On Day 14 of NBA free agency, here's our team-by-team analysis of the major and minor deals.
Updates on each deal will be posted here throughout the day.
All deals listed alphabetically by team.
Chicago Bulls
1. Reportedly claimed guard David Nwaba off waivers
Nwaba was a casualty of the Lakers clearing room to sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope earlier this week. They surely hoped they could sneak Nwaba through waivers and re-sign him, but the Bulls foiled that possibility. Chicago can take a free look at Nwaba, whose contract does not guarantee until the January 10 cutdown date.
A late-season callup from the G League, Nwaba impressed defensively. He's a terrific athlete and strong enough to defend bigger wings at 6-foot-4. Nwaba loves the challenge of stopping the opposition's best player, and does so without neglecting help defense. He'll get buckets by running the floor hard and takes few bad shots but has virtually no range. In 20 games for the Lakers last season, Nwaba made two of his 10 shot attempts beyond 10 feet, per Basketball-Reference.com.
Houston Rockets
1. Agreed to a reported deal with center Tarik Black
Depth at center is important for the Rockets because they don't want Nene to play back-to-backs in order to keep him fresh for the postseason. I figured second-year center Chinanu Onuaku might be capable of stepping in for Montrezl Harrell in the role of third center, but Black -- who started his career with Houston as an undrafted free agent before being claimed off waivers by the Lakers -- is a more reliable option.
Though just 6-foot-9, Black provides average rim protection as a center. He's scored with above-average efficiency, compensating for last season's decline in his 2-point percentage by making a career-high 75.2 percent of his free throws.
According to ESPN's Zach Lowe, the Rockets used their biannual exception to sign Black. That limits Houston to signing free agents for the minimum salary to fill out the roster.
Oklahoma City Thunder
1. Agreed to a reported one-year, minimum deal with forward Nick Collison
Collison will return for his 15th and presumably final season with the franchise. He was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics in 2003, the same year as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. Collison has outlasted all of them with his original franchise -- which moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 -- and will crack the top 10 in longest careers with the same team, according to Wikipedia (assuming you count the 2003-04 campaign, when he did not play due to surgery on both shoulders).
At this point, Collison -- who turns 37 in October -- provides little on-court value. He played just 128 minutes last season. Still, Collison has value as a veteran mentor and teammate.
Orlando Magic
1. Agreed to a reported three-year, $20 million deal with guard Jonathon Simmons
A day after the San Antonio Spurs rescinded his qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent, Simmons has a new home in Orlando. While the money surely isn't what Simmons was hoping for after his terrific Western Conference finals performance against the Golden State Warriors, it still represents a nice payday less than four years after he paid to try out with the Austin Spurs.
Simmons has the defensive end of the 3-and-D equation down. His plus-1.1 defensive rating in ESPN's real plus-minus (RPM) ranked him among the top 10 shooting guards. Simmons is capable of defending point guards and many small forwards and immediately becomes the Magic's best wing defender.
Still, I think this is closer to Simmons' actual value than the $10 million a year I anticipated he'd get coming into the summer. Simmons posted a .586 true shooting percentage as a rookie on the strength of attempting nearly half his shot attempts inside 3 feet (47.9 percent, according to Basketball-Reference.com) and making 38.3 percent of his 3s. Those rates dropped to 34.9 percent inside 3 feet and 29.4 percent 3-point shooting last season, and Simmons' true shooting percentage was an underwhelming .504.
If Simmons can become a league-average 3-point shooter, he'll almost certainly be underpaid at less than the non-taxpayer midlevel exception. At last season's level of offensive performance, this might be a slight overpay. Given that this looks like Orlando's last summer with significant cap space before possible extensions for Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton, that's a reasonable gamble.