The Resigning Guide - Your teams guide before the offseason starts

[mantypas/CavsCzar]

Hi All. I believe Derek did something similar where he graded resigned contracts and their value. I did something a little different. I went thru every resigning and non resigning on a team by team basis, and alluded to what the implications are for that team and those players in the offseason. Hope you all enjoy and discuss this one.

Boston Celtics
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Emeka Okafor (sweetheart deal)
o Tarik Black (possible overpay for a third big)
o Jamal Crawford (fair deal, lets see if he is sticking around)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Gerald Wallace (possibly retiring?)
• Implications – Joe will be able to bring back most guys and free up a ton of Cap with Okafor’s 14.5 million pay cut. Will need that money for resigning Beasley next year

Miami Heat
• Valued members who re-signed –
o No one – everyone important is locked up
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o No one
• Implications – Scoops is walking on a tight rope here. By my math, with his seven players with contract next year already puts him 2.7 million over the cap. He is going to have to dump a few smaller salaries or a bigger one somewhere. That person is probably Devin Harris, who would be expiring. The question is what team with cap space would want him, and what would Scoops have to attach to get rid of him? Devin Harris is still very good, but at 33 as an expiring, not sure he would be a huge asset to a cap space team

New Jersey Nets
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Rudy Gobert (Rookie Max – resigned)
o Robin Lopez (rough number, not resigned)
o Ersan Illyasova (not the worst initial contract, but a long one, not resigned)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Boris Diaw (LOL)
o Tim Hardaway Jr.
• Implications – The big questions are what he does with Ersan, and what is the contract number to throw at Hardaway. Ersan is a clearly valuable piece for this team in terms of wing rebounding, and Hardaway has been an excellent sixth man for this team, who fits the timeline of AD, Gobert, and Kemba. Do you throw THJ 10 plus mil or more?


New York Knicks
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Johan Petro - nice one year vet min at a mil
o Ryan Anderson - offered at a big boy salary, denied
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Victor Olaladipo
o Trey Burke
• Implications – The huge story for the Knicks here is that Oladipo and Trey Burke, two big contributors from the 2013 draft class, did not ask to be resigned and will be unrestricted FAs. Good news for Nav is he has so much cap space due to his rookies on the salary, he can most likely resign these guys. The bad news is Oladipo could potentially demand a max contract from the market. The more interesting Q is what is Trey Burke, and offense only guard, command on the market. There aren't too many elite PGs available, so thats an interesting story line

Orlando Magic
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Dwight Powell (not a bad approx. 2.2 mil for 2 years, resigned)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Jason Thompson
• Implications – Not much here, Merv has a lot of young guys still on rookie contracts. A question is will Jay will retire and give this team a way to use an MLE or not.

Philadelphia 76ers
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Tony Allen (nice one year 7.7 mil for a defensive specialist who is efficient offensively, resigned)
o Lou Amundson (still around a nice 1 mil vet min, resigned)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Spencer Hawes (DMOs golden boy)
• Implications – DMO likely needs to resign Hawes or play the MLE game and hope for a good defensive oriented big that can board. This team needs more rebounders and defenders. With Lebron and Gilbert on the books, will not have much spare cap space

Washington Bullets
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Skip because Wes is tanking and will not resign any of these guys
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Skip because of the above
• Implications – Wes is going to have a ton of cap space. He is going to decide which star players he can poach and trade off, or if there are any young guys he can see fit with Christian Wood and Siakam. My bet is he doesn’t keep anyone he is signing, and looks for sign and trades. If he is able to resign Yi or Prince (if he doesn’t retire) to reasonable deals, he may be able to trade those guys for RP of bad picks.

Atlanta Hawks
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Joakim Noah (resigned for a slight discount, $7.29 mil, already resigned)
o He declined everyone else
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o He declined everyone else
• Implications – Heimer was able to keep his other most valuable big, and said know to Jordan Hill’s bad offer. He will have about $10.5 mil to play with. If I were him, I would be looking at a solid big for an MLE and a good rotational wing/guard for an LLE, and fill the rest out with vet mins.

Charlotte Hornets
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Primoz Brezec (nice vet min from a guy that just isn’t who he was)
o Goran Dragic (probably too high to be resigned)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Tanker so no one here
• Implications – JBurns will likely try to sign Dragic to a reasonable deal then flip him. He has no cap space with AK and Pau still on the books, but look for him to be a big player in next years FA when those two guys expire

Chicago Bulls
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Gorguie Dieng (already resigned to a 2.5 mil 2 year deal)
o Robert Covington (amazing sweeatheart deal under an MLE for 3 more years)
o JR Smith (declined)
o Mike Conley,17.5 mil, and escalating, will likely be flipped
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Bassy Telfair?
• Implications – Matt is signaling a one year tank (he has his pick next year but not in 2019 or 2020) so he may resign and flip Mike Conley, test his luck at a better deal, or just go after other guys. So watch out for your favorite players with a salary of 16 mil or so or 30 mil if he doesn’t resign Conley.

