Throughout the season, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents this off-season. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. This week, we take a look at players from the Southwest Division:
Justise Winslow, Grizzlies, 24, SF/PF (Down) – Signed to a three-year, $39MM extension in 2019
The Grizzlies waited a long time to see what they had in Winslow after acquiring him from the Heat last February. The 25-year-old was injured when he was traded and never returned to action last season. During the summer restart in Orlando, he suffered a left hip displacement, which also caused him to miss the first 25 games this season.
Winslow appeared in 16 games off the bench since returning to action and hasn’t provided much punch, averaging 7.1 PPG and 4.8 RPG with a woeful PER of 5.28. He’s currently sidelined by a sore thigh. The team holds a $13MM option on his contract for next season and Winslow, whose career seemed to be taking off two seasons ago as a point forward, will be hunting for another fresh start this summer.
Gorgui Dieng, Spurs, 31, PF/C (Up) – Signed to a one-year, $1MM deal in 2021
The Grizzlies couldn’t find a trade for Dieng because his contract was too big but after he cleared waivers, he reportedly had at least eight teams interested in signing him. The Spurs, who had just reached a buyout with LaMarcus Aldridge, won him over with a recruiting pitch. Dieng’s popularity as a free agent last week bodes well for him this summer, though he’s currently sidelined by a sore shoulder. Minnesota overpaid him for him in 2017 (four-year, $62.8MM). Dieng’s next contract will probably be closer to veteran’s minimum numbers but he’s still valued as a quality second-unit big.
Boban Marjanovic, Mavericks, 32, C (Down) – Signed to a two-year, $7MM deal in 2019
Boban still has enough star power to land a Goldfish cracker commercial. In another era, Marjanovic might have been one of the game’s biggest draws. Alas, there’s little use for a slow-footed 7’4’’ center the way the game is played today. Marjanovic can still dominate in spurts against certain opponents but those opportunities are few and far between. The gentle giant is always fun to watch when he gets a chance to play but he’s only seen spot duty in 22 games. Hopefully, Dallas or another team will give him at least a minimum deal this summer so he can make a few more commercials with his pal Tobias Harris.
Avery Bradley, Rockets, 30, PG, (Down) – Signed to a two-year, $11.6MM deal in 2020
Bradley started 44 games for the Lakers last season, then opted out of the restart and watched the team win the championship from afar. He declined a $5MM option to stay with the Lakers and signed a two-year deal with Miami to join its guard rotation. That didn’t go well, as Bradley has been injured most of the season. His salary was thrown into the Victor Oladipo trade and he now finds himself on one of the league’s worst teams. It’s hard to imagine that Houston will exercise its $5.9MM option on Bradley’s contract for next season, so he’ll be shopping his services again this summer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
It’s not that hard to imagine the Rockets exercising their team option on Bradley if he can get back to playing at the level he did before. Players with his defensive skills are hard to find, especially at less than $6M/year. They will be far more concerned with re-signing Kelly Olynyk than whether or not they keep Bradley after the season.
Everyone who has such an unfairly low opinion of the Rockets this season hasn’t considered how much the team has been affected by injuries and roster turnover. They have had a full complement of regular players available in only 3 games so far this season, going 3-0. When they were lucky enough to be missing just one of the ten guys in their rotation they have gone 4-7. And when missing two or more of them they’ve gone 6-27.
Everybody has been missing players, robo. The Rockets are bad this year and players have wanted out. Such opinions are in sync with facts and humans get this. You need re-programming or at least fresh batteries.
How about you use your human ingenuity to tell me how many of the other 29 teams have had only 2 players that played in more than 2/3 of their team’s games this season? Because that’s the case with Houston. They’ve played 48 games and rookie Jae’Sean Tate and Sterling Brown are the only guys they have had this season to play in more than 32 games. Who else had been forced to use 16 different starters this season with 9 of them making 11 or more starts?
IDK who carries that data. If anyone does, they are busy with DNPs.
Orlando got wrecked.
Boo Hoo …. the way you talked up the Rockets. And talk down their competition n ex players. You deserve the grief the lol. Man up and enjoy the rebuild. Now you are going to become an apologist, come on now. Next you’ll turn into Marty lol. Enjoy the young guys growth. Rockets have assets as long as they draft well. They will be back sooner than Knicks were.
Rockets have declared that Avery Bradley is a free agent
He still has contract next year
I guess they turned it down… team option.
Winslow is a fine athlete with fine knee-bend and attitude. But in an era of supposed positionless BB, the 1234 could not stay healthy. Got chances but may be a tweener still.
Miami traded him for expirings they rode to the finals! Memphis also got Dieng who did not fit.
Dieng was up for “Worst contract” as soon as he signed in MIN. Now he is widely wanted with that out of the way. Pops gets him in an underpay contract. Nice backup.
AveryB improved his 3pt% but another team did not keep him.
There is a wealth of vet pgs available next year. I see why Bulls made the moves they made at the deadline. They played UT tough tonight, just need a pg (or 2).
If they aim for a younger one first then grab one of the vets as a backup/mentor they could be very good next year.
They will have a lot of cap space and a couple of tradeable players under contract.
I liked Winslow when he showed in Miami. He looked good played D. And was the new kind of wing player we see now. But he hasn’t done much in awhile now. That injury is same one Bo Jackson had. So it don’t look good for him regaining his game. He will have to change and hope he can still compete. Hate to see injuries kill a career. Unfortunately that’s a real part of athletes career. Wishing him the best.