As soon as the NBA free-agency window opened yesterday at 6 p.m. EST, it left NBA fans in a daze.
In total, over 30 deals were given out on Friday. Additionally, multiple sign-and-trade deals sent even more players to new destinations. Amid this flurry of deals, there was bound to be some teams overpaying for talent, but these three deals take the cake.
It wasn’t a surprise that the Trail Blazers wanted to extend Jerami Grant.
Just a week ago, Grant was reportedly happy in Portland, and there was plenty of reason to be. First, it’s his home state, and second, Damian Lillard seemed to be committed to the Trail Blazers and was optimistic the team would trade for another star.
Well, just a day after extending Grant to a supermax, Lillard has requested a trade.
This puts the Trail Blazers in an interesting situation. Extending Grant was a move that made sense if Lillard were to stay on the team despite the fact they heavily overpaid him. Now that Lillard has requested a trade, the Blazers have essentially overpaid Grant for no reason.
Once Lillard leaves Portland, it makes the most sense for the Blazers to start a rebuild; after all, they have the tools to do so. In this year’s NBA draft, they took Scoot Henderson third overall, and in last year’s draft, they took Shaedon Sharpe seventh overall.
But with this Grant contract on the books for the next five years, starting a total rebuild became even more difficult.
Had the Blazers waited just a day, Grant would likely still be on the table for them to sign. But instead of signing him to a supermax, they could have easily worked a sign-and-trade deal for him to assist in their rebuild.
On the topic of a Grant sign-and-trade, the Blazers are already working on a deal to trade Grant to another team following Lillard’s request for a trade. However, a trade involving Grant will be difficult, considering how much they paid him.
Overall, the Blazer’s confusing choice to win versus rebuild just got easier considering the news about Lillard. However, extending Grant to a supermax could haunt them in Portland for the next five years.
This signing by Houston is the perfect example of how not to utilize your money in the NBA.
Heading into free agency, the Rockets had the most money to spend in the NBA, with $60.9 million. Luckily, after this VanVleet deal, they have roughly $20 million left to spend.
Despite this, signing VanVleet does not make sense, looking at the Rocket’s roster.
First, the Rockets drafted guard Amen Thompson fourth overall in the NBA draft. While Thompson has the height and athleticism to move to the small forward position, his skillset won’t be fully displayed. This change could negatively affect Thompson’s development moving forward.
Next, you have to consider the makeup of this Rocket’s squad. The Rockets have ten players under 25 and finished as the second-worst team in the league this past season.
While the team could undoubtedly use some veterans, the Rockets had better options to sign.
Currently, Donte DiVincenzo, Russell Westbrook and Lonnie Walker IV are available to sign. These players would have provided that veteran leadership similar to VanVleet on much cheaper deals.
Signing VanVleet also takes the Rockets out of contention for the much deeper free agency class next season. While they will still have a projected $32,962,409 to spend next year, they are still interested in signing multiple players this free agency, which could take that projected number down to roughly $12 million.
The situation doesn’t improve when you consider Jalen Green would be due for an extension. Green could easily eat up the rest of that cap space, considering he’ll want a max contract extension.
Ultimately, VanVleet is a great player. However, he is not worth being the third highest-paid point guard in the league on a team that needs to develop its players.
Bruce Brown seemed to be the prize of this year’s free agency class.
With names such as Kyrie Irving and James Harden headlining this year’s free agency class, no name got more attention than Brown’s. A laundry list of teams was interested in signing him, including the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The addition of Brown is a good one for the Pacers, but not for the price tag.
Albeit the bidding war on Brown didn’t help the Pacer’s case in getting him for a good deal, but the Pacers aren’t in the position to contend for an NBA championship. So there was no reason to overpay Brown, whose services would help a contender much more than the Pacers.
Last season, the Pacers finished as the 11th seed in the East, one spot away from the play-in tournament. While Brown does push the needle for the Pacers to make the play-in next year, this team, as it stands, is not good enough to make serious noise in the playoffs.
On the bright side, this deal does give the Pacers some cap flexibility in the future, and the potential to flip Brown next season for more assets is undoubtedly on the table. If Brown got this amount of attention during free agency, he’ll get the same amount if the Pacers decide to trade him.
These three deals may have raised eyebrows, but only time will tell how they truly impact the league and the teams involved.
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