What kinds of moves have teams been making in free agency in recent days -- good, bad or otherwise?
Team-by-team analysis of the major and (mostly) minor deals from the second half of July:
Atlanta Hawks
1. Agreed to a reported two-year, $8.5 million deal with center Alex Len.
2. Agreed to reported one-year, minimum deal with forward Vince Carter.
3. Agreed to reported one-year, minimum deal with guard Daniel Hamilton.
After completing the three-team trade for Carmelo Anthony, the Hawks filled out their roster with three signings reported over the past week. Len is the big investment, getting the majority of Atlanta's room midlevel exception.
Len's up-and-down career with the Phoenix Suns reached a high point last season, when he averaged 15.1 points and 13.4 rebounds per 36 minutes while shooting 57 percent from the field -- all career-high marks. Yet Len still rated little better than replacement level for a center by ESPN's real plus-minus (RPM), and Phoenix was clearly ready to move on from the 2013 lottery pick even before using the No. 1 selection in this year's draft on center Deandre Ayton.
Having traded center Mike Muscala in the Anthony deal, the Hawks had an opening on the depth chart. Adding Len will also make it easier for Atlanta to part with Dewayne Dedmon midseason if there is a taker for him. The price is higher than I expected at this stage of free agency, but a two-year deal gives the Hawks some upside if Len can build on last season.
Carter embarks on his 21st NBA campaign in a veteran leadership role that will likely be similar to the one he played for the Sacramento Kings last season. The difference is Carter still cost the Kings $8 million, as compared to his $1.5 million minimum cost to Atlanta. (Carter will actually make $2.4 million; the league pays part of the salary for minimum-salary players with more than two years of experience.) Given Carter can still play a little, I'm somewhat disappointed he didn't land with a contender at the minimum. Perhaps that will ultimately happen at the deadline or afterward via buyout.
As for Hamilton, he looks like an upgrade on the wing projects the Hawks had on the roster at the start of the summer (Antonius Cleveland and Jaylen Morris, both of whom have already been waived). Playing on a two-way contract for the Oklahoma City Thunder last season, Hamilton averaged 16.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 7.8 assists (plus 4.9 turnovers) in the G League, posting seven triple-doubles. His 3-point shooting is a weakness in an off-ball role, but Hamilton has shown enough playmaking chops to merit playing with the ball in his hands.
Boston Celtics
1. Traded guard Abdel Nader and cash to the Oklahoma City Thunder for guard Rodney Purvis.
2. Signed guard Jabari Bird to a reported two-year, minimum contract.
The Celtics reportedly decided last week that they did not want to keep Nader, whose 2018-19 salary will become guaranteed on Aug. 1. At that point, a trade was the best course, because Nader was guaranteed $450,000. Trading Nader means that amount won't hit Boston's luxury-tax bill, and it cost the Celtics just an identical amount of cash.
To fill the final spot on their roster, Boston re-signed Jabari Bird to an NBA contract after he spent last season playing on a two-way deal. Bird was effective in the G League, making 64 percent of his 2-point attempts, and he's younger than Nader too.
Dallas Mavericks
1. Agreed to a reported one-year, minimum contract with guard Devin Harris
This will be Harris' third stint with the Mavericks, who were by all accounts reluctant to send him to the Denver Nuggets at the trade deadline. Having drafted Jalen Brunson, Dallas might have been ready to move on had Yogi Ferrell followed through on his pledge to re-sign. With Ferrell heading elsewhere, the Mavericks had the roster spot and the potential playing time to bring Harris back ... again.
Denver Nuggets
1. Signed guard Monte Morris to an NBA contract.
As a 2017 second-round pick, Morris signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Nuggets. After playing just three NBA games as a rookie, Morris gets promoted to a full NBA contract that will guarantee him the minimum for the next two seasons, with a third non-guaranteed year at the minimum.
Promoting Morris to take Denver's last roster spot made sense because the Nuggets didn't have a third point guard behind starter Jamal Murray and newcomer Isaiah Thomas. Given Thomas' uncertain health coming back from hip surgery, Denver might have needed more service from Morris than permitted by the two-way contract. A favorite of my draft projections who showcased more scoring punch than expected in the G League, Morris should be reliable in that role.
