What do the latest moves in NBA free agency mean for every team, and what's next across the league?
Entering mid-July, nearly all of the major free agents have signed, though there have still been plenty of key deals for multiple teams building out their rosters.
You can find team-by-team analysis on all of the movement here, including Ben Simmons' max extension with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Brooklyn Nets filling out their roster, the Phoenix Suns re-signing Kelly Oubre Jr. and more moves by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs.
Brooklyn Nets
1. Signed guard Theo Pinson
2. Agreed to a reported two-year, minimum deal with forward David Nwaba
3. Agreed to a reported two-way deal with forward Henry Ellenson
A series of moves have left the Nets' roster almost full after they signed a pair of young players to minimum contracts and a third to a two-way deal.
Pinson might have been an intriguing target for a young team after the Nets pulled his qualifying offer to clear the necessary cap space to sign Kyrie Irving. Playing on a two-way deal for Brooklyn last year, he was impressive in the G League, averaging 20.1 points and 5.7 assists per game. Instead, the Nets were able to bring him back on a full NBA deal for the minimum salary.
Nwaba moves on to his fourth team in four years. A capable defender, he hasn't developed into enough of an outside threat to fill a 3-and-D role yet. He shot 32% on just 75 3-point attempts last season with the Cavaliers. Now 26, Nwaba might be nothing more than a fringe rotation player on a good team, though players of his ilk can experience a shooting breakthrough in their late 20s or early 30s.
A disappointment during two-plus seasons with the Detroit Pistons, who drafted him in the first round, Ellenson showed more promise after joining the Knicks following the trade deadline. He shot 15-of-34 on 3s in that 17-game stint, making good on his potential as a stretch big. But Ellenson doesn't appear to have an NBA position defensively.
Cleveland Cavaliers
1. Waived guard J.R. Smith
Smith ended up getting $500,000 to push his guarantee date back two weeks with the same result, hitting the market as an unrestricted free agent. The Cavaliers using Smith's contract in a trade for the full $15.7 million would have pushed them into the luxury tax. Apparently no deal worth that kind of financial cost materialized.
Despite rumors linking Smith to a reunion with former Cleveland teammate LeBron James in L.A., ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the Lakers signing Smith is unlikely. That makes sense given the Lakers' roster is already overloaded with shooting guards and the team might want to keep a roster spot open for the buyout market.
Houston Rockets
1. Agreed to a reported one-year, minimum deal with center Tyson Chandler
Chandler replaces Nene Hilario, who also will turn 37 before the season opener, as Houston's token veteran backup center.
The immediate luster of Chandler joining the Lakers wore off quickly as age and injury took a toll on his production. Given Chandler's ultra-low usage role (his 8% usage in 2018-19 was lowest among players who saw more than 200 minutes of action), his 62% shooting wasn't especially impressive. A prime version of Chandler would be an incredible fit in the Rockets' system. This version figures to play a role similar to Nene, who saw just 546 minutes of action last season.
Minnesota Timberwolves
1. Claimed guard Tyrone Wallace off waivers
2. Opted not to match the Memphis Grizzlies' offer sheet for guard Tyus Jones
The Timberwolves signaled their intentions with the offer sheet for Jones when they claimed Wallace off waivers during the 48-hour matching period. Keeping Wallace and matching on Jones would have put Minnesota into the luxury tax to start the season, and though the Timberwolves could have simply waived Wallace (whose salary is non-guaranteed through Sept. 12), there would have been no point then to making the claim.
Losing a solid young point guard is surely disappointing, but new Minnesota president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas clearly valued salary flexibility over Jones. Rosas inherited Jones and might not have believed in him as anything more than a backup in the long term. Barring a trade, the Timberwolves still don't figure to have appreciable cap space any time soon, but they also won't have to sweat the luxury tax after Jeff Teague's deal expires next summer.
For now, Minnesota has newcomer Shabazz Napier behind Teague at point guard, and Napier is a better option than any of the remaining point guards in free agency.
New York Knicks
1. Signed forward Marcus Morris to a reported one-year, $15 million deal
2. Signed guard Reggie Bullock to a reported two-year, $8.2 million deal
After reworking Bullock's deal due to a medical issue so it would fit in their room midlevel exception, the Knicks had enough remaining cap space to offer Morris a larger 2019-20 salary than the Spurs had agreed to pay him as part of a two-year deal with a player option on the second season. The unanswered question is why New York was so eager to add another veteran.
As many have noted, the Knicks' roster is now overloaded with players whose primary position is power forward. That describes four of New York's additions in free agency: Morris, Taj Gibson, Bobby Portis and Julius Randle. Given the Knicks didn't sign a traditional center to go with presumptive starter Mitchell Robinson, it's likely that Gibson and Portis will see regular minutes there. And Morris can play at small forward, though New York has recent lottery picks RJ Barrett and Kevin Knox in the mix there.
Despite the options for coach David Fizdale, it seems like either some of the veterans or some of the young players the Knicks are trying to develop are going to get pushed out of the rotation and end up unhappy with their playing time. Sitting the young players would undermine New York's long-term goals, while disgruntled veterans could poison the locker room. Barring injuries that thin the rotation, I'm not sure there's a good solution.
