Last year, eight players signed one-year deals with NBA teams for at least $1.6MM, as our 2012 Free Agent Tracker shows. There's still time left in this offseason, but with most of the major deals complete, the market for high-dollar one-year contracts appears to have receded.
Chris Kaman scored the best one-year deal in 2012, an $8MM arrangment with the Mavs. He wound up with another one-year contract this year, a $3.183MM pact worth the value of the taxpayer's mini mid-level exception. Still, it qualifies as the summer's third-most expensive one-year deal, according to this year's Free Agent Tracker. The top money-maker on that list, Elton Brand, will receive $4MM from the Hawks this year, precisely half of what Kaman got when they were together with the Mavericks last year.
The Mavs' plan in 2012 was to find talent willing to come together for just a single season, allowing the team to clear cap space for a run at Dwight Howard and Chris Paul this summer. The plan didn't work, and the Mavs have abandoned it, but it's interesting to note that Kaman's deal was the team's only true one-year contract that exceeded the upper reaches of the minimum salary. The rest of the Dallas short-timers were on expiring contracts or de facto one-year deals that included options and non-guaranteed seasons. The Mavs acquired Brand for the final season of his long-term contract through amnesty waivers.
Four players on one-year deals last year made as much or more than Brand, including Nick Young, who signed with the Sixers for $5.6MM. Young's instant walk year didn't go as planned, and he wound up settling this time for a two-year minimum-salary deal with the Lakers. The opposite happened for J.J. Hickson, who exceled on one-year, $4MM contract for the Trail Blazers last year and cashed in with a three-year, $16.15MM deal from the Nuggets.
Below is every player who signed a one-year deal last year worth more than the minimum salary for veterans with 10 or more years of service ($1,352,181).Their follow-up contracts from this summer are also listed. Note that Martell Webster, who had the cheapest deal on the list, is the only player to re-sign with his team, and his new contract is the most expensive of any here:
- Chris Kaman, Mavs, $8MM: Signed a one-year, $4MM deal with the Lakers.
- Nick Young, Sixers, $5.6MM: Signed a two-year, minimum-salary deal with the Lakers.
- Chauncey Billups, Clippers, $4.3MM: Signed a two-year, $5MM deal with the Pistons.
- J.J. Hickson, Trail Blazers, $4MM: Signed a three-year, $16.5MM deal with the Nuggets.
- D.J. Augustin, Pacers, $3.5MM: Signed a one-year, $1.267MM deal with the Raptors.
- Randy Foye, Jazz, $2.5MM: Signed-and-traded on a three-year, $9.135MM deal to the Nuggets.
- Marco Belinelli, Bulls, $1.957MM: Signed a two-year, $5,623,750 deal with the Spurs.
- Martell Webster, Wizards, $1.6MM: Re-signed to a four-year, $21,990,500.
Here's what this year's list looks like, with two-thirds of the entries coming from the Pelicans and Warriors. This year's minimum salary for veterans of 10 seasons or more is $1,399,507, so we'll exclude anyone who isn't making more than that.
- Elton Brand, Hawks, $4MM.
- Al-Farouq Aminu, Pelicans, $3.75MM.
- Chris Kaman, Lakers, $3.183MM.
- Greg Stiemsma, Pelicans, $2.676MM.
- Jermaine O'Neal, Warriors, $2MM.
- Toney Douglas, Warriors, $1.6MM.
ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.