Detroit Pistons
1. Signed guard Khyri Thomas
The Pistons completed their 15-man roster by signing Thomas, the No. 38 overall pick, to a three-year minimum contract with a partial guarantee on the third season. Because both Thomas and fellow second-round pick Bruce Brown count at the rookie minimum as draft picks, Detroit was able to squeeze its payroll just under the luxury-tax line, with about $500,000 to spare assuming backup big man Jon Leuer doesn't hit his $1 million in unlikely incentives.
Houston Rockets
1. Signed center Isaiah Hartenstein.
2. Signed center Clint Capela to a reported five-year, $90 million deal.
Capela was the last key restricted free agent on the market. (Rodney Hood of the Cleveland Cavaliers leads a small, secondary group of remaining restricted free agents.) With no team left holding more than $11 million in cap space, no offer sheet was forthcoming for Capela, so the Rockets basically had to figure out how much money was necessary to get him to forego taking his one-year qualifying offer and becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Ultimately, Capela played it conservatively, settling for about $30 million less than he could potentially have gotten by playing on the $4.3 million qualifying offer and signing a four-year, maximum deal with another team in 2019 (currently estimated at $117 million). Of course, there was no guarantee a max offer was forthcoming, and the center market is particularly unforgiving because so few teams are in need of a starter at the position. Capela surely didn't want to get squeezed like DeMarcus Cousins did this year, which was a risk if he struggled or was injured.
The conservative strategy by Capela is a win for Houston, which will pay him almost $10 million less than his maximum salary this season. That's a huge deal for a taxpaying team. A maxed-out Capela would have cost the Rockets approximately $45 million more in salary and luxury tax this year alone.
Just as important, Houston avoids the risk of Capela leaving next summer. Even in a league where centers are more replaceable than ever, Capela's mastery of pick-and-roll chemistry with James Harden and ability to both protect the rim and switch on guards defensively makes him a unique talent who would have been impossible for the Rockets to duplicate.
With Capela's new contract and the signing of Hartenstein, a 2017 second-round pick who spent last season playing for Houston's G League affiliate, the Rockets' roster is nearing completion. Houston will have 13 players under contract, including Zhou Qi, whose salary is non-guaranteed. (Newcomer Michael Carter-Williams also has a small amount of his minimum salary non-guaranteed.)
To that total, we can likely add this year's second-round pick De'Anthony Melton and the long-rumored veterans minimum deal for Carmelo Anthony. That would bring the Rockets to 15 players, a group that would include five centers: Capela, Hartenstein, Zhou, Nenê Hilario and Chinanu Onuaku. (And that doesn't count Ryan Anderson, who's probably more likely to play center than power forward in the future.) That could change between now and the 2019 playoffs, or even between now and the end of training camp, but at this point, Houston's roster balance seems off.
Assuming the Rockets do indeed keep that 15-man roster, they're looking at starting the season with a salary of $138 million and a tax bill of nearly $27 million, making this the NBA's third-most expensive roster after the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder.
LA Clippers
1. Traded the rights to Maarty Leunen and cash to the Dallas Mavericks for Johnathan Motley and the rights to Renaldas Seibutis.
Neither of the draftees exchanged in this deal are NBA prospects, so this was merely a case of the Clippers buying Motley for $50,000. Signed to a two-year, two-way deal, Motley played competently in 11 games at the end of last season. He's an odd fit with the Clippers, who have centers Marcin Gortat, Montrezl Harrell and Boban Marjanovic on the NBA roster and signed another post player, undrafted rookie Angel Delgado, to fill their other two-way spot. But clearly the Clippers like Motley enough to invest a nominal amount in him.
Los Angeles Lakers
1. Signed forward Michael Beasley to a reported one-year, $3.5 million contract
Beasley to the Lakers is a case in which I like the player more than the fit. Quietly, Beasley had perhaps the best season of his career with the New York Knicks, sopping up 27 percent of the team's plays with league-average efficiency while posting his best defensive rebound rate ever.
Nonetheless, Beasley seems like an odd choice for the Lakers. He's best used as the offensive anchor of a punchless second unit. That doesn't describe the Los Angeles bench, which already features the similar but better Kyle Kuzma as well as Lance Stephenson. Unless the Lakers plan to play LeBron James primarily at center -- which would certainly be interesting -- it will be challenging for Luke Walton to find playing time for all three players and Josh Hart off the bench. Most likely, one of the new Lakers will end up unhappy with less playing time than expected.
