NBA Free Agency Game Thread

Swedgin

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The assumption has been that the Heat are going Giannis hunting. So they only want one year commitments, which in some cases will result in a relatively high annual number.
 

mcpickl

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The assumption has been that the Heat are going Giannis hunting. So they only want one year commitments, which in some cases will result in a relatively high annual number.
Right, I understand that.

But it doesn't have to be a guy who couldn't play for you at all in the playoffs for 10M.

That's just absurd.
 

The Social Chair

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The assumption has been that the Heat are going Giannis hunting. So they only want one year commitments, which in some cases will result in a relatively high annual number.
I thought a couple of months back Hayward would opt-in because he would have a few teams who missed out on Giannis next summer with available cap space.
 

mcpickl

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They could also be building expirings to make a run at Harden in case Giannis signs the Supermax.
Again, I understand how it works. But you don't have to massively overpay bad players to do this. You can sign good players too! And if they don't also sign Jae Crowder, they'd likely have the cap room to sign a good player to this same deal. No reason to sign this five seconds into free agency. Did they think Leonard wouldn't wait?

Also, if Giannis signs the supermax, he can't be traded for a year. So they'd have to pay Leonard the second year on this contract next year hoping to get Giannis next trade deadline.
 

Dduncan6er

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Again, I understand how it works. But you don't have to massively overpay bad players to do this. You can sign good players too! And if they don't also sign Jae Crowder, they'd likely have the cap room to sign a good player to this same deal. No reason to sign this five seconds into free agency. Did they think Leonard wouldn't wait?

Also, if Giannis signs the supermax, he can't be traded for a year. So they'd have to pay Leonard the second year on this contract next year hoping to get Giannis next trade deadline.
Good players aren’t signing one year deals with team options for the 2nd year so they can be traded in a year as matching salary.
 

mcpickl

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Good players aren’t signing one year deals with team options for the 2nd year so they can be traded in a year as matching salary.
They just might.

Not a ton of money out there, there will likely be guys hoping to get the midlevel for multiple years who won't get it, and would be happy to get a fat one year deal with an option. Might want to wait more than five seconds into free agency to find out.

I'll bet my balls at least a good player, or at least a player better than Meyers Leonard, signs a one year deal for the MLE or less.
 

Cellar-Door

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Wow, they’re losing Wood for Mason freaking Plumlee? What a stupid organization.
I think it's as simple as they were losing Wood so the pivoted to Plumlee. Remember, because of the weird early bird rules, it's hard for them to offer him more than $10M a year.
 

mcpickl

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I think it's as simple as they were losing Wood so the pivoted to Plumlee. Remember, because of the weird early bird rules, it's hard for them to offer him more than $10M a year.
I agree with this.

They know Wood is leaving so they overpaid another center to get him to come to sad Detroit
 

PedroKsBambino

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As a total non-contender I don't think that contract is worthwhile---they are better off waiting until some FA 5s get left wtihout a home and are scrambing for a gig.

I do think Wood being on the market is interesting for Celtics, though realize he'll likely find a bigger gig elsewhere.
 

128

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Unvelievable.

My kingdom to be 7 feet tall
From Hollinger:

Why pay Leonard that kind of money, when he’s really probably a minimum guy on the NBA market? Because his contract immediately becomes a highly playable trade chip in the event a player (say, a tall forward from Greece) becomes available during the course of the season and the Heat need to have enough matching salary on hand to generate a legal trade. This deal will put Miami closer to the tax line but doesn’t hurt it in terms of cap space or exception money.
 

TripleOT

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From Hollinger:

Why pay Leonard that kind of money, when he’s really probably a minimum guy on the NBA market? Because his contract immediately becomes a highly playable trade chip in the event a player (say, a tall forward from Greece) becomes available during the course of the season and the Heat need to have enough matching salary on hand to generate a legal trade. This deal will put Miami closer to the tax line but doesn’t hurt it in terms of cap space or exception money.
Fun tidbit: Meyers Leonard, four seasons of 50/40/80% shooting, one more than Larry Bird. How bad is the rest of his game that he can’t get on the court?
 

the moops

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They just might.

Not a ton of money out there, there will likely be guys hoping to get the midlevel for multiple years who won't get it, and would be happy to get a fat one year deal with an option. Might want to wait more than five seconds into free agency to find out.

I'll bet my balls at least a good player, or at least a player better than Meyers Leonard, signs a one year deal for the MLE or less.
They would only be able to sign a player for the MLE. No option to sign a free agent to the fat one year deal.

And they can still use the MLE regardless of what happened with Leonard
 

mcpickl

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They would only be able to sign a player for the MLE. No option to sign a free agent to the fat one year deal.

And they can still use the MLE regardless of what happened with Leonard
The MLE is what I was referring to as the fat deal, for guys who are expecting the MLE for multiple years and couldn't get it.

Guys, if you think it's a great idea to sign Meyers Leonard to a 10M deal. Great. I disagree. You don't need to try to convince me it's a great idea.
 

Cellar-Door

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Lol Dwight tweeted he was staying in LA then deleted it and 20 minutes later he's in PHI
 

Jimbodandy

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Fun tidbit: Meyers Leonard, four seasons of 50/40/80% shooting, one more than Larry Bird. How bad is the rest of his game that he can’t get on the court?
You know that 40% 35 years ago was a much bigger deal than it is now, right?

Not to be a Bird apologist, but those guys' first 3pt attempts of their lives were in NBA arenas.