The 17 best NBA free agents still available

We may have finally reached the NBA restricted free agency chaos portion of the offseason. The combination of high-profile restricted free agents and capped out teams may lead to the most prominent qualifying offer acceptances ever.

Three of our top four remaining free agents are restricted. If any of them — Clint Capela, Marcus Smart, or Jabari Parker — took the qualifying offer, they’d be the best players to ever to do so. (Greg Monroe, also on this list as an unrestricted free agent, is the current captain of that ship.)

If such prominent players take the qualifying offer and cash out huge next summer as unrestricted free agents, it may spark a movement toward more young players betting on themselves at the end of their rookie deals. We don’t know for sure that any of the three RFAs will take the plunge. But if they do, it’ll change the math on future decisions just a little, depending on how the bet pays out.

And now, here are the top 17 NBA free agents (restricted and unrestricted) remaining as of July 11. (Note that Carmelo Anthony — likely headed to Houston — is not a free agent yet, hence he’s not on the list).

There’s still no action from the Rockets on Clint Capela. Houston has been too busy losing key wing players to deal with the center position, it appears. The Rockets control everything here as they can match any offer sheet Capela, a restricted free agent, signs. The risk would come if Capela get offended enough to sign the $4.7 million qualifying offer, which would allow him to become an unrestricted free agent in 2019 and really put the Rockets in a pinch.

Capela is a fully modern NBA defensive center who just about any team would be lucky to have, but whom truly fits best with James Harden and Chris Paul in Houston. Houston is quite thin at center without Capela.

Isaiah — who, we remind you, was on the second team All-NBA in 2016-17 and is just 29 years old — still doesn’t have a team. They aren’t even rumors about Isaiah at this point. It’s getting a little dark, frankly. There were lots of losers in the Kyrie Irving trade, as it turns out, but Isaiah lost the most.

Given that it’s now July 11 and the rumor mill has stopped cold, could anyone even be mad at the Warriors if they added him on a cheap deal? If no one else is going to eat the last donut in the break room ...

Smart is a highly intriguing defense-first guard who teams are understandably hesitant to offer a long-term commitment. He shot less than 37 percent from the floor last year ... and that tied a career high. But he’s a good playmaker and a huge pest, so with the right players around him (efficient high-volume scorers), he could be a real boon.

He seems like a good candidate to take the qualifying offer as a restricted free agent if the Kings don’t send over a big offer sheet.

Parker’s injury history has made teams queasy about offering something fat enough to scare off the Bucks, but bad teams often need to take bold risks to turn their fortunes around. It’s a little odd that the Kings sent Zach LaVine a huge offer (getting him paid by the Bulls) but haven’t done the same for Parker. Maybe Parker is just flat-out not interested in the Kings.

The question isn’t whether Wade is going to eventually re-sign with the Heat or go elsewhere, but whether he’s going to eventually re-sign with the Heat or retire. Miami has an odd season ahead due to decisions made last summer — you wonder if there’s still a trade coming from the Heat this offseason — but Wade makes them better.

If you need shooting, sign Wayne Ellington! You won’t regret it!

Harrell and Nwaba are two other restricted free agents trying to find treasure in a strip-mined shipwreck. Both are energy players, with Harrell being much more efficient as a big man and Nwaba having better promise from range as a perimeter player. Harrell is a better bet, if only because he played rotation minutes on a decent team while Nwaba was stuck on the moribund Bulls.

If you ignore the fact that Hood was way worse after being traded to the Cavaliers and refused to suit up for garbage time in the playoffs, he’s still a promising wing who can score and has the tools to be a plus defender. He screams qualifying offer.

The Rockets could help make up for the losses of Trevor Ariza and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute if they could land Cunningham on a small deal.

The Warriors’ restricted free agent is expected to be back with Golden State one way or another. They have essentially left a roster spot open for him by signaling they’ll only carry 14 players into the season and all but saying goodbye to David West and Nick Young. But since nothing has happened, he’s on this list. Good young wing who has watched the best in the business up close for a few years now.

This is such a pity.

Monroe has apparently not yet reached the “just give me a couple million and I’m there” phase of his career, or else he’d have already signed with a playoff or playoff-adjacent team. What’s the deal here?

Crawford has recently been linked to the Sixers, and I love that idea. The Bucks seem like a beautiful potential landing spot, as well. Or the Wizards. We need more Jamal Crawfords.

Since it doesn’t look like the Clippers are invested in keeping Wallace given other additions, he’d be a highly underrated pick-up for another club. He’s a big grinding point guard who can’t shoot, but gets to the rim and defends hard.

Ferrell is another strong back-up point guard candidate, though he’s small and a shooter. It sounds like Ferrell will end up back with the Mavericks eventually, but if he’s on the table for the taking, someone should take him!

FREE BEBE!