Royal Roundtable: Day One Free Agency Grades

After one day, countless deals, and over a billion dollars handed out in contracts, the first day of free agency is officially over. Fred VanVleet was the only max deal of the day, Jerami Grant got paid the big bucks to stay in Portland, and Bruce Brown secured the bag in Indiana, while the Kings acquired Chris Duarte from the Indiana Pacers, re-signed Harrison Barnes and Trey Lyles, and brought Sasha Vezenkov over from Europe.

We got the crew together to answer a few questions about the last few hours:

What was the best deal handed out on day one of free agency?

Tim: I hate to say it, but the Lakers performed extremely well despite their limited spending. Taurean Prince was a fantastic get with the bi-annual exception (2 years, $10 million), but Gabe Vincent was an even better acquisition at 3 years, $33 million. He’s a talented point guard who’s an upgrade from the Westbrook/Russell disaster of last season, and the Lakers should have an upgraded lineup across the board.

My runner-up would probably be Seth Curry and the Mavericks, as they also acquired him for the bi-annual exception. I think we’ll see quite a few additional role players sign for smaller-than-expected deals in the coming days.

Tony: I love what the Phoenix Suns are doing with limited cap flexibility around their stars. More specifically, Yuta Watanabe, Keita Bates-Diop, and Drew Eubanks. I’d have been thrilled if Monte McNair filled out the end of his rotation with those guys.

They also retained Cameron Payne, Josh Okogie, Damion Lee, and signed former King Chimezu Metu. I’m not a huge Metu believer, but this haul feels like a very solid roster for what amounts to near-league-minimum salaries. 

Brenden: I’m with Tim when it comes to the Lakers moves. The Prince singing seems like a value deal for them, but it’s primarily Gabe Vincent’s three year, $33-million deal that really stands out to me. LeBron James and Anthony Davis were desperate for spacing at times last season. Vincent is obviously elite in that aspect, but I thought his decision making and space creation in the pick-and-roll took a substantial leap last season. I thought Vincent would make more than this.

Also, quick shoutout to Keita Bates-Diop going to Phoenix on a two-year, $5-million deal.

Akis: Yes, the Lakers and Suns did have good days yesterday, but I think the deal that has the chance to be the best one signed this offseason was the 4 year, $54 million deal the Pelicans made for Herb Jones.  Herb will be entering his third year, and was a legit All-Defensive guy from his rookie year.  If he can get his 3P% to to even just 35 or 36%, that’s a steal for a long, defensive minded wing.  Every team wants one of these guys, and the Pelicans locked him up for not much at all, especially considering the cap increases that will play out over the next few years with the new television deal.

What was the worst deal handed out on day one of free agency?

Tim: There’s no question in my mind that Jerami Grant was the worst acquisition . Yes, Fred VanVleet is making approximately one billion dollars per year, but Houston also needed to spend the cash and they at least got a veteran ball-handler to lead their young guys. Meanwhile, Portland doubled down on mediocrity by locking Grant into a five-year, $160 million contract, and that was just before Damian Lillard demanded a trade. Grant is a solid player, but he won’t be easy to trade on this new contract, and now the Blazers have to motivation to win immediately. Woof.

My runner-up, which isn’t necessarily an overt overpay, is Dennis Schroder to the Raptors for a similar reason as above. Schroder is a massive downgrade from VanVleet, but the Raptors are determined to run it back with a worse squad that wasn’t great last season.

Tony: Tim already mentioned Jerami Grant and yeah, no arguments here. I’ll also throw Kyrie Irving’s new contract into the ring. Kyrie is returning to the Mavericks on a 3-year, $127 million deal, and while talent-for-contract wise it is probably better than Grant, I have zero faith whatsoever that this is going to work out for Dallas in the long-term. If this thing blows up and eventually leads to Luka Doncic’s exit, it’s going to be hard to argue that this wasn’t the most consequentially bad contract handed out this summer.

Brenden: It’s the Jerami Grant deal and it’s not that close. 32-million annually over the course of FIVE year is absurd (and puts the Harrison Barnes deal in perspective). The two-year, $45-million the Pacers gave to Bruce Brown is a massive overpay, but it’s just for two seasons as a veteran connector alongside rookie-deal talent.

I actually really like Grant as a third or fourth best player on a contending team, but you don’t pay $32-million a year for that guy. That contract last until he’s 34, so it’ll be interesting to see how it ages. 

Akis: Everyone has already talked about the Jerami Grant deal, because yeah, that’s the worse one, made even worse by the fact that Damian Lillard has now requested a trade. Who was Portland even bidding against? I think Grant’s a fine player, but paying a non-All-Star $30+ million when you didn’t even make the playoffs last year seems like a terrible decision.

