With teams filling out their rosters two weeks into NBA free agency, here's my analysis of the latest deals:
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Brooklyn Nets
1. Signed forward Anthony Bennett to a reported two-year deal
2. Signed guard Randy Foye to a reported one-year deal
3. Signed guard Joe Harris to a reported two-year, minimum deal
The Nets continue to fill out their roster with a variety of fliers. I like the idea of taking a chance on Bennett, though I'm surprised the first season of the contract is fully guaranteed, according to The Vertical. Bennett hasn't really earned that, given he didn't even make it through last season with the Toronto Raptors on a minimum deal. Reports out of Toronto indicated Bennett's work ethic and professionalism were problematic, and if that doesn't change, neither will the downward trajectory of his career.
The Foye deal is a bit tougher to understand, given that Brooklyn has already added veteran leadership to the roster in the form of Luis Scola and Greivis Vasquez. Maybe the value on Foye (no terms reported as yet) was just too good to pass up at this point of free agency, and indeed if he and Vasquez play well, it's certainly possible they could have some trade value by the deadline. After all, we're not far removed from Foye playing rotation minutes for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs.
Reports on the Harris deal haven't indicated how much of his contract is guaranteed, and I'd be surprised if a large percentage was. Harris played just 15 minutes last season before undergoing foot surgery, and he's yet to prove he's an NBA-caliber player. Given the limitations of the rest of his game, Harris will probably have to shoot better than the 36.7 percent he shot from 3 as a rookie to stick.
Charlotte Hornets
1. Signed forward Christian Wood to a reported two-year deal
Wood has been one of the standouts of summer-league play, averaging an incredible 32.1 points per 36 minutes in six games between Utah and Las Vegas. It's unclear where exactly he'll fit into a frontcourt that already includes returning starters Marvin Williams and Cody Zeller and backups Spencer Hawes, newcomer Roy Hibbert and Frank Kaminsky, but Wood is really more of an investment for down the road anyway.
At this point, he's too raw defensively to play regular minutes. But Wood isn't yet 21, and by the end of this deal (the second year reported as a team option by The Vertical) he could be ready to help.
Dallas Mavericks
1. Signed guard Jonathan Gibson to a reported three-year, minimum deal
2. Signed forward Quincy Acy to a reported two-year, minimum deal
Gibson has also impressed in Vegas, averaging 20.0 points per game on 46.4 percent 3-point shooting for the Mavericks squad and earning himself a deal with a small guarantee to come to training camp. This will be his first appearance in an NBA training camp since graduating from New Mexico State in 2010.
We know Gibson can score -- he filled it up for a league-leading 42.0 points per game in the Chinese CBA last season, a lot even by CBA standards. He's not really a point guard, however, and at a listed 6-foot-2, Gibson is too small to defend most shooting guards. So he might have a tough time sticking with the Mavericks, who already signed a similar player in Seth Curry to a guaranteed two-year deal.
Acy had a solid season with the Kings off the bench, and had to be hoping for more than the veteran's minimum when he opted out of a contract that would have paid him the same amount. He figures to replace Jeremy Evans as Dallas' fifth big man, which is something of an upgrade.
Houston Rockets
1. Signed guard Pablo Prigioni to a reported two-year deal
When everyone talked about the Rockets ignoring chemistry last summer, it was tough to understand what they meant since the two players Houston lost were Prigioni and Josh Smith. The Rockets brought Smith back midseason, trying to recreate their successful 2014-15 family, and now have done the same with Prigioni.
Of course, Prigioni had his uses on the court too, and my SCHOENE projection system suggests he has one more good year in him as a backup point guard. At the veteran's minimum, a return to Houston made sense.
Los Angeles Clippers
1. Signed guard Raymond Felton to a reported one-year, minimum deal
Let's go to Amin Elhassan's Doc Rivers decision tree to understand the Clippers signing Felton. Did he play for Rivers in Boston? No, but Felton did play against the Celtics in the 2013 playoffs with the New York Knicks, averaging 17.2 points and 5.3 rebounds in the series. So welcome to the Clippers! (Hat tip to Danny Leroux for noting the connection.)
Kidding aside, Felton gives the Clippers an experienced backup point guard to replace the departed Prigioni. While he was stretched in the role he played last season in Dallas, Felton can more than hold his own if the Clippers need him to be their second point guard.
Minnesota Timberwolves
1. Signed forward Jordan Hill to a reported two-year, $8 million deal
Adding Hill to a frontcourt that already includes Gorgui Dieng, Kevin Garnett, Nikola Pekovic, Karl-Anthony Towns and newcomer Cole Aldrich seems to create a crowd in Minnesota, though it's one that could be resolved naturally. Garnett still hasn't made it clear that he plans to return for a 22nd season, while Pekovic is a candidate to be waived after missing 70 games last season dealing with the aftermath of Achilles surgery.
Of course, even if Garnett and Pekovic are both out of the picture, the Timberwolves didn't necessarily need to add another big man. Nemanja Bjelica is also in the mix for playing time, bringing a different style with his ability to stretch the floor and make plays off the dribble. And Minnesota had some success with Shabazz Muhammad as a power forward last season. So while paying Hill $4 million a year is reasonable, particularly for a team still working to get to the salary floor, it will still be somewhat disappointing if he ends up part of the Timberwolves' rotation.