Cleveland Cavaliers – America’s Team (yes I called the cavs Americas team, fight me)
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Those that resigned I said no to
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Our bigs, Gortat and Nerlens
• Implications – I was clearly hoping for a favorable resigning of Nerlens – that did not happen. I will throw an absolute bag his direction. Gortat will probably be picked up to a reasonable deal by another team, it’s a shame Nerlens couldn’t sign like a Drummond type deal…

Detroit Pistons
• Valued members who re-signed –
o RB declined all – Didn’t think Millsap was a bad number, but probably valued the cap over him, who could likely be resigned for cheaper
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o No one really, except for Bellineli – I guess Detroit is the place to be
• Implications – RB won’t have cap to be a serious player in FA ($5 million) so maybe he tries to scoop an MLE guy slightly over the MLE, then resign some of the incumbents for cheaper. I would also try to retain Kwame Brown if I were RB. Maybe days 4/5 he resigns someone like Millsap, Teague (im still a believe in him), and/or Pops at a high number to be potentially tradable salary if he still wants to compete while not having his picks.

Indiana Pacers
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Chris Bosh (declined because woof is that a large Dwight Howard sized contract)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o None
• Implications – Tonger will want to keep his team together and that means resigning Chris Bosh. The big question is at what price and how long? He is still an elite big (one of those rare A- inside, A- defense and A- rebounding guys), but at age 32, how long will he stay elite. He is one of a few elite big men to hit the market this offseason and im sure there will be plenty of suitors.

Milwaukee Bucks
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Willie Green at 7.46 mil – not a bad contract for an efficient scorer
o Amare Stoudamire at 5.46 mil – probably too much to accept given his lack of defense and toned down rebounding
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o A bunch of fringe guys offered to resign to which Derek said no I want that cap space
• Implications – Derek is tanking, so he will be a major sign and trade candidate. Watch out for him to steal your best FAs and send them to your rivals. Not much else here.

Toronto Raptors
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Kris Humphries (3 years 9 mil to 10.8 mil in last year, honestly a fair contract considering he’s still an elite butt) – we will see if Jwoo would rather have the cap space or not
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Steven Adams
• Implications – I would imagine Jwoo would like to keep Steven Adams for his potential and his stip. Though he is the third or fourth big here (depending on his decision with the Humpman), but he is pretty solid for a third or fourth big. Kind of a similar scenario to Jeremy Lin to an extend. How much more will his weird injury prevention stip boost his stock on the market? And will he forgo resigning Humpries to keep Adams and pay him properly? We shall see

Dallas Mavericks
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Leon Powe, nice little paycut
o Festus Ezeli – vet min
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Jeremy Lin
• Implications – Jeremy Lin is one of the better FA PGs and my money is on someone offering him a larger contract than Hoff can, as he has about $10 mil in cap space. My guess offers a similar contract to the one Lin already has, and if he’s beat in day 1, uses his remaining cap on MLEs and LLEs. With his roster starters probably figured out with Irving, Hayward, Derozan, MKG, and Whiteside, depth pieces may be the smarter play

Denver Nuggets
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Dwayne Dedmon (absolute sweetheart deal at 2.45 mil for 2 years roughly)
o Andris Biedrins (vet min, another sweetheart deal)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Carlos Boozer?
o Jarrett Jack?
• Implications – Massive resigning luck on his non-scoring bigs will let Kipke keep his major rotational bigs. He has no cap space with Steph, Melo and Monta all on big deals.

Houston Rockets
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Fran Vasquez – up to 2 mil from a vet min, not sure if Nolan will accept or decline and try to re-up at a vet min
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Eddy Curry
o Blake Griffin
o David Lee
o Rajon Rondo
• Implications – Well this one is quite unfortunate for Nolan. The biggest need is to retain Blake Griffin and I don’t think Nolan will get too cute with his offer. Blake is an absolute beast and is in his prime at 27. He will probably get the full max or very very close to it. The other big Q is Eddy Curry. Still an absolutely elite big butt, still putting up insane numbers. Still a flat A rebounder. But he is 34. If he does not retire (he very easily could, IRL he retired in 2013 in China, then made a miraculous comeback in China for the 18-19 season), how much money is he worth and what contract length do you give him? I say, give him a lot of years and hope he retires early.

