The 2022 NBA free agency period opened at 6:00 PM ET on Thursday, and as usual, there was a flood of signings that rushed in right away. Do you think maybe these teams and players/representatives communicated a bit before they should have? lol So stupid, these sticky little rules that aren’t really and can’t be enforced.
Anyway, nobody cares about that. To the signatures. Here are the winners and losers from the opening day of free agency.
Please check the opt-in box to confirm that you wish to subscribe.
Thanks for signing up!
Monitor your inbox.
I’m sorry!
An error occurred while processing your subscription.
Winner: Jalen Brunson
Brunson got paid. The Knicks reportedly gave him a four-year, $104 million contract. For a guy who was taken in the second round in 2018, this is a windfall. Good for him. He deserves it. We’ll see how Brunson does without Luka Doncic taking up all the attention on defense. But either way the bag is protected. Brunson is set for life, and the icing on the cake is that he will be playing for his father, Rick Brunson, who recently accepted the assistant coaching position with the Knicks.
Loser: New York Knicks
Look, good for Brunson, but I just don’t think he’s a good enough player to commit that kind of money for the next four years. From where I sit, unless the Knicks, who are likely to throw upwards of $50 million at Mitchell Robinson in the coming days, somehow manage to turn around the star trade they’ve been pursuing for the last decade or so, they pretty much just signed up for mediocrity.
Brunson, instantly becoming New York’s best player (yes, he’s better than RJ Barrett), can’t really be enough as anything more than the third-best player on a real championship-contending team. title, and even that may be small. The Knicks also signed Isaiah Hartenstein for $16 million over two years, which is good. He will be a good backup center. But nothing to move the needle.
At the end of the day, to go out and move all the pieces they moved to clear the space they did to end up with a non-All-Star as a signing bonus, that’s a waste.
Winner: Nikola Jokic
The dude signed the biggest contract in NBA history. Five years, $264 million. He will make an impressive $60 million in the final year of the deal. I don’t know what else to say. The man won. So did the Nuggets. Jokic is great.
Loser: Brooklyn Nets
It wasn’t free agency. technically, it hit brooklyn, but on thursday kevin durant issued a trade request. With Durant gone, Kyrie Irving will likely follow. The networks that were supposed to compete for championships for the foreseeable future just got blown up.
Now, I will say that this could actually turn out to be good for Brooklyn. They’ll get a king’s ransom for Durant, which will include at least a few winnable players in addition to future draft capital, as the Nets have no incentive to book because they owe a boatload of future picks to the Rockets for the James Harden deal. Durant wants to go to Phoenix. If they somehow get Devin Booker, it’s home run time. But I doubt it.
If the Nets convince the Lakers to give up multiple first-round picks, or even just one if Russell Westbrook returns to Brooklyn, for Irving, that would be even more capital that they could pack up and move for more an All-Star Game. They still have Ben Simmons. This might not end so badly.
But for now, the Nets are about to lose Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden within six months. Brutal.
Winner: Philadelphia 76ers
James Harden has yet to sign his new contract, but he apparently agreed to give the Sixers enough annual salary to afford PJ Tucker, who they signed for just over $33 million over three years. That’s a big result. Tucker will seriously elevate Philly’s defense and fit in perfectly as a corner shooter for Tyrese Maxey and Harden with drive and shots. Throw in De’Anthony Melton, who the Sixers took on draft night from Memphis at No. 23, and Danny Green, and the Sixers have a very nice offseason.
Winner: Bradley Beal
Beal also signed a huge extension with the Wizards: five years, $251 million. I’m still betting he’ll be traded before this contract expires, but by signing with Washington, who owns his rights to Bird, he’s guaranteed himself a fifth guaranteed year, which will equate to about $57 million more in his bank. It goes with him even if he is traded. I’d bet good money that Beal will have his cake and eat it too, ending up as a contender while also signing the biggest deal possible.
