2019 Official NBA Free Agent thread

[Pelicanidae]

Jeremy Lin is in a weird position in his career.

He's not good. He's not awful though. There are worse players than him who have contracts and who get minutes.

So on one hand, it's easy to say (and I do say this) that it sucks for him that he can't get a deal with regular playing time when other players who are arguably worse than him DO, but at the same time recognise that it's all relative. Yes, it sucks for him, but he's still got it better than the vast majority of people ever will. He's made over $50m in his career just from playing, not counting endorsement deals an stuff, and he's 30 years old. He is, if he's managed his money sensibly, set for life.

Is it sad for him on a personal level that he doesn't get to play NBA minutes? Sure, and of course it's never good for a decent person (which, by all accounts, Lin seems to be) to be upset. So it sucks.

But am I going to get upset for him because he doesn't get millions more dollars to play? Not really.

[Pelicanidae]

I hate that people are mocking Lin because he said he's at rock bottom. Money isn't everything. The man just wants to play the game he loves, and it hurts that he hasn't gotten a call yet.

I think it's because people are taking rock bottom as literal. If you're talking about rock bottom for an NBA player then sure, he's there, or at least close to it. But people are hearing him say he's at rock bottom and they're looking at their own lives and saying, really? $50m in career earnings, less than 6 months removed from a championship ring is rock bottom? Come on man. You're complaining about being in a position most people would kill for.

[KevinDavis1022]

I hate it for him, regardless of the amount of money and the fact that he just won a title. He's being open and honest about the fact that he loves the game of basketball, and it's heartbreaking for him to not be able to get a shot at continuing his passion. I hope someone gives him a chance. Yes he's not the greatest player, but he's still a serviceable player in my opinion.

[Pelicanidae]

I hate it for him, regardless of the amount of money and the fact that he just won a title. He's being open and honest about the fact that he loves the game of basketball, and it's heartbreaking for him to not be able to get a shot at continuing his passion. I hope someone gives him a chance. Yes he's not the greatest player, but he's still a serviceable player in my opinion.

I agree that he's still a serviceable player, at least in some roles.

For example, if I were the Lakers, I would have signed Lin before I signed Quinn Cook.

Lin's a better passer and general playmaker, can create his own shot instead of just taking shots that are afforded to him, and is still a decent shooter. Cook is, by comparison, a better pure shooter, but that's about it. Neither of them play a lick of defense, so that's not even a knock on Lin in this scenario.

The point I'm making is not that Lin is unreasonable for being sad. He wants to play, right now he can't, of course he's sad, and that makes perfect sense. I'm just saying if you're some random dude earning trash money living paycheck to paycheck in a terrible apartment and you log on to the internet to see some guy with millions in the bank complaining that he's at ''rock bottom'', it's just as fair for you to think ''wow, what an ungrateful whiny idiot, get some perspective'' as it is for Lin to be upset.

[13 - 3]

GS must be growing money trees?

With free agency looming next summer, three-time All-Star Draymond Green has agreed to a four-year, $100M maximum contract extension with Golden State, agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports tells ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 3, 2019

[Pelicanidae]

GS must be growing money trees?

With free agency looming next summer, three-time All-Star Draymond Green has agreed to a four-year, $100M maximum contract extension with Golden State, agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports tells ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 3, 2019

How is this surprising? They drafted him, they have all his rights, they can sign him to an extension any time. In fact, by taking this extension, he's taking a huge pay cut: if he hit free agency next year, his 5 year max with GS would be over $200m. The fact that he's taking $100m instead is an absolute coup for GS.

[13 - 3]

How is this surprising? They drafted him, they have all his rights, they can sign him to an extension any time. In fact, by taking this extension, he's taking a huge pay cut: if he hit free agency next year, his 5 year max with GS would be over $200m. The fact that he's taking $100m instead is an absolute coup for GS.

Yeah that makes more sense. That would be an awful contract

— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) August 3, 2019

[Mythrol]

How is this surprising? They drafted him, they have all his rights, they can sign him to an extension any time. In fact, by taking this extension, he's taking a huge pay cut: if he hit free agency next year, his 5 year max with GS would be over $200m. The fact that he's taking $100m instead is an absolute coup for GS.

I'm not sure he'd get a huge contract offer next summer. There's a lot less projected cap space. Right now only 5 teams even have over 20m in cap space and he signed for 25m/yr.

[Pelicanidae]

I'm not sure he'd get a huge contract offer next summer. There's a lot less projected cap space. Right now only 5 teams even have over 20m in cap space and he signed for 25m/yr.

Maybe not, but for a lot of players it would be worth testing the market: maybe there would be SOMEONE who was willing to clear space for Draymond, and he knows his value is a lot higher than his salary has historically reflected. The fact that he's not even testing that and is just taking what is clearly a below impact value contract to stay in Golden State, a year before he actually needs to resign, is pretty generous of him.