Minnesota Timberwolves
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Giannis Antetokounmpo (rookie max, well deserved)
o Eric Bledsoe ($4.95 mil one year, pretty great number considering his efficiency)
o Ben Gordon (but was declined cuz that’s a fat contract for a lot of years
o Glen Rice Jr (I think this deal is pretty fair but I think he has cap issues with the new max of Giannis)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o None
• Implications – Looks like everyone wanted to stay in Minnesota. What is with these players and these cold cities of Detroit and Minnesota?!? Anyways, Pankin saves himself about 20 mil in cap space by declining Ben Gordon, Glen Rice, and Dennis Schroder. My guess is he tries to resign Ben Gordon at a cheaper deal, but not sure why he isn’t resigning Glen Rice Jr at a deal less than an MLE. Kat doesn’t need to be resigned for another two years so not sure why we are hoarding about $20 mil in cap space, but maybe Pankin has a master plan here.

San Antonio Spurs
• Valued members who re-signed –
o As Jordo sadly exclaimed, WHY DOES NO ONE WANT TO STAY IN SAN ANTONIO. As the great Stephen A Smith exclaimed about Kawhi, IS THE RIVERWALK NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU?!
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Kendrick Perkins
o Hasheem Thabeet
o TMac (likely retiring???)
o Dahntay Jones
o Iman Shumpert
o Shabazz Muhammad
• Implications – The obvious downside here is more than half of Jordos’ 51 win playoff team is a FA, with a lot of them having value on the market (Perkins, Jones, and Shabazz, a huge upside guy that finally broke out this year). The plus is now $10.5 million under the hardcap so can theoretically be a player in Day 1 on guys $10.5 million or under. And he absolutely has enough cap to just resign his guys to longer deals, or even save some money on some guys. Priority needs to be the Shabazz who was the prize in the TP trade.

Utah Jazz
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Jonas Jerebko – Nice $3 mil for 2 years, should def resign to keep him as a depth piece
Greg Oden – turns out I missed this one originally, resigned at a max, gotta keep him he is a top 3 big, but that tail end of the contract will be interesting to navigate around
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o None
• Implications – Nothing crazy here, Ralph will run it back with his core and will be a hard team. With only 2ish mil in cap, he will have to look for cheap guys to fill out his roster, or will have to bring up some NDL guys

Vancouver Grizzlies
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Diop – vet min 1 mil, what a sweetheart, this guy has given up so much money for the game, props to him!
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Thabo Sefolosha
• Implications – Nothing new here, he will have some major resinings to worry about next offseason with Nurkic, Capela, and Exum up, but he can’t really do anything with his cap, as he is about $600k under the $50 mil mark. I expect him to retain Thabo to a large contract that he could potentially send in a big deal. Maybe a Wade back to Vancouver move?

Vancouver Grizzlies
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Diop – vet min 1 mil, what a sweetheart, this guy has given up so much money for the game, props to him!
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Thabo Sefolosha
• Implications – Nothing new here, he will have some major resignings to worry about next offseason with Nurkic, Capela, and Exum up, but he can’t really do anything with his cap, as he is about $600k under the $50 mil mark. I expect him to retain Thabo to a large contract that he could potentially send in a big deal. Maybe a Wade back to Vancouver move?

Golden State Warriors
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Mike Muscala ($10.6 mil and escalating pretty hard, I would say no, but would try to resign at a reasonable price, he’s pretty solid)
o Matthew Dellavedova ($5.95 escalating to $7.735 mil in year 4, again the price isn’t great, but its not terrible. Would probably say no to re-negotiate, or just take the cap space)
o Mo Speights at $2.4 mil, I would turn down for cap space
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Jimmer?
• Implications – If Clint says no to everyone, he will have about $25 mil in cap under $50 he can use to poach literally anyone he wants. Maybe he wants to form a PF army and grab Blake Griffin. Maybe he wants to take a shot at some young guys available like Steven Adams, CJ McCollum, KCP, Shabazz Muhammad, and/or MCW (def not anyone on the Cavs). Or maybe he will hold off on signing anyone and continue to tank for the ages. Your guess is as good as mine.

Los Angeles Clippers
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Otto Porter (close to the rookie Max but I think you just got to lock him down. He is super efficient and Stock to TO positive)
o Vucevic (essentially a rookie max – surprised to see what he does there
o Dejuan Blair ($9 mil holy over pay probably a decline)
o Eric Goron (about $3 mil 2 years, not bad, but I’m not sure he is even good)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Ben Mclemore? He didn’t play but he is young and has good ratings
• Implications – Big question is will he resign Vucevic at what he has asked for or will he get cute? He doesn’t have cap space to sign anyone else, so my guess is he will probably just accept and not get cute, but who knows. If he loses Vucevic, he has all of his picks still so could just sell Drose and go into a full tank.

