Here's our team-by-team analysis of the major and minor deals in the third week of NBA free agency.
All deals listed alphabetically by team.
Boston Celtics
1. Agreed to a deal with guard Shane Larkin
The Celtics adding Larkin on a deal that is guaranteed this season, per ESPN's Chris Forsberg, is interesting because Boston already had a full 15-player roster with guarantees after signing 2016 first-round pick Guerschon Yabusele.
There's no obvious candidate for the Celtics to cut loose, so Larkin is going to have to convince them to trade a player or waive another newcomer (presumably one of their second-round picks, Abdel Nader and Semi Ojeleye, or fellow new signing Daniel Theis).
After a slow start to his NBA career, Larkin established himself around replacement level during 2015-16 with the Brooklyn Nets. He played well last season for Spanish club Baskonia, but he didn't answer the biggest question about his ability to develop into an NBA contributor, scoring efficiency. Across ACB and Euroleague play, Larkin shot 47.4 percent on 2s and 33.8 percent on 3s. He'll have to show improvement from that to justify a spot on a crowded Boston roster.
Houston Rockets
1. Agreed to a one-year, minimum deal with forward Luc Mbah a Moute
2. Agreed to a reported three-year deal with forward Troy Williams
The Rockets continue to load up on the kinds of versatile defenders necessary to match up with the league's best teams. Last year's Houston team had just one such player, starting small forward Trevor Ariza. To him, the Rockets added PJ Tucker using most of their midlevel exception and now Mbah a Moute at the bargain price of the veterans minimum. (That's all Houston could offer after using its midlevel and biannual exceptions, the latter on center Tarik Black.)
I'm surprised Mbah a Moute couldn't scare up a better offer on the open market. While I'm skeptical he can maintain anything close to last season's 39.1 percent 3-point shooting (he's a 32.4 percent career shooter beyond the arc), Mbah a Moute is a fine defender who made my All-Defensive honorable mention list last season. His ability to defend both wings and stretch bigs makes Mbah a Moute particularly valuable against the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, two teams the Rockets hope to face in the postseason.
With Ariza, Tucker and Mbah a Moute all in the fold, coach Mike D'Antoni will have plenty of good defensive options and should be able to cut Ariza's minutes from the 34.7 he averaged last season. D'Antoni might be crazy enough to throw all three players on the court together with the All-Star backcourt of Chris Paul and James Harden, a lineup that would be short on defensive rebounding but incredibly athletic.
Williams might ultimately qualify for that group too. He's 6-foot-8 and can jump out the gym, a skill set that attracted the Rockets last season after the Memphis Grizzlies waived Williams. He actually started three games for them late in the year, as well as 13 in Memphis.
In both the G League (23.7 points per 36 minutes) and this year's summer league (29.5 points per 36 minutes), Williams has shown explosive scoring ability. That won't likely be his role in the NBA, though it gives Williams more upside than the typical 3-and-D prospect. The "3" part of that equation remains aspirational: Williams shot just 29.0 percent on 62 NBA 3-point attempts and 33.1 percent on 157 in the G League. Still, a multiyear deal gives Williams time to develop his shot.
Houston's roster is nearing completion. These two signings bring the roster to 13 players with guaranteed contracts. (The Rockets also have four players with non-guaranteed contracts and rookie Cameron Oliver, whose deal is partially guaranteed.) Houston may also want to add another veteran ball handler to fill out the roster, but it could be about done with free agency.
Los Angeles Clippers
1. Agreed to a reported one-year, minimum deal with center Willie Reed
What Doc Rivers the general manager has lacked in ability to draft and develop prospects, value draft picks or maintain cap flexibility, he has somewhat made up for with a remarkable knack for talking veterans into signing on for the veterans minimum.
Even with the cap exploding last year, the Clippers got a pair of useful reserves for the minimum in the summer of 2016 in Raymond Felton and Marreese Speights. Reed, whom I expected to parlay a productive season backing up Hassan Whiteside into a deal at least for the biannual exception, is better than both. But the market just hasn't been there for centers this year. The teams who did spend cap exceptions on centers of similar pedigree chose different players -- the Boston Celtics signing Aron Baynes and the Houston Rockets Tarik Black. So Reed will spend a year behind DeAndre Jordan in Los Angeles before hoping for better luck next summer.
The most interesting effect of Reed's addition is pushing newcomer Montrezl Harrell to third on the depth chart at center. Harrell's production last season in Houston showed he's a rotation-caliber backup, but few teams really seem to be in need of depth at center, so I'm not sure there's much of a trade market for him.
Signing Reed gives the Clippers 13 players under guaranteed contract, plus unsigned second-round pick Sindarius Thornwell. I'd expect them to avoid guaranteeing a 15th player so as to have flexibility to trade that player midseason and stay under the tax line.
