Free Agency 2017

Report: Wizards matching Otto Porter’s max offer sheet from Nets



Dan Feldman,NBC Sports


Wed, Jul 5 9:52 AM PDT



Otto Porter is reportedly signing a max offer sheet with the Nets, which would be worth $106,524,975 over four years.

The Wizards have indicated at every turn they’d match any offer. With the pressure on, that stance apparently isn’t changing.

David Aldridge of NBA.com:


This is the right move. Porter – an excellent outside shooter and cutter who plays solid team defense – fits well around more ball-dominant players like John Wall and Bradley Beal. Capped out, Washington had no mechanism to adequately replace him.

The only question is whether the Wizards should have just given Porter a five-year contract in the first place. The max on that would have been $143,684,850, though perhaps they could have found a middle ground between that and the average salary on the offer sheet. Porter is just 24, and in a few years, Washington might regret not having him locked up longer. (See Gordon Hayward with the Jazz in 2014.)

Either way, Porter’s high starting salary will push the Wizards into luxury-tax range. Look for them to try trading Marcin Gortat, Ian Mahinmi and/or Jason Smith. Washington probably must attach a sweetener to dump those players, so the team must weight the cost-benefit of that relative to just paying some luxury tax.


bob
MY NOTE:  The best scenario would have been him signing with Utah, but this is better than him signing in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn's "big moves" this off-season is trading Brook Lopez who, when healthy, is a very very good offensive player for Timofey Mozgov (a weak offensive player and middlin' defender) and D'Angelo Russell.  I see that as a net loss for the Nyets and a plus for the Lakers (especially the part about unloading Mozgov's contract).


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Tom Westerholm @Tom_NBA
about 50 minutes ago
Jamal Crawford would reportedly consider signing with the Celtics if the Atlanta Hawks buy him out.


bob
MY NOTE:  Only if he grows 6" and adds 30# in the next 2 months.


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D`Angelo Russell is a good example of why teams need to filter for common sense. I don`t believe he deliberately ratted out his roommate with his social media post about the guy`s infidelity, but do you want a guy this " messy" in your locker room.? Russell couldbe the wild card here,but what is it with teams overvaluing point guards in recent drafts?

The New York Knicks, in a mouthful...


Bobby Marks‏Verified account
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Tim Hardaway Jr. was traded for Jerian Grant who was traded for Derrick Rose who was renounced so NYK could sign Hardaway Jr. for $71M.
9:03 PM - 6 Jul 2017


bob


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Adrian Wojnarowski‏Verified account
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Detroit is renouncing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, league source tells ESPN.
9:02 AM - 7 Jul 2017


bob


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Kevin Pelton‏
@kpelton
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Seems like James Young might be able to help the Pelicans, for whom he's playing in Vegas.
3:13 PM - 7 Jul 2017


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Brian Windhorst‏Verified account
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Cavs have agreed with Jeff Green on a 2.3M l, 1-year minimum deal, sources say
4:58 PM - 7 Jul 2017


bob
MY NOTE: Jeff Green made $15M last year. This is what happens when you're a contender. Players will throw themselves at you for pennies. This is where we need to get to and is where Danny and Brad think Hayward will help us get to.

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sorry,

posted in correct thread now.

I agree 100%...it would get lost here and is our possible final move.

The Kings are adding talent and the Raptors are bringing back the band and making a trade for the solid vet, CJ Miles.

Sota is looking like a team ready to compete. Their big three is very impressive.

Main competition for Boston in the East is the same as last year.

Dboss

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/m/3b9c0eb9-ca0f-35ff-a340-22968200bff9/ss_nba-free-agency%3A-jazz%2C-thabo.html



NBA Free Agency: Jazz, Thabo Sefolosha reportedly reach two-year, $10.5M deal



The veteran forward had spent the past three seasons in Atlanta


    Jack Maloney
mugshot by Jack Maloney
@jackhaveitall
22h ago • 1 min read



The Utah Jazz continued their busy summer on Wednesday, reportedly agreeing to a two-year, $10.5M deal with veteran forward Thabo Sefolosha.


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Shams Charania ✔ @ShamsCharania
Free agent Thabo Sefolosha has agreed to a two-year, $10.5M deal with the Utah Jazz, league sources tell The Vertical.
1:59 PM - 12 Jul 2017
 700 700 Retweets   1,134 1,134 likes


Sefolosha has spent the past three seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, mostly coming off the bench. However, he moved into more of a starting role last season, averaging 7.2 points and 4.4 rebounds over 62 games. Numbers aren't the whole story with Sefolosha, as his main attribute has always been his ability on the defensive end, where he's strong and versatile.

The Jazz, of course, lost Gordon Hayward in devastating fashion earlier this summer, and adding Sefolosha will help to shore up their wing depth, as Joe Johnson is now 36 years old, and both Rodney Hood and Alec Burks have struggled with injuries in the past few seasons.



bob


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Seems like a good and reasonable move for the Jazz who are going to have lots of depth to compete in the west.