Loser: Washington Wizards
They should have traded Beal a long time ago. There’s no way this team can compete for anything other than the bottom of the playoffs with Beal making that much money. He just isn’t a 1A championship. He honestly might not even be enough of a #2 considering how deep the talent is in the league right now. Washington should have a package of assets right now for Beal.
That’s what the Spurs did after Kawhi Leonard. They tried to win with DeMar DeRozan — a pretty good Beal comp — as their best player instead of committing to a rebuild. They finally came to terms with reality and recently traded Dejounte Murray to the Hawks for a bunch of first-round picks, signaling a new beginning. Perhaps Washington will eventually come to the same conclusion with Beal. They certainly should. But until then, they’re paying Beal and Kristaps Porzingis just $80 million next season. Good luck with that.
Winner: Portland Trail Blazers
I’m not sure if I like Anfernee Simons more than Jalen Brunson. I think at this point I’d take Brunson because he’s a playoff defender. But it’s close. So why do I consider the $100 million Portland gave Simons over four years a win, but the $105 million the Knicks gave Brunson over the same time period a loss? Simple: Simons shouldn’t be the Blazers’ best player. He has Damian Lillard for that.
Frankly, Simmons shouldn’t be the Blazers’ second-best player either. They just traded for Jeremy Grant. Simmons is a potential future star, but he shouldn’t carry that burden right away.
Then late Thursday night or early Friday morning in the East, the Blazers stole Gary Payton II from the Warriors for $28 million over three years. Peyton is great. Portland fans will love him. He is an elite defender and a special cutter and runner on the floor. He can hit corner 3s. Portland needed to address its defense, and Grant and Payton are two huge additions in that regard.
Winner: Lou Dort
Dort wasn’t even summoned. He had to work his way into the league on two-way contracts. Now he just signed with the Thunder for $87.5 million over five years. Turning into a brick from a defender while vastly improving as a shooter, Dort will never have to worry about money or his place in the NBA again.
Also, kudos to the Thunder for rewarding Dort with that money a year before it was needed. They could exercise the $1.9 million team option they had on Dort this season. Instead, they let him walk out of it to sign a much bigger deal that he can now start right away. Instead of $1.9 million, Dort will make over $15 million this coming season with much more to come over the next half decade.
Winner: Gary Payton II
Like Dort, Peyton was not selected. He bounced around the G-League and played on two-way contracts and was released six separate times from NBA rosters. He finally found a real role with the Warriors last season. He killed him. He now has a $28 million contract with the Portland Trail Blazers. The stuff of dreams come true.
Winner: Devin Booker
$224 million secured over four years. Again, not much to say. The man is full of shit. I don’t think Booker will get Kevin Durant. If he does, it wouldn’t be the worst thing for him to go to a Nets team that will still be pretty good this year with whatever they get back for Durant with plenty of picks to make him even better in the coming years, for to build on Booker. Life is good.
Loser: Golden State Warriors
Golden State lost Gary Payton II to the Blazers. It hurts. Payton has been so great in his role for the Warriors, who were already thin on perimeter defense even when they had Payton. Golden State is deep in the repeater tax. It just decided it couldn’t justify paying Peyton that much money given the huge tax implications for every dollar they spend. You wonder if they end up losing Kevon Looney for the same reason.
If Golden State decides they can’t afford both Looney and Peyton and chooses to focus on Looney, I’m not sure I agree with that decision. Looney has been fantastic for the Warriors. There is no way they can win the title without him. But they chose James Wiseman. Looney, through that lens, is more replaceable on the Warriors’ roster than Payton. I’d stick with Peyton and count on Wiseman to start earning his money.
Reasonable minds may disagree with this position, but either way, everyone can agree that losing Payton is a big loss for Golden State.
Winners: Ja Morant, Karl-Anthony Towns
Morant signed a rookie max extension with Memphis for five years and $193 million guaranteed. Morant has the potential to earn up to $231 million over the term of this contract based on incentives. cities…
Add Comment