Teams continue to make key additions to their rosters. Here's a team-by-team analysis of the latest major and minor deals:
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Dallas Mavericks
1. Agreed to re-sign forward Dirk Nowitzki to a reported two-year, $40 million deal
2. Agreed to sign guard Seth Curry to a reported two-year, $6 million deal (Monday)
I said yesterday that the Mavericks' combination of signings and trading for center Andrew Bogut would force them to renounce Nowitzki and use cap space to re-sign him for a maximum of about $11 million, but apparently that was based on inaccurate cap figures.
Instead, it appears Dallas can retain Nowitzki's $12.5 million cap hold, sign their free agents and still be under the cap after a Bogut trade. That means the Mavericks can pay Nowitzki any amount up to the max using his Bird Rights, and he and the team apparently settled on around $20 million for this season.
According to ESPN's Marc Stein, Nowitzki will have a player option for 2017-18, which would allow him to opt out again and help Dallas create more cap space if necessary. Because Nowitzki's salary is higher, however, the Mavericks would have to use cap space rather than Bird Rights to re-sign him in summer 2017 in that scenario.
After exhausting cap space, Dallas will apparently use its exception room to sign Curry, who established himself as an NBA player by shooting 45 percent from 3-point range last season with the Sacramento Kings.
Curry will always be a tough fit because he can't defend 2s and isn't really a point guard. A second-unit backcourt of Curry and Jose Barea would be a turnstile defensively. Still, Curry should be able to score in the Mavericks' pick-and-roll offense, particularly if he gets to play with Nowitzki.
With Nowitzki's and Curry's deals done, the team can now offer only minimum-salary contracts to fill out its roster.
Golden State Warriors
1. Agreed to sign forward David West to a reported one-year, $1.3 million deal
For the second consecutive season, West has passed on (presumably) more lucrative offers to sign for the veteran's minimum with a championship contender. After his lone season with the San Antonio Spurs ended in the conference semifinals, West is on to the Warriors, which is yet another big win for Golden State.
West was outstanding in his smaller role last season in San Antonio, as he made a career-high 54.6 percent of his 2-pointers. Although he's unlikely to repeat last year's 71 percent shooting within 3 feet of the rim (per Basketball-Reference.com), West is the rare midrange jump-shooter who makes enough long 2s (consistently near 50 percent of his attempts) to make the strategy reasonably efficient.
I will be a little disappointed if adding West means the Warriors don't play Kevin Durant as a backup power forward on their second unit. But given that Golden State was limited to offering the minimum after adding Durant and Zaza Pachulia, the Warriors certainly weren't in position to be choosy. As is the case with Pachulia, West is the best realistic use of their money.
New York Knicks
1. Agreed to sign forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas
2. Agreed to sign forward Willy Hernangomez
After successfully importing Kristaps Porzingis from the Spanish ACB league a year ago, the Knicks will add a pair of ACB standouts to their frontcourt this season.
Willy Hernangomez is the older brother of 2016 first-round pick Juan Hernangomez (Nuggets). The elder Hernangomez was selected in the second round of the 2015 draft after playing with Porzingis for Sevilla.
As a second-round pick, Willy Hernangomez was not limited by the NBA's rookie scale for first-rounders, and it looks like he'll probably make New York's remaining cap space after the team rescinded a qualifying offer to Langston Galloway -- a starting salary between $1.7 and $2.1 million, depending on whether the Knicks also renounce Galloway's rights. The Knicks could have signed Hernangomez using their $2.9 million room exception, though such a deal would be limited to two years at most.
Hernangomez is an offense-first big man with good touch around the basket, and according to my SCHOENE projection system, his ACB statistics project as similar to Nikola Vucevic at the same age. Hernangomez probably won't be that effective at creating his own shot -- his other top comparables are role-player types such as Marreese Speights -- but that gives you a sense of his game.
The big question for Hernangomez will be how he holds up defensively as a rookie, considering he isn't a good shot-blocker for a center.
Kuzminskas is a lanky combo forward who has played more on the wing in Spain. He probably doesn't rebound well enough to play extended minutes at power forward in the NBA, though he might be an interchangeable part of lineups with other combo forwards such as Carmelo Anthony and Lance Thomas.
How well Kuzminskas plays offensively will probably depend on his adjustment to the longer NBA 3-point line, which has been tricky for European newcomers such as Porzingis.
With their signings the past couple of days, the Knicks have filled out a second unit that should be better than it originally appeared, after they used most of their cap space to sign starters Courtney Lee and Joakim Noah.
The last key bit of business is Galloway. Rescinding his qualifying offer reduced Galloway's cap hit to the veteran's minimum and allowed the Knicks to potentially hold on to his Early Bird rights. New York could use those to pay him up to $27.5 million over four years, the same contract Thomas got. However, Galloway is now an unrestricted free agent, so a bigger offer could lure him elsewhere.
Philadelphia 76ers
1. Agreed to sign guard Gerald Henderson to a reported two-year, $18 million deal
Along the lines of Philadelphia's previous reported signings of guards Jerryd Bayless and Sergio Rodriguez, Henderson is another veteran role player who brings experience and professionalism to the young 76ers. In his case, I'm more surprised no other team was willing to step in with a similar offer that gave Henderson the chance to play for a winning team.
After playing his entire career in Charlotte, Henderson showed better shot selection last season with the Portland Trail Blazers. His ratio of long 2-point jumpers to 3-point attempts was close to a more desirable 1:1 last season after it was about 2:1 in previous years.
Henderson also shot a career-high 35.3 percent from 3-point range, allowing him to post the second-best true shooting percentage of his career (.526).
Still, Henderson scored with below-average efficiency, and I think Philadelphia might be disappointed by how small an upgrade he provides over incumbent wing Hollis Thompson, who doesn't create his own shot as well but is as good or better in terms of efficiency.
Perhaps the best hope for the Sixers is that Henderson plays well enough to interest a contender in giving up something of value for him at the trade deadline one of the next two seasons.
After adding to its backcourt, Philadelphia still has nearly $30 million in cap space remaining and about $20 million to reach the salary floor. The scarce resource for the 76ers is roster spots. Henderson gives them 12 players with guaranteed contracts, along with another three (Thompson, Robert Covington and T.J. McConnell) who have non-guaranteed deals and are worth keeping.
Philadelphia may end up dealing one of those cheaper players to make room to continue adding.
Washington Wizards
1. Agreed to sign Jason Smith to a reported three-year, $16 million deal
I've noted before that the rising cap doesn't change the value of replacement-level players, and in signing Smith for three years and $16 million the Wizards either disagree with that position or my evaluation of Smith as a replacement-level player.
Because he executes the scheme and can shoot from the perimeter, Smith has long been a favorite of coaches. Last year, Scott Skiles played him ahead of Andrew Nicholson, who is also headed to Washington on a slightly larger four-year, $26 million deal.
However, because Smith exclusively specializes in 2-point jumpers and doesn't offer much in the way of rim protection, he has never rated well statistically. Last year's .513 true shooting percentage -- still worse than league average -- was a step forward for Smith after sub-.500 true shooting the previous two seasons. And it still left him worse than replacement by my wins above replacement player (WARP) statistic.
At 30, Smith is likely to get worse each of the next three seasons, and I'd be surprised if he's still a rotation-caliber player by the end of the contract. Though the financial commitment is small, the Wizards probably will come to regret this deal.