Folks, your winners and losers from night one of NBA 2023 free agency…
WINNERS
Houston Rockets
The Rockets’ plan to pursue Fred VanVleet, Brook Lopez and Dillon Brooks was widely known in league circles long before free agency opened, and Houston landed the first of them on Friday night, guaranteeing VanVleet its maximum of $130 million over the next three seasons. Even though the Rockets failed in their attempts to spend all of their $66 million on cap space on opening night in free agency, they succeeded.
VanVleet was the only recent All-Star to switch teams on Friday. The 29-year-old brings the table (19.3 ppg on 40% 3-point shooting and a 3-to-1 rotational assist ratio over the past four seasons), league experience and the courage it takes to earn more than $200 million in salary as an undrafted player on a young Rockets team that hasn’t won more than 22 games in the past three seasons.
No doubt recent top-three picks Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr., who played with 22-year-old Kevin Porter Jr., the first winger-turned-playmaker last season, will benefit from VanVleet guiding the offense. VanVleet can also mentor promising rookie playmaker Amen Thompson And play alongside him. VanVleet won a title with the Toronto Raptors as Kyle Lowry’s running back partner.
VanVleet will be an extension of new Rockets head coach Ime Udoka’s hard-nosed approach, which demands toughness on defense and smarts on offense. Brooks and Lopez could also balance those scales on a Houston team that needed direction. The Rockets have chosen a path, and VanVleeet is the first step.
Rich Paul, CEO of Klutch Sports
Paul’s list of clients who took offers on opening night of free agency: Jerami Grant ($160 million), VanVleet ($128.5 million), Draymond Green ($100 million ), Trey Lyles ($16 million), Troy Brown Jr. ($8 million). million) and Cam Reddish ($4.6 million). Klutch Sports is also negotiating an extension for Gary Trent Jr.
If Paul’s company earns the standard 4% fee for negotiating contracts, that’s an attractive salary of $17 million. Not bad for a kid selling retro jerseys out of the trunk of his car when he met LeBron James.
More interesting from a sausage-making perspective, reporters made a concerted effort to praise Paul like never before. Where in the past reporters quoted anonymous sources without even mentioning agents, recent years have seen reporters attribute reports of new contracts directly to agents.
For example, Adrian Wojnarowski reported after the clock struck midnight on Friday, “Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers have agreed to a five-year designated maximum contract extension that could be worth up to $260 million, his agents Dave Spahn and Aaron Mintz of [Creative Artists Agency Sports] tell ESPN.”
When it came to Paul, however, he was a partner in the actual decision to accept.
‘Draymond Green and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul have agreed to a four-year, $100 million deal to return to the Golden State Warriors, sources tell The Athletic,’ rival Wojnarowski Shams Charania reported.
Likewise, Chris Haynes reported“Forward Trey Lyles with CEO Rich Paul of Klutch Sports and agent Lucas Newton have reached an agreement to return to the Sacramento Kings, league sources told NBA on TNT.”
Following the same scenario, Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times reported“Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul and agent Josh Hairston have agreed to a multi-year deal for Cam Reddish to join the Lakers.”
There’s no question who’s boss: Rich Paul, CEO of Klutch Sports.
LOSERS
Daryl Morey
The Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations waited months to trade former All-NBA guard Ben Simmons, sacrificing half of the 2021-22 season in a bid to pair another star with Joel Embiid and Morey put on a show welcoming James Harden aboard a private plane following the February 2022 transaction.
Sixteen months later, Harden is seeking a third trade in as many years, and the Sixers have only just touched the Eastern Conference Semifinals cap they set before Morey arrived. Harden is who we thought he was – a mercenary, a slower step and a lower level in the playoffs – not who Morey believed he was.
Now the Sixers face the prospect of turning Harden into a collection of salaries headlining someone like… Norman Powell of the Los Angeles Clippers? Commercially in Harden, Philadelphia can recover the two first-round picks he packed to get the sole MVP, but talent is running out of who Simmons was at the time of the deal (a 25-year-old three-time All-Star) to whatever they will get for Harden is alarming, especially considering the Sacramento Kings have offered Tyrese Haliburton for Simmons, according to Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer.
