Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2014 17:35:09 GMT
Free agency is always an interesting time. There's usually more cap space than players to spend it on which always leads to overpaying players without fail. Big names change teams from time to time, but since they usually stay at home teams looking to make a splash throw money at whoever will take it. It might feel good to give a role player a near max the day of free agency to fill a hole in your line-up or off the bench, but soon you rue the day you made that horrible mistake. Smart teams just go for what's available and offer 'steal' deals hoping to sign anybody they can on the cheap. Sadly, those teams are far outnumbered.
Kyrie has a lot to smile about the next five years.
2021 181 Cavaliers (entrapy) Sign PG Kyrie Irving for $134,367,188 over 5 years.
The first big deal is actually the biggest one handed out in all of free agency. Don't get me wrong, Kyrie is a good player and seeing him still in Cleveland makes me happier than anybody. That doesn't mean this isn't a god awful contract. I know teams likely threw the max at Kyrie trying to steal him. That doesn't mean you have to pay a solid 2nd or 3rd option scorer $32 million when he's 33 years old. Kyrie has scored at or below 20 ppg for four seasons now. He is not a franchise player. In the short team this deal will likely pay off over losing him for nothing, but if Kyrie falls off even a little bit in the next few seasons his deal will become immovable.
Grade: C -- Keeping him is great and all but the Cavs are going nowhere fast and his contract could end up being an albatross.
2021 181 Nuggets (springs) Sign SG V.J. King for $64,400,000 over 4 years. (Matched by Bulls)
Poor V.J. King tried to leave Chicago but it seems he's a prisoner for at least four more years. Almost any deal King would have gotten would be a great deal for Chicago, and this one is definitely a great deal thanks to only being four years. While signing him for a fifth year would have been nice, the long-term benefit is his next deal (another likely max for up to five years) will only last until he's 32 years old at the longest. Players start to fall off around that age, and if he does, his contract will end almost immediately and Chicago will be clear of any cap breaking contract. As long as V.J. doesn't try to bolt in four years again, Chicago is looking to have him locked him throughout his prime and able to dump him once he's out of it.
Grade: A- -- Whenever you keep a very good young player long-term you did well.
2021 181 Wizards (pistolpetejr) Sign PG Damian Lillard for $77,280,000 over 4 years.
Now, I understand why the Wizards made this offer (kind of). They just dealt their young prospect Darryl Dawkins and a few firsts for Joel Embiid. That is obviously a win-now move as Embiid is in his prime. The problem is they didn't really have any talent around Embiid besides first overall pick George Mikan. They had to make some type of splash in free agency. That doesn't mean they had to overpay an average PG. Lillard has never scored 20 ppg in his career and has been at three turnovers a game the past two years. He helped lead a good Lakers team, but that was clearly mostly because of Wiggins and not him. He's a solid PG, but he should be making half of what he's going to actually be paid the next four years. The Wizards still have little talent on the wings and they used up all of their cap on one player. Going after a more reasonably priced PG and a SF to fill their pretty big hole there would have made more sense, but after missing out on the other big names they just threw a max at anybody that would take it.
Grade: D -- Maxing an average PG rarely pays off especially when he's 29.
2021 181 Hornets (itnas123) Sign PG Trey Burke for $77,280,000 over 4 years.
Much like the Wizards, the Hornets had to sign someone in free agency. Luckily for them, they signed a better player than Lillard for their max contract. Burke has never reached even 18 ppg in his career, but he also hasn't averaged over 1.4 turnovers a game the past four seasons. Not many PGs can claim that honor which makes him a very solid player to have around. The Hornets are also in their CY and chances were looking slim so they had to sign him even if he is overpaid. I don't think he's too overpaid though because of his ability to limit his turnovers, and he's even a year younger than Lillard to top it all off. They also have decent depth so splashing on one player wasn't as tough to stomach seeing as they desperately need a big name to build around (besides rookie Julius Erving). To make CY they still need to make another move, but this is a decent start.
Grade: B -- Not really worth a max but when you're in CY you have to overpay to fill holes.
2021 181 Magic (shorty) Sign SF Jabari Parker for $119,437,500 over 5 years.
There really isn't much to say about this signing. Parker is one of the best players in the league and is more than worthy of max contract that will end by the time he's 30 years old. Anybody with cap threw a max offer his way so it's not like Orlando could have gotten cheap here. They had to offer him the most they could and they did. It's just unfortunate for them that nobody else signed before Parker with their large amount of cap space.
Grade: A- -- Keeping a 30 ppg scorer locked up through age 30 rarely ends up badly.