New Orleans Pelicans
1. Signed forward Terrence Jones to a reported one-year deal
Consider Terrence Jones the biggest financial loser of the last year. Last fall, the thinking was Jones would need $10-plus million a year from the Rockets to extend his contract. At 23 with 95 starts in his first two seasons, Jones figured to be coveted if he hit the market as a free agent. Instead, after a campaign lost to injuries and ineffective play, he had to settle for what at most will be a one-year deal for slightly more than the veteran's minimum, according to a report by ESPN's Marc Stein.
From the Pelicans' perspective, this is a great low-cost gamble. Jones still has the potential to emerge as a stretch-4 with the athleticism to defend on the perimeter. Because this is just a one-year deal, New Orleans may not reap the full benefit in that scenario, since re-signing Jones would require using cap space or the mid-level exception. Still, the Pelicans can cut Jones loose with no strings attached if this doesn't work out.
Signing Jones caps an impressive summer in which New Orleans got younger, more athletic and better defensively. Zach Lowe already had the Pelicans as a winner of the offseason, and adding Jones only strengthens that position.
New York Knicks
1. Signed forward Maurice Ndour to a reported two-year, minimum deal
This time a year ago, Ndour was one of the standouts at the NBA summer league in Las Vegas playing for the Knicks squad. He parlayed that performance into guaranteed money from the Mavericks, but with a roster crunch, Dallas let Ndour loose in training camp. He landed with Real Madrid, for whom he was relatively ineffective in limited action.
Last year's summer league is basically the only time in his career Ndour has looked like an NBA-caliber player, so New York might be reading too much into that small sample. However, Ndour is a good fit if the Knicks continue to run the triangle because he's a threat to score or pass from the high post.
Philadelphia 76ers
1. Signed forward Dario Saric to a four-year rookie-scale contract
Since being drafted by Philadelphia two years ago, Saric has been consistent in saying he would join the 76ers in two years when the buyout in his contract with Turkish club Anadolu Efes (a reported $1 million euros) became more manageable. Indeed, Saric is following through on that pledge despite the financial cost.
Had Saric waited another year to come to the NBA, he would likely no longer have been tied to the rookie-scale contract that will pay him a maximum of a little less than $11 million over the next four years. In this market, even with the ability to negotiate only with the Sixers, Saric easily could have commanded somewhere in the range of $5 million to $10 million a year next summer.
Saric's loss is Philadelphia's gain. Now what kind of players are the 76ers getting? Saric's translated European statistics project a .450 player win percentage (the per-minute version of my wins above replacement player metric), putting him slightly closer to replacement level (.410) than league average (.500).
While Saric has improved his 3-point shooting in recent years, he still projects as a below-average shooter from the NBA line, particularly in his first year. (I peg him at about 33.3 percent beyond the arc.) So it will be challenging for Saric to score efficiently. And the best attribute of his game -- the ability to handle the ball at 6-foot-10 -- is less valuable to the Sixers now that they have a better version of that in Ben Simmons. Still, at 22 Saric is far from a finished product, and Philadelphia now gets to control his development while paying him relative peanuts. That's a win for the 76ers.
San Antonio Spurs
1. Signed center Pau Gasol to a reported two-year, $30 million deal
2. Signed guard Manu Ginobili to a reported one-year, $14 million deal
3. Signed guard Ryan Arcidiacono
4. Signed guard Bryn Forbes
5. Signed forward Davis Bertans
Editor's note: Kevin Pelton's analysis of Gasol agreeing to terms with the Spurs didn't appear in our July 4 roundup and is added here now that he has officially signed with San Antonio.
Gasol's patience waiting out Kevin Durant's decision paid off, enabling him to go to a contender for relatively similar money to what he would have made from a team like the Portland Trail Blazers. With Tim Duncan announcing his retirement earlier this week, Gasol will step into his enormous shoes as the Spurs' new starting center.
Defensively, that's a downgrade for San Antonio. Gasol's teams almost never force turnovers with him on the court, and despite his impressive individual rebounding numbers, they tend to rebound worse on the defensive glass too. San Antonio had the league's best defensive rating last season in large part because of Duncan's intelligent positioning -- he made my all-defensive first team -- and even with two-time defensive player of the year Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs are likely to slip out of that spot with Gasol in the middle.
Offensively, San Antonio's ceiling is now higher. While the Spurs could still use a roll threat in their frontcourt, Gasol's passing and ability to create his own shot one-on-one will fit nicely with San Antonio's system. And Gasol's midrange jump-shooting (he shot 46.3 percent on 2-point attempts beyond 16 feet in two seasons with the Chicago Bulls, per Basketball-Reference.com) allows him to play in the high post when LaMarcus Aldridge is down low.
Short of getting into the Al Horford sweepstakes, Gasol is as good a replacement for Duncan as San Antonio could expect to get. Nonetheless, even before considering the Warriors adding Durant, the Spurs don't appear as strong contenders in the West as they would have been with Duncan in the middle.
We already knew that Ginobili would return to San Antonio, and stretching Tim Duncan's salary allowed the Spurs to maintain Ginobili's cap hold on the books and exceed the cap to pay him anything up to his maximum salary using Bird rights. While Ginobili might not be worth $14 million this year depending on his healthy and availability, the salary repays him for taking less money last summer. It also doesn't really cost San Antonio anything but the money, as the team still has about $7 million to reach the tax line -- plenty considering the Spurs can sign free agents for only the minimum.
San Antonio made some of those minimum signings Thursday, adding undrafted rookies Ryan Arcidiacono and Bryn Forbes. Both have been playing for the team this summer. The Spurs also signed Bertans, a 2011 second-round pick who has continued to play overseas. Bertans could be a rotation candidate if his impressive 3-point shooting translates from overseas.