The Sixers, Nuggets, Nets, Thunder, and Lakers have the most cap room still available, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders details. In addition to those five clubs, the Timberwolves, Suns, Jazz, Celtics, Pacers, and Bucks also have some wiggle room remaining. While some of those clubs could use that cap space to try to sign a free agent like J.R. Smith or Lance Stephenson, I’d expect many of those teams to stay well below the cap throughout the year. Remaining $10-15MM below the cap would allow a team to accommodate a mid-season salary dump, potentially picking up a draft pick or two in the process.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the NBA:
- Larry Sanders, who has been working out and is considering an NBA comeback, may be willing to play for a minumum-salary contract, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (via Twitter). It remains to be seen whether a team will take a flier on the former Bucks big man.
- Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders identifies a few players who will be under pressure to perform in 2016/17 due to big new free agent contracts or roles that changed as a result of other players’ deperatures.
- Former Louisville guard Russ Smith, who appeared in 15 games for the Grizzlies last season, has accepted a $1MM contract offer from Galatasaray, according to international basketball reporter David Pick (via Twitter). Mete Budak of Eurohoops pegs the former second-round pick’s salary at $850K, so the Turkish team may have included some bonuses in the deal.
- Jesse Blancarte of Basketball Insiders explains why he thinks the NBA’s restricted free agency system has problems, and puts forth some suggestions to potentially improve it. Donatas Motiejunas of the Rockets is the only RFA still on the market this summer.
I don’t see what kind of problems anyone can have with restricted free agency.maybe with 2nd rd’rs and undrafted players being able to reach big pay days quicker then 1st rd’rs.but other then that,the nba has a bigger issue with tanking,and I’m a 6er fan.when you run a competitive business and you have teams losing on purpose,now that’s a problem.teams shouldn’t be rewarded when they lose on purpose.
I agree teams like Lakers and Sixers should not be rewarded for losing on purpose
They should either make it an even lottery chances,or even reverse them.I bet nobody would tank if being tge worst team also gave ya the worst chances.every team would be motivated to win all 82 games.and if you add 1 of the top players to a 9th seed,they can go from 9th to chip contender.