Waiters can only laugh at why he seems to be the only one not getting overpaid.
2021 181 76ers (saric9) Sign SG Dion Waiters for $19,545,500 over 3 years.
There's usually a few players who get contracts like this, and Dion is actually pretty worthy of it. He isn't a great scorer at all as he can barely hit double digits, but he gets two steals a game and has always had at least 0.5 more steals than turnovers which is always nice. He's a mid-level exception level player, so paying him a bit more than that to keep him makes sense. Not a flashy signing, but a solid signing.
Grade: B -- Not much wrong with giving a fringe starter just over a MLE contract.
2021 181 Nets (Redrum) Sign SF Derrick Williams for $12,000,000 over 3 years.
2021 183 Nets (Redrum) Sign SF Rashad Vaughn for $10,000,000 over 2 years.
2021 183 Nets (Redrum) Sign SF Jayson Tatum for $13,635,450 over 3 years.
This is the first of a few groupings of signings, and it is probably the worst one. There aren't many worse ways to waste $14 million of cap the next two years. All three players are minimum contract level players, yet the Nets decided to pay them all like mid-level exception players for who knows why. Not one of them has ever scored 10 ppg in a season. With the amount of cap the Nets had, this is a very disappointing way to use it. There are over a dozen players they could have offered $14 million a year to the next 2-3 years that would have been better options.
Grade: F -- Whenever you can pay three mediocre back-ups $14 million combined you have to do it.
2021 182 Jazz (gmgreggor) Sign SF Kawhi Leonard for $22,800,000 over 3 years.
Look no further than the next player on this list! When looking at the deals the Nets trio of terrible received, Kawhi may be the steal of the century. All joking aside, this is a very fair deal which is something you don't see much of on this list. Kawhi has been a production player the last four years averaging at least 12.5 ppg each year and adding around 7 rpg and good defense to that as well. The Jazz player this free agency smart and tried to get a solid starter on a good deal and they got Kawhi to bite. They had a big hole at SF to finish off their line-up heading into CY and he fills it quite nicely. If he can repeat his 17 ppg season or come close to it the Jazz could be a solid playoff team.
Grade: A -- Filling a hole before your CY with a recent 17 ppg scorer who plays defense making $7 million a year? Not bad.
2021 181 Lakers (getbeard) Sign SF Jimmy Butler for $16,550,000 over 3 years.
2021 182 Lakers (getbeard) Sign PF Kenneth Faried for $47,287,500 over 3 years.
2021 182 Lakers (getbeard) Sign PG Eric Bledsoe for $15,000,000 over 2 years.
2021 182 Lakers (getbeard) Sign C Hasheem Thabeet for $6,000,000 over one year.
The Lakers entered free agency with a lot of cap and only really one starter on their roster (besides the very good Andrew Wiggins) in Tree Rollins. They decided to splash on one player in Faried and spread the rest out to fill out the line-up and add a sixth man. I'm not a big fan of Faried, but he is a solid player even if he is a bit overpaid. There weren't a lot of big men available in this free agency so the Lakers seemed to have decided to make sure they got one, which makes sense. They can't afford to waste any years of Wiggins' prime. Bledsoe and Butler are mid-level players and got slightly more than the mid-level exception so their deals are in no way bad. Thabeet is a very nice addition as a sixth man. I think they would have been better off going for a better scoring wing than Butler for sure (such as Terrance Rose who we'll get to soon), but they didn't do too badly.
Grade: B- -- Not a bad mix of players, but they could have done better and I'm not sure who their scorers behind Wiggins will be.
Malone is likely hoping the Hornets are in CY once again five years from now.
2021 183 Hornets (itnas123) Sign SG Tyonne Malone for $53,552,383 over 5 years.
I really don't get this move. Malone is a solid player who can score double digits and give you more steals than turnovers. That's great. But paying him over $10 million a year to do that? I don't know about that. He'd look better on a deal similar to Waiters and Kawhi over the course of five years. I guess that is only a $2.5 million or so difference per year, but every dollar counts and I doubt he received any other large offers but can't really prove that. Not a terrible signing, but not a very good one either unless he has a magical fifth TC.
Grade: C+ -- Likely overpay of a fringe starter before entering his CY.
2021 183 Magic (shorty) Sign PG Ty Lawson for $25,500,000 over 2 years.
After striking out on free agency before Parker re-signed and losing Faried, the Magic made sure they didn't lose Lawson as well. It's a 'meh' kind of deal. Not good, not bad, not too long. They overpaid a bit to make sure they kept him and made it a 2-year deal so he's a valuable expiring next season when he likely dips even more after two more TCs at ages 34 and 35.
