The quickest takes and reactions to the biggest moves in the NBA so far!
NBA Free Agency was chaotic on Sunday as players moved around more than they do in a simulated offseason of NBA 2k19. It seemed like a thousand things all happened at once and it’s almost impossible to sort out what each move means for every team. To make it simple, I’m going to go signing-by-signing (at least the major ones) as they happened on Sunday because that’s the simplest way to react to all of these changes.
A big theme from Sunday was "windows". Teams couldn't let windows close and others saw windows begin to open. The Bucks over payed a couple players to open their window wider, the Warriors got Russell in order to try to keep theirs open, and the Nets signed two players that will open their window for a title a year from now.
So here are the 20 moves I thought were most important on Sunday - along with another one that took some time to complete.
1) Brook Lopez re-signed with the Bucks (4 years, $52 million). This is a lot of money for a guy who will be in his mid-thirties for most of this deal, but it’s still one you have to make if you’re Milwaukee. This offseason was all about retaining 3 of your 4 big free agents if possible this offseason because they give you the ability to compete for a title now.
2) Khris Middleton is staying with the Bucks for $178 million over five years! He was Milwaukee’s second leading scorer after Giannis and he was one of the two players the Bucks couldn’t afford to lose in free agency because of his scoring and size. He’s in the prime of his career and he was critical to the Bucks’ Eastern Conference Finals run last season. His contract is also the highest ever signed by a second-round draft pick.
3) Sacramento retained Harrison Barnes for four years, $85 million. While I see this as an overpay, I’m okay with Sacramento doing this because they’re paying the classic “Sacramento-tax” or the overpay every small market needs to make in order to retain their players or attract free agents. He provides defense at the 3 and 4 for Sacramento while being a wing who can stretch the floor on offense. This contract was a good decision for both sides.
4) After re-signing Barnes, the Kings signed Dewayne Dedmon for 3 years, $40 million. Once again, a slight overpay, but Dedmon is a player who knows his role in the league – grab boards and play defense. He won’t demand offensive touches like Willie- Cauley-Stein. Because of the signing, they lost Cauley-Stein to the Warriors, an in division rival, but something tells me they won’t miss him too much. Another veteran they signed was Trevor Ariza. He's a bit old, but you need defense and shooting to win in this league - he provides both.
5) The Bulls made good moves! They signed two players - Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky. They are both smart players who don't do anything great, but they won't lose you games either because of their smart play. Satoransky's deal is worth $27 million for 3 years and Young's deal is also for 3 years with a total of $41 million.
6) The next biggest deal of the day to begin free agency was the official sign-and-trade Boston made in order to land Kemba Walker. The Hornets acquired Terry Rozier which means he’ll be their starting point guard for the next three years to the tune of $58 million.
This was the first really bad contract of the day for me. Lopez’s contract has a chance to be bad but it isn’t horrible in the moment. This one looks real bad in the moment. Not only is it a vast overpay for Rozier, but it also doesn’t help at all with Charlotte’s constant battle against irrelevance. Couple this signing with their cap struggles going into next summer and the Hornets have no obvious solution to fix their problems anywhere in the near future.
7) On the flip side of this deal, the Celtics landed Kemba Walker for four years, $141 million. They were able to replace Kyrie Irving with a point guard in his talent range and they were also able to unload Terry Rozier who was clearly unhappy with his current role as a backup in Boston. Now the Celtics have their starting guard situation figured out and their primed to be a fifth to sixth seed in the East…only a slight setback from last year.
8) Now for the biggest signings of the day, and I say signings for a reason. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are heading to the Brooklyn Nets! Kevin Durant is signing for $164 over 4 years and Kyrie Irving is getting $141 over 4 years. They will be joined by DeAndre Jordan who apparently is part of their big three now. I have no problem calling Durant and Irving a big two, but including DeAndre as their third superstar is a bit of a stretch to me. I respect the Nets for including him though. That’s gotta feel nice after being on the Mavericks and Knicks last year.
