The last standard restricted free agent on the market this summer, P.J. Washington officially re-signed with the Hornets on Tuesday. With Washington off the board, 47 of our top 50 free agents from the start of the offseason have now signed, including all of the top 24. However, there are still several notable players who continue to seek a new NBA home.
Big man Christian Wood, our No. 25 free agent, is one. We ranked Wood as high as we did due to his scoring and rebounding prowess — he has averaged 18.1 points in just 29.3 minutes per game across the last three seasons, grabbing 8.9 boards per night during that same stretch.
However, it sounds like concerns about Wood’s professionalism and defense have made teams wary about making him any kind of significant offer. A report in July suggested that there may be a disconnect between what Wood thinks his value is and what teams think his value is. If he were willing to accept a minimum-salary deal, he may already be on a roster.
Veteran forward Kelly Oubre came in at No. 27 on our free agent list after putting up a career-high 20.3 points per game in 48 appearances last season. But averaging 20 PPG isn’t the accomplishment it once was. Oubre was just one of 57 players who achieved that feat while appearing in at least 29 games. And of those 57 players, he ranked 53rd in EFG%, so it’s not like he was scoring particularly efficiently.
Oubre still has some value, but after earning at least $12MM in each of the last four seasons, he seems unlikely to approach that mark in 2023/24.
The only other unsigned player on our top-50 list is No. 43 Hamidou Diallo. I’m a fan of Diallo due to his athleticism, rebounding ability, defensive energy, and shot selection (he made 59.3% of his two-point attempts last season). But he has an unorthodox game and may not be a fit for many teams.
Here are some other free agents who didn’t make our top 50 but who will likely receive consideration from NBA teams before the season begins:
Guards
Kendrick Nunn played well down the stretch for Washington last season, knocking down 39.2% of his three-pointers in 31 games with the Wizards. Terence Davis and Jaylen Nowell are among the other available ball-handling guards who can score and shoot a little, though Nowell is coming off a down year in which his three-point rate plummeted from 39.4% to 28.9%.
George Hill, Ish Smith, Goran Dragic, and Austin Rivers could hold some appeal for teams looking to fill out their backcourt with a steady veteran. John Wall is also unsigned, though he has a different skill set than those other vets.
Trent Forrest and Theo Maledon are still restricted free agents, but seem likely to end up on two-way deals.
Wings
There aren’t many solid two-way wings left on the board. Danny Green once fit that bill, but at 36 years old, he’s no longer in his prime. Terrence Ross is certainly capable of playing a rotation role, but his outside shot comes and goes (he made just 29.2% in 2021/22) and he’s not an elite defender.
A team interested in adding a shooter might take a look at Svi Mykhailiuk (who has made 36.0% of his career three-point attempts), Will Barton (35.5%), Anthony Lamb (35.3%), two-way RFA Matt Ryan (37.1%), or Edmond Sumner (37.7% in his last two healthy seasons).
Veteran forwards T.J. Warren and Rudy Gay can score, but don’t offer a ton of defensive resistance, and Gay’s best years are behind him — the 17-year veteran is 37 and is coming off his worst season as a pro (5.2 PPG on .380/.254/.857 shooting).
A club focused on bolstering its wing defense may like Lamar Stevens or Javonte Green. Although they don’t provide much offensive punch, they can bring energy off the bench.
Former top-10 picks like Kevin Knox, Jarrett Culver, Justise Winslow, and Stanley Johnson haven’t generated much buzz this offseason, but perhaps there are teams that believe they can extract value from those one-time prospects.
Bigs
There’s no shortage of veteran centers still available on the open market. Bismack Biyombo, Tristan Thompson, Boban Marjanovic, Derrick Favors, Serge Ibaka, and Gorgui Dieng are among the remaining free agents, and JaVale McGee is set to join them when he clears waivers on Thursday.
