What is krack A lack in hardware knocks. So listeners, I am Damna
Valley coming at you with another solo podcast. Here, figure it out,
go through some stuff, deep dives into fields and NBA free agency that I'd
already done ranking the best twenty twenty two NBA free agency signings so far.
I'm gonna start there. We will do the worst as well. I don't
want people to get ticked off at that. I'll try and explain my criteria
very quickly before we get started. If you're watching this stumbled upon this,
please throw us that permanent subscription, whether it's on YouTube or you're listening to
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community. And if you're on YouTube, smash that like button in addition to
subscribing, and also comments so we can break the algorithm and just and I'll
reiterate this every time we do something. I appreciate every single person who watches
listens, returns, subscribes, part you all times, Infinity. Let's get
into this though. So my criteria for this was from the perspective of the
team, and I feel like it's important to note that I'm not trying to
be like anti labor here. I think every player is either worth exactly what
they're paid or underpaid. The market for them is what was offered. So
that being said, there are when the market either maybe they accepted less on
their own accord, maybe I think that the market undervalued them in general.
That's why I'm viewing this. I'm all. I'm looking at it through which
team's got the best value for the money that they've spent, and I factored
sometimes in length of it whether this team and player options to help with the
tiebreakers. I feel like I'm gonna have to get into the criteria a little
bit more when we do the worst contract one. But that's just from where
I'm coming to give you a sense of where I'm coming from. The other
thing to note here as we go through this is that I'm not gonna include
just minimum signings because it's really difficult to miss on those unless you're signing DeAndre
Jordan and you're the Nuggets. I thought that was bad. Or the Miami
Heat sending a delegation to go recruit you're doing as has them, I thought
that was pretty funny. So like the Bulls getting going on draw gets just
an example, or even getting Andre Drummond with an unspecified exception. I don't
know whether they use the bi annual their mid level yet. It hasn't been
to the best of my knowledge. I left those out and tried to leave
for the most part out one year deals in general as well. With that
in mind, though, there are eight of them that I came up with,
and I ranked them because rankings are fun. Let's do this. Number
eight Isaiah Hartenstein New York Nicks contracts was for two years and sixteen million dollars.
I really hope Nick Sands watched this because the worst contracts slot, you
know, video is not slash podcast, whatever it is, is not going
to be kind to them. Unfortunately, I don't know that enough people know
how good Isaiah Hartenstein was last year. He's a very solid rim protector.
His footwork on defense could be a little bit quicker, but he was one
of the best statistically rim protectors in the NBA. Opponent shot forty seven point
five percent against him at the basket. That was the best mark a one
among one hundred and sixty three players who contested at least one hundred and fifty
rim times. That's a big deal. I really like him though for what
he brings on offense. He's one of the better passing bigs on the move.
He's not super and I've received pushback from this. He's not super explosive.
He's not going to have these these highlight dunks. But he can finish
above the rim like it's catch and finishes right there. So he is a
threat when he's getting into the lane. But there's also some variability to his
offensive game if you're going to use him as the screener or just look for
him on dives like he has a nice little push shot or floater, whatever
you want to call those. He had almost fifty nine percent of them on
nearly one hundred pertemps with the Clippers last year. He also did explore three
point range. Canned fourteen of his thirty three pointers last year. That's forty
six point seven percent. And I think when you look at him what he
does for New York, the big man rotation could get a little bit crowded.
They did wave Tosh Gibson. I don't think that Tips is ever gonna
want to play Randall on toping together, but it's something that Nick should explore.
This is the pathway to them, not you know, going with the
traditional center or rim prodector I guess, while then spacing the floor around everybody,
because I think he has more three point volume to explore. To get
him in two years and sixteen million, I think was a steel. I
thought he was going to get probably like nine or ten a year on average.
