Best and Worst Deals of The 25 Off-Season

[Scalabrine]

Outside of RFA and a few borderline rotation guys, Free Agency is pretty much done.

What do you think are the most team friendly contracts and what are the biggest head scratcher deals given out?

Team Friendly Deals:
Bruce Brown 1/minimum - Great snag for the Nuggets. He already knows the players well, the fans love him, and he's a huge add to a team that was really shallow. Getting him on the minimum is about as good as you can get.

DeAndre Ayton - 1yr/8.1m - I think he's gonna crush it in LA with LeBron and Luka as he fills in the center position that they didn't otherwise have. His attitude and effort have always been questioned, and I think a prove-it deal is putting him in the perfect position for the Lakers to get the best out of him.

Bradley Beal - 1yr/5.3m - Like Ayton, he was grossly overpaid on a team that he was a terrible fit on but now he's on a Clippers team that just made a perfect hole for him to fit in with Powell gone. Beal should just slide into that role seemlessly while also adding a little more playmaking.

Tyus Jones 1yr/7m - I think he's a perfect fit in Orlando, weather it's off the bench or in the starting lineup, he'll provide steady playmaking and floor spacing for the young, unproven Magic.

Worst Deals
Devin Booker 2yr/150m - Bookers obviously a fantastic player, and deserves a big salary, but this is excessive. He's not a number 1 option on good team and now he's being paid like he's a Top 5 player in the league. The Suns are going nowhere fast and now he's almost untradable. Maybe that's all they are looking for, have a marketable home grown star to try and win some games and stay somewhat competitive while you work your way out of this mess, but in this CBA, and given the cap problems that the Suns already have, this just seems like a compounding problem for them. It also hurts the development of Jalen Green, who was the big piece in the Durant trade. They needed just move on and try to get as much as they could for him and let him go be successful as a 2b option somewhere else.

Duncan Robinson - 3yr/48m - Just doesn't really make sense to me. He's a fine player, and every team needs a shooter, but who else was gonna give him this deal? How did Gary Trent get the minimum and Robinson get 16 million per year? How did he get more money than Alexander-Walker or Luke Kennard????? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Dorian Finney Smith 4yr/52 million - Another good player, but where does he even fit on this Rockets team? With KD, Amen, Jabari, Eason all on the roster, I kinda just don't understand where the minutes are gonna come from. I guess he's another piece to have if the Rockets make another consolidation move, but is that the real reason? It's not THAT bad, but Id rather play the other 4 guys I listed and he's signed till he's 35.

What were your favorite and least favorite signings??

[JXL]

Best Deal: Bruce Brown back to the Nuggets for the vet's minimum. His best season came from Denver, so it should be going back that could reinvigorate his value again.

Worst Deal: If free agency, the Tre Mann deal for 3/$24m; if trades, the Pelicans trading the 2026 pick swap, unprotected, to Atlanta to move 10 spots and draft Derik Queen.

[meekrab]

Reserving judgment until Giddey and Kuminga sign... they have the potential to be best or worst

[chilluminati]

Thankfully the Duncan Robinson deal is only guaranteed for 1 year. I do agree it's not the best, but given the Beasley situation Trajan had to pivot fast knowing he was going to lose Hardaway too.

I'm willing to give Duncan a shot on basically a 1 year deal that we can get out of. I don't think he's as terrible as others think too. His shot should open up a lot with Cade's gravity.

[Richard4444]

Best Deal: Bruce Brown back to the Nuggets for the vet's minimum. His best season came from Denver, so it should be going back that could reinvigorate his value again.

Worst Deal: If free agency, the Tre Mann deal for 3/$24m; if trades, the Pelicans trading the 2026 pick swap, unprotected, to Atlanta to move 10 spots and draft Derik Queen.

Tre Mann played well last season. It's a tradable contract if the player is healthy.

[JujitsuFlip]

Worst Deals
Duncan Robinson - 3yr/48m - Just doesn't really make sense to me. He's a fine player, and every team needs a shooter, but who else was gonna give him this deal? How did Gary Trent get the minimum and Robinson get 16 million per year? How did he get more money than Alexander-Walker or Luke Kennard????? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Once you see the details, it's essentially a 1 year deal.

[JimmyPlopper]

Worst Deals
Duncan Robinson - 3yr/48m - Just doesn't really make sense to me. He's a fine player, and every team needs a shooter, but who else was gonna give him this deal? How did Gary Trent get the minimum and Robinson get 16 million per year? How did he get more money than Alexander-Walker or Luke Kennard????? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Once you see the details, it's essentially a 1 year deal.

This makes much more sense

[cupcakesnake]

Worst Deals
Duncan Robinson - 3yr/48m - Just doesn't really make sense to me. He's a fine player, and every team needs a shooter, but who else was gonna give him this deal? How did Gary Trent get the minimum and Robinson get 16 million per year? How did he get more money than Alexander-Walker or Luke Kennard????? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Once you see the details, it's essentially a 1 year deal.