Grade: B -- Manageable deal for a solid starting PG that should become a valuable expiring.
2021 183 Nets (Redrum) Sign SG Terrence Ross for $24,000,000 over 4 years.
After I saw Ross did not sign the first two days of free agency, I threw him a MLE offer and hoped to get a steal. Unluckily for me, the Nets played this one smart and gave Ross a more than fair deal of $6 million a year for four years. Ross has scored 17 ppg the last two years now, and limits his turnovers well enough. He's a decent starter and likely a great sixth man so having him on slightly more than a mid-level contract is good value compared to some other players such as Jimmy Butler or the soon to be covered Wayne Ellington. Doesn't make up for wasting $14 million on the trio of terrible though.
Grade: B+ -- Locking up a recent 17 ppg scorer for $6 million a year. Even if he falls off it's not a bad deal.
2021 183 Thunder (mrclubz) Sign SG Wayne Ellington for $39,720,000 over 3 years.
2021 183 Thunder (mrclubz) Sign PF Jessie Govan for $16,243,500 over 4 years.
2021 183 Thunder (mrclubz) Sign C Austin Nichols for $18,564,000 over 4 years.
Not really sure what to even say about these signings. Govan and Nichols are just bad players and I'm not sure they'd even be signed on minimum deals on day 5. Locking them up for four years each just below a mid-level contract just seems silly. The Ellington contract is just awful. He is a solid player but the Thunder are far from being a playoff team and I doubt anybody will give much value for him while he's making that much but maybe I'll be proven wrong. Just seems like the Thunder just wanted to sign anybody to use up their cap when they should have just saved it for next year. Even if they do move Ellington for a decent deal they still have $8 million a year in dead money to Govan and Nichols. Just strange.
Grade: F (D+ if they move Ellington for decent value) -- Paying two pretty bad players $35 million over four years? Why not?
2021 184 Warriors (ducksrule) Sign PF Harry Giles for $20,000,000 over 5 years.
The last signing is also the least interesting one. Giles looks to be a decent player and is only 24. Locking him up until he's 28 on less than the mid-level seems more than fair. If he has a magical fifth TC or receives some decent camps it may even become a steal of a deal, who knows. Even if he doesn't improve a bit more it's a decent deal, which is always nice. Not much else to say about it.
Grade: B+ -- Whenever you can lock up a solid young big for less than the MLE, it's hard not to.
Kyrie has a lot to smile about the next five years.
2021 181 Cavaliers (entrapy) Sign PG Kyrie Irving for $134,367,188 over 5 years.
The first big deal is actually the biggest one handed out in all of free agency. Don't get me wrong, Kyrie is a good player and seeing him still in Cleveland makes me happier than anybody. That doesn't mean this isn't a god awful contract. I know teams likely threw the max at Kyrie trying to steal him. That doesn't mean you have to pay a solid 2nd or 3rd option scorer $32 million when he's 33 years old. Kyrie has scored at or below 20 ppg for four seasons now. He is not a franchise player. In the short team this deal will likely pay off over losing him for nothing, but if Kyrie falls off even a little bit in the next few seasons his deal will become immovable.
Grade: C -- Keeping him is great and all but the Cavs are going nowhere fast and his contract could end up being an albatross.
2021 181 Nuggets (springs) Sign SG V.J. King for $64,400,000 over 4 years. (Matched by Bulls)
Poor V.J. King tried to leave Chicago but it seems he's a prisoner for at least four more years. Almost any deal King would have gotten would be a great deal for Chicago, and this one is definitely a great deal thanks to only being four years. While signing him for a fifth year would have been nice, the long-term benefit is his next deal (another likely max for up to five years) will only last until he's 32 years old at the longest. Players start to fall off around that age, and if he does, his contract will end almost immediately and Chicago will be clear of any cap breaking contract. As long as V.J. doesn't try to bolt in four years again, Chicago is looking to have him locked him throughout his prime and able to dump him once he's out of it.
Grade: A- -- Whenever you keep a very good young player long-term you did well.
2021 181 Wizards (pistolpetejr) Sign PG Damian Lillard for $77,280,000 over 4 years.
