Kyle O'Quinn

[...] Legitimately good players were available for low prices. Some stand-out examples include Lopez (who took only a bi-annual exception for one year from Milwaukee, quite the pay cut from his $22,642,350 last season), O'Quinn (who did not deliberately opt out of a $4,256,250 one year player option just to sign a one year $4,449,000 but found he had little choice), Alex Len (who signed a mere two year, $8.5 million contract with the team closest to his own name despite how good he was at times last year) and Nurkic (a restricted free agent post player like Capela, who, like Capela, seemingly drew no significant-enough offers from other teams). And some got even less attention than that - after being waived by the Pacers, Al Jefferson went to China, while Lucas Nogueira has not signed at all. Which might explain why he has changed agency.[...]

[...] Take the Pacers, for example. They found $22 million over three years for the bench shooting of Doug McDermott, and gave Tyreke Evans $12.4 million for one year, yet needed only a third of that to get O'Quinn, a man not without his suitors. The one-year deals to both Evans and O'Quinn were deliberate - much like 2016, the summer of 2019 is shaping up to again be a free agency boon with more than half of the teams in the league having cap space, and players and agents are positioning themselves accordingly to capitalise. Only players getting at or above their perceived market value next summer chose to sign for more than one year, hence the outlier of the McDermott deal. Yet it is surely telling that Evans got nearly three times as much as O'Quinn. Evans is a very good player, but so is O'Quinn. One, however, has a more progressive, en vogue skill set. And can shoot. [...]

Kyle O'Quinn
PF, 6’10, 250lbs, 27 years old, 5 years of experience

The past year was a very good year for O’Quinn, who shot well both at the rim and on his mid-range jump shots, leading to a career high true shooting percentage of .552%. He also had a career high in offensive rebounding with a strong 13.7% mark, as well as career best marks in overall rebounding percentage, turnovers and blocks, and had some moments defensively, especially around the basket. He still bites on far too many fakes, commits too many fouls and gets stuck in the wrong position, but when he’s in right position, he contests well. Combined with some passing out of the pick-and-roll and some shooting out of the pick-and-pop, Quinn has had a breakout season as a role player, and it bears remembering that he was already plenty decent beforehand.

Player Plan: Just played a minimum salary contract season, and did not prove himself to be worthy of another one.

Kyle O`Quinn

O'Quinn had an strong rookie campaign, often stuck behind Nicholson but frankly outperforming him. One of the best passers on the team, O'Quinn used his huge wingspan to also be one of the best rebounders in the league, and scored efficiently with a highly effective mid-range jumper and post finishing. O'Quinn might not be hugely athletic, but with the improvements in his jumper, he stands to be a very good role player with that, the vision, the IQ and the boards.