So to get him for less than that was a good job by the
Knicks. I honestly would have him higher if I could guess what playing time
he was going to get. Even with Toash Gibson gone, you have Jericho
Sam's, Julius Randall, Mitchell Robinson and Obi Toppin, so I could see
him playing more of just this like spot role. Let's get in at number
seven. Dante DiVincenzo the Golden State Warriors. This was not one I saw
coming. You talk about someone whose value is just plummeted two years, nine
point three million dollars. There's a player option on that final that second season
they called final like, it's not super short term, there's Probabe just reflects
an extended decline from Dante DiVincenzo that's been fueled, I think predominantly by the
left ankle injury he suffered in during the twenty twenty one playoffs. We're not
that far removed though, from him just capably filling all these gaps for the
Milwaukee Bucks, who went on to win the title without him. But still
I like the idea of someone who can do a bunch of different things,
even if he's not a master of anything. And we've seen the Golden State
Warriors kind of optimize I don't want to say downtron stocks, but just like
Otto Porter Junior's stock was on the decline when he signed a Golden State,
Gary payton Is second was more of sort of this unknown, so they have
experienced sort of rebooting these perimeter players, and I like that for Donte DiVincenzo.
If he can stay healthy and when you're looking at him in his peak,
this is someone who would just sort of shape shift depending on his role.
He can spearhead fast breaks after grabbing defensive rebounds, dart in for passes
from the corners, and scaddle around longer defenders when he's attacking the basket.
He is best served playing off others, but he does have some some like
pick and roll orchestration ingrained into his game. Certainly more so than GP two.
The Bucks did at one time use him as like backup point guard,
and that and he the offense was fine during those minutes even without Attenta Kompo
that year. Anyway, Golden State's defense I think is going to suffer a
little bit without GP two still, but Devincenzo, he's less of an eclipse,
but he provides plenty of functional optionality his hands or agents of disorder.
He can test routine passes and bust up possessions from behind while while shuttling between
both guard spots and some wing assignments hanging within the Warriors rotation will ply demand
that he handles the ball less and is more taking more of those off ball
shooting reps or cuts. I think that's fine for him. He was always
an opportunistic or has always been an opportunistic slasher, and he down forty two
point two percent of his spot up triples on real volume after he was traded
to Sacramento last year. He also shot thirty eight point seven percent on catching
shoot threes in twenty twenty twenty one. So if that efficiency's gonna hold,
this is someone who might see a lot of court time. Maybe if Moses
Moody really busts out, or the Warriors make another addition after recording this,
or if Jonathan Comingo really busts out. I don't think there's a ton of
overlap though with Devencenzo and Comingo, unless you're trying to play position list.
I think he get minutes from DV at the two and the three though,
and that look, that's a big deal without GP two there, and they
even lost Damien Lee, they lost Wancescono Anderson. Their wing options are just
a little bit shallower than they were last year. We don't know what's going
on with Andre Goodal. I think the assumption is that he's going to retire,
so this is this is huge. And you can argue that Deven Chnzo's
more of a wing than GP two, which is why it might be a
better fit. He was a better fit for the Warriors because they were cheaper.
I thought to get him for this isn't even like bi annual exception money.
Basically that's basically what they got him when the first year was the bi
annual exception, which they couldn't spend like for less than the taxpayers mid level,
even if it's for one year, even if you can't afford to keep
him after that season, that's just a really good signing for them. If
he's going to stay healthy is the big one, which is why he's at
number seven, number six. John Wall with the Los Angeles Clippers, I
think some people in two years, sorry, thirteen point three million dollars,
that's the taxpayers mid level deal throwing the entire mini mL at Wall is not
without risk for the Clippers. He has knee and it kills injuries in his
rearview and is only playing one hundred and thirteen games over the past four seasons.
That being said, Wall's availability or lack thereof, isn't as damning I
think as it initially seems. Last year's absence had everything to do with a
player and team unable to find common ground on his role and nothing to do
with his physical health. So there's that. And if you flash forward or
if you flash back to twenty twenty one, Wall was pretty effective through his
forty one games with these With the Houston Rockets, his efficiency from the floor
dipped from beyond the arc. Onto's finishing around the rim wasn't great, but
the physical tools were still there. He maintained his overall on ball acceleration for
which he became famous, and he leveraged that speed into his usual dose of
playmaking trips to the foul line. I think he was averaging like almost six
three throws per game there and then his rim frequency was up. It was
like one of his three highest marks, and it might have helped the lineups
that he was playing playing in with Houston. But the fact that he was
getting there. Go back and watch just some John Wall with the Rockets.
