency also held up during the playoffs in the absence of Bojan Bogdanovic. He averaged 16.7 points in Utah's seven postseason tilts on 58.3 shooting inside the arc.
This number still feels a touch high in the aggregate. It is noticeably more than the non-taxpayer's mid-level at a time when few, if any teams, have the flexibility to offer him more. The Jazz need reliable scorers to continue optimizing Donovan Mitchell, but Clarkson's off-the-bounce creation is erratic, and he doesn't generate a ton of trips to the free-throw line.
Maybe Utah envisions him shouldering more of the backup point guard duties. Clarkson isn't a dependable table-setter, but the Jazz outscored opponents by 18.4 points per 100 possessions in the sparse time he spent as the de facto floor general. If he can't be saddled with more of those reps or increase the pressure he puts on the rim in the half-court, this deal feels like it has a ceiling of net neutral.
Grade: C+
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De'Aaron Fox has agreed to a five-year, $163 million extension with the Kings, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. His max scale is based off a $112.4 million projected salary cap in 2021-22, when his deal kicks in, and the value could change depending on how much revenue the league generates in the upcoming season.
Sacramento had no decision to make here. Maxing out Fox was the only move. The Kings don't project to be a cap-space team in the 2021 offseason, and more than that, he is, without question, the polestar around which they'll build.
Certain people outside Sacramento might see this as an overpay. Fox isn't yet a consensus top-30 player. But this is akin to the Suns extending Devin Booker before he reached that level. It is an investment on what yet's to come, and a worthwhile one at that.
Fox is the vessel through which the Kings run their offense. They don't have someone who puts consistent pressure on the rim without him—only five players averaged more drives per game last season—and his probing is mission critical to the team's outside shooting.
While a left ankle injury hobbled Fox to start the year, he was all the way back long before the hiatus. From Jan. 1 onward, he averaged 23.0 points and 6.9 assists while nailing 54.2 percent of his twos.
Shooting remains his swing skill. He hit only 29.2 percent of his threes after converting 37.1 percent in 2018-19 and wasn't especially efficient on catch-and-shoot triples (33.3 percent). Sacramento needs more bankable shooting from him at the charity stripe as well (70.5 percent), given how many trips he now generates.
Few max rookie extensions are without risks. Fox's is no exception. The Kings must also reconcile the $72.9 million combined they currently owe him, Harrison Barnes and Buddy Hield in 2021-22—plus whatever they might possibly pay to keep Bogdan Bogdanovic now (restricted). But a questionable cap sheet only means the opportunity cost of signing Fox now is lower. Sacramento made the right call.
Grade: A
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Another free-agent big man is off the board, and he's headed to...the Pistons!
Jahlil Okafor has agreed to a two-year deal with Detroit, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. We don't yet have the net-value details, but we don't really need them. Okafor won't be making a whole lot.
That doesn't make this move any less of a head-scratcher. The Pistons have Blake Griffin, drafted Isaiah Stewart, traded for Dewayne Dedmon and already locked up Mason Plumlee. They're apparently loading up on all the non-shooting bigs while Christian Wood remains on the market, which makes total sense*.
The sheer low-risk nature of signing Okafor spares Detroit from the absolute lowest grade. He shouldn't earn enough money or command enough minutes to materially impact what the team is doing. But it says a whole lot when that's the silver lining.
(*It makes zero sense.)
Grade: D
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Drew Eubanks will be sticking with the Spurs on a three-year deal, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojanrowski. The full value of the contract is worth just under $5.3 million, per HoopsHype's Michael Scotto.
This is a really shrewd signing by San Antonio. Its center depth isn't the greatest even if Jakob Poeltl (restricted) stays put, and it becomes flimsier if a LaMarcus Aldridge trade is ever on the table.
Eubanks flashed a lot of upside after assuming an expanded role in the bubble. Most notably, he moves his feet well enough on the defensive end and shoots a high enough clip from the foul line to be in late-game lineups.
Bagging someone who may be more than just a viable backup center for under $2 million annually is a straight-up bargain.
