The free agency period officially starts at midnight, but there has already been plenty of news.
KD, Kyrie, and DeAndre Jordan all look to be going to Brooklyn to play for the Nets. I still don't think the Nets deserve to prosper so soon after that horrible trade they made with Boston for Pierce and KD back in 2014, but it is hilarious to see the Knicks strike out on literally all three of their main offseason goals (Zion being the first). They should have enough to comfortably reach the playoffs until KD is back.
We still don't know where Kawhi is going although the Clippers seem to be the favorite at this point according to Stephen A. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that, though, given how he included Jimmy Butler in that tweet, and reports indicate Butler wants to play in Miami.
Speaking of Miami, it looks like they also have a shot with Wizards guard Bradley Beal. Miami has several horrible contracts they need to work out before they start talking about Butler and Beal, though.
Kemba Walker is headed to Boston. He should be a much better fit there than Kyrie was. I'm happy for him finally getting the chance to play on national television more than once a year.
Terry Rozier is signing with the Hornets for 3 years at $58 million. Unless he returns to his 2017-18 form, that's a bad deal for Charlotte.
Tobias Harris basically just robbed the 76ers in my opinion signing an almost max deal for 5 years. I have no clue what they're thinking there.
JJ Redick is headed to New Orleans. He'll be a great compliment to Zion.
DeMarre Carroll is headed to San Antonio. He should be a very good player for the Spurs.
I have missed some stuff. They were releasing news as I was writing this forum. Feel free to share anything new in the comments!
Comments
Derrick Rose to Detroit.
Free agency started at 6pm this year, which is great.
Regarding Harris: i think the sixers are more comfortable giving him the max than they are giving butler. That team couldn't afford to see three starters walk, so Harris got himself paid.
Brad beal is under contract for two more years so he'd have to force a trade
Interesting. I missed that it started at 6 PM.
The reason why I don't understand the Harris deal is because of the length. That basically ensures they have one less max spot for the next five seasons. Good for Harris, though.
The Heat are definitely going for Beal. They'll have to give up Justise Winslow most likely to get him. Maybe they'll be able to dump Olynyk or Waiters too.
He could have gotten a 4 yr max anywhere - what the sixers had to offer than nobody else did was the fifth year.
Heat are now hard-capped for 19-20 after the (sequence of) deal(s) that sees Goran Dragic go to DAL, Jimmy Butler to MIA and Josh Richardson to PHI. Heat will have to get very creative to bring Beal in
I'm not sure what people see in Harris. A tall player that can put the ball in the basket in multiple ways, but 38 million per year? Yikes.
The Heat are trying really hard to move Waiters, James Johnson, and/or Kelly Olynyk. I'm not sure what their plan for Whiteside is. He's definitely the most tradeable player with a bad contract in Miami. Lots of contenders would love to have his skill set if they could make the numbers work.
They see passable or above-average defense across 3-4 positions in addition to those. NBA is showing that you can't feed multiple ball-dominant stars and expect to win, so you better pay up for the guys who can hold their own on both ends and can hit catch-and-shoot 3s. Khris Middleton also got the max from Milwaukee.
Trading Butler is definitely a bit of a step backwards for the Sixers, but getting Horford and Richardson might actually help the overall roster be better than they had last year.
If there was any way that Simmons could ever develop any kind of shot, they would arguably be the best team in the league. But as long as he doesn't think he needs to ever shoot the ball, they are always going to have critical weaknesses come the playoffs.
Richardson is a very good get for the Sixers. Cheap contract and a good three and D guy. I'm going to miss him in Miami.
It's infuriating, because he's the only one holding him back.
I'm not sure where we stand right now, I was on the "run it back" train. Sixers should've won it all, Kawhi just got lucky and we would've handled the Bucks and Warriors.....but if nothing else, now Al Horford isn't on the Celtics anymore so there's that
I have seen this argument from so many Sixers fans and I think you're all nuts. These playoffs should have shown everyone that you can't take anything for granted... but instead you have seemingly half of Philadelphia out there claiming that they're basically reigning NBA champs and that Horford + Richardson is "guaranteed ring" (actual quote from my buddy who also said Sixers were a "lock to win the east" the day after they acquired Butler from Minnesota).
Given how banged up GSW became, I think anyone who came out of the East was going to be a lock to win it all this year. They were a complete mess in the Finals. I think they would have had a great chance to beat the Bucks in the next round, but who knows.
I mean the other thing is that Embiid wasn't doing well in that Toronto series. If they are able to get him to play all out in the playoffs in the future, they probably could win one in the upcoming years. But that is going to mean putting him on a minutes regiment during the regular season to keep him fresh, and I know he hates that.
I'm still broken from that game 7 okay
well try to pull yourself together and bounce-bounce-bounce-bounce back, alright?
Dick
Also Horford + Richardson is far from a guaranteed ring. It's not really guaranteed anything
All I can ask of my sports teams is that they try to win.
I have no idea how this roster will work out, but it's clear to me that the Sixers are interested in winning. Adding Horford and Richardson along with Simmons, Embiid, and Harris makes this one hell of a lineup. Whether it's good enough to win a championship will be determined, but I won't be upset about a lack of trying
I was team Run It Back, but it's definitely a better return than I thought it would be. Plus they offered Butler the max and he didn't want to play in Philly, not much you can do there.
like coach like player I guess
Charlotte loved Kemba so much that we knew the best thing for him was to leave and I still believe that. I'm not sure what the Hornets are doing at this point. Lamb is going so we're just going to suck for a few years until we can clear some of this cap space. Hopefully MJ will drop the price of tickets.