That dude was still really fast. Stepping into this more specialized role with the
Clippers should only help. They don't need Wall to play thirty five plus minutes
or appear in every game they need. They need rim pressure, which he
provides, and an offensive steward for the half court possessions that bogged down or
when they want to get out in transition more which was not It's not necessarily
their forte when you're running an offense through Kawai Leonard. That's not a bad
thing, but it just makes them more dynamic. Wall can help fill all
those gaps. I do wonder how he's gonna fare when he has to work
away from the ball more often, but he did play with Bradley Beal.
Let's not remember it's a little bit different when both Kawai and Paul George are
on the court. There could be some like real, real heavy stationary duty
for him, even if they're staggering minutes, which they probably should. I
expect Reggie Jackson's still the start and then wall to kind of oversee a bunch
of units where it only has one of, if not none, of the
Clippers superstars. But then I went back and looked, I'm not really concerned
about his off ball shooting anymore. He shot thirty eight point four percent on
one hundred and twenty five stand still threes in twenty twenty one, and he
knocked down He's knocking down a combined thirty eight point four percent of these looks
overall since twenty fifteen, twenty and sixteen on six hundred and twenty eight attempts.
Like that's not the highest because we're talking about, you know, more
than a half decade now, and he missed a bunch of time. But
six and twenty eight shots is just not nothing. So I actually am higher
on this signing than I was to begin with. It's just really the health
questions and could there be some awkward offensive fits. I don't even have to
worry about what he's gonna look like defensively because of how good the Clippers are
going to be there food for thought. I considered putting him higher, but
six feels when we're looking at the rest of these deals like the right spot
for him. Number five Otto Porter Junior Toronto Raptors two years, twelve point
four million dollars, twenty three twenty four player options. So the second year
has that player option. We know Otto really wanted to be in Toronto,
and he ended up getting less than what amounts to the non tax payers midlevel
exception, so the Warriors could have technically paid him more by about a million
bucks over the life of this contract. I can't believe he signed for this
little. I know that he's someone who probably can't, you know, play
more than twenty twenty five minutes anymore, but like he shot thirty seven percent
on threes last year and five point six attempts per thirty six minutes, And
while he doesn't, I think there was this thought when he was traded to
Chicago during that first fifteen whatever game stretched that he had some real on ball
juice to offer It's also something this podcast talked about when he was on Washington.
I thought it might be there. It's clearly not there. That's fine.
The Raptors don't need that. And that's in part why I love this
signing for them is he's another dude who stands between six seven and six nine
with that seven plus foot wingspan. But they have enough creators now with Siakam,
Fred Van Fleet and even Scotty Barnes, and then you have I don't
think people realize how much o Ganna nob and Gary Trent Junior can sort of
cover as these secondary creators. That just makes this an even better fit for
me from my perspective, And I like, you know, when you're trying
to stay with this positionless model, I like that he can really spell anybody
on the defensive end, knowing the lineups that the Raptors like to run out
now under head coach Nick Nurse, where there will probably be moments where Otto
Porter Junior is like the shortest guy on the court or the second shortest guy,
or he's just their de facto two guard. But defensively, like if
you're trying to look at this more from a conventional perspective, whether it's an
Anobe Barnes or Siakam's assignment, like, he can take them. And so
that's basically me saying he can span the two, three, four pretty comfortably,
and he's probably grothy enough to hold up against certain fives if you're going
to switch a ton. So I do think when you're going up against quicker
ball handling twos and threes, it can be problematic for him, but he's
just so long that it'll do in a pinch. I think the only thing
to dislike about this deal is and look, the Raptors needed floor spacing and
Otto Porter Junior qual absolutely qualifies. You probably want to see him take up
that volume a little bit on a per minute basis. He still absolutely works
for what they need on offense. I think the only you know, sticklers
are only going to harp on the fact that there's that player option at the
end, so they're only going to have his non bird rights that prevents them
from resigning him essentially. But like, if he plays really well and opts
out and we know, I already know that he really wanted to be in
Toronto because I think his I can't remember if it's his wife or his girlfriends
from Toronto. They can use their nontax player mid level exception to try and
bring him back. So I don't think this is the end of the world
there, but it could be a one year rental either way. I really
just love to fit here. Number four is a mere coffee of the La
Clippers, someone else who I don't outside of Clippers fans. I don't think
I understand nationally how good he is. I was surprised he only got three
years eleven million dollars. Looks like it's all guaranteed. That's perfectly fine.