New Orleans Pelicans
1. Agreed to a reported two-year, minimum deal with forward Troy Williams.
According to Will Guillory of the Times-Picayune, Williams' contract is non-guaranteed. So he'll join holdover DeAndre Liggins and rookies Garlon Green and Kenrich Williams in a battle for at least one and maybe two spots on the New Orleans roster. Of those players, Troy Williams is probably the most likely to contribute next season, though his poor 3-point shooting has prevented him from sticking with any of his first three NBA teams.
New York Knicks
1. Signed forward Noah Vonleh to a reported one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum contract.
The Knicks have been making a habit of collecting former lottery picks who washed out elsewhere, adding Vonleh (No. 9 in 2014) and Mario Hezonja (No. 5 in 2015) this summer to a group that already included Trey Burke (No. 9 in 2013) and Emmanuel Mudiay (No. 7 in 2015).
Though he won't turn 23 until next month, consider me skeptical that Vonleh will put it together in New York. Though he made strides as a finisher last season, Vonleh's true shooting percentage dropped to .509. He has never approached league average in this regard, and while undeniably effective on the glass, provides neither the stretch ability necessary at power forward nor enough rim protection to play center.
Oklahoma City Thunder
1. Traded guard Rodney Purvis to the Boston Celtics for guard Abdel Nader and cash.
2. Agreed to a reported three-year, minimum deal with guard Hamidou Diallo.
As a taxpaying team, Oklahoma City would have dealt for Nader only if the team planned to guarantee his contract and keep him on the roster. The Thunder do enjoy the financial benefit that Nader counts slightly less against the tax than a player signed as a free agent. The same is true with Diallo, one of Oklahoma City's three 2018 second-round picks, whose signing will bring the team to 15 players under contract for the time being.
The Thunder will likely free up a roster spot by waiving Kyle Singler before Sept. 1 and stretching his salary. That would reduce Oklahoma City's tax bill to about $74 million pending the possible addition of a 15th player.
Philadelphia 76ers
1. Signed forward Jonah Bolden to a reported four-year, $7 million contract.
The Sixers had to work hard to create a spot on the roster for Bolden, trading three players last week (guard Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, forward Justin Anderson and center Richaun Holmes) for one (Muscala) to get down from 16 players to 14. We'll see whether Bolden, the 36th pick of the 2017 draft, will prove worth the effort.
Bolden's play in Europe the past two seasons -- first with Serbian club FMP Beograd, then last season with Israeli power Maccabi Tel Aviv -- translates well to the NBA, pegging Bolden as a capable shot blocker with the ability to stretch the floor to 3-point range. However, Bolden was a disappointment in this year's NBA Summer League, showing less-than-ideal shot selection and shooting poorly. I wouldn't be surprised if he's too inefficient to play regularly as a rookie. Fortunately, Philadelphia has time to let Bolden develop over the course of his four-year contract, with non-guarantees on the last two seasons.
Sacramento Kings
1. Signed guard Yogi Ferrell to a reported two-year, $6.2 million contract.
2. Signed forward Nemanja Bjelica to a reported three-year, $20.5 million contract.
In an interesting coincidence, the Kings signed a pair of players who had previously agreed to deals elsewhere. Bjelica pulled out of a one-year, $4.45 million deal with the 76ers, citing a desire to avoid uprooting his family for a single season to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic Minnesota and suggesting he would likely stay in Europe. Instead, he got the multiyear deal he was seeking from the Kings, albeit with the final season non-guaranteed.
This contract isn't nearly as appealing from a team standpoint as the one Bjelica agreed to in Philadelphia. He provides less value to a rebuilding team that's flush with frontcourt options, likely forcing Bjelica primarily to small forward, where his shooting is not as valuable and he's less effective defensively. And given Bjelica is 30 and coming off the best 3-point accuracy of his three seasons in the NBA (41.5 percent), his value might decline next summer even with more money to go around.
Ferrell's deal is a clearer win for Sacramento because he's guaranteed just this season's $3 million with a modest non-guaranteed salary of $3.15 million for 2019-20. Ferrell actually cracked the top 20 of my projections for free agents because of his strong RPM last season, and there's a pretty good chance he'll be the Kings' best point guard next season.
Though the Mavericks thought they had a deal done with Ferrell, in hindsight pulling his qualifying offer was a mistake. Had Ferrell remained a restricted free agent, Dallas could have matched an offer sheet to him, and the only real benefit was allowing Dirk Nowitzki to sign a slightly larger contract that he could have gotten otherwise using the room exception.