Boris Diaw, 6'8", 250#, 35 years old, was just waived by the Utah Jazz to make room for Thabo Sefelosha and Jonas Jerebko.


bob


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The Pelicans apparently have a strong interest in signing Rajon Rondo.

Three KY players on the same team.

dboss

Rondo.....who once thought he was max player...now scrambling for crumbs.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/nerlens-noel-isnt-loser-ongoing-free-agency-struggle-214401408.html



Nerlens Noel isn't the only loser of his ongoing free agency struggle



Henry Bushnell,Ball Don't Lie

21 hours ago




Could Nerlens Noel’s free agency plight become the norm for centers in today’s NBA? (Getty)




It’s been 18 days since the NBA’s annual midnight frenzy, 18 days since free agents started flying off the market, and now that the dust has settled, all is quiet. Two top-five members of the free agent class signed long-term extensions on that first evening. Unheralded guys got paid, too. In the nearly two weeks since the moratorium was lifted, over 70 players have either signed or agreed to new contracts. Everybody who’s anybody is off the board.

Except, that is, for Nerlens Noel.

Remember him? A top-20 player in the class? An athletic, still-improving 23-year-old big who can protect the rim, defend the pick-and-roll, finish lobs, rebound and feast on offensive scraps? The same one who, a month and a half ago, was reportedly expected to receive multiple max contract offers?

Yeah, he’s still available. Nobody wants to pay him. And because nobody wants to pay him, the Dallas Mavericks, who hold his rights as a restricted free agent, won’t have to either. The Mavs are playing hardball, which has left Noel and his agent “disappointed,” but there is no reason for Dallas to soften its stance. Noel and his camp have no leverage. Discussions have seemingly stalled. Noel’s agent, Happy Walters, has said that he and Noel are “still waiting on a serious offer.”

But if talks between the Mavericks and Noel have taught us anything, it’s not that the Mavs are cheap; it’s not that they’re brutal, no-nonsense negotiators; it’s that the 2017 offseason has reformed our concept of what “a serious offer” for a center of Noel’s ilk actually is.

Last summer’s cap-spike-induced bonanza toyed with that concept. The NBA’s free agent market revises and reshapes itself every year, and the combined $200 million dropped in the laps of Timofey Mozgov, Bismack Biyombo and Ian Mahinmi blew up the market for bigs. It redefined the supposed “market value” for guys like Noel. It created Noel’s max contract expectations.

But last summer was a fluke, a once-in-a-generation free agency free-for-all. It was not the new norm. Everybody had money, and foolishly felt like they had to sink it into long-term contracts. Because they did, now nobody has money.

And because nobody has money, a player like Nerlens Noel, who in a vacuum is worth more than Mozgov, Biyombo and Mahinmi combined, is still a free agent, and likely won’t come close to touching the contract he hoped to receive entering July.

Noel’s diminishing value is the result of an unfortunate confluence of factors. The free agent market overall has been dry after last summer, and became even dryer when several teams decided to spend like it was last summer during the first week of free agency this year. So nobody has cap room.

Plus, the market for centers is oversaturated. Because 15 teams — literally half of the league — gave three-or-more-year deals to centers a year ago, the field of potential landing spots for Noel is narrower than usual. And those 15 teams don’t include 10 or so others who are already set at center for at least two more years.

And all of this discussion of contracts and free agency avoids the elephant in the room, which is the fact that, as the NBA continues to trend in the direction of small-ball, the center position is going out of style. It’s just not as important to have an imposing big man as it was a decade ago. The league’s most dominant team over the past three seasons has won two titles and broken the NBA’s single-season wins record while cycling in rookie bigs and veterans on one-year contracts. There is still plenty of value in the center position, but not the same value there used to be.

And that’s why Nerlens Noel isn’t the only loser of his own free agency plight. He’s the guinea pig, but he won’t be the last big man to value himself in 2016’s market, only to receive a rude awakening once free agency kicks off.

In fact, he already isn’t the last. The top four centers on The Vertical’s list of Fab 50 Free Agents — Noel, Pau Gasol, Mason Plumlee and Alex Len — all remain unsigned. The $14 million over two years that Atlanta paid to Dewayne Dedmon represents the biggest contract a true center has received this offseason.

Regardless of the money Noel ultimately receives, his struggle should send waves of worry in the direction of next summer’s batch of free agent bigs. That group includes DeMarcus Cousins, DeAndre Jordan and Joel Embiid. Lower tiers include Brook Lopez, Clint Capela and Jusuf Nurkic. Not long ago, all six of those players would have been fancying lucrative deals. But will they?

If the 2017 market is any indication, at least a few will come away disappointed. Demand for centers isn’t what it once was, and in the future might not even be what it currently is. Nerlens Noel’s inability to attract interest should spark a recalibration of our concept of what “market value” for a center truly is.



bob


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