With cap space drying up around the NBA and guaranteed roster spots increasingly harder to come by, the rate of free agent agreements has slowed significantly since Monday night.
We’re still waiting for a handful of notable free agents to find homes, including Dennis Schröder, Lauri Markkanen, and Reggie Jackson. The exact details of the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade deal between the Heat and Raptors remain a mystery. And technically, Kawhi Leonard is still on the board, though we’re mostly wondering what his new contract with the Clippers will look like, not whether he’ll actually change teams.
In the meantime, there were a few stories worth highlighting from Thursday, including new deals for this year’s Most Improved Player and a former Executive of the Year.
Let’s round up the highlights from Day 4 of NBA free agency…
Julius Randle and the Knicks agreed to a four-year contract extension worth at least $106.4MM.- The Raptors signed Masai Ujiri to a multiyear extension and gave him a new title in addition to team president: Vice chairman.
- The Hornets and Kelly Oubre have agreed to a two-year, $26MM+ deal.
- The Raptors agreed to re-sign Khem Birch to a three-year, $20MM deal and agreed to a two-year deal with Ishmail Wainright.
- Lou Williams and the Hawks agreed to a one-year, $5MM deal.
- The Suns agreed to re-sign Frank Kaminsky to a one-year, minimum-salary deal and are reportedly nearing an agreement with Elfrid Payton on a one-year deal.
- The Wizards waived Caleb Homesley and made Garrison Mathews an unrestricted free agent.
The free agency moratorium will lift on Friday at 11:00am CT, at which point this week’s free agent deals and trade agreements will start becoming official.
We can still expect new deals to be reported on a daily basis for a little while, but since they’re not coming in at the same fast and furious pace they were earlier in the week, this will likely be our last daily roundup of 2021’s free agent action unless Friday is especially busy. Be sure to check our tracker to keep up with the latest deals.
Previously:
Why on earth would you sign that bum Kawhi to a max contract at this point in time. Make his ass pay! accident champion
Accident champion, both times?
Accident champion? Hope he starts wearing diapers.
I’m sure Depends would love to have Kawhi as a spokesperson.
I remember when you were like HardenWestbrook whatever. I was gonna talk shixz but i liked your burn on GSW ring rat Marty
rct, I actually did really laugh out loud on that one. Bravo!!
Speaking of Accident Champion, that reminds me of a story.. One guy went out with his buddies drinking but always went a little too far and wound up throwing up on himself, so much so that his wife would get mad and forbid him to go.
After promising it wouldn’t happen again he came home again late Friday night after an evening with the boys with “accident” all over his shirt. But he said, “look honey there’s $10 in my shirt.. some other guy threw up on me and gave me this to pay for the dry cleaning. Everything’s okay right?”
But then she pulled $20 out of his trousers and said, what’s this?
“Oh.., he crapped in my pants too.”
Lmao hahaha…Thank you for the laugh, that’s a good one bud..
haha, @Gary. This is even funnier to me because an old timer at work who is always telling jokes told me this one a few months ago. It’s a classic.
I’m sure many teams would love for kawhi to poop out another title.
So much for Foolbre getting minimum $20 million a year. Schroder looks like he gambled and lost BIGLEE
Lauri is about to have to come back to the bulls on the qualifying offer, asking ridiculous amounts the bum
Well, first Lauri isn’t a BUM. He averaged 26min. a game giving the Bulls 14 and 6 with an assist and one turnover per game. He also averaged going roughly 5-10 from the field, and 2-5 from deep.
Percentage wise, it was actually the most efficient he’s been, and he shot the ball extremely well last year.
No, he isn’t a great nor even really a good defender, but he should always be paired with a better defending big, and he will be just fine.
He’s capable of making plays, and while it doesn’t always show up in his assist numbers, he is capable of making plays for others, often times earning “hockey assists.” He’s a solid rebounder, especially when he’s tasked to hit the boards, and has shown the potential to be able to give his team 17 and 7 and sometimes 20 and 10.
Boylen ruined Lauri and his confidence, he ruined his development, and set his growth back by at least two years. Lauri was greatly miscast and underutilized by Boylen, which he for the most part just had him standing around the 3-point line.
Lauri never had a defined role in the offense, and he went from being one of the team’s focal points, to nothing more than a robot tasked to stand around and shoot 3s.
He was growing his game before Boylen, moving with and without the ball, having plays drawn up for him with pick n rolls, being isolated and using fakes and dribble penetration to get to the basket/free throw line, his role was growing and evolving. Which rightfully so, Lauri deserved to be a focal point of the offense, and he rewarded his coach with random spurts of 20-25+ point nights.
However, he still struggled with consistency in his shot, but even after Boylen doing his best to ruin Lauri, he was able to bounceback last year and post some very solid ajd improved shooting percentages.
Lauri needs his coach to believe in him again like Hoiberg once did, that coupled with a more consistent shot, and there isn’t any reason Lauri couldn’t quickly become a valuable foundation piece for any team moving forward.
Again, this “bum” has already showed he’s capable of putting up 20 and 10, and occasionally even more, when he’s on his game, confident, and his shot is falling. He’s had games of 30+ several times, quite a few games with 13+ rebounds, etc., he just needs it all to come together.
Just like the NFL and QBs, it is extremely difficult to reach your potential as a young player when you don’t have any consistency in the guidance and coaching you’re getting. It is hard to remain consistent, when you’re consistently questioning your role and place on a team as a young and talented player.
The best coaches either have their distinct systems in place, and acquire the right players to fit their system; however, with that being said, the best coaches also take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of his/her players, and they put them in the best position to succeed accordingly.
COUNTLESS players will tell you, the better an idea you have of your fit, your role, and your identity as a team, it makes it tremendously easier on you as a player. MJ nor Kobe would have been themselves, ajd neither would have achieved such a high level of greatness if they had to go through learning a new coach and a new system almost every single year their first four seasons as a professional.
You can call Lauri a bum, but I PROMISE YOU, if he’s healthy this season, then he will at least average 16 and 6 with a couple assists, and a .50/.40/.85 shooting line..Idk about you, but for me I’d gladly take that bum any day!!
Schroder and Oladipo are examples the younger players need to take a lesson from. Holding out for more money will often backfire and end up costing you way more than you were trying to gain in the first place.
If we had the expansion teams available all the remaining free agents would be of the board.
The final Four
Schroeder Lauri Hart & Reggie Jackson
Dallas has to get 1, and preferably on a 1 yr
Dennis might have to put out the “willing to be a 6th man vibe smoke signal tomorrow ” .
This could get weird w minimum open cap left and the Lakers looking like they don’t want to take another Dime in today via trade or bird rights