DeAndre Jordan’s spurning of the Dallas Mavericks was one of the most interesting stories of the 2015 NBA free agency period
As free agency was set to open up, a case could have been made that this wasn’t the strongest of classes and that there were only a few big names who could make a move. Well, thanks to a busy July 1 and the DeAndre Jordan saga, we had one of the more interesting starts to free agency in a while. Let’s take a look at who came out on top and who needs to do some work to get back into contention.
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Winners
Spurs
At what point does this not become fair anymore? A team that has been as consistent as any team in professional sports, racking up 16 straight years of 50+ win seasons to go along with five championships, opened the checkbook to make the biggest splash in free agency. They locked up LaMarcus Aldridge to an $80 million contract over four years. In the process, they managed to get David West to take a $11 million pay cut and sign for the veteran’s minimum. And finally, they kept the core intact by re-signing Kawhi Leonard (five years, $94.3 million) and Danny Green (four years, $45 million). Plus, they were able to get Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan to hang around for another year. They traded away Tiago Splitter, but getting Aldridge and West on board put the Spurs as the clear cut favorites in the West.
Bucks
Last year we were all over Jason Kidd for forcing his way out of New Jersey to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks. In the end, it looked like Kidd saw something that many of us didn’t see, and that’s the potential this young Milwaukee team has. The Bucks spent this offseason as a young team on the rise to one with a chance to become a real contender in the Eastern Conference.
First they went out and resigned 23-year-old Kris Middleton before he was able to hit the market where he would have drawn strong interest from numerous teams. Then they stunned the Knicks and Lakers and swooped in to steal Greg Monroe and his 16 points and 10 rebounds per game last season. Monroe is known more for his offense than defense, which is fine with Kidd because his Bucks ranked second in defense last year but tended to struggle on the offensive side.
On top of all these moves, they get back lottery pick Jabari Parker, who missed most of last season due to a knee injury. A projected starting lineup of Michael Carter-Williams, Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Parker and Monroe has the average age of 22.2 years. This team doesn’t only have the potential to make noise next year, but if they continue to develop properly and stay healthy, then it could be around for many years to come.
Reggie Jackson
We all know the salary cap is rising and some of these new contracts might seem a little crazy. But $80 million over five years to a shoot-first point guard who has yet to prove himself over a full season is scary. Especially when a quality point guard like Patrick Beverly got $25 million over four years from the Houston Rockets. Beverly shoots the ball better from three and is one of the premier defenders at his position, yet Jackson is making $10 million more than him per year. In other words, Jackson caught the Pistons in desperation mode after losing Greg Monroe and decided to hit the lottery.
Cavaliers
Cleveland is a winner here because they went out and made LeBron James happy. When you make LeBron happy then you’ve won. The Cavs didn’t really bring in any new faces but resigned Kevin Love (five years, $110 million) and Iman Shumpert (four years, $40 million). Plus, they agreed to a contract with Triston Thompson (details still being worked on), and made a quality under-the-radar move in bringing in Mo Williams for a two-year deal. Matthew Dellavedova and J.R. Smith still haven’t re-signed but are expected to, and they have Brendan Haywood and his $10.5 million contract that can be unloaded for cap relief. James will continue to play the salary cap for the next few years and sign short term deals, but we all know he is not going anywhere until he wins a championship in Cleveland.
With all these moves this means you have a dangerous combo of Love and Irving locked up for the next five years. Put that with LeBron and it makes them title contenders no matter who their supporting cast is. The fans in Cleveland might be the winners here, but the big loser is going to be Dan Gilbert’s wallet as the luxury tax is looking to be around $100 million, which would be the largest ever. The things you do to make the best player in the world happy.
Losers
Trail Blazers
Did anyone have more of a disappointing offseason then the Blazers? They lost Aldridge to the Spurs, Robin Lopez to the Knicks, traded Nicholas Batum to the Hornets and let Wesley Matthews walk to the Mavericks. That’s 80% of their starting lineup from last year. And what did they get to replace that? They gave Al-Farouq Aminu $30 million over four years and Ed Davis signed a three-year deal worth $20 million.
The Blazers are in for a long season next year and possibly the next few years as they need to rebuild the team around Damian Lillard. The only bright side out of all of this is that they have a ton of cap space to go into free agency next year. However, it’s going to be real tough to watch a near-finals contender last season become one of the worst teams in the league next year.
Kings
The Kings are a ticking time bomb and sooner or later this team is going to explode. When your coach wants to trade away its 24-year-old franchise player, who is one of the most dominant players in the league, because he can’t get along with him, then things are not going very poorly. On top of that, your major signing of the offseason was Rajon Rondo who quit on his team in the playoffs last year, and you reward him with a $10 million contract. This is a team that does have talent and showed signs of life once George Karl took over last season, but if the offseason is any indication of what this season is going to be like, then we are in for a long roller coaster ride.
Huge Market Teams (Lakers/Knicks/Celtics)
Don’t get me wrong, the Knicks, Lakers and Celtics aren’t losers in the moves they actually made. The lost in the fact that the league’s wealthiest big market franchises and continue to swing and miss on high profile players. The Knicks couldn’t lure Monroe or Aldridge (let alone secure a meeting), the Lakers missed on Aldridge, Love and Monroe, while the Celtics thought they had a shot at Love, but they never did. With social media now the standard in sports, players feel they don’t need these big cities to build their own brand. More importantly, the salary cap is rising which means these small market teams can pay big bucks for free agents.
Mavericks
You almost have to feel bad for Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks. They thought they snagged the best center in the free agent market, but the Clippers decided to visit DeAndre Jordan’s home and convince him to stay. To make things worse, they had to wait until July 10 to find this out when every other free agent had already committed to another team, including their former center Tyson Chandler, who committed to the Suns. It boggles me that Dallas can’t get these marquee free agents to sign with them. Good coach, incredible owner, big market city…what’s not to like?
Dallas continues to swing and miss on these big name guys. Bringing in a declining Deron Williams and Wesley Matthews, who is coming off an injury, will help keep the Mavs competitive but these guys aren’t going to allow them to really compete in a stacked West.
Jamison Malasko is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Jamison, check out his archive and follow him @TheRealJaymo21.
