The best remaining unsigned free agents
September 4th, 2018
The bulk of the NBA’s offseason business is done. The big signings are done, the second-tier players are almost all off the table as well, and for the most part, rotations for next season are set. That said, there are always a couple of players who, even at this relatively late stage, are still unsigned. With the bulk of NBA places gone, so too now are the bulk of the EuroLeague and Chinese league places, the two next best-paying leagues in the world. Those who remain unsigned therefore have limited spots to fight over, and might be fighting each other. Here, then, in absolutely no order whatsoever, are some of those remaining who could still potentially help a an NBA team. Jamal Crawford Crawford opted out of a $4,544,400 contract with the Timberwolves, as his one year with the team was not a happy union. He had the third-lowest points per game mark of his career (and the lowest since the first two years of his career), a joint-lowest assists per game mark, and a career-worst DBPM of -4.0. He still make a lot of tough shots off the dribble, as is his way, but he was ineffectual defensively, and measured out as an overall net negative. Nevertheless, Crawford’s ability to save plays should still get him another contract somewhere. It is however surprising that now, in the first week of September, he still hasn’t got one. – Joe Johnson After playing well in a part-season at a new position of power forward on the minimum salary for the Miami Heat down the stretch of the 2015-16, Johnson signed for big money the following summer to do the same for the Utah Jazz. In the first year with them, he did so, being a productive half court offensive player via a […]
The amount of cap room teams will actually have, updated
June 19th, 2010
This is an update of the earlier post that detailed the amount of cap room teams will have. It is updated to reflect the Kings/Sixers trade that was just completed (Andres Nocioni and Spencer Hawes for Sam Dalembert), to reflect some exercised options, and to edit the fact that I typoed a bit in the Timberwolves entry. It’s a carbon copy of the initial post, save for those tweaks. Atlanta Hawks Committed salary for 2010/11: $47,630,214 (view full forecast) Projected cap space: None If Atlanta renounce (or lose) Joe Johnson, renounce Josh Childress, renounce their four remaining free agents (Joe Smith, Mario West, Jason Collins and Randolph Morris), and sell or renounce their first-round draft pick (#24, cap hold of $963,600), they will have a cap number of $49,524,640 (the committed salary plus four minimum salary roster charges of $473,604 for having less than 12 things on the cap). Barring trades, that’s as low as they can get. And yet it’s not enough for cap room; if you add on the value of the Bi-Annual Exception ($2.08 million) and the Mid-Level Exception (not yet known exactly, but will be about $5.7 million), the Hawks are over the cap. Boston Celtics Committed salary for 2010/11: $64,423,396 (view full forecast) Projected cap space: None If Paul Pierce opts out, and if he and Ray Allen are both not re-signed, it’s possible for the Celtics to have cap room. But it is too farfetched and nonsensical. Charlotte & Bob Katz Committed salary for 2010/11: $59,789,925 (view full forecast) Projected cap space: None Like Boston, Charlotte could have cap room if both Tyson Chandler and Nazr Mohammed opt out, and if they also renounce Raymond Felton and Tyrus Thomas. But three of these four things will not realistically happen. Strangely, though, the first one […]
2009 NBA Summer League round-up: Sacramento Kings
July 24th, 2009
– Robert Battle: Battle’s great. Every time he takes contact, he yells. And considering that he nails himself to the basket at both ends and never leaves the paint, that happens quite a lot. Good times. Battle averaged 12.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in the Spanish LEB Gold last season, good enough numbers to get his team (Valladolid) promoted. But he’s not ever going to have NBA size, no matter how much he shouts (which he does on every contested lay-up attempt). – Jon Brockman: All Brockman did in college was rebound, take charges and break his nose. He’s not a scorer, he can’t play away from the basket, and he doesn’t block any shots whatsoever. However, of all the abilities that translate from the college game to the NBA, rebounding, charge-taking and nose-breaking are arguably the three most transferrable, especially for the bad-rebounding Kings. So he should be OK, even if he was picked too high. – John Bryant: Bryant’s numbers in his senior season for Santa Clara were big: 18.1 points, 14.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in only 31 minutes per game. He also has the size for the job, being listed at 6’11 and 275. But he wasn’t drafted anyway, despite how little size there was in the last draft. Why is that? I’m not sure, having not seen him, but being stabbed in the back three times during an off-campus assault probably didn’t help. – Pat Calathes: Like his brother Nick, Calathes has a Greek passport, and like his brother Nick, Pat has already signed there for next year. He was there last year, too, where he averaged a sensational 3.7 points and 1.8 rebounds per game for Marousi. – Omri Casspi: Nice beard. – Tyreke Evans: Please play […]
Preview Sort Of Thing: Sacramento Kings
October 20th, 2008
As an aspiring GM with no qualifications or career prospects to speak of, and whose sole outreach into the world of the NBA is this distinctly amateur and unattractive site full of mild slander, I enjoy certain advantages. One of those is the ability to do what I want, to a half-baked standard, and then to abandon it prematurely. This explains what happened with last year’s “30 teams in 30 or so days” series of predictions, where I started well, fell behind early, and then gave up roughly half way through. Get in. This year, we’re going to do it again. There will be predictions, and by the power of Greyskull, they’re going to be woeful. Even better than that, it’s October 19th, and the season starts in just over a week, yet there are 30 teams to cover. So don’t be surprised if I only do about…oooh, five? ShamSports.com – run by an amateur. The few posts that will be made are to be undertaken in a completely random order, with no semblance of logic or reasoning. And with that in mind, we begin with the Sacramento Kings. Sacramento Kings The Kings’ glory era ended a while ago. The days of the Adelman-era Kings, with Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Hedo Turkoglu, Peja Stojakovic, Doug Christie and friends, are over. Webber’s knee stopped working, Turkoglu surprised us all by actually getting good, Christie’s now the white Dame Dash, and Divac now works for the Serbian government. Other than the incumbent Brad Miller, the final player from those days – Mike Bibby – was pawned off to Atlanta earlier this year for a rather generous return. And that was that. With a end of an old era should come the start of a new one. “The King Is Dead”, and […]