Memphis Grizzlies
1. Agreed to a reported one-year deal with guard Mario Chalmers
When last we saw Chalmers on an NBA court, he was helped off after rupturing his Achilles while playing for the Grizzlies in March 2016. Chalmers never made it back to the league last season after rehabbing the injury. Now he returns to an increasingly crowded Memphis roster with a reported partial guarantee of his 2017-18 salary.
The Grizzlies should be interested in Chalmers as a veteran alternative to second-year backup point guards Wade Baldwin and Andrew Harrison. However, they already have14 guaranteed contracts on their roster, a total that doesn't include restricted free agent JaMychal Green -- a lock to return at this point -- or unsigned second-round picks Dillon Brooks and Ivan Rabb. So we'll see what other moves Memphis has in store to pare the roster down to 15 by opening night.
New Orleans Pelicans
1. Agreed to a reported one-year deal with guard Rajon Rondo
The most the Pelicans could offer Rondo would be the $7.6 million they have remaining from their midlevel exception after using part of it to sign second-round pick Frank Jackson to a three-year deal. Realistically, New Orleans might not have been willing to go quite that high because doing so would push the team into the luxury tax, a tough sell for a low-revenue organization.
Given that Rondo is coming off making $17.5 million in his one season with the Chicago Bulls (including the $3 million guaranteed portion of his 2017-18 salary that the Bulls ate when they waived him), that's a pretty good deal for the Pelicans no matter what. But good deals alone won't help New Orleans reach the playoffs in a critical season that could determine the future direction of the franchise. Only good on-court fits will do that, and that's where the Rondo deal is trickier to evaluate.
This deal reunites Rondo and DeMarcus Cousins, who played together in 2015-16 with the Sacramento Kings, Rondo's best season (in terms of box score stats) since tearing his ACL. Cousins enjoyed Rondo's playmaking, shooting an effective 51.0 percent off Rondo's feeds (counting each 3-pointer as 1.5 field goals to reflect their additional value) as compared to 43.0 percent off passes from all other teammates, according to SportVU tracking on NBA.com/Stats.
The Rondo-Boogie pairing was at its best when Cousins played center, the role he'll almost always fill with the Pelicans. Via NBAwowy.com data, Sacramento outscored opponents by 4.0 points per 100 possessions when Cousins played center next to Rondo, but had a minus-0.3 net rating when he served as power forward alongside either Willie Cauley-Stein or Kosta Koufos.
At the same time, New Orleans already has a starting point guard in Jrue Holiday. According to ESPN's sources, the Pelicans are interested in playing Rondo alongside Holiday for large chunks of games. That fit doesn't appear as good.
Holiday is a fairly average spot-up shooter. (He shot 30.4 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s last season, according to SportVU data, worse than his 37.6 percent shooting off the dribble, although that was down from past years. While he has enough size to defend shooting guards, using him in that role would weaken both guard spots defensively as compared to playing Holiday with a traditional shooting guard.
If New Orleans uses Rondo largely as a backup point guard, cutting Holiday's minutes back toward the 28.2 he averaged in 2015-16 to guard against a return of stress injuries to his right leg, this is a positive addition. The more the Pelicans play Rondo with Holiday, the less I like it.
San Antonio Spurs
1. Finalizing a deal with guard Manu Ginobili
If Ginobili decided to return for his age-40 season (he'll hit the milestone birthday next week), the Spurs were always going to save a spot for him, and with good reason. Even playing limited minutes and making less than 40 percent of his 2-point attempts (a far cry from the 49.6 percent he shot on 2s the previous season), Ginobili still ranked sixth on the team with 3.3 wins above replacement player (WARP) by my metric last season.
While some of Ginobili's physical tools have inevitably faded, his ability to read the game still makes him a valuable player at both ends. Remarkably, Ginobili led the NBA in steal rate (3.2 per 100 team plays) last season. And his block on James Harden at the end of overtime of Game 5 against the Houston Rockets -- the conclusion of a game in which he played nearly 32 minutes -- was a key factor in San Antonio's advancing to the Western Conference finals.
Ginobili's return means the Spurs' roster is starting to fill up. He'd give them 14 players under contract, including second-year guard Bryn Forbes, whose salary is non-guaranteed.
2. Agree to re-sign Pau Gasol on three-year deal
The Spurs have also finalized a three-year deal with Gasol, who declined a $16.3 million player option in order to take less money over a longer period of time. That will help San Antonio avoid the tax this year while filling out its roster, but it comes at a price next summer. Gasol's new contract, along with the one for Patty Mills, will eat into the cap space the Spurs can create in 2018 with Tony Parker's contract expiring and Danny Green holding a player option.
San Antonio did get a concession in terms of a partial guarantee on the third season of Gasol's deal, by which point he'll be 39.
Having brought both Gasol and Ginobili back, the Spurs now have 14 players with guaranteed contracts for 2017-18 plus the non-guaranteed deal of second-year guard Bryn Forbes, whose salary becomes guaranteed Aug. 1. That could spell the end of San Antonio's summer, though it's also possible the team will bring back David Lee as a backup option in the frontcourt.