Grade: A
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Mason Plumlee is inking a three-year, $25 million deal with Detroit, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. We're still awaiting word whether the Pistons made this move on purpose.
Look, Plumlee is a quality big man. He hits the glass on both sides of the floor, can finish strongly on rolls to the basket and remains an underrated passer. But the Pistons have Blake Griffin, just traded for Dewayne Dedmon, drafted Isaiah Stewart and retain the ability to re-sign Christian Wood, a combo big who is waaay better than Plumlee.
Adding another center isn't absurd. It also shouldn't be costing more than $8 million per year on average. And if it does, he should be more matchup-proof on defense. (To be clear: Good on Plumlee for getting his money.) It'd be different if the Pistons view him as their starting center. That's problematic in itself if they do.
A 30-year-old Plumlee doesn't fit the tenor of a rebuilding squad with veteran bigs already in place, and this signing will look much worse if it contributes in any way to Christian Wood landing somewhere else. The latter scenario remains to be seen, but even if you remove that from the equation, Detroit's line of thinking here makes little sense unless it's participating in some sort of sign-a-Plumlee-or-Zeller bingo tournament on the side.
Grade: F
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Wesley Matthews is heading to the Lakers on a one-year, $3.6 million deal, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. This is a huge win for a team that just traded away Danny Green (and a first-rounder) to get Dennis Schroder.
Starting-caliber wings who knock down threes and assume some of the tougher perimeter covers don't typically run bi-annual-exception money. The value here is off the charts. Matthews will inexplicably freelance in the half-court far more than Green, but he reinforced his defensive value while matching up with Jimmy Butler as a member of the Bucks in the second round of the playoffs.
Though landing Matthews definitely makes the Schroder trade easier to celebrate—people continue to underestimate how important a three-and-D wing like Green remains, wild shooting swings and all—the Lakers still need another stopper-type on the perimeter at this writing.
They currently forecast to have Matthews, a likely re-signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma and LeBron James as their primary wing defenders. That's a little too sparse, even if Avery Bradley sticks around.
Grade: A+
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Meyers Leonard will be sticking with the Heat on a two-year, $20 million contract, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The latter season will be a team option, per the Associate Press' Tim Reynolds.
Treating this as a one-year deal definitely improves the optics, but a level of WTF-ness still lingers. Leonard hit more than 41 percent of his treys while starting in all except two of his 51 regular-season appearances, but he barely played during Miami's push to the Finals.
Shifting circumstances dictated some of his absence. He suffered a sprained left ankle in early February, and by the time he returned, when the NBA began its Disney World restart, the Heat had traded for Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala and favored playing more one-big lineups.
Bringing back Leonard could signal Miami doesn't plan to stick with that model all year. And again: The team hasn't jeopardized any of its 2021 spending power with this deal.
It is nevertheless bizarre to spend so much on someone who doesn't project to have a consistent role and at the very least probably becomes less of a factor in the postseason. This stands to change if the Heat move Kelly Olynyk and don't re-sign Crowder or Derrick Jones Jr., but for now, it's mostly curious.
Grade: C
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Goran Dragic cares not for your league sources. He announced his return to the Heat on Twitter.
Miami is signing him to a two-year, $37.4 million deal, with a team option on the second season, according to Shams Charania of the The Athletic and Stadium. This move, right down the contract structure, felt inevitable, but that doesn't render it any less of a win.
Dragic was excellent during the regular season and turned it up a notch during the playoffs, averaging 19.1 points while dropping in 50.9 percent of his two-pointers. Paying him carries some risk going into his age-34 campaign, given his injury history and that he's coming off a left plantar fascia issue, but the Heat exited the Finals needing another shot creator even when factoring in Dragic's likely return. Keeping him around was a must without a viable contingency.
That this is a one-plus-one with a team option makes it a no-brainer from Miami's perspective. It retains the chance to maximize 2021 cap flexibility but can also bring back Dragic should Giannis Antetokounmpo and other prospective free agents appear to be off limits.
Grade: A+
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Grading Every 2020 NBA Free-Agency Signing - Bleacher Report
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