Potential Free Agent Signings

[nate33]

I think Tommy's plan A to improve the Wiz interior defense was Okongwu. I have no idea what his plan B was - or if he even had one. The offseason's real short, so we'll find out soon. If we go into next season with Wagner as the #2 center, that's a sign that he's dropped the ball.

I don't think this at all. While my guess is that Okongwu was their favorite among the players that could possibly be available at #9, I don't think they had much confidence that a rookie would be the answer to the team's defensive woes. I think the plan all along has been to acquire a defensive big via free agency.

[Ruzious]

I think Tommy's plan A to improve the Wiz interior defense was Okongwu. I have no idea what his plan B was - or if he even had one. The offseason's real short, so we'll find out soon. If we go into next season with Wagner as the #2 center, that's a sign that he's dropped the ball.

I don't think this at all. While my guess is that Okongwu was their favorite among the players that could possibly be available at #9, I don't think they had much confidence that a rookie would be the answer to the team's defensive woes. I think the plan all along has been to acquire a defensive big via free agency.

I'll believe that when I see it - or at least hear a rumor about it. Right now, I'm guessing we're going with Wagner as the backup 2.

[Frichuela]

Getting a decent defensive big should not be difficult or too expensive.

If my memory serves me right, Fred Katz wrote in the Athletic that the Wiz had about $26 mn available before hitting the tax threshold. The key is how much Bertans gets. If he gets something in the $15mn/year range, we'll have about the full non-tax MLE to sign other players.

To me, Nerlens Noel and Mason Plumlee should be our priorities. With luck, they should not cost more than $5-6 mn/year, which would leave us some breathing room before hitting the tax threshold. Both players have good defensive advance stats throughout their careers. It's true that both fault too much (about 5 per 36) but we would be counting on them to play 20-24 mins/game max, as Bryant will likely start. Noel would be my preference: better DWS and DBPM, blocks, steals and much better free throw%. Plumlee is no slouch on the former but his free through performance is quite bad (54% vs. 76% in Noel last season), which raises questions about his ability to stay on the floor during crunch time.

[Ruzious]

Getting a decent defensive big should not be difficult or too expensive.

If my memory serves me right, Fred Katz wrote in the Athletic that the Wiz had about $26 mn available before hitting the tax threshold. The key is how much Bertans gets. If he gets something in the $15mn/year range, we'll have about the full non-tax MLE to sign other players.

To me, Nerlens Noel and Mason Plumlee should be our priorities. With luck, they should not cost more than $5-6 mn/year, which would leave us some breathing room before hitting the tax threshold. Both players have good defensive advance stats throughout their careers. It's true that both fault too much (about 5 per 36) but we would be counting on them to play 20-24 mins/game max, as Bryant will likely start. Noel would be my preference: better DWS and DBPM, blocks, steals and much better free throw%. Plumlee is no slouch on the former but his free through performance is quite bad (54% vs. 76% in Noel last season), which raises questions about his ability to stay on the floor during crunch time.

I'd love to get Noel, but there's probably upwards of 5 other teams thinking they're going to go hard after him. I don't think we can assume he's going to want to come here, and I read something about him wanting to go the West Coast. Plumlee's coming off a 3 year/41 mil contract. I wouldn't want to pay anything close to that for him.

[nate33]

Getting a decent defensive big should not be difficult or too expensive.

If my memory serves me right, Fred Katz wrote in the Athletic that the Wiz had about $26 mn available before hitting the tax threshold. The key is how much Bertans gets. If he gets something in the $15mn/year range, we'll have about the full non-tax MLE to sign other players.

To me, Nerlens Noel and Mason Plumlee should be our priorities. With luck, they should not cost more than $5-6 mn/year, which would leave us some breathing room before hitting the tax threshold. Both players have good defensive advance stats throughout their careers. It's true that both fault too much (about 5 per 36) but we would be counting on them to play 20-24 mins/game max, as Bryant will likely start. Noel would be my preference: better DWS and DBPM, blocks, steals and much better free throw%. Plumlee is no slouch on the former but his free through performance is quite bad (54% vs. 76% in Noel last season), which raises questions about his ability to stay on the floor during crunch time.

I'd love to get Noel, but there's probably upwards of 5 other teams thinking they're going to go hard after him. I don't think we can assume he's going to want to come here, and I read something about him wanting to go the West Coast. Plumlee's coming off a 3 year/41 mil contract. I wouldn't want to pay anything close to that for him.