A team in the market for a less traditional big man might kick the tires on Blake Griffin or JaMychal Green, who had a modest bounce-back year for the Warriors last season after a forgettable 2021/22 campaign in Denver.
Former first-round pick Usman Garuba could hold some intrigue for a club looking for a developmental project rather than a player who could contribute right away. He’s still just 21 years old.
Defensive shortcomings aside Christian Wood must be the worst damn teammate to still be unsigned.
It’s almost certainly because he’s not willing to sign for the minimum. There are like five teams who have already been said they’d take him on the minimum in a heartbeat.
Prior to last year Christian Wood did not have defensive short comings. He has been labeled with that tag because of last season’s disaster in Dallas. Much of which was not his fault. He is certainly not a solution on defense but he won’t cause the problem either. He’d be ideal for a team that is established defensively but could use some scoring and rebounding help from the front court. Cleveland and Indiana come to mind though there probably are others.
Wood has absolutely always had defensive shortcomings. They’re just exaggerated. People act like he’s the entire reason Dallas’ defense collapsed, but his contest numbers were average for a Center and the Mavs had a better D-rating with him on the floor.
Look up Wood’s defensive rating per 100 possessions. He never posted worse than 113. He did that the last 2 seasons. Before that 110 or lower. He has actually been decent on defense. He’s not Evan Mobley but until last year he was better than average on defense. To be honest for anyone on last year’s Mavericks team to post a 113 on defense they would have to be pretty good at it.
Defensive rating isn’t a great stat for individual defense because it’s so team and situation-dependent. KCP has had a worse D-rating than his team for basically every season of his career, but nobody in their right mind thinks he’s a bad defender. Wood’s problems are A) he doesn’t contest a ton of shots, and B) he’s not good at switching. He’s competent 1-v-1 and in a double team, but he’s a subpar help defender. And if you’re a Center, you can’t be a subpar help defender.
Personally, I’d like him on my Cavs as a sixth man type who can hold down both frontcourt spots on offense, so we could play him with one of Mobley or Allen and give the other a break. We really struggled with only one on the floor last year.
To be fair, their options beyond Wood weren’t much better, so the on/off numbers aren’t too surprising. Get a halfway credible legitimate center in there and you’d see the difference.
From what I’ve read (as limited of a window into things that may be), it doesn’t seem like guys hate him in the locker room or off the court. But his actions on the court are generally selfish, lazy, and not at all conducive to team ball or winning. And he tops that off with some of the worst BBIQ you’ll see, which is the real killer. I guess in some sense that could rub folks the wrong way—it would certainly rub me the wrong way—but it seems to be more of an issue with front offices than teammates. Still, I can’t say I don’t get it.
I do think, though, that there is concern a guy who thinks he’s an All-Star playing lesser minutes on a smaller contract could eventually grow into a team cancer because he doesn’t feel respected.
This is exactly what I meant by his shortcomings being exaggerated. His BBIQ isn’t a strong point, but he isn’t nearly as foolish as you say here. He’s an athletic guy who gets by with his natural gifts rather than by making the right play. But if he were as bad as you’re implying here, the Rockets would never have handed him his previous contract. He can’t be the main Center because he’s not a good defender. He was miscast as that in Houston and Dallas, so his flaws were magnified. In Detroit and NOLA they weren’t. That’s really all there is to it.
Oubre is the most overrated player in the league, I swear… dude is an inefficient score-only wing with zero playmaking chops and negative defensive ability. He’s valuable on a minimum contract as a bench guy who can add a bit of punch, but that’s about it.
I’m not a heat fan but Oubre and Wood are gonna sign with the heat once the dame trade happens or not
Oubre and Wood are the anti-thesis of Heat culture, nor can I see them ever buying into it. But never say never, I guess.