Fixed that for you. They are never going to be successful as long as he's a part of the franchise. Their only hope now is to full on tank it until they can stockpile a few elite assets because right now they have nothing. They have less of a starting point than Philly did when they went all on the The Process, so they don't even really have the luxury to start it by acquiring any valuable picks for players in a blow up, so I'm not sure if they have the means to even be as bad as you need to full on tank.
MJ taking Frank Kaminksy instead of Justise Winslow back in 2015 was absolutely hilarious. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist literally can't even shoot a basketball. He didn't give Kemba the max despite him being the best player in the team's brief history. I truly feel for Charlotte fans.
ftfy
wait, you mean this isn't proper form?
gotta dodge that luxury tax man! small market!
me too
You're spot on with the starting point for Charlotte being worse than Philly. They're 2 years worth of shedding bad contracts away from fully starting the process. And that's not counting them shooting themselves in the foot and signing another horrible deal (cough...cough...Batum). This also assumes that tanking actually works and they get sure fire picks in good drafts that even that front offices drafting ineptness can't screw up.
The deal they evidently have given Rozier makes no sense. If they seriously want him, they should see if they can structure it as a sign and trade and get rid of one of the bad contracts that expires next summer. Boston might want the payroll flexibility that comes with an expiring deal and Charlotte would welcome it coming off their books a year earlier
If anyone had any doubts that the New York Knicks are the most dysfunctional athletic organization in the United States right now, the Knicks have conveniently removed them all.
I think the local Little League is run better than the Knicks.
I kind of wonder if KD and Kyrie would have signed with the Knicks had they won the lottery and gotten Zion like they originally planned too. Has to suck when you think you're going to have those 3 and end up with Taj Gibson.
hey now, don't forget bobby portis and julius randle! (edit: AND elfrid payton!!!)
Knicks are all in on 2021 free agency now
I was already connecting these two things, but in a less-facetious fashion.
Being a Knicks fan actually makes VT's recruiting misses/hiccups pretty easy to stomach...by comparison, at least.
Probably...but we'll never really know for sure.
I can't help but laugh at this though:
Like everyone else whose Plan A was winning the lottery...
Nothing like losing every game in an all out effort to win the lottery and it doesn't work. Oh well. What's one more year of tanking for New York?
Apparently it's...nothing. Just another year. There will be all kinds of speculation about getting the number-one pick in next year's draft...they'll probably "lose" the lottery again and draft some nobody that they'll trade away for a mid-tier NBA forward who only has about five good years left in the tank.
And they'll be stuck playing for what little star power they used to have for another 5 seasons.
I should have included "trades" in the title as well considering a lot of these will be accomplished through sign and trades.
Apparently Butler turned down a 5 year max contract from Philly to play in Miami. Don't know if that says more about his relationship with everyone in Philly or his relationship with Dwyane Wade. The Heat did have to give up Josh Richardson which kind of sucks, but they also managed to dump Hassan Whiteside in the process which I am a huge fan of. In return they got Meyers Leonard, a 7 footer who will provide valuable stretch shooting from the 5 position off the bench. They also didn't have to give the Mavs anything which I love. The Heat and Mavs have a pretty quiet but fierce rivalry that goes as far as their fans booing Wade in his final game in Dallas and them taking Dirk out at the same time as Wade to ruin his ovation.
Kawhi Leonard still hasn't said where he is going to go. I'm hoping he either returns to Toronto or joins the Clippers. Really just anyone but the Lakers honestly.
The Blazers, in addition to getting Whiteside, just secured Damian Lillard for several years. Great move on their part.
The Knicks are basically salvaging whatever they can at this point. Someone had a really funny tweet that said something like "the Knicks are like that one guy that accidentally gets stuck on reverse auto draft and are now trying to take whatever is available after blowing up that roster." Next year, Knicks fans.
Holy off-season Batman!
Kawhi to the clippers, who also acquire Paul George from the thunder for four unprotected firsts, SGA, Gallinari, and a few pick swaps.
Instantly makes them a contendah.
Glad he didn't go to the Lakers, and that he's out of the East.
This move makes the Sixers the favorite in the East this season.
It was clear to me Leonard wasn't going to stay in Toronto. Going to the Clippers is the best possible outcome. As for the Raptors, I bet their fans would still make that trade 10 times out of 10 because he got them a ring.
I'm going to repost this from the NBA Draft thread because I forgot there are two NBA threads.
Hmmm... let's see... the Pacific Division now has the three top teams in the league playing against each other:
Since 2000, at least one of - the LA Lakers (7series, 5wins), Lebron James (9series, 3wins), Kawhi Leonard (3series, 2wins), or the Golden State Warriors (5series, 3wins) - have been in the NBA Championship EVERY YEAR except 2
The past 9 years, since 2011, Lebron (Miami) lost 1 & won 1, then split 1 & 1 against Kawhi (Spurs), and Lebron (Cleveland) faced GSW 4 times winning 1, GSW winning 3, and Kawhi (Toronto) won a 2nd title against GSW
I guess it's better than Kawhi going to the Lakers in the end
Parity
Demarcus Cousins also going to the Lakers
And I'll add what was already reported - Quinn Cook and Danny Green moving to Lakers, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Javale McGee resigning with Lakers.
I'm thinking this is on a similar level as Lebron's Cleveland teams.
If Cook and KCP can get some real minutes they might get their shots back and the Lakers will be dangerous.