Spoiler:

Came here to point that out as well.
Also though, Duncan Robinson has become a lot better- functionally- than someone like Gary Trent.

Gary Trent is a spot up guy who can get into a little bit of a pull up game if you're desperate for offense. No one has ever enjoyed being reliant on that spot up game tough... to put it mildly.

Duncan Robinson's bread and butter is movement shooting. This is way better than a catch & shoot guy, because movement shooters force the defense to scramble. On top of that, Duncan Robinson has made major strides as a driver and a playmaker. Obviously he's not star level at these things, but as a role player operating in an offensive scheme, he's pretty versatile. He threw a LOT of lob passes to Bam Adebayo last year, and was a useful menace attacking close outs.

Gary Trent is super one-dimensional. Duncan Robinson used to be, but he's clearly put in some work.

[Pointgod]

Thankfully the Duncan Robinson deal is only guaranteed for 1 year. I do agree it's not the best, but given the Beasley situation Trajan had to pivot fast knowing he was going to lose Hardaway too.

I'm willing to give Duncan a shot on basically a 1 year deal that we can get out of. I don't think he's as terrible as others think too. His shot should open up a lot with Cade's gravity.

Yeah I see no problem with the Ducan Robinson deal. It’s a 1 year inflated contract that gives them flexibility to trade him during the season

[ConSarnit]

Phrase I never thought I’d say: I don’t really think any of the contracts handed out this off-season are bad. The guys you might think are overpaid are on short term deals or have early team options. I think almost every significant contract could be traded for neutral value at the trade deadline or the money is so insignificant it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

There isn’t a single contract I have seen that has made me say “what are they doing?” That must be the first time I’ve ever remembered that happening.

[Richard4444]

Clarkson (vet min) and Yabusele (11/2) were good friendly deals for the Knicks.

[Scalabrine]

Worst Deals
Duncan Robinson - 3yr/48m - Just doesn't really make sense to me. He's a fine player, and every team needs a shooter, but who else was gonna give him this deal? How did Gary Trent get the minimum and Robinson get 16 million per year? How did he get more money than Alexander-Walker or Luke Kennard????? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Once you see the details, it's essentially a 1 year deal.

Spoiler:

Came here to point that out as well.
Also though, Duncan Robinson has become a lot better- functionally- than someone like Gary Trent.

Gary Trent is a spot up guy who can get into a little bit of a pull up game if you're desperate for offense. No one has ever enjoyed being reliant on that spot up game tough... to put it mildly.

Duncan Robinson's bread and butter is movement shooting. This is way better than a catch & shoot guy, because movement shooters force the defense to scramble. On top of that, Duncan Robinson has made major strides as a driver and a playmaker. Obviously he's not star level at these things, but as a role player operating in an offensive scheme, he's pretty versatile. He threw a LOT of lob passes to Bam Adebayo last year, and was a useful menace attacking close outs.

Gary Trent is super one-dimensional. Duncan Robinson used to be, but he's clearly put in some work.

Okay, now do NAW and Kennard next!

Trent is making the minimum. He's not THAT much worse.

[Scalabrine]

Clarkson (vet min) and Yabusele (11/2) were good friendly deals for the Knicks.

I loved the Yabu signing, but I am holding my breath on the Clarkson signing. Maybe he's just been loafing it on an intentionally bad Jazz team, but his efficiency has been pretty bad and his advanced defensive metrics look awful. It's a minimum deal, and we don't need a ton out of him, but for his age 33 season, I'm really not expecting a whole lot.

[Scalabrine]

Best Deal: Bruce Brown back to the Nuggets for the vet's minimum. His best season came from Denver, so it should be going back that could reinvigorate his value again.

Worst Deal: If free agency, the Tre Mann deal for 3/$24m; if trades, the Pelicans trading the 2026 pick swap, unprotected, to Atlanta to move 10 spots and draft Derik Queen.

Youre definitely right. Bruce Brown is the best deal of the off-season.

[LarsV8]

JJJ - 240 million, costs them Bane
Booker - 2 years 150 million, went from highly valuable trade asset to untradeable.

[Dr Aki]

Luka $229 million

[tmorgan]

Yeah, for Detroit, the LeVert deal (2/29) is more questionable than Robinson’s.

Given our current roster composition, it seems like LeVert is going to run some jumbo point guard. If he does well at that role for limited stretches, he’ll be worth his deal. I’m a little worried about it, though. He’s probably still capable, but the downgrade as a passer from Cade could make our already sketchy offense seize up.

[pepe1991]

Worst is Pelicans trade on draft night.

[pepe1991]

JJJ - 240 million, costs them Bane
Booker - 2 years 150 million, went from highly valuable trade asset to untradeable.

Grizzlies got A LOT for Bane.

[Ruma85]

Worst is Pelicans trade on draft night.

To be determined.