Free Agency Roundup: Part 2
*Note: Contract information is yet to be finalized, and the initial reporting is often most favorable to the player. It’s possible that some of the deals below will end up containing non-guarantees and/or team options that will only be publicized when the contract is officially signed*
Thunder beef up the interior, retain key depth:
C Isaiah Hartenstein: 3 years, $87M
G Isaiah Joe: 4 years, $48M
F Aaron Wiggins: 5 years, $47M
It appears that Isaiah Hartenstein was Oklahoma City’s top priority with their available spending power this summer, as they will be paying him close to $30 per season over the next three years. While this is a pretty clear overpay, OKC had money to burn, and they may have had to blow the Knicks’ best possible offer ($78M over 4 years) out of the water in order to get Hartenstein out of New York. OKC will get expensive in the final year of this deal, as that’s when extensions for both Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams will hit their books, so it will be interesting to see how they handle things at that point. The Thunder are already preparing for that eventuality, as it appears they will structure Hartenstein’s contract in declining fashion, starting him at $30.5M for ‘24-25, and then dropping him to $29M and $27.4M over the final two years.
On the court, Hartenstein will provide some much-needed defensive rebounding and beef on the interior, and he gives OKC a much better answer as a primary Nikola Jokic-defender than what they previously had on the roster. However, his lack of shooting means that the Thunder offense will look a bit different next year, as they won’t be able to play with true 5-out spacing in his minutes. Despite being OKC’s second-highest paid player by nearly $15M, Hartenstein isn’t a lock to close games on an every-night basis. Ultimately though, Hartenstein improves the Thunder’s defensive potential and gives them an ability to throw different looks at opponents throughout the course of games. He’s a very good player and he makes them better, even if he’s not quite the superstar addition I was hoping for when I wrote my offseason primer.
Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins both had team options at the minimum for the ‘24-25 season, but the Thunder executed a smart piece of business by opting them out prior to the start of free agency. By giving each a substantial raise for this season, they were able to secure longer-term deals at highly reasonable rates, as both Joe and Wiggins are valuable contributors off the OKC bench. Additionally, each player should have positive trade value for the life of their deal, giving the Thunder a couple of valuable assets to use as matching salary down the line, should they need to. Mechanically, OKC will wait to sign both players until they’ve used up all of their cap space, as they can keep the minimum cap holds for Joe and Wiggins on their books, and then go over the cap to execute the signings.
Speaking of cap space, the Thunder are now just a few million away from the $141M line, but they could conceivably clear some more room if they were able to find takers for Kenrich Williams ($6.6M) and/or Ousmane Dieng ($5M). If not, OKC would then be left with just the Room Exception to spend.
The Pistons entered the offseason with nearly $60M in cap space, and given the state of their team, they were never likely to be big players on the market, nor were they going to devote significant draft capital to win-now trades. Given that reality, overpaying for a stabilizing veteran presence like Harris isn’t quite as preposterous a decision as it might be otherwise. Harris does provide some catch and shoot and secondary scoring ability that will make life easier on Cade Cunningham, and even after this signing, Detroit will have ~$25M in cap space left over to make other moves. However, Harris is 32 years old, and he likely didn’t have much of a market elsewhere beyond the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception. If Detroit was going to overpay for wing depth, why not do it for players like Naji Marshall and/or Derrick Jones Jr., who at least fit the timeline of the team? Harris might have more name value than those guys, but he’s not any better at this point in his career, and he’s now completely untradeable because he’s being overpaid by close to $15M per season.
Once the Warriors said good-bye to Klay Thompson (more on that in the next roundup), they opened up their full Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, and I love the fit of De’Anthony Melton into that slot. Melton gives Golden State a primary point-of-attack defender in their starting lineup, and he can also do some ball handling and playmaking with the second unit when Steph Curry is off the floor. I’m a little worried that Melton’s back injury, which kept him out of action for most of the ‘23-24 season, is a long-term issue, and one of the reasons why he wasn’t more of a priority retention for the Sixers. Melton is clearly betting on himself to have a bounce back season and get back on the market, as if he can produce the way he did in ‘22-23, he could command close to what Kentavious Caldwell-Pope just got from the Magic. One notable piece to keep in mind: Because this is just a one-year deal, Golden State will not hold Melton’s Bird or Early Bird rights next summer, and would this be limited in what they could offer to keep him long term.
Grabbing Nicolas Batum for less than $5M per season is a coup for the Clippers, as Batum’s shooting and connective ball-moving is exactly what they needed in their rotation. It seems likely that Batum prioritized getting back to LA over maximizing his earning potential, as Philly could have easily paid him more than this to keep him around, and he would have played equally as large a role (on a more competitive team) had he stayed with the Sixers.
Big Men on the Move:
C Jonas Valanciunas (WAS): 3 years, $30M
F/C Jalen Smith (CHI): 3 years, $27M
C Drew Eubanks (UTA): 2 years, $10M
C Mason Plumlee (PHX): 1 year, minimum ($3.3M)
At $10M per season, Jonas Valanciunas is a nice signing for Washington, who entered free agency with Richaun Holmes and Alex Sarr as the only centers on their roster. Valanciunas won’t prevent Washington from tanking their asses off this season, but he will at least give them a competent offensive option and a solid locker room presence. If all goes perfectly, JV could have some positive trade value on this deal, but even if he doesn’t, this is a reasonable use of the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception for the Wizards.
Jalen Smith’s decision to decline his $5M player option with the Pacers was a clear signal he has a better offer elsewhere on the market, but I’m still not sure many thought he would get $27M guaranteed. I do like his fit in Chicago, as his ability to space the floor from the center position should really help a team that has Josh Giddey as one of its primary creators, and his versatility to play both power forward and center gives Billy Donovan some options. From a league-wide perspective, the most impactful part of this signing might be the ramifications it has for DeMar DeRozan. With Smith on their books, Chicago is now less than $15M below the $171M luxury tax, which doesn’t seem like it would be enough to retain their leading scorer from a season ago.
Drew Eubanks had a disappointing season as Jusuf Nurkic’s backup in Phoenix, but the Jazz apparently saw enough to bring him in on a decent-sized deal. Eubanks figures to serve as the primary backup to Walker Kessler in Utah, although between Lauri Markkanen, John Collins and Kyle Filipowski, head coach Will Hardy has multiple options. It remains to be seen whether the Jazz will use cap space or the Room Exception to complete this deal, but either way there’s not a huge opportunity cost, even if this is more than I would have been willing to pay for Eubanks.
Replacing Eubanks in Phoenix will be Mason Plumlee, who will join the Suns on a 1 year deal at the veteran’s minimum. Plumlee’s best days are behind him, but he’s still a reasonable backup center, and his ability to function as a passer from the high post is somewhat similar to what Jusuf Nurkic provides in the starting lineup. Phoenix has a few intriguing small-ball center options between Bol Bol, Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro, so Plumlee isn’t necessarily guaranteed a rotation spot, but he should be decent depth in the regular season.