Now, I understand why the Wizards made this offer (kind of). They just dealt their young prospect Darryl Dawkins and a few firsts for Joel Embiid. That is obviously a win-now move as Embiid is in his prime. The problem is they didn't really have any talent around Embiid besides first overall pick George Mikan. They had to make some type of splash in free agency. That doesn't mean they had to overpay an average PG. Lillard has never scored 20 ppg in his career and has been at three turnovers a game the past two years. He helped lead a good Lakers team, but that was clearly mostly because of Wiggins and not him. He's a solid PG, but he should be making half of what he's going to actually be paid the next four years. The Wizards still have little talent on the wings and they used up all of their cap on one player. Going after a more reasonably priced PG and a SF to fill their pretty big hole there would have made more sense, but after missing out on the other big names they just threw a max at anybody that would take it.
Grade: D -- Maxing an average PG rarely pays off especially when he's 29.
2021 181 Hornets (itnas123) Sign PG Trey Burke for $77,280,000 over 4 years.
Much like the Wizards, the Hornets had to sign someone in free agency. Luckily for them, they signed a better player than Lillard for their max contract. Burke has never reached even 18 ppg in his career, but he also hasn't averaged over 1.4 turnovers a game the past four seasons. Not many PGs can claim that honor which makes him a very solid player to have around. The Hornets are also in their CY and chances were looking slim so they had to sign him even if he is overpaid. I don't think he's too overpaid though because of his ability to limit his turnovers, and he's even a year younger than Lillard to top it all off. They also have decent depth so splashing on one player wasn't as tough to stomach seeing as they desperately need a big name to build around (besides rookie Julius Erving). To make CY they still need to make another move, but this is a decent start.
Grade: B -- Not really worth a max but when you're in CY you have to overpay to fill holes.
2021 181 Magic (shorty) Sign SF Jabari Parker for $119,437,500 over 5 years.
There really isn't much to say about this signing. Parker is one of the best players in the league and is more than worthy of max contract that will end by the time he's 30 years old. Anybody with cap threw a max offer his way so it's not like Orlando could have gotten cheap here. They had to offer him the most they could and they did. It's just unfortunate for them that nobody else signed before Parker with their large amount of cap space.
Grade: A- -- Keeping a 30 ppg scorer locked up through age 30 rarely ends up badly.
Waiters can only laugh at why he seems to be the only one not getting overpaid.
2021 181 76ers (saric9) Sign SG Dion Waiters for $19,545,500 over 3 years.
There's usually a few players who get contracts like this, and Dion is actually pretty worthy of it. He isn't a great scorer at all as he can barely hit double digits, but he gets two steals a game and has always had at least 0.5 more steals than turnovers which is always nice. He's a mid-level exception level player, so paying him a bit more than that to keep him makes sense. Not a flashy signing, but a solid signing.
Grade: B -- Not much wrong with giving a fringe starter just over a MLE contract.
2021 181 Nets (Redrum) Sign SF Derrick Williams for $12,000,000 over 3 years.
2021 183 Nets (Redrum) Sign SF Rashad Vaughn for $10,000,000 over 2 years.
2021 183 Nets (Redrum) Sign SF Jayson Tatum for $13,635,450 over 3 years.
This is the first of a few groupings of signings, and it is probably the worst one. There aren't many worse ways to waste $14 million of cap the next two years. All three players are minimum contract level players, yet the Nets decided to pay them all like mid-level exception players for who knows why. Not one of them has ever scored 10 ppg in a season. With the amount of cap the Nets had, this is a very disappointing way to use it. There are over a dozen players they could have offered $14 million a year to the next 2-3 years that would have been better options.
Grade: F -- Whenever you can pay three mediocre back-ups $14 million combined you have to do it.
2021 182 Jazz (gmgreggor) Sign SF Kawhi Leonard for $22,800,000 over 3 years.
Look no further than the next player on this list! When looking at the deals the Nets trio of terrible received, Kawhi may be the steal of the century. All joking aside, this is a very fair deal which is something you don't see much of on this list. Kawhi has been a production player the last four years averaging at least 12.5 ppg each year and adding around 7 rpg and good defense to that as well. The Jazz player this free agency smart and tried to get a solid starter on a good deal and they got Kawhi to bite. They had a big hole at SF to finish off their line-up heading into CY and he fills it quite nicely. If he can repeat his 17 ppg season or come close to it the Jazz could be a solid playoff team.
Grade: A -- Filling a hole before your CY with a recent 17 ppg scorer who plays defense making $7 million a year? Not bad.
2021 181 Lakers (getbeard) Sign SF Jimmy Butler for $16,550,000 over 3 years.
2021 182 Lakers (getbeard) Sign PF Kenneth Faried for $47,287,500 over 3 years.
2021 182 Lakers (getbeard) Sign PG Eric Bledsoe for $15,000,000 over 2 years.