Another fun tid-bit about this signing; both Irving and Durant took less than the max in order to fit DeAndre Jordan in. So when the Knicks leaked to the press that the reason Durant didn’t sign with them is because they didn’t over him the max, they’re lying. The max wasn’t relevant to Durant’s decision to sign with the Nets because he didn’t take all of the money he could. He wanted to be in the best basketball and business situation for himself. The Knicks provided to be neither so he didn’t pick them.
Additionally, Kyrie was going to go wherever Durant went. That’s why he went to the Nets too. If this all works out for the Nets they’ll have on of the best starting fives in the league a year from now.
However, this deal has the potential to go sideways for them. If Durant doesn’t never looks like himself again and Kyrie’s knee problems return, then this could look really bad for the Nets three years from now.
It’s a move that has great risk and great reward, so it’s important that we acknowledge how this deal could play out, both positively and negatively.
9) Let’s fast-forward a bit here (I’m already going out of order) and jump to the D’Angelo Russell sign-and-trade. This is such a savvy move by Bob Myers and the Warriors front office as they avoided losing Durant for nothing. Yes, Russell isn’t nearly as good as Durant and his 4 year, $117 million is an overpay, but he allows the Warriors to remain competitive and fight for a playoff spot in the Western Conference until Klay returns from injury in March (probably).
He also has the potential to be a little Splash Cousin for the Splash Bros as Russell posted a career high 37% from three on a career high 7.8 attempts per game. He also helps mitigate other future Warriors injuries because he has proven that he can run the offense efficiently for stretches like he did in Brooklyn. This deal also sends Andre Iguodala to Memphis (it’s a cold league), a first-round pick to Brooklyn (from Golden State) and Shabazz Napier, Treveon Graham, and cash to the Timberwolves.
The Warriors also renounced the rights to a bunch of players including DeMarcus Cousins which allowed them to also re-sign Kevon Looney for $15 over three years. A steal in my opinion. This deal had a ton of moving pieces. I think it will be topped by another more complicated deal though later on…
10) Jonas Valančiūnas is re-signing with the Grizzlies for three years and $45 million. He was really good with Memphis after he was traded there by Toronto so it only makes sense that they retain him. They need a big man down low and his fills their needs perfectly.
11) Derrick Rose to the Pistons for a total of $15 million is a solid deal for both sides. He had an underrated year last year statistically but injuries were still a problem for him. He’s a better point guard than Reggie Jackson though so anything the Pistons could do to reduce his minutes and play someone else is a win for Detroit.
12) JJ Redick is going to New Orleans to provide the veteran leadership this young team needs as they try to fight their win into the playoffs in an incredibly competitive Western Conference. He is one of the best sharpshooters in the NBA and he provides much needed shooting to a Pelicans team that will struggle to space the floor without him. He also leaves Philly who really needed him on offense last year during certain stretches. Some games it felt like he was their primary option on offense even though it should have been Simmons or Embiid. Now with Jimmy Butler departing as well, the 76ers are going to miss Redick’s shooting.
13) The Suns finally got a point guard! Rubio, the pass-first point guard from Spain, is heading to Phoenix to be irrelevant and lose games until his deal expires. He doesn’t help this team make any leaps immediately or even in the near future. Couple this signing with the news that the Suns traded away Josh Jackson and you have to be wondering how little they want to win.
14) The Bucks lost Malcolm Brogdon to the Pacers which is a huge loss for them, but at least they didn’t lose him for nothing. Brogdon agreed to a deal with the Pacers for $85 million over 4 years and in exchange, the Bucks will receive a first-round pick in 2020 and two future second-round picks. It’s not great when you’re losing your starting point guard to an Eastern Conference competitor but at least its for something. Brogdon fits in perfectly with the Pacers. He can handle the ball and play off the ball really well too. Plus he’s a great perimeter defender, so coupled with Victor Oladipo, Sabonis, and Mile Turner, the Pacers have a solid young core to build around. Once Oladipo returns from his leg injury, this team will be fighting for a top four playoff spot in the East.
