The NBA’s offseason moratorium period ends Thursday, allowing pens to reach paper across the league, and marking the first opportunity for restricted free agents to sign a team’s offer sheet. rival. A restricted free agent could have agreed to the terms since the bell rang at 6 p.m. ET on Friday, as did players on the open market. You can bet Austin Reaves, Miles Bridges or Grant Williams would have responded to a four-year, $100 million opening from, say, San Antonio. But the fact that such an offer sheet could not be officially signed until Thursday, before that player’s starting team then had 48 hours to consider a match, certainly deterred the front offices from getting involved. embark on an aggressive pursuit in this year’s restricted class.
Reaves and Bridges are already off the board. Without that lucrative offer on top of the $56 million over four years Reaves took to return to the Lakers, the Arkansas product was still heading back to Los Angeles. Bridges surprised many league watchers by accepting the one-year, $7.9 million qualifying offer the Hornets had to extend to keep him restricted.
The qualifying offer is usually just a formality, not a dollar amount that most players consider. It does, however, allow for a potential exit ramp for a touted young prospect, should negotiations with his current club go sour, and a chance for someone like Bridges to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent in the year. next. The fact that Bridges missed the entire 2022-23 season after a domestic violence incident that took place on the eve of his originally scheduled restricted free agency last summer, of course, clouds any assessment of his game in terms of contract value.
There was a lot of talk about Bridges pulling multiple offers of around $30 million a year, possibly from the Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons and even the Memphis Grizzlies, before news broke about Bridges’ assault allegations.
A year later, it’s no surprise a similar deal hasn’t materialized for Bridges, who was seeking more than $25 million in average annual value from the Hornets in July, league sources tell Yahoo. Sports. Charlotte and Bridges’ representation was far enough apart in the negotiations that Bridges quickly accepted the qualifying offer in less than 24 hours in free agency. Bridges, who did not contest a felony domestic violence charge in November 2022, could have waited. There is a recent story, like Lauri Markkanen in 2021, of a restricted free agent lingering in the market in the depths of summer and eventually landing a strong opportunity through signing and trading. This may be the end result of PJ Washington’s own restricted free agency with the Hornets, as he also appears far removed from Charlotte in his contract talks.
Bridges and his representatives have gone so far as to ask Charlotte to withdraw the qualifying offer, sources said, to reach the open market now. Washington’s pending negotiations with the Hornets seem a bit more complicated. As Marc Stein reported on his Substack, Washington wants well beyond the $12.4 million mid-tier exception, on the order of four years and $80 million, sources said. The similar contract Keldon Johnson signed with Spurs last summer has become something of a benchmark for rookie extensions for debuting players and second contracts across the league – note that’s the same number Dillon Brooks has taken from Houston. Not all deals are created equal in terms of guaranteed money and various bonuses, but for Washington to get that kind of pay he might have to wait for a chance to sign and trade like Markkanen eventually found with the Riders.
Dallas was the only team to emerge as a real landing spot for restricted free agent forwards. The Mavericks, however, seem more focused on wing defenders than a versatile big man like Washington. The two names most often linked to the Mavericks have been Williams and Blazers forward Matisse Thybulle, after another top target at Brooks signed with Houston.
Turner Sports’ Chris Haynes reported on Wednesday that Thybulle intends to sign an offer sheet from the Mavericks. Dallas, according to league sources, rated Thybulle at a number slightly below the full average level. That salary, however, would be in the range where Portland, on the precipice of the commercial franchise against Damian Lillard, would seem well placed to match a young player who some talent evaluators still have untapped offensive potential. The Blazers also acquired Thybulle at the February trade deadline, when teams typically pursue players they don’t plan to let go, even if their All-NBA center asks for a trade.
Williams doesn’t have a clean road to the Mavericks either. Matching a mid-level offer sheet could net Boston more than $40 million in additional tax payments, but the Celtics would have until the trade deadline to find ways to navigate below that tax threshold. During fall extension talks, Williams was hoping for around $15 million in average annual value, league sources told Yahoo Sports, while the Celtics were more comfortable extending Williams closer to a salary of 12 million dollars. Now, any rival suitor — forgetting Spurs’ exceptional $25 million in cap space — seems limited in reaching Williams in that mid-tier price range. If Dallas or another interested party hopes to pay Williams a number that the Celtics won’t consider matching, they will have to look at signing and trade avenues.
Williams’ situation may not be immediately resolved once the moratorium ends. Signings and trades are never as simple as they seem with complicated salary matching rules and other stipulations, as well as the cooperation required of a team – in this case the Celtics – helping a rival to win over one of their own players and wanting something of value in return.
Despite all the trade smoke swirling around the league last weekend, there doesn’t seem to be a clear next deal to come. NBA staff are still waiting to see what Spurs will accomplish in order to hit the salary floor, which is 90% of this season’s salary cap. There are other ideas in the works like New Orleans looking to move Kira Lewis Jr., sources said, while continuing to assess the market for Jonas Valančiūnas’ expiring contract. Blockbuster talks to move Lillard or Sixers All-Star guard James Harden have not progressed significantly.
Even the hype about Toronto forward Pascal Siakam seemed to die down. The Hawks and Raptors have discussed various concepts for sending Siakam to Atlanta in recent weeks, sources said, but those conversations haven’t generated any progress as of late. Elsewhere with the Hawks, there’s still optimism among league staff familiar with the situation that Atlanta will agree to a contract extension for All-Star guard Dejounte Murray.
The Raptors still have a lot to determine after losing Fred VanVleet to the Rockets. Toronto added Dennis Schröder as a replacement, and the Raptors, sources said, had also expressed interest in Bulls restricted free agent guard Ayo Dosunmu. It remains to be seen if Toronto will pursue further business to overcome the loss of its starting point guard.
The latest restricted free agent on the board is Sixers reserve center Paul Reed. By all accounts, Philadelphia is intent on bringing Reed back and that interest is mutual.