Chris Andersen

[...] Instead, they got more shooters. They gave more roster spots to LeBron’s friends, heaped up on wings, left themselves without a tertiary playmaker, trusted Chris Andersen’s knees would suddenly lose ten years of wear and tear, and brought back pretty much the same already-aging unit as last year, except this time without any backup point guards or centres. They entered the season with little rim protection, with Channing Frye at backup centre, with no backup point guard except a young Kay Felder who they promptly did not trust with rotation minutes, and ultimately put themselves in a situation where Kyle Korver, Richard Jefferson and James Jones took up three roster spots to do pretty much the same thing.

Chris Andersen – Miami Heat

Andersen was eligible for, and expected to receive, a Blatche-like contract for 120 percent of the minimum salary. Yet he’s come even cheaper than that, signing purely for the minimum. He comes cheap for many well established reasons – the off-court sideshow (however unjust it is, being the victim of a fabricated accusation is still a black mark in the NBA owner’s book), the holes in the skill set, the two year suspension, and the degenerating knees that limit his time on the court. Advancing age is now a factor – he doesn’t jump like one, but it should be remembered that Andersen is now a 35 year old.

However, none of that matters as much as the simple belief that Miami would not have won the title last season without Andersen. He tipped the balance of their season, and cost only the minimum salary to do it. And now he’ll cost only the minimum salary again.

[T]he amnesty clause (that we're having to pretend will exist here, but which almost certainly will exist in some form) will further expand the range of available talents. A lot of decent players are going to become available, not because they can't play the game, but because they can't justify their contract. A lot of the candidates are obvious and inevitable, some perhaps less so. Here's a potential list:

- Denver: Chris Andersen and Al Harrington - Neither is a bad player, and both give fairly consistent if highly flawed production. But on a team in the midst of a power re-build, they combine for seven years and $43,286,700 of salary, untenable for two backups.