Wood should sign with Atalanta. Oubre should sign with the Knicks. Denver should sign javonte Green and ish Smith. Spurs should sign Danny Green
Warren, gay, boban Stanley Johnson and… Culver deserve another chance
A team that needs 2 front court players could sign Wood to score and rebound and Usman Garuba to play defense. Garuba doesn’t score much but is a dominant defender and rebounder. Oubre is a project for the right coach. He needs to be retaught the decision making process as a shooter. A 2 year deal could pay large dividends the 2nd year and after. Serge Ibaka would be an outstanding pick for a team in need of a backup who won’t hurt the team if either the starting 4 or 5 miss time. Any team needing a backup point guard could do worse than Dragic. Javonte Green also looks like a winner as well. Once Labor day has passed a lot of these guys will get picked up. A few will have to swallow their pride and accept less money than they expected. And some will have to wait until teams get hit by injuries to find work.
Portland should grab Wood & Garuba
They really should Garuba offsets any defensive shortcomings Wood may still. Nurkic is solid but he can’t run the rim protection all by himself. Grant can score but isn’t much into defense or rebounding. Theoretically Nurkic,Wood and Grant would make a nice line with Garuba to spell 2 of them. By NBA standards Garuba is an infant. He may eventually be better offensively. Worst case he is a laub threat.
The NBA should do a G League Ignite style team full of vets that didn’t get signed. Let em play G League, International, Aussie, Europe, wherever. Like a traveling team.
Or make an expansion team with all of them getting vet minimum.
Who is going to pay them
an nba euroleague team would be interesting.
Nbas structure seems to be hurting some of those mid-level guys. Instead of these max contracts and super max contracts going into the 50 and 60m range, wouldnt a 2nd MLE or BAE make more sense, get more guys paid instead of a talented guy like Wood having to scrape is way into the league, perform well, and then only be offered min deals? Like cmon. He should get a second contract at least the MLE for 3 years.
This is silvers SBA. He only cares about the rich. Where is Robin Hood when we need him. Fire silver
On this we agree.I too would like to see Christian Wood join my Cavaliers and give us someone to back both Mobley and Allen. Personally I think Isaiah Mobley is probably the trick answer to that question. That said I worry JB is not ready to give him that responsibility. JB seems to treat Isaiah like some kid he is mad about having to babysit. Which is too bad. If we had converted him to a standard contract last spring the series against the Knicks might have ended differently. JB’s reluctance to use unproven players is why I think we need someone like Wood. That and I suspect JB could obtain better defensive buy in from Wood.
I don’t think Bickerstaff is the problem with Isaiah Mobley’s minutes and role, it’s the FO. They don’t see him as the more capable player he became in the G-League, they see the college version. JB gave him real minutes at the end of the season and he was watching closely in summer league.
Also, the Knicks were beating us in that series no matter what. Our rebounding sucked no matter who was on the floor, and our 3pt shooting wasn’t much better. That series was a lost cause at the TD when Altman did nothing to reinforce our weak points.
We had an excellent rebounder to back the 4 spot but JB got impatient when Love was injured and benched the guy. A temporary benching made sense but releasing him was less than brilliant. Look back at the actual game scores of that playoff series. They were close games. The rebounding was bad but a bigger problem was that Mitchell was star struck playing his hometown team. Had Mitchell’s shooting been on par we win in 6 games. Our defense held the Knicks down but our offense didn’t show. We had 2 reliable big men and they had 5. 1 extra big man would have made a big difference. 2 and we could have rolled. JB and the team let Hartenstein go in 2021 and let Moses Brown go in 2022. After both had been outstanding in limited minutes. The Knicks made us pay for letting Hartenstein go. Hartenstein had a very good series against us. JB has problems trusting unproven players and quickly sours on guys who go through slumps. That said he is amazing at teaching defense to players. Even guys like Mitchell and LeVert who aren’t known for their defense. He gets buy in on defense. Now he just needs to develop young talent at a faster pace.
Expand by adding Seattle and Vegas to west and move Memphis and Nawlins to the east.