I How did no one try poaching him from the Clippers is beyond me.
Everybody wants wings. They have a surplus of wing types, and you could
have offered him the bi annual exception, which was like four million bucks a
year, and that would have been more than this. Do they would they
have matched that they could have because he was a restricted free agent. I
don't know, but I just look some people might sort of glue to what
his role will be this season, which is going to be pretty small when
you look at their wing base. Now they have a healthy Kawai and Paul
George Norman Powell, Marcus Morris Senior, Terrence Mann, and Nick Batoumar all
ahead of him in the wing hierarchy. Let's not forget about Robert Covington either,
and then Head and then Tyler is gonna give ample core time to Reggie
Jackson. John wall I think that's important because we saw me your coffee do
some ball handling last year when the Clippers were decimated by injuries. He ran
some spot pick and rolls. That's in part why I was so high on
him. His defensive workload was decidedly above average during that time. He switched
across the two, three and four spots and guarded plenty of just primary pick
and roll creators. Again, his offensive role was sort of limited, but
that is that's appealing when you're at full strength and you're the Clippers. They
gave him a license to attack. Though he shot fifty three point three percent
on drives, hit fifty four point two percent of his two's overall, but
he also shot nearly thirty eight excuse me percent from three. This is someone
who to me is extremely plug in play, infinitely scalable to any team.
But there might just be like a little bit more of his to offer.
Can he play a heavier on a really good team. I don't know if
we're gonna find out because of how deep the Clippers are, if they trade
Marcus Morris Senior, I could see, which is something that's been bandying around
the NBA ether at the moment. I could see that opening up some time
for him. But even then, like just having so many really good like
two, three, four types, that might limit how much he's going to
play. This is still a steal of a deal for the Clippers, and
I he's twenty five. I still just can't believe someone didn't take a bigger
flyer. Maybe he really wanted to stay in Los Angeles, but good for
them. I broke my exception for number three because I had to break my
rule whatever it is, for number three with a minimum contract on one year.
T J. Warren of the Brooklyn Nets. Look, we don't know
his medicals. He's played in just four games over the past two seasons while
dealing with a left foot injury. I honestly don't care. This is just
like someone who was a legitimate twenty points per game score last time that he
played, and he did so efficiently, and this is Look when you're looking
at it from the nets perspective, which we are. This is a zero
risk, all reward flyer, is what I wrote when I was you know,
in the article that I had on this. It's not because the nets
are imploding painfully and slowly right before our eyes of my dad. But this
is like like bubble t J. Warren was a thing he like, and
that wasn't even that was the best stretch of his career. But his performance
at Disney World wasn't just completely out of left field. He averaged nineteen point
eight points per game while downing fifty seven point five percent of his twos and
forty point four percent of his triples through that entire season sixty seven appearances.
That efficiency, when you're looking at the benchmarks and scoring, was unmasked by
anyone else in the league. No one was basically averaging twenty points while shooting
fifty seven percent on twos and forty percent on threes. That is mind melting.