You could be right that he just doesn't see the money for himself next year, sure, but I find myself sceptical at the idea that nobody would even try to clear some money off the table for him.

[KevinDavis1022]

Free agency next year is gonna be hot GAH-BAGEEEEE

[msusousaphone]

Maybe not, but for a lot of players it would be worth testing the market: maybe there would be SOMEONE who was willing to clear space for Draymond, and he knows his value is a lot higher than his salary has historically reflected. The fact that he's not even testing that and is just taking what is clearly a below impact value contract to stay in Golden State, a year before he actually needs to resign, is pretty generous of him.

You could be right that he just doesn't see the money for himself next year, sure, but I find myself sceptical at the idea that nobody would even try to clear some money off the table for him.

Agreed.

I think he knows that as much as he is the nucleus of the Warriors' success/the glue that brings it all together, he HAS to have all of those pieces there to be effective. He needs all of those people or he needs the team to have enough cap to replace them. The Brady approach. I hate the guy for his on the court persona but off the court he seems level headed.

[GuardianAngel25]

Green is not leaving much $ on the table. Really it’s just that 5th year $ which can easily be made up by hitting FA a year earlier and a year younger. By not signing this extension he is taking a huge risk with an injury. When you have guys like IT and Boogie going from near Max and Supermax contracts to barely even getting a vet minimum makes players think twice on waiting for a little extra $. The risk is far greater then the reward in this scenario. Greens value would absolutely tank if he were to get injured even if not major. He will never be worth more then his currently is now and signing this deal is the smartest thing he could have done.

[Pelicanidae]

Green is not leaving much $ on the table. Really it’s just that 5th year $ which can easily be made up by hitting FA a year earlier and a year younger. By not signing this extension he is taking a huge risk with an injury. When you have guys like IT and Boogie going from near Max and Supermax contracts to barely even getting a vet minimum makes players think twice on waiting for a little extra $. The risk is far greater then the reward in this scenario. Greens value would absolutely tank if he were to get injured even if not major. He will never be worth more then his currently is now and signing this deal is the smartest thing he could have done.

He's taking a paycut of over $100m, what? That's not just the 5th year. If he took the $203m he had on the table for 5 years, that works out at basically $40m/y. The deal he's actually taken works out at $25m/y. He's essentially taken a $15m/y less, PLUS fewer years. This is a huge paycut. He's leaving $100m on the table.

You might have a point regarding risk, degradation, injury, etc, sure. That's debatable but you could be right. But the idea that he's not leaving much on the table by sacrificing one hundred million dollars is just silly.

[ColoradoCajun]

He's taking a paycut of over $100m, what? That's not just the 5th year. If he took the $203m he had on the table for 5 years, that works out at basically $40m/y. The deal he's actually taken works out at $25m/y. He's essentially taken a $15m/y less, PLUS fewer years. This is a huge paycut. He's leaving $100m on the table.

You might have a point regarding risk, degradation, injury, etc, sure. That's debatable but you could be right. But the idea that he's not leaving much on the table by sacrificing one hundred million dollars is just silly.

Exactly. It is not a pay cut. It's not like he was on $200m wages and cut back to $100m. He took the sure thing before possibly getting injured or exposed without Klay and either KD or a deeper supporting cast.

[GuardianAngel25]

He could only have gotten $151 million from other teams. There is no way on earth the Warriors were going to bid against themselves and give him their full max. With what we know he left $151 million on the table cause that is simply the most anyone could have signed him for. He left a good bit of $ on the table but again the risk far outweighs the reward. He is worth more now then he ever will be. Green is one of my favorite players but nobody is offering him $150 either. He got right at what his value is with a fair deal on both sides.

[13 - 3]

To facilitate his recent trade to Houston, Russell Westbrook agreed to amend the pay schedule on his contract to make payouts more team-friendly and less front-loaded, league sources say

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 8, 2019

The amendments don't change the overall amounts Westbrook is now owed by the Rockets -- starting next season at $38.6 million -- but will spare Houston from making massive up-front payments, league sources say

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 8, 2019

[Pelicanidae]

Add the Pelicans to that list of interest in Joe Johnson, a source said. Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry and VP David Griffin watched Joe Johnson play in the @thebig3 in New Orleans last week. https://t.co/ubMxbwqKfu

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) August 28, 2019

I don't think this will come to anything, I doubt that the Pels are seriously interested, but here it is in case anyone cares. According to Spears, the Pelicans have interest in Joe Johnson. The evidence of this appears to be that Gentry and Griff existed within 50 feet of him when the Big 3 came to New Orleans.

I don't think this has any legs, since we have basically no roster space, essentially no money, and he doesn't fit either our style or timeline, but there it is anyway.

[DroopyDawg]

I wanna say that Joe played in Phoenix when Gentry was coach and Griff was in the front office, so there's a relationship there.