Runner-up goes to the Mavs paying Kyrie Irving over $40 million a year when again, nobody was bidding against them, and your team didn’t make the playoffs with him.  But they’re all in on Kyrie after trading for him last year. I just can’t fathom giving a guy who has proven to be unreliable that much money.

How would you grade Monte’s moves on day one of free agency?

Tim: He has a solid B from me right now. I’m not a huge fan of the Barnes re-signing, even with the high cost of other free agents. We’ll never know exactly who the front office spoke to and what they offered them, but I would have taken Kuzma’s or Johnson’s deal over Barnes’ contract, even though they were much more expensive.

Conversely, I love the Duarte trade, which as of this authoring, has yet to be officially completed. The Kings could be looping this into the Holmes trade, which also has yet to be completed, or they could be working with the Pacers on another deal. Either way, I can’t imagine Sacramento is surrendering much more than a couple of second rounders in the transaction, and that’s fantastic value for a young(ish) guard/wing who showed some real promise in his rookie season. The move also gives Sacramento some flexibility to deal a higher caliber player such as Kevin Huerter or Malik Monk if a major upgrade becomes available.

I’m also happy with the Trey Lyles re-signing (2 years, $16 million), even if it’s a hair over what I would have preferred to pay. The Kings used early bird rights to bring back an important rotation piece, meaning they didn’t sacrifice any cap space in the deal, reducing my concerns about the per-year value to almost nothing. It’s a solid deal.

Bringing over Sasha Vezenkov on the room exception at 3 years, $20 million is also quality execution from the Kings from a cap perspective. They’ll retain their flexibility (around $13.5 million in cap space), and they secured Vezenkov’s bird rights if he’s worthy of another deal in the future.

As the flurry of transactions comes to a close, I have a real appreciation for Monte McNair’s manipulation of the salary cap. The Kings have managed to re-sign two quality rotational players, add two more via trades and signing, and they still have cash to spend. Perhaps most importantly, the Kings will be able to maintain control over all of these acquisitions in the future, as they own the full bird rights for Barnes, Lyles, and Vezenkov, while Duarte will be a restricted free agent when his rookie deal comes to a close. The last piece of the puzzle is what the Kings will do with the space from the Richaun Holmes salary dump, so I’m still in a bit of wait-and-see mode for this free agency period.

Tony: I’m writing this on morning two of free agency, so I’m going to include landing Sasha Vezenkov for 3 years, $20 million to my evaluation of McNair’s free agency moves thus far.

Locking up Vezenkov for 3 years at roughly $6.6 million per year is one of my favorite contracts anyone has signed. I’ll also give McNair back credit for trading a 2nd round pick to the Cavaliers for the rights to Vezenkov in the first place. He nailed this transaction from every angle. I am a huge Vezenkov believer.

I am pretty neutral on the Harrison Barnes and Trey Lyles contracts. They’re fine.

And I love the Chris Duarte acquisition, which appears at least somewhat driven by his on-court familiarity with Domantas Sabonis. Duarte played the best basketball of his career with Sabonis in Indiana, and I think he’s going to have a great year rebuilding his value on this squad.

I’ll give McNair a B for now with a high likelihood that this grade is going to end up higher once we see what else he has cooking. The Kings still have a decent amount of cap space and moves to make. So far, so good. 

Brenden: Vezenkov coming over seemed expected, but it’s still good to see him officially ink a three-year deal that will likely be the room exception and still allow them more flexibility moving forward.

Signing Harrison Barnes to a three-year, $52-million deal looks like better value with each passing contract. I understand the frustration with “running it back” with the same starting lineup, but let’s not forget what that lineup and team last season was able to accomplish. They were one win away from making it to the second-round of the postseason and have a young enough group that expecting internal growth is reasonable.

As for Trey Lyles’s two-year, $16-million deal, that seems like fair value for what Lyles provides. He also made it very clear he wanted to remain in Sacramento during his exit interviews after building chemistry with his teammates on and off the court. I do have some questions about positional overlap between Lyles and Vezenkov, but that could dwindle based on what other deals are made.

I’ll go with a solid B+ up to this point. The Kings still need to find two rotational pieces before this is all said and done. A backup wing and center are essential, with a third-string point guard next up. Still plenty of players yet to be signed.

Akis: Probably a B grade from me.  There haven’t really been any exciting moves for the Kings, but every deal Monte’s made has been reasonable, and the Kings are a better team right now than they were at the end of the season.  However I do think the moves the Kings have made have only raised their floor, not their ceiling.  Sacramento is a deeper team right now, but they haven’t done something where I’d say they’ve taken the team to the next level just yet.  I’m not sure if that move is out there anymore, barring a trade.  But otherwise, solid offseason so far.