How many of those teams have luxtax room and an exception large enough to acquire him?

[nate33]

If it comes down to it, there's always Ian Mahinmi on a 1-year deal.

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

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[Frichuela]

Getting a decent defensive big should not be difficult or too expensive.

If my memory serves me right, Fred Katz wrote in the Athletic that the Wiz had about $26 mn available before hitting the tax threshold. The key is how much Bertans gets. If he gets something in the $15mn/year range, we'll have about the full non-tax MLE to sign other players.

To me, Nerlens Noel and Mason Plumlee should be our priorities. With luck, they should not cost more than $5-6 mn/year, which would leave us some breathing room before hitting the tax threshold. Both players have good defensive advance stats throughout their careers. It's true that both fault too much (about 5 per 36) but we would be counting on them to play 20-24 mins/game max, as Bryant will likely start. Noel would be my preference: better DWS and DBPM, blocks, steals and much better free throw%. Plumlee is no slouch on the former but his free through performance is quite bad (54% vs. 76% in Noel last season), which raises questions about his ability to stay on the floor during crunch time.

I'd love to get Noel, but there's probably upwards of 5 other teams thinking they're going to go hard after him. I don't think we can assume he's going to want to come here, and I read something about him wanting to go the West Coast. Plumlee's coming off a 3 year/41 mil contract. I wouldn't want to pay anything close to that for him.

How many of those teams have luxtax room and an exception large enough to acquire him?[/quote]

This! Supply and demand

[pcbothwel]

Getting a decent defensive big should not be difficult or too expensive.

If my memory serves me right, Fred Katz wrote in the Athletic that the Wiz had about $26 mn available before hitting the tax threshold. The key is how much Bertans gets. If he gets something in the $15mn/year range, we'll have about the full non-tax MLE to sign other players.

To me, Nerlens Noel and Mason Plumlee should be our priorities. With luck, they should not cost more than $5-6 mn/year, which would leave us some breathing room before hitting the tax threshold. Both players have good defensive advance stats throughout their careers. It's true that both fault too much (about 5 per 36) but we would be counting on them to play 20-24 mins/game max, as Bryant will likely start. Noel would be my preference: better DWS and DBPM, blocks, steals and much better free throw%. Plumlee is no slouch on the former but his free through performance is quite bad (54% vs. 76% in Noel last season), which raises questions about his ability to stay on the floor during crunch time.

I'd love to get Noel, but there's probably upwards of 5 other teams thinking they're going to go hard after him. I don't think we can assume he's going to want to come here, and I read something about him wanting to go the West Coast. Plumlee's coming off a 3 year/41 mil contract. I wouldn't want to pay anything close to that for him.

How many of those teams have luxtax room and an exception large enough to acquire him?

This. Noel has been underpaid for 2 years... Offer him a 2/12-14M deal and have Wall recruit. WCS is my backup plan.

If we move Ish... Id LOVE to get Shaq Harrison as a two-way combo guard for under 2.5M. Great compliment to Winston.

Other than that I no longer have interest in moving Ish/Robinson for contracts past this year. Being able to use the Full MLE this year and next year is vital to adding pieces around the young guys, and adding another 8-10M in salary for next year puts us in the Lux tax (Assuming Bertans is also retained).

[Ruzious]

Getting a decent defensive big should not be difficult or too expensive.

If my memory serves me right, Fred Katz wrote in the Athletic that the Wiz had about $26 mn available before hitting the tax threshold. The key is how much Bertans gets. If he gets something in the $15mn/year range, we'll have about the full non-tax MLE to sign other players.

To me, Nerlens Noel and Mason Plumlee should be our priorities. With luck, they should not cost more than $5-6 mn/year, which would leave us some breathing room before hitting the tax threshold. Both players have good defensive advance stats throughout their careers. It's true that both fault too much (about 5 per 36) but we would be counting on them to play 20-24 mins/game max, as Bryant will likely start. Noel would be my preference: better DWS and DBPM, blocks, steals and much better free throw%. Plumlee is no slouch on the former but his free through performance is quite bad (54% vs. 76% in Noel last season), which raises questions about his ability to stay on the floor during crunch time.

