Perhaps the most interesting team-building exercise is being held in Philadelphia, where the Sixers added two high-quality veterans to The Process on Saturday. J.J. Redick signed a 1-year, $23 million contract while Amir Johnson joined at one year and $11 million. The Sixers still have plenty of space left should a good young player come available or a team need a cap space dumping ground.
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Philly has an opening in a weak East. Three 2017 playoff teams -- the Hawks, Bulls, and Pacers -- are at serious risk of falling out of the bracket. The only outside team who will be penciled into the postseason by just about everyone is Miami, based on their epic run in the back half of last season.
More importantly, the Sixers’ fun factor is going to rachet up. Joel Embiid is a showman, and he’s going to milk Redick’s exploits for all that they are worth. Johnson is the perfect frontcourt get -- he can teach the dark arts of post defense and set a strong example in terms of hard work and playing your role.
I still don’t know about that Nerlens Noel trade, and the jury is out on Ben Simmons in the NBA, but hey: The Process is going pretty well.
Check out our NBA free agent signing tracker and our NBA free agent and trade rumor tracker.
Andre Iguodala announced late Saturday he’d remain with the Warriors. He ended up with a three-year, $48 million deal. He played free agency perfectly.
The Jazz kept Joe Ingles on a four-year, $52 million contract. To casual NBA fans, this will seem outrageous. It’s not.
The Rockets continue to stockpile wings. Houston grabbed P.J. Tucker on a four-year, $32 million deal. The Rockets can sign Tucker to the mid-level exception with that contract, or they can work out a sign-and-trade to preserve the exception.
Meanwhile, Nene re-entered the market once the Rockets realized that due to the Over-38 Rule they couldn’t give him the four-year contract they had promised.
Most Unfortunate Free Agency Sales Pitch Prop of the 2017: these Clippers t-shirts that implicitly compare Blake Griffin to Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, and Gandhi.
Biggest shoes left to drop: Hayward isn’t going to decide until July 4 or so. Paul Millsap’s options are narrowing, so we might hear a decision Sunday. Kyle Lowry is probably heading back to Toronto, and that deal may come down at any time. George Hill’s market is in real flux -- the point guard glut really hurt Hill and Lowry this summer. After those guys ink up we’ll be turning our attention to the RFAs like Otto Porter and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and the lower-tier unrestricted guys.
LeBron laments the individual max contract. Note that the union of which LeBron is a leader did not fight the individual max very hard (if at all) in the recently signed collective bargaining agreement.
And finally: it’s quite sad that Serge Ibaka had to release a statement to refute rumors he’s older than he’s believed to be.
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