NBA Free Agency Day 1: Paul George Is A Sixer, Wemby Got His Point Guard, The Magic Are Coming And A Whole Lot More
Yesterday, we set the stage for what was shaping up to be a wild Day 1 of NBA Free Agency once 6pm hit.
Today, it's time to talk about what we saw. A lot of the remaining moves we're going to see over the next few days were dependent on what we saw yesterday with the bigger name stars, and now that the dust has settled on the first wave of deals, it's safe to say things lived up to the hype, at least for me. Time will tell if any of these were championship level moves like we saw a certain team do last summer, so I figured why the hell not run through what I consider some of the bigger deals and try and make some sense of everything that happened.
We may as well start off with the biggest news/name of the entire market
The Sixers also re-signed Kelly Oubre and Andre Drummond (meh) as well as handed Tyrese Maxey $200M (no duh) and brought in Eric Gordon (meh), but the real story of their offseason is Daryl Morey landing his latest white whale in Paul George. A move we all knew was coming, and frankly a move the Sixers had no choice but to make, I don't think we all have to suddenly pretend like Paul George isn't really good. Of course he is. At the same time, there is still a lot of work for the Sixers to do to round out their roster while not having a ton of money available to do it.
Whenever a big name player gets moved like this, there of course will be your typical overreactions
Which is to be expected. What the Sixers did add in theory is a player that can play both ends of the floor, a player who can carry the offense in theory in non-Embiid minutes, a player who is an elite catch and shoot guy and can play off ball, and also someone who has only played more than 56 games once since 2019-20. There are of course health risks with someone like George which is concerning given the health worry of the Sixers' best player, and all you can do is hope that George ages well given what his contract now looks like. Unfortunately, that's just the price of doing business when you have the goal of maximizing Embiid's prime. You have to take a swing at a player like George, even knowing the risks.
The other concern is probably the playoff production. Since 2017, George has shot just 41/34% in 53 playoff game. While a Clipper, those numbers were 42/34% in 38 playoff games. Playoff P exists for a reason, and the reasons aren't exactly because he dominates the postseason. Given his playoff dropping history of Embiid as well, there's certainly a question there too.
But the overall point is the Sixers had to make a move like this, and they are bringing in a damn good player. At the same time, we've said this a lot over the years of The Process, and every version so far has had the same ending. Given Embiid/George's ages their window is right now and anything other than an ECF appearance would be a colossal failure.
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Chris Paul had a $30M guarantee date yesterday which everyone knew there was no chance the Warriors were picking up, so it became more of a question of whether they would trade CP3 to a team he wanted, or just waive him and let him choose on his own.
They cut him, and it didn't take long for us to learn his new home, which frankly I love. If you watched Wemby all season, it became very apparent that the one thing the Spurs needed to find him this summer was an actual point guard. No disrespect to those who filled that role last year, but CP3 is a gigantic upgrade at that position. For starters, he knows how to throw an entry pass which cannot be overlooked. Wemby finally playing with a guy who not only understands the position but also how to maximize Wemby's strengths is very exciting.
Even if you think Paul is washed at this point, his basketball brain is just fine. It's not like the Spurs give a shit about wins right now, the only thing they care about is the development of their franchise star in Wemby and then the young guards they just drafted. You know who helps with that? Chris Paul. Why couldn't this be an OKC 2.0 situation? You don't think guys like SGA and Dort benefitted from that year with Paul when they went on that run?
I can't think of a better stop-gap point guard to help Wemby grow and develop until the Spurs truly find their point guard of the future. Maybe that's Castle, or maybe that's a different free agent point guard next summer, but their goal this summer was to get Wemby point guard help, and that has resulted in the Point Gawd himself. I can't wait to see how this unlocks Wemby even more, which is pretty scary given this is what we're starting with
I'm going to be honest, I have zero idea what the Nuggets are doing. Last year they lost Bruce Brown and didn't replace him with a same level caliber player, and it proved to be extremely costly. There was no internal "leap" by any young wing to help fill the role that Brown played and it was a big reason why the Nuggets didn't repeat. Their depth was an issue.