I'd love to get Noel, but there's probably upwards of 5 other teams thinking they're going to go hard after him. I don't think we can assume he's going to want to come here, and I read something about him wanting to go the West Coast. Plumlee's coming off a 3 year/41 mil contract. I wouldn't want to pay anything close to that for him.

How many of those teams have luxtax room and an exception large enough to acquire him?

Probably at least a handful. Right?

[Rafael122]

So...Bobby Marks tweeted out the four teams with the most cap space. ATL and NY are the only two teams with 40+ million in cap space. Charlotte has $19 million.

If I were Jeremi Grant's camp I would be concerned. I think Charlotte would more than likely look for a center rather than a wing, especially because they got guys like PJ Washington and Bridges on the team.

ATL doesn't seem to make much sense because they got Hunter and Reddish on the wings and it doesn't make sense to pay someone $16 million a year. I think the rumor is they are trying to sign 2 of Gallo/Bogdan/Rondo which probably takes them from $44 mil in cap space to maybe $18 million? I suppose that still keeps them in the running for Grant but financially it doesn't make sense.

NY has roughly $42 million in cap space. The rumor is they are going to try and sign Fred Van Vleet and potentially Christian Wood. That would definitely take them out of the Grant sweepstakes.

TLDR - it's entirely possible Grant's camp played the market wrong and he could be looking at the MLE from a team. Another point and I think it was Nate who said this, there's going to be a ton of guys, solid free agents who will sign for the MLE or less. This cap crunch isn't just going to affect guys like Grant and Bertans, but even players like Joe Harris maybe, Favors, Crowder etc.

[nate33]

So...Bobby Marks tweeted out the four teams with the most cap space. ATL and NY are the only two teams with 40+ million in cap space. Charlotte has $19 million.

If I were Jeremi Grant's camp I would be concerned. I think Charlotte would more than likely look for a center rather than a wing, especially because they got guys like PJ Washington and Bridges on the team.

ATL doesn't seem to make much sense because they got Hunter and Reddish on the wings and it doesn't make sense to pay someone $16 million a year. I think the rumor is they are trying to sign 2 of Gallo/Bogdan/Rondo which probably takes them from $44 mil in cap space to maybe $18 million? I suppose that still keeps them in the running for Grant but financially it doesn't make sense.

NY has roughly $42 million in cap space. The rumor is they are going to try and sign Fred Van Vleet and potentially Christian Wood. That would definitely take them out of the Grant sweepstakes.

TLDR - it's entirely possible Grant's camp played the market wrong and he could be looking at the MLE from a team. Another point and I think it was Nate who said this, there's going to be a ton of guys, solid free agents who will sign for the MLE or less. This cap crunch isn't just going to affect guys like Grant and Bertans, but even players like Joe Harris maybe, Favors, Crowder etc.

I'm still real concerned about the Bertans market. Yes, there's only 3 or 4 teams with significant cap room, but there's practically no free agents worth big money if you assume the RFA's like Davis, and Ingram stay put, and the player option guys like Drummond, DeRozan, Fournier and Hayward opt in. Remove those guys, and the best UFA's are Van Vleet, Wood, Favors, Harris, Ibaka, Gallinari, Bertans and Grant. If one or two of Van Vleet, Wood or Harris stay with their current team, then all that cap room will be going after guys who really aren't worth much more than the MLE.

[nate33]

Depressing prediction for free agency:

Who’s most likely to get overpaid?

I’m guessing we won’t see a ton of exorbitantly splashy deals, given the leaguewide lack of cap space after the free-spending summer of 2019, the relative paucity of big-name talent available, the lure of potentially starry 2021 free-agent class, and the financial crunch from the coronavirus. If I had to pick one name to watch, though … well, my apologies to Davis Bertans.

It’s not indefensible to pony up for the Latvian sharpshooter. He’s a 6-foot-10 forward who draws opposing big men out to the perimeter, possesses a lightning-quick release, and feels zero hesitation about letting it fly right in the mug of an onrushing defender; only seven players attempted more 3s against “tight” or “very tight” coverage last season, according to NBA.com’s shot defense data, and among those who attempted more, only JJ Redick hit them at a higher clip.