Optimistically, the Knicks might be able to trade Morris for value at the deadline given his short-term deal. Still, it feels like Morris gives them one player too many.
Philadelphia 76ers
1. Agreed to a reported five-year, maximum extension with guard Ben Simmons
I sometimes wonder how different our perception of Simmons would be had, say, the Suns won the 2016 lottery and taken him No. 1 overall. Most young players, such as Suns guard Devin Booker, are given the relatively luxury of developing in noncompetitive situations where their shortcomings aren't picked apart.
Not so for Simmons, who after missing his first NBA season due to injury stepped into a Philadelphia team ready to contend immediately -- in part because Simmons himself was so good, but also because he teamed up with Joel Embiid. The Sixers have won playoff series in each of the past two seasons and have legitimate championship aspirations after an offseason makeover. As a result, the spacing issues created by Simmons' inability and/or unwillingness to shoot outside the paint are huge and obvious problems in a way they wouldn't be on a lottery team.
It's worth remembering that Simmons was an All-Star last season at age 22. He is four months younger than Cameron Johnson, taken No. 11 overall in this year's draft. While I'm not convinced that Simmons will become a capable shooter given his inaccurate free throw shooting (60% last season, 58% career), that's hardly the only potential source of improvement. As Simmons gets better at reading the game and making decisions, I'd expect his assist rate to increase and his turnover rate to decline, no matter what happens with his shooting.
All of that is to say there should be no question about Philadelphia signing Simmons to a max extension. If the 76ers decide at some point that the fit issues with Simmons alongside Embiid are too great to overcome, he'll have massive trade value at his maximum salary.
With Simmons in line for a $21 million raise based on current cap projections -- the actual value of this extension won't be determined until the salary cap is set next June 30 -- Philadelphia does have to plan for this team getting expensive in a hurry. Swapping out Jimmy Butler and JJ Redick for the cheaper duo of Al Horford and Josh Richardson likely will allow the Sixers to stay out of the tax this year, which will delay the clock on the repeater tax kicking in. By the 2020-21 season, with four players set to make more than $26 million, the tax will be almost impossible to avoid barring Philly trading a starter. That will make it imperative the 76ers have put together a team capable of advancing deep in the playoffs on a regular basis.
Phoenix Suns
1. Agreed to a reported two-year, $30 million deal with forward Kelly Oubre Jr.
Oubre looked like he might get squeezed as a restricted free agent after cap space dried up around the league. By the time he and the Suns agreed to a deal, the most any other team could have offered him was the non-taxpayer midlevel exception of $9.3 million. It's possible they actually reached a deal before the Atlanta Hawks signed Jabari Parker to a two-year, $13 million deal, in which case Atlanta could have offered Oubre a similar amount on a two-year offer sheet.
Alternatively, perhaps Phoenix was just bidding against Oubre accepting his $4.9 million qualifying offer and hitting the market unrestricted next summer. Either way, it's an excellent outcome for Oubre, who gets the kind of annual salary he could have reasonably expected and also will return to the market unrestricted in the summer of 2021 at age 25.
If Oubre builds on his solid performance after joining the Suns last season, it could be an OK deal for them, as well. Given his age, Oubre is likely to improve and could emerge as a core player for a Phoenix wing rotation that has thinned out with the departure of Josh Jackson and T.J. Warren.
Sacramento Kings
1. Agreed to a reported two-year, minimum deal with forward Tyler Lydon
I'm a little surprised Lydon got an NBA deal at all after playing just 94 minutes during his entire second season with the Denver Nuggets. It quickly became clear Lydon was going to struggle with the transition from the Syracuse zone, which accentuated his defensive strengths, to man-to-man defense in the NBA. He also hasn't been the kind of stretch big man his college performance portended. So, Lydon will have to show improvement to win a roster spot in training camp.
San Antonio Spurs
1. Signed forward Trey Lyles to a reported two-year, $11 million deal
On the other end of the Morris deal, his change of heart proved costly for the Spurs, who had traded forward Davis Bertans to Washington to free up their non-taxpayer midlevel exception for him. I already disliked that deal, and that was when San Antonio was getting a quality frontcourt option. With Morris waffling, the Spurs pulled their offer last week to instead sign Lyles, whose qualifying offer was withdrawn by the Nuggets when they traded for Jerami Grant.
In the best-case scenario, San Antonio will benefit from Lyles' tendency to alternate promising and disappointing seasons and to debut well with new teams. He impressed as a rookie with the Utah Jazz and during his first year with Denver, before dropping off in the subsequent campaign. A skilled 4, Lyles nonetheless hasn't consistently shot accurately enough to justify a large role -- particularly given his shortcomings as a defender. Last season saw Lyles make just 26% of his 3-point attempts over a 200-attempt sample. That's a far cry from Bertans' 43% shooting, and even with likely regression to the mean, Lyles is a downgrade for the Spurs.