(The Sixers also dealt Seth Curry in the Harden trade. Curry was an exceptional complementary player for Embiid and just agreed a cash strapped affair of the Dallas Mavericks to help improve Luka Doncic.)
Morey’s fascination with reuniting with Harden, with whom he reached two Western Conference finals during their tenure together on the Houston Rockets, now risks alienating Embiid. The Sixers superstar is fresh off the league MVP award, and his team could take a significant step backwards in their quest to build a contender around him. Embiid still has three years left on his contract with the Sixers, and time is running out.
Boston Eastern Conference Challengers
Not only could the Sixers lose Harden, but the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat could suffer as well.
The Rockets were set to pursue Bucks center Brook Lopez at the start of free agency, and word broke Friday that their offer could top $40 million over two years. Losing Lopez — the Defensive Player of the Year runner-up and a reliable stretch 5 — could cripple Milwaukee’s championship hopes.
The Bucks also re-signed Khris Middleton for $102 million over the next three seasons, tying his schedule to that of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Middleton turns 32 in August and has started just 19 of his team’s last 92 games. This period includes left MCL sprain, left wrist surgery and right knee surgery. The Bucks better be confident Middleton can return to All-Star form because if he declines as a $34m-a-year player And the Bucks lose Lopez, Antetokounmpo could one day deteriorate in Milwaukee.
Similarly, defending Eastern Conference champion Heat lost starting point guard Gabe Vincent to a three-year, $33 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. Fischer’s report that the Cleveland Cavaliers were orchestrating a sign-and-trade deal for the Heat wing Max Strus received this message from Miami main man Jimmy Butler on Instagram: “Tranquility.” The writing is on the wall…or its power.
Miami managed to retain 34-year-old Kevin Love and reunite with Josh Richardson on Friday night, and the Heat remain hopeful that Damian Lillard will trade to the Portland Trail Blazers and head to South Beach. Miami also traded Victor Oladipo’s expiring $9.5 million contract, creating a trade exception for the same amount he could use to get more help. Still, losing two vital members of an already shallow playoff rotation could disrupt the tight chemistry that carried the Heat to the NBA Finals.
Meanwhile, the Celtics have reached an agreement with newly acquired former All-Star Kristaps Porzingis on a two-year, $60 million contract extension that could keep him in Boston through the 2025-26 season. Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens hopes a reliable third scoring option will raise the ceiling on a team led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who have together reached four conference finals and the final of the 2022 NBA. That job may have gotten a little easier if the start of free agency is any indication.
During their championship parade, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone informed the hundreds of thousands in attendance and millions more watching on television that Bruce Brown Jr. would re-sign in free agency.
“You all tell me, is Brucey B going somewhere? No,” Malone asked and replied. “Let’s send this shit back.”
Likewise, Brown told the crowd“I have one more question. One more year?”
It looked like Brown could follow the path blazed by Bobby Portis after winning a title with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. Brown could re-sign with the Nuggets for no more than $7.8 million this season, and a handful deal de main could have guaranteed him a starting salary of more than $12 million in 2024.
Well, the Pacers were willing to offer Brown a two-year, $45 million deal, and with a parade hangover in his rearview mirror, he agreed minutes after free agency opened, tripling his career earnings overnight.
Brown played a vital role in elevating the Nuggets to the top of the NBA mountain, serving as a hard-working all-round defender and outlet for MVP Nikola Jokic both cutting to the edge and swerving off the line. 3 points. His title-breaking comeback at the end of Game 4 of the NBA Finals was the perfect example of the complementary brand of basketball he showed in the playoffs for the Nuggets and Brooklyn Nets.
The Nuggets are hoping second-year winger Christian Braun will take on some of Brown’s 26.5 minutes per game in the playoffs, but they run the risk of losing the difference between contender and favorite.