He also, which probably doesn't receive enough credit now because it feels like
it was forever ago, he routinely guarded some of the toughest on ball assignments
per b Ball Index. Malcolm Brogden of that Pacers team was the only other
player to spend more possessions going up against number one options from the other team,
and he was like doing it. Well. I get that career years
don't always hint at new normals, and again, Warren has missed a lot
of time, but the scoring in twenty nineteen twenty twenty is hardly an outlier,
and both his three point stroke and defense approved immediately upon a coming to
Indian two eighteen twenty nineteen, so I think you could argue that that's not
really an outlier either. His best case outcome it I don't care how unlikely
it is for him to meet it. That it's even on the table for
a one year, one point eight million dollar deal is pretty wild. And
this is someone who's gonna give the Nets, whatever version of them, that
they are either a plugin play shooter because he turned himself into just a forty
plus percent guy from beyond the arc. There's also like the hint of self
creation abilities. We'll have to see how his quickness is and just how his
own ball creativity is post injury. Missing so much time, there's no downside
here for Brooklyn, But really the only downside is if he returns to anything
resembling his previous form, it'll be impossible for them to keep him. They
won't have his bird rights. And that player, that player that TJ.
Warren was the last time he was on the court, is more than a
mid level guy. Like that's someone who's probably getting between fifteen and twenty five
million dollars a year on the open market. And he's still sort of young
enough to where if he remains healthy all year, I wouldn't be shocked if
he got it. I wouldn't predict it, but if his best case outcome
is actualized and he stays healthy, it's absolutely on the table. Number two
Cavan Ludi of the Golden State Warriors. Three year contract, twenty two point
five million guaranteed, twenty five point five million overall. I was flabbergasted that
he was this cheap big man. Markets are always wonky, unknowable entering the
summer. Just even by those standards. This is I termed at highway robbery
by the Warriors. You can see it on the screen if you're watching this,
but I'll read it here as well. Mitchell Robinson got fifteen million annually
from the Knicks. Javal McGee received almost as much guaranteed money from the Mavericks
and a player option on the third year at the age of thirty four,
which he is right now. Mo Bamba is also getting about as much guaranteed
money over the next two years as Kavan Looney's getting over three. How I'm
not sure who needs to hear this, but Looney is more valuable than all
the bigs that I just listed off. And you could cling to the potential
of Robinson and the stretchingess of Bomba if it makes you feel superior. Looney's
still twenty six, and he was just no worse. Think about this,
no worse than the Dubs. Is fourth most valuable player during the NBA freaking
Finals. If you think that's an overstatement, I almost went third, but
you would Steph Curry, you had Andrew Wiggins. Name me the player with
absolute certainty who was more valuable to Golden State during that series. I don't
think that there is one, but I'll leave some wiggle room. If you
really thought Draymond's defense picked up at the end, or you really valued what
you saw from from Kway Thompson during those moments he had I think probably an
understated series defensively at points, even though he looked hobble a bunch that.
Like. I get that the big band market is just sort of unknowable all
the time, but that's wild to me, and I think a lot of
people believe Luney's like the product of the Warriors. This isn't Warriors culture at
work. Everything he does translates to any situation. He's ubiquitous on the glass.
He knows how to navigate tight spaces on offense because of when he plays
with with Draymond and other non shooters. And he really doesn't get enough credit
for his ability to hold up on switches eon away from the basket. I've
seen people comment about how slow he can be, and that's why you wouldn't
give him money. Yes, he's more of a traditional big he doesn't have
all this range, but he holds up really well on switches, and the
data is going to back that up too. Maybe this is a personal choice
by Looney. He won three wings with the Dubs and he's guaranteed a spot
in their starting lineup. But the partial guarantee on year three that suggests this
deal is at least somewhat the byproduct of the market. And if that's the
case truly inarguably shame on the damn market. I can't believe the Warriors were
able to keep Kavan Looney at this price. My best contract of twenty twenty
two NBA free agency so far, though, is Bruce Brown of the Denver
Nuggets. Two years, thirteen point three million amounts to the non amounts to
the taxpayers, made level exception. There were some people that were quibbling,
Oh, they didn't get three years out of Bruce Brown. Look after two
you have early bird rights. If you really want to keep them, it
gets a lot easier to do. So this is like the perfect signing.
And one thing. Some YouTube commenters will be mad about this, by the
way, because they didn't like that I answered a mail back question about the
Nuggets and the tax I liked this because it showed the Nuggets were willing to
spend while they were already not already they had basically exited the tax with the
will Barton Monte Morris trade, and they go back in with this. There's
still time for them to duck it, but the fact that it seems like
they're willing to continue paying it that matters to me. And just so we're
clear, I don't think the I never viewed the Monte Morris Will Barton trade
as an actual salary dump. It was like it dumped salary, but KCP
was I think to the Nuggets probably just as valuable as Barton and Morris combined.
