The opening hours of NBA Free Agency came and went with a relative whimper, save for the news that Paul George is “signing his next contract with another team,” presumably the Philadelphia 76ers. Yet there was some movement, and therefore we are morally obliged to report to you the winners and losers.
The Clippers will introduce fans to a new arena at the start of the 2024-25 campaign, so what’s their first order of business in free agency? Adding Kevin Porter Jr., who pleaded guilty to assault and harassment in January, months after his arrest on domestic violence charges in New York.
Porter has not played in the NBA since his arrest. The Houston Rockets deactivated Porter and traded the remainder of his contract to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who promptly released him last October. He played six games in Greece last spring, which was apparently enough for the Clippers to sign him.
It should be noted: Porter was traded to the Rockets shortly after he reportedly threw a tantrum in the Cleveland Cavaliers locker room, allegedly throwing food and confronting general manager Koby Altman. Houston also suspended Porter for “losing his temper” during halftime of a separate game in January 2022.
The Clippers’ second free agency assignment? According to Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer, we’re working with Russell Westbrook to find a trade, possibly to the Denver Nuggets. Westbrook recently received a $4 million contract option for next season. The one-time MVP has played well off the bench for the Clippers, averaging 18-8-7 per 36 minutes played. He finished tied for seventh in Sixth Man of the Year voting.
And the Clippers’ third task in free agency? Losing Paul George.
“Heading into this offseason, our roster was put together [with] “three great players 33 and older, two of whom could become free agents,” the Clippers said in a strange statement. “We wanted to retain them on contracts that would allow us, within the constraints of the new CBA, to continue to build the team.
“We spent months negotiating with Paul and his representative to find a contract that would make sense for both parties, and we were left far apart. The gap was significant. We understand and respect Paul’s decision to look elsewhere for his next contract. We explored an opt-in and trade scenario, but that would have put us in a similar position under the new CBA with very little asset value to justify the restrictions.”
What a stray shot on Westbrook, who probably should have been paired with George, Kawhi Leonard and James Harden four “great players [aged] 33 and older.” The Clippers managed to retain Harden to a two-year, $70 million deal, making him and the oft-injured Leonard the faces of the Clippers’ new arena.
Pretty rich for Clippers owner Steve Ballmer to cry poor too. Ballmer is the 7th richest person in the world, and he just took his team out of contention with a cost-cutting move while adding Porter. Nabbing Derrick Jones Jr. from the Dallas Mavericks for $30 million over three years doesn’t replace George either. The Clippers are worse now than they were before, and they were already on shaky ground.
WINNER: Daryl Morey, Philadelphia 76ers
As general manager of the Houston Rockets for years, Daryl Morey tried to pair James Harden with another star, cycling through Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook. Likewise, Philadelphia’s pursuit of Joel Embiid’s counterpart prompted Morey to trade Ben Simmons for Harden and Harden for cap space.
It appears that cap space will land Paul George on the Sixers. George’s incumbent team, the Clippers, announced, “Paul has informed us that he will sign his next contract with another team,” and the only team on his list of suitors that can still offer him a max contract is the Sixers . You do the math.
George fits perfectly between Embiid and Tyrese Maxey for the Sixers. They desperately needed help on the wing, where they’ve cycled through one-dimensional role players in recent years. Even at 34, George remains one of the NBA’s best two-way players. He’ll be the best player to move in free agency, and Morey’s alternatives would have made his team less of a contender next season.
The Sixers still have an uphill battle against the reigning champion Boston Celtics. Embiid’s health is always a concern, especially after another knee injury limited him another playoff run, and George hasn’t been more reliable. His 74 games for the Clippers this past season marked his first time playing more than 56 games in a campaign since 2018-19. If healthy, they should be among the East’s top favorites.
Morey still has work to do. He signed veterans Andre Drummond and Eric Gordon for a big man and a deep shooter, respectively, and yet the Sixers have only a handful of players under contract — with few options outside of salary cap exceptions to make another splash. But George is a great start.
For the second straight season, the Denver Nuggets lost a key free agent to a team willing to pay more.
Bruce Brown left last summer, when the Indiana Pacers gave him a two-year, $45 million contract. Denver couldn’t offer Brown more than a starting salary of $7.8 million, so it was understandable that he left, but it was no less damaging to the Nuggets, who were coming off the first championship in franchise history.
Now they’ve lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a three-year, $66 million contract from the Orlando Magic. This time around, the Nuggets could have re-signed him at a similar figure, but chose otherwise.
Caldwell-Pope has been one of the NBA’s top 3-and-D complements for years and also contributed to the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020 championship run. His reliability helped Denver establish a dominant starting five, outscoring opponents with 13, Outscored 6 points per 100 possessions during their league-leading 958 minutes.
The Nuggets will still be great and still in contention for the title because they have Jokić. But they do make things more difficult for the three-time MVP in his prime. And what message does that send to everyone on the team?
The San Antonio Spurs were in dire need of a point guard who could provide San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama with basketball in favorable positions. They managed to acquire the best table player of a generation, 39-year-old Chris Paul, who reportedly signed a one-year, $11 million contract with the Spurs.
This is an admission of San Antonio’s failure to build Jeremy Sochan into a point guard on a roster without one. Instead, they will draft Paul, who still averaged 9.2 assists per 36 minutes in a reserve role for the Golden State Warriors last season. His 10.8 assists per game led the NBA two years ago.
This doesn’t make the Spurs a contender by any means — or even a playoff team. But it does make Wembanyama an All-Star and raises the bar for the next point guard lucky enough to play with him.
LOSER: The NBA
The league changed its policy this year, allowing teams to negotiate with their own free agents once a champion was crowned. It led to a flurry of deals, including the respective returns of OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam to the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers. (The Toronto Raptors’ consolation prize for losing two prized members of their 2019 championship team: $175 million for Immanuel Quickley. Yep.)
The trickling news of those signings took a lot of the drama out of the opening night of free agency, when we’re normally inundated with news of hundreds of millions of dollars in new contracts. Instead, we were alerted to new deals for Bol Bol, Alex Len and Max Christie when the free agency veil was lifted.
The momentum toward the NBA’s new television contract is slowing to a crawl. The NFL stole some of the league’s shine over Christmas. The two-day draft was a bust. Slowly, the NBA’s tentpole days are losing some of their shine, and this is no different. (Not to mention the ratings flop that was an NBA Finals.)
WINNER: The Second Apron
For the uninitiated, the second cap—roughly $190 million, or about $50 million over the salary cap—puts severe restrictions on big-spending teams. They can no longer sign free agents under salary cap exceptions, specifically the mid-level taxpayer exception (a starting salary of about $5 million). They also can’t pool outgoing salaries in trades. Both of these further limited free agency opening night activity.
Only a handful of players – Jonas Valančiūnas (three years, $30 million from the Washington Wizards), Caldwell-Pope, Paul, Drummond and Jones – changed teams for more than a minimum deal, and some of them did so because their incumbent teams tried to first or second platform.
These rules were imposed to prevent teams from large markets from collecting exorbitant salaries and to bring teams from small markets into contention, and I’m not sure it’s having the desired effect. Pretenders (cough…Orlando…cough) are getting a little better, but we’re left with fewer truly great teams. If this is what free agency becomes — teams limited by and afraid of these aprons — what is the benefit to the league?