2021 182 Lakers (getbeard) Sign C Hasheem Thabeet for $6,000,000 over one year.
The Lakers entered free agency with a lot of cap and only really one starter on their roster (besides the very good Andrew Wiggins) in Tree Rollins. They decided to splash on one player in Faried and spread the rest out to fill out the line-up and add a sixth man. I'm not a big fan of Faried, but he is a solid player even if he is a bit overpaid. There weren't a lot of big men available in this free agency so the Lakers seemed to have decided to make sure they got one, which makes sense. They can't afford to waste any years of Wiggins' prime. Bledsoe and Butler are mid-level players and got slightly more than the mid-level exception so their deals are in no way bad. Thabeet is a very nice addition as a sixth man. I think they would have been better off going for a better scoring wing than Butler for sure (such as Terrance Rose who we'll get to soon), but they didn't do too badly.
Grade: B- -- Not a bad mix of players, but they could have done better and I'm not sure who their scorers behind Wiggins will be.
Malone is likely hoping the Hornets are in CY once again five years from now.
2021 183 Hornets (itnas123) Sign SG Tyonne Malone for $53,552,383 over 5 years.
I really don't get this move. Malone is a solid player who can score double digits and give you more steals than turnovers. That's great. But paying him over $10 million a year to do that? I don't know about that. He'd look better on a deal similar to Waiters and Kawhi over the course of five years. I guess that is only a $2.5 million or so difference per year, but every dollar counts and I doubt he received any other large offers but can't really prove that. Not a terrible signing, but not a very good one either unless he has a magical fifth TC.
Grade: C+ -- Likely overpay of a fringe starter before entering his CY.
2021 183 Magic (shorty) Sign PG Ty Lawson for $25,500,000 over 2 years.
After striking out on free agency before Parker re-signed and losing Faried, the Magic made sure they didn't lose Lawson as well. It's a 'meh' kind of deal. Not good, not bad, not too long. They overpaid a bit to make sure they kept him and made it a 2-year deal so he's a valuable expiring next season when he likely dips even more after two more TCs at ages 34 and 35.
Grade: B -- Manageable deal for a solid starting PG that should become a valuable expiring.
2021 183 Nets (Redrum) Sign SG Terrence Ross for $24,000,000 over 4 years.
After I saw Ross did not sign the first two days of free agency, I threw him a MLE offer and hoped to get a steal. Unluckily for me, the Nets played this one smart and gave Ross a more than fair deal of $6 million a year for four years. Ross has scored 17 ppg the last two years now, and limits his turnovers well enough. He's a decent starter and likely a great sixth man so having him on slightly more than a mid-level contract is good value compared to some other players such as Jimmy Butler or the soon to be covered Wayne Ellington. Doesn't make up for wasting $14 million on the trio of terrible though.
Grade: B+ -- Locking up a recent 17 ppg scorer for $6 million a year. Even if he falls off it's not a bad deal.
2021 183 Thunder (mrclubz) Sign SG Wayne Ellington for $39,720,000 over 3 years.
2021 183 Thunder (mrclubz) Sign PF Jessie Govan for $16,243,500 over 4 years.
2021 183 Thunder (mrclubz) Sign C Austin Nichols for $18,564,000 over 4 years.
Not really sure what to even say about these signings. Govan and Nichols are just bad players and I'm not sure they'd even be signed on minimum deals on day 5. Locking them up for four years each just below a mid-level contract just seems silly. The Ellington contract is just awful. He is a solid player but the Thunder are far from being a playoff team and I doubt anybody will give much value for him while he's making that much but maybe I'll be proven wrong. Just seems like the Thunder just wanted to sign anybody to use up their cap when they should have just saved it for next year. Even if they do move Ellington for a decent deal they still have $8 million a year in dead money to Govan and Nichols. Just strange.
Grade: F (D+ if they move Ellington for decent value) -- Paying two pretty bad players $35 million over four years? Why not?
2021 184 Warriors (ducksrule) Sign PF Harry Giles for $20,000,000 over 5 years.
The last signing is also the least interesting one. Giles looks to be a decent player and is only 24. Locking him up until he's 28 on less than the mid-level seems more than fair. If he has a magical fifth TC or receives some decent camps it may even become a steal of a deal, who knows. Even if he doesn't improve a bit more it's a decent deal, which is always nice. Not much else to say about it.
Grade: B+ -- Whenever you can lock up a solid young big for less than the MLE, it's hard not to.
Yeah he improved plenty. Showing me he deserves some of that cash. 
Hopefully he does. 