That’d be valuable enough if Betrans drilled only a league-average amount of his long balls, but he does quite a bit better than that, finishing sixth in the NBA in 3-point accuracy in each of the past two seasons. He maintained that level of marksmanship even after ratcheting up his volume of shots with the Wizards: The only players who’ve ever both fired and made triples as often as Bertans did in Washington last season are Stephen Curry and Duncan Robinson. And it’s not like this was just a contract-year blip. Nearly everything in Bertans’s advanced statistical profile has stayed pretty steady year over year; he just took more 3s. Chances are, if you let him take that many 3s for your team, he’ll hit a bunch, and help your offense a whole lot in the process.

The issue isn’t that Bertans shouldn’t get paid—it is how many teams might be vying for the chance to pay him. The Wizards have made no bones about how badly they want to bring him back to pair with Bradley Beal and a hopefully healthy John Wall.It remains to be seen whether landing Deni Avdija with the ninth pick in the draft changes that calculus; the guess here is that, even with Avdija joining 2019 draftee Rui Hachimura as “blend players” in the frontcourt, the Wiz will still prize Bertans’s gravity and floor spacing more than anything else this offseason. They hold Bertans’ Bird rights, enabling them to go over the cap to retain him even if other suitors make big offers. And, from the sound of it, they will: NBC Sports Washington’s Chase Hughes reported that the Hawks, Knicks, and Suns (three of the only teams with significant cap space this offseason) all plan to pursue Bertans, and that multiple teams without cap room are lining up sign-and-trade offers for the 28-year-old forward. If somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of the league’s teams decide that Davis Bertans is the one and only cure for their ailing offenses, then whatever he’s “worth” is immaterial; he’s going to get more than that, and maybe a lot more

[pcbothwel]

Depressing prediction for free agency:

Who’s most likely to get overpaid?

NBC Sports Washington’s Chase Hughes reported that the Hawks, Knicks, and Suns (three of the only teams with significant cap space this offseason) all plan to pursue Bertans, and that multiple teams without cap room are lining up sign-and-trade offers for the 28-year-old forward. If somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of the league’s teams decide that Davis Bertans is the one and only cure for their ailing offenses, then whatever he’s “worth” is immaterial; he’s going to get more than that, and maybe a lot more

Ehh. Maybe, but the Suns have no cap space now so I dont see that as an option.
NYK seems to have other priorities and Atlanta just traded for a wing 3Pt specialist in Snell to go with Hunter and Reddish.

[Frichuela]

Depressing prediction for free agency:

Who’s most likely to get overpaid?

NBC Sports Washington’s Chase Hughes reported that the Hawks, Knicks, and Suns (three of the only teams with significant cap space this offseason) all plan to pursue Bertans, and that multiple teams without cap room are lining up sign-and-trade offers for the 28-year-old forward. If somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of the league’s teams decide that Davis Bertans is the one and only cure for their ailing offenses, then whatever he’s “worth” is immaterial; he’s going to get more than that, and maybe a lot more

Ehh. Maybe, but the Suns have no cap space now so I dont see that as an option.
NYK seems to have other priorities and Atlanta just traded for a wing 3Pt specialist in Snell to go with Hunter and Reddish.

This is the biggest pitfall of the off-season...let’s see how well Tommy manages.

[pcbothwel]

Depressing prediction for free agency:

Ehh. Maybe, but the Suns have no cap space now so I dont see that as an option.
NYK seems to have other priorities and Atlanta just traded for a wing 3Pt specialist in Snell to go with Hunter and Reddish.

This is the biggest pitfall of the off-season...let’s see how well Tommy manages.

My quick count shows us at 107M with 12 players (Includes Deni & Winston..and AP)
So we have about 25M to sign Bertans, Full MLE, and BAE... So Bertans needs to be at a starting salary of under 15M for us to use the Full MLE...give or take.

[NatP4]

Has anyone heard ANYTHING about UDFA signings?

[NatP4]

I am skeptical that we sign Bertans for 15 mill. What is now the full MLE amount? 9 million?

[Ruzious]

Has anyone heard ANYTHING about UDFA signings?

https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/2054503

Apparently, the Wiz have not signed any.

[wall_glizzy]

Has anyone heard ANYTHING about UDFA signings?

Not for the zards

Elsewhere, I remember
- Nate Hinton to Dallas
- Nathan Knight to Atlanta
- Markus Howard to Denver
- Killian Tillie to Memphis
- Devon Dotson to Bulls
- Ty-Shon Alexander to Suns

Shams Charania has reported a bunch more on Twitter if you want to take a look, but those were the main guys I was checking for