I think people undersell what Morris can do is sort of a game managing
shot creator. You look at his mid range game and Nuggets fans hate Will
Barton. I think a healthy Will Barton still has levels to what he can
do on offense. They didn't need the offense, especially if you believe in
Bones Highland, so that trade they did exit the attacks for a moment.
That clearly wasn't the only reason they made that trade. It was probably just
an incentive. I digress here. Bruce Brown, my god, the Nuggets
really needed just more defenders. They had Aaron Gordon last year guarding all these
smaller players, overworking him into oblivion is what I wrote. He was on
the point of attack way too often. Getting KCP helped that immediately. And
now you add Bruce Brown to that equation. I don't care about his offensive
fit. He's a career twenty nine point eight percent shooter from deep, but
last year he shot forty plus percent on threes, and I don't I also
don't care that seventy percent of those looks were basically wide open. That those
looks he's gonna get in Denver. Nicoleokis is a great passer, so it
was a healthy Jamal Murray, so it is. I think Bones Highlands a
fantastic passer. Two. Also, defenses aren't going to guard him like he's
Steph Curry just because we saw him shoot forty percent from last year. They
want to see if it's real. So he's going to get those same standalone
opportunities in Denver even if it's not real. I'm still sort of enthralled or
intrigued is the word, with what Denver could do with him as a screener.
If they want to look, they could run a picking like an inverted
pick and roll where Nicole Yoka just handling the ball, Bruce Brown is setting
the screen for him. We've seen Brown make nice passes and shots out of
the short roll. There's even some slow it down. I wouldn't try this,
but maybe that's also why you felt a little comfortable giving up a Barton,
even if you thought that he was a net negative for your team,
like he can slow things down and kind of work in the half court and
make passes that way, which is that tertiary creation is something a peak Will
Barton provides. Maybe that's why you also felt comfortable making the Barton Morris trade
sending them to Washington. I don't want to see Brown doing that. If
it's happening a bunch, something has gone terribly wrong, and in Denver,
even if it's strictly during the non Yokis minutes. But he's also like he
can hang out in the dunker spot. He's a fine cutter. And since
because you have Yoki who is a five, but on offense, he is
whatever you want him to be. Brown can be missing his threes or not
shooting well from three, or be a non threat from me on the arc,
and everything's gonna be just fine. On offense. I think there's still
ways that he can contribute there. It's just more important the defensive returns they're
going to be massive. He Brown logged almost equal times against point guards,
shooting guards, and small forwards last season just defending those three positions, like
on a full time basis, all of them qualify. And we saw him
like dabble in these reps against fours and some fives. That's not I mean,
Dever might want to explore it, like when they're running bench units.
Throw Gordon, Jeff Green, Bruce Brown up. I don't know how much
that's like terrible shooting. But if if DeAndre Jordan's really a bust, then
you can have all these different guys sort of switching off of fives. They
don't trust Zeke Nag. It feels like to defend fives too often. But
you could throw those four guys Knag, Jeff Green, Bruce Brown, Aaron
Gord just on the court at the same time. Include Michael Porter Junior for
like, and Zeke Naji's shooter, but include another good shooter, whether it's
a Murray or Bones Highland, and see like what happens there. I just
don't hit. I don't. I'm not sure people understand how malluable outside of
I think Denver and then Brooklyn fans understand what Bruce Brown's gonna do defensively his
malluability. Bruce Brown dramatically increases the variety with which head coach Michael Malone cobble
us together lineups, so there's a chance that he's gonna go down as the
most valuable defender on what ends up being the Western Commerson's best team. Two
years, thirteen point three million dollars. That's a fucking steal in my book.
I hope you enjoyed sort of this quick podcast video on YouTube. Please,
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until next time, and like always, just kissing around these parts. Not
no, I leave it to shout out the one, the only, the
indelible income horrible, incomprehensibly amazing, Frank your h