15) In an unsurprising move, the Mavericks gave Kristaps Porzingis a five-year max deal worth $158 million. Their vision for the future is now complete with both Porzingis and Doncic locked down for the next three years at least. Whether Porzingis can stay healthy is an entirely different question though. He hasn’t played basketball in almost 18 months and has already missed 60 games in his only three year career (plus he has some offcourt issues to sort out). I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out his deal is structured like Embiid’s extension was last year. Lots of the deal may not be guaranteed and may be dependent on his health.
16) In one of the best moves of the day, the Jazz stole Bojan Bogdanovic away from suitors like the incumbent Pacers and presumed front-runner the San Antonio Spurs. The Jazz added another good playmaker and defender. Now the Jazz have Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, Joe Ingles, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jeff Green, Dante Exum, and Bojan Bogdonavic; these are all players who can create their own shots which is a must-have skill if you want to win in the playoffs. Additionally, Ed Davis (whose agent must hate him) agreed to a 2 year, $10 million deal to join the Jazz. Davis is considered one of the best teammates in the league and is a phenomenal backup center to Rudy Gobert. Are the Jazz now the front-runners in the West? No one is talking about them...actually everyone is.
17) The Sixers get Harris back for the max (5 years, $180 million), but they let go of Jimmy Butler who will agree to a sign-and-trade to go the Miami Heat on July 6th. In addition to both of these moves, the 76ers are going to get Josh Richardson in return. Richardson is a good young, wing defender who has the potential to grow into a bigger role as he gets older. Losing Butler has to hurt for the Sixers, but losing Harris would hurt even more because of how much they traded away for him. The 76ers gave the Clippers two first-round picks and two-future second round picks along with Mike Muscala and Landry Shamet in order to get Harris so I think they felt like they couldn’t let him walk.
18) The move to keep Harris was good, but couple that with Horford’s decision to join Philly (Boston’s rival) and it was great! Now you have a starting five that is the favorite to win the Eastern Conference. Their new starting five is huge and can defend any other starting five on the floor. Imagine a lineup of Richardson, Simmons, Harris, Horford, and Embiid. The IQ combined with the size and skill of all of these players is truly an amazing feat by a team that could have potentially lost two of their starting five to free agency this offseason.
Horford’s deal is going to hurt three years from now when he’s still owed $30 million per year, but for now the deal is worth it because Philly’s window to win a title is now or never.
19) The Magic made some moves! The signed Al-Farouq Aminu, re-signed Terrence Ross, and retained Nikola Vucevic. They gave them a lot of money but they players are all solid to great which makes Orlando another contender for the bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoffs again. Even if they don’t win 50 games, they are still a team that will be a tough out each night.
20) The Knicks signed three big players (not really)! Julius Randle was their first big signing of the day (3 years, $63 million) – I actually like this signing a lot. Bobby Portis was their second, Taj Gibson was their third, and Reggie Bullock was their final acquisition. All of these guys are great role players – but none of them should be in your starting five if you’re trying to win a title. Maybe in two years it’ll be your time Knicks fans – until then keep asking Dolan to sell the team.
Some time later...
21) Finally, two days later, after the start of Free Agency, the Heat have finally completed their four team trade to land Jimmy Butler. Hassan Whiteside is heading to Portland (which makes me think Nurkic may not be healing the way they need him to), Josh Richardson is heading to the Sixers, Mo Harkless is heading to the Clippers (along with a first-round pick) and Meyers Leonard is heading to the Heat. After all of those complications I am sure Jimmy Butler will be perfectly content in Miami and not get angry at his teammates anytime a single one of them doesn’t practice hard enough or wasn’t homeless as a child.
Those are my reactions to all of the major moves from Sunday! Not we just wait for Kawhi to sign and change the entire NBA landscape again. In the meantime, if you want a good thought-exercise to kill time, think about which teams will miss the playoffs next year. Five of the twelve teams in each conference will have to miss them and looking at the rosters of most of these teams on July 2nd, this next season looks to be the most competitive and open the NBA has been since Jordan retired in 1998.
*Images found at Yahoo! Sports