How are rosters shaping up through six days of NBA free agency? Here's a team-by-team analysis of the latest major and minor deals:
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Cleveland Cavaliers
1. Agreed to sign forward Richard Jefferson to a reported two-year, $5 million contract
Retirement can wait. Jefferson announced he was calling it quits on the night of Game 7 after he won his first championship, with the Cavaliers. A few days later, Jefferson reversed course, and instead of retiring he's actually getting a pay raise after playing last season for the veteran's minimum.
The Jefferson we saw play a key role as a small-ball 4 in the NBA Finals was not the same one we saw in the regular season. While he shot 38 percent from 3-point range (39 percent during the playoffs), that was basically the sum total of his contributions, leaving him a below-average player overall.
The biggest difference in the postseason was Jefferson grabbing 17.7 percent of all available defensive rebounds -- nearly average for a power forward (19.2 percent) -- after rebounding at barely half that rate (9.6 percent) during the regular season. If Jefferson keeps that up, he'll remain effective as an undersized 4, a role he figures to play more regularly with Mike Dunleavy now in the mix for wing minutes in Cleveland.
Because the Cavaliers could offer Jefferson only a 20 percent raise using his non-Bird rights, they had to dip into their $3.4 million taxpayer mid-level exception to re-sign him. That means Cleveland can't offer a replacement for Matthew Dellavedova at point guard more than the veteran's minimum. More likely, the Cavaliers will use the rest of the mid-level to sign second-round pick Kay Felder to a contract longer than two years.
Phoenix Suns
1. Agreed to sign guard Leandro Barbosa to a reported two-year, $8 million deal
The Suns' reunion tour rolls on. After agreeing to bring Jared Dudley back to Phoenix last week, now the Suns are adding Barbosa for a third time.
Unlike the Dudley deal, this one doesn't make as much sense on basketball grounds. Coming off an impressive NBA Finals, Barbosa still has some value as a source of offense off the bench. However, Phoenix didn't really need shot creation in the backcourt with Eric Bledsoe, Devin Booker and Brandon Knight all better with the ball in their hands. And Barbosa seems to duplicate the skills of Archie Goodwin, who's entering the make-or-break final season of his rookie contract. So there may be more moves to come.
At worst, however, Barbosa will contribute in the locker room, where he has been a beloved source of joy throughout his NBA career. And the Suns maintained flexibility with a short-term deal with the second year not fully guaranteed.
Charlotte Hornets
1. Agreed to sign guard Brian Roberts to a reported one-year, minimum contract
Roberts spent most of the past two seasons in Charlotte before a series of trades the week of the deadline landed him in Portland for the stretch run. Now he's headed back as a third point guard behind starter Kemba Walker and backup Ramon Sessions.
That's an ideal role for Roberts, who can put points on the board -- he averaged a career-high 15.7 per 36 minutes last year, with above-average efficiency -- but is too limited defensively and as a playmaker to be a full-time backup at this stage of his career.
Chicago Bulls
1. Agreed to sign guard Dwyane Wade to a reported two-year, $47 million deal.
I wrote about Wade's value going forward and his fit with the Bulls roster here.
Houston Rockets
1. Agreed to sign center Nenê to a reported one-year, $2.9 million contract
At first, taking a one-year deal for $2.9 million looks like the kind of move a veteran such as Nenê would make to join a contender. In this case, though, on paper, the 2016-17 Rockets don't look that promising.
However, when you look around, there aren't that many teams that both need a veteran center and could have offered Nenê more money. The San Antonio Spurs were a reasonable fit, but their room exception might be earmarked for re-signing restricted free agent Boban Marjanovic to back up Pau Gasol. The Miami Heat might have qualified, given the potential loss of Dwyane Wade.
Otherwise, this probably was Nenê's best option, which shows the merit of waiting out an overheated market for centers.
A prime Nenê would have been an amazing fit in Mike D'Antoni's system. The current, slower version isn't as much of a pick-and-roll threat. According to Synergy Sports tracking, Nenê scored just 88 points as a roll man in 57 games last season. Still, he remains a good finisher of dump-offs around the basket. His history of injury trouble shouldn't be a huge problem for the Rockets, who have Montrezl Harrell and possibly second-round pick Chinanu Onuaku as additional options behind presumptive starter Clint Capela.
Houston can sign Nenê to this contract using its room exception, which gives the Rockets about $9 million in cap space to work with, an amount they can increase to almost $15 million by renouncing the rights to restricted free agent Donatas Motiejunas. It's unclear whether the addition of Nenê makes Motiejunas -- probably a center and not a power forward in D'Antoni's system -- expendable.
Minnesota Timberwolves
1. Agreed to sign forward Brandon Rush to a reported one-year, $3.5 million contract
Before 2015-16, Rush had played fewer than 700 minutes over two seasons since he tore his ACL in 2012-13 and seemed to be on his way out of the league. Unexpectedly, he found new life by successfully filling in for Harrison Barnes when Barnes was sidelined by a sprained ankle early in the season.
Rush ended up shooting 41 percent from 3-point range, nearly identical to his pre-injury mark. Because the injury has limited his mobility, Rush is more of a "3" than a "3-and-D" role player, which limits his impact. At 30, he's in danger of declining again. Even so, he's a worthy pickup by a Minnesota team badly in need of shooting, particularly at such a low cost.
New Orleans Pelicans
1. Agreed to sign guard Langston Galloway
Galloway was one of the more interesting free agents remaining on the market, particularly after the Knicks rescinded his qualifying offer and made him an unrestricted free agent. Although New York still could have signed Galloway, the move enabled him to sign what Mike Scotto has reported is a two-year deal with a player option on the second season -- too short a deal for a legal offer sheet to a restricted free agent.
My guess is Galloway found the market less robust than he expected and is hoping to get back on the market next summer.
In the meantime, this is something of a homecoming for the Baton Rouge native. The only question from Galloway's standpoint is whether he'll get enough playing time to showcase his wares after the Pelicans added Buddy Hield and E'Twaun Moore to a backcourt that includes Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans.
Perhaps New Orleans will slide Evans down to small forward to facilitate three of those players playing together, or Evans could be on the move in the final year of his contract.
From the Pelicans' standpoint, Galloway duplicates a lot of Moore's skills, but he's a better lead guard. I thought Galloway would be more valuable to a team that has a non-point guard as its primary ball handler, such as the Houston Rockets (James Harden) or Philadelphia 76ers (Ben Simmons).
However, New Orleans couldn't pass up the kind of value Galloway apparently presents. Unless the Pelicans are making a trade to clear cap space, the most salary they can offer him this season is about $6 million. I projected Galloway's 2016-17 value at nearly double that.
Losing Galloway is a tough blow for a Knicks team short on young talent. If this was the price of signing Brandon Jennings to a one-year, $5 million deal earlier in the week, I'd rather have Galloway. Jennings is a bargain too, but Galloway could have been part of New York's future for much longer than Jennings likely will be.