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This summer they lose their best point of attack defender and two way wing in KCP, and once again have not replaced him with a same level type player (so far). The plan is to start Christain Braun at SG which is….a gamble. I know they have Jokic and as long as you have Jokic you're in the mix, but this is most definitely NOT the same caliber team that just won the NBA title not too long ago.
For the Magic, last year was their surprise season where they did more than enough to show the league that not only are they legit, they are only getting started. While this may seem like a big price for an older player like KCP, you have to remember the Magic had a shit ton of money this summer that they had to spend on someone, and KCP is the perfect type of role player good teams add to help them get over the hump. For this Magic team, that's obviously winning a round or two. He fits exactly how they play as a defensive minded wing with good size who can guard a few positions, and he provides some consistent shooting (esp from the corners) that the Magic as a team desperately need. We all remember the Cavs series right? They couldn't shoot for shit and barely broke 90.
I see no reason why the Magic shouldn't once again flirt with 50 wins (47 last year), and a signing like this is the type of move from a team that is ready to take that next step. Now that they broke through and made the playoffs last year, this year is about adding true pros who fit a need and can help you win. That's what KCP is.
If you cannot respect the James Harden grift, I dunno what to tell ya. It's truly amazing how things just always seem to work out for the guy no matter what he pulls. Not only does he get the big money payday to stay in LA, but that Year 2 is also a player option. You know what that means? It means next summer we get to do this all over again with Harden. Threatening to turn down that Year 2 and leave for nothing so he can get another 30M+ extension, if the Clippers end up being terrible he can demand a trade to whatever he wants his next team to be and as a result can hold the Clippers hostage, it's all very funny.
The Clippers had to pay it knowing they were losing George, because you can't open that new arena with just Kawhi. Granted they still might be a Play In team, but at least you have star names for opening night and to help sell tickets.
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Alright, why the hell am I including a Wizards move in this blog? Because there are Wizards fans out there too! They matter! Here's what I'll say about this deal. For starters, the money is whatever. The more important part is the Wizards were one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA this past season, and JV was one of the best defensive rebounding centers in the entire league. Boom, that's how you address a need baby!
Does it ultimately matter in the big picture? No, but at least this is showing their fans at least some type of effort to improve the roster, which when you're rebuilding is all you can ask for. It's not like this is a long term deal that fucks their cap up moving forward, and again, it filled a need. Good job Wizards!
The Mavs have made one thing clear after getting dog walked in the NBA Finals. They clearly felt like their wing production wasn't going to cut it. DJJ is out (off to LAC), and there are still rumblings that the Mavs are in on Klay. When it comes to Naji Marshall, he's a guy I imagine most casual NBA fans have no idea about. He's coming off the best year of his career in which he shot 46/38%, he has good size as a two way wing, but it'll all come down to how real that shooting leap actually is. As we saw in the Finals, the Mavs wings couldn't make a shot to save their life and it made them extremely easy to defend.
Outside of the 38% this year on 2.3 3PA, Marshall was only a 28% three point shooter in his career in 164 games. That's….not great. I see this signing as Naji being the defensive wing and then someone like Klay being the shooter, but we're still waiting for that shoe to drop.
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When you also add in the Hartenstein signing (3/87M) that came in this morning, the Thunder are having themselves a great free agency so far. Locked up two rotation guys/shooters on contracts that shouldn't age terribly, addressed their biggest need, and still have more to play around with should the right opportunity present itself.
Given that you can't rely on OKC being this popular destination for the cream of the crop free agents (Hartenstein is probably the best center available though) paying your own guys that you know fit how you want to play and are on the same timeline as the rest of your core is almost always a good decision. The Thunder have pretty much nailed their roster construction these last few years, and now with a real center in the mix and retaining their shooting that helped the Thunder be one of the best shooting teams in the league this season, it's hard to now love what they've done these first few days of free agency.
And while I'm sure everyone also wants to hear about the champs bringing back both Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta, there's not much to say. Great job by Brad to keep his depth with proven champions.
That pretty much sums up Day 1, and now that the big dominoes have fallen we can now move to the "smaller" moves that might not move the needle in terms of the talking heads interest, but are the types of moves that can actually put a team over the top and into title contention. In this new CBA world it's all about finding value, and that's the part of free agency we've now entered. The value signings are everything, and there are still a bunch of good players out there.