Los Angeles Lakers
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Serge Ibaka (similar deal to before, probably say no to this one)
o Jonathan Bender the block specialist at a vet min 1 mil)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o CJ McCollum
• Implications – CJ McCollum enters FA as a top young guy that can get buckets (26.2 a game on 46.6% from the field and 41% from 3). GX’s top priority has to be resigning him, as even with turning down some resigning, will only have like $5.8 mil under $50 mil. The question is does he get cute, or does he just give him a max. I don’t know that answer, I think its depending on who has money and who else is available. I’d throw him a bag.Tricky to use an RFA here because Wiggins expires next year, RHJ and Portis the year after, and Poet; and Ellenson after that, so if he wants to use an RFA this year, will have to think about those other guys.

Phoenix Suns
• Valued members who re-signed –
o No one
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o No one
• Implications – Tyler got himself into a similar situation as Scoops. With 9 guys on this roster and I believe one NDL guy, he is above the hard cap at 85,136,618. Even buying out his NDL guy will not let him get under the hardcap. He can either sell one of his big contract guys for slightly smaller contracts (most likely to be Eddie Griffin), or to trade away a promising young guy like CoJo, Grant, Chriss, or Winslow for cap space and maybe draft capital. My bet is Eddie Griffin will have a new home.

Sacramento Kings
• Valued members who re-signed –
o No one
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o MCW
• Implications – Tough spot for Jesse as he won’t be able to resign MCW unless he frees up cap or MCW takes a crazy paycut (Jesse has barel less than a mil under the hard cap). The big three headed monster of Yao, Boban, and Lamarcus take up a ton of cap, and throw JWall on top of that. Luckily, he has solid NDL PGs in Tyler Johnson and one of the Harrison twins waiting in the NDL for that spot

Seattle Supersonics (Supersadness)
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Nikola Mirotic (nice $3 mil deal)
o Von Wafer (6.5 mil, likely wont resign)
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o Anthony Bennett (surprisingly pretty solid)
o KCP (the big asset in the JWall deal)
• Implications – If Nick turns down his two re-signings, he will have about 12.3 mil in cap to sign anyone. Watch out if he poaches someone close to a rookie max for just under a rookie max. His big priority is likely to resign KCP, potentially resign Bennett, and grab a solid role player to flip in classic Nick fashion.

Portland Trailblazers
• Valued members who re-signed –
o Jeremy Lamb - nice 2 year deal sub MLE for a scorer
o Thomas Robinson - not the worst contract but declined for cap space likely
o Alex Len - nice 2 year deal sub 3 mil
• Valued members who didn’t re-sign
o None - maybe Terrance Ross?
• Implications – Quady will only have like $5 mil in cap space under $50 mil, so not much he can do. Will be tanking pretty hard next year, and will likely try to flip Lamb and Len to be even worse. How bad can they be with Dwight Howard at his level? Well, if they continue to trot out Mo Wil as a starting PG, probably pretty bad

My big takeaway is that this is a super interesting FA class with a mix of instant impact vets, but also more guys coming off their rookie deals than a typical free agency. My biggest question is where do those teams with massive cap space gravitate towards, the guys that will make the instant impact, or these young guys who will have more value as time progresses? Another fun note is that no one has used an RFA so far, which will be the second year in a row if that continues.

That's all I got, embrace debate, good luck to everyone still in the playoffs, good luck to everyone in the draft lotto, and most importantly, Go Cavs (forever and always)

[mantypas/CavsCzar]

I just realized I forgot Portland, will update tonight or tomorrow with them

[quady]

I just realized I forgot Portland, will update tonight or tomorrow with them

You don’t need to - we’re horrible

[Clinton]

Nerlens?
Adams?
McCollum?
Blake getting what he wants?

Or

Tank Train

Find out on next weeks episode of S L N

[Clinton]

Nerlens?
Adams?
McCollum?
Blake getting what he wants?

Or

Tank Train

Find out on next weeks episode of S L N

Also Hardaway and Thabo but who knows?!

[Tyler]

Never fun reading an article and to find out your team is over the hard cap

[Wes]

This was helpful to get an initial list of poachable guys!

[Derek]

Never fun reading an article and to find out your team is over the hard cap

I'll take Jokic into my cap space for ya!

[SWAMP STEVEN]

Stop laughing at Boris. He can hear you, with those comically large ears

[SWAMP STEVEN]

This was comprehensive & legit very helpful thx man