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Deron Williams' $98MM+ contract represented the biggest deal of his summer's free agent period by far, but Williams is the only unrestricted free agent you'll find among the offseason's top five largest contracts. Rounding out the top of the list? Restricted free agents Brook Lopez, Roy Hibbert, Eric Gordon, and Nicolas Batum.

While Lopez, Hibbert, and Gordon landed max deals, not every restricted free agent made out quite so well. Most players were able to improve at least marginally on the one-year qualifying offers their teams offered, but there were a handful of instances where the player may simply have been better off accepting his QO.

Besides the four restricted FAs listed above, the following players made out very well in free agency, landing big, multiyear deals: JaVale McGee, George Hill, Ryan Anderson, Jason Thompson, Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin, Landry Fields, Danny Green, Darrell Arthur, and Marreese Speights. And while Courtney Lee was made unrestricted by the time he signed, his four-year deal represents a big win as well. Lavoy Allen, Aaron Brooks, and Jeremy Evans also did okay, landing multiple years and modest raises.

Let's take a look at the rest of this summer's restricted free agents to see how they fared:

• Robin Lopez: Lopez's three-year, $15.3MM contract looks nice on paper, but only the first year is guaranteed, for less than $5MM. Still, even that's a slight improvement on the $4MM qualifying offer he had from the Suns.
• Greg Stiemsma: Stiemsma's QO was only worth about $1.05MM, so even though he only earned one guaranteed year from the Timberwolves, the raise to $2.58MM made it worthwhile.
• Brandon Rush: The two-year, $8MM deal Rush signed with the Warriors is solid, but his qualifying offer was actually worth slightly more than his $4MM 2012/13 salary. Rush has a player option in the second year of the deal, which provides a level of security that a one-year deal wouldn't, so even if he opts out next summer, he shouldn't have any regrets about not simply accepting his QO.
• D.J. Augustin: The Bobcats pulled their $4.39MM QO to Augustin right before he signed with the Pacers for one year and $3.5MM. That's not an insignificant amount Augustin gave up by not returning to Charlotte, but given the team's performance last year, maybe the change of scenery was worth it.
• Jerryd Bayless: Bayless' overall guarantee from the Grizzlies (about $6.1MM) is larger than the amount of his QO (about $4MM), but his salary for 2012/13 will be just $3MM. The Raptors withdrew their offer to Bayless fairly early in July, but perhaps the combo guard would do things differently if had a second chance at free agency.
• A.J. Price: The Pacers rescinded their qualifying offer to Price early in the free agent period, and it cost the point guard a little money. He ended up signing with the Wizards for the minimum salary ($885,120) rather than his $1.09MM QO.
• Derrick Brown: The Bobcats pulled their QO to Brown, who remains unsigned. It looks like that $1.09MM offer will be more than Brown lands now.
• Semih Erden / Sonny Weems: We don't know exactly how much Erden signed for in Turkey, but considering he inked a two-year pact with a third-year option, he probably made out just fine. Ditto for Weems, who signed a three-year deal with CSKA Moscow after the Raptors withdrew their qualifying offer.
• Devin Ebanks / Darius Morris / Luke Harangody: These players simply re-signed their qualifying offers to return to their respective teams.
• Patty Mills: Mills also re-signed for the amount of his qualifying offer, but added a second-year option to his new contract. There are conflicting reports on whether it's a team or player option, but a player option would make more sense — otherwise, Mills would've been better off simply accepting the QO.
• Alonzo Gee / Ivan Johnson: The only two remaining unsigned restricted free agents, they still have a few weeks to either accept their qualifying offers or work out new deals.

With the summer's premier free agents off the market and 2012's top trade candidate (Dwight Howard) having been moved, we've entered something of a dead zone in the NBA calendar, as players and teams wait for training camps to begin. Still, despite the relative lack of activity these days, there are a number of dates and deadlines to keep an eye out for before the NBA regular season begins. Here are a few of them, courtesy of Larry Coon's CBA FAQ:

August 31: Next Friday is the last day teams can waive players and apply the stretch provision to this season. That means if a player with one year and $3MM left on his contract is released before August 31st, the remaining $3MM will be "stretched," with the team paying $1MM for each of the next three years. If the same player is released after September 1st, the current season would be paid per the normal payment schedule. Because this provision only applies to contracts signed under the new CBA, it's unlikely we'll see it taken advantage of much this year, but it could become more important in future seasons.

September 6: Second-round picks become free agents if not given a required tender. Many of this year's second-rounders have already signed with their respective teams, or decided to play overseas. Those that remain unsigned will likely be locked up in the near future.

October 1: This is the last day for a restricted free agent to accept a qualifying offer, unless the team extends the deadline, which is rare. As our dwindling list of restricted free agents shows, it appears there are only two players left with outstanding qualifying offers — the Hawks' Ivan Johnson and Alonzo Gee of the Cavs.

October 31: Halloween is the last day teams can extend players entering the final year of rookie scale contracts, like the Thunder recently did with Serge Ibaka. It's also the last day teams can exercise 2013/14 options on rookie scale deals. For instance, at some point before this deadline, the Celtics will pick up their 2013/14 team option on Avery Bradley.

Pay does not always match up with performance, as the NBA continually demonstrates. The best player on a team is not always its highest paid, and sometimes a club receives little in return for its most prolific investment.

We've listed each team and its highest paid player below. All it takes is a glance to notice a few names and dollar figures that look out of kilter. John Salmons has been a serviceable NBA player, but after a season in which he averaged 7.5 points and put up a PER of 9.0, well below the 15.0 mark of an average NBA player, he's hardly the kind of guy you'd expect to be a top money-earner. Derrick Rose's name seems much more fitting on the list, but he won't be giving the Bulls any production for their money for at least a significant chunk of the upcoming season as he recovers from knee surgery. Chris Bosh, while an All-Star caliber player, isn't on par with three-time MVP LeBron James on the court, but they signed identical contracts back in 2010.

Perhaps most remarkable, though, is how much turnover there is. Eleven of the 30 players on this list joined their teams within the last 12 months. Three of them were involved in the four-team trade that sent Dwight Howard to the Lakers, though Howard himself isn't on the list, as Kobe Bryant's $27.849MM salary will be the highest in the league this coming season. 

Here's the complete list, by division:

Atlantic Division
Celtics: Paul Pierce, $16.790MM
Knicks: Carmelo Anthony, $20.463MM 
Nets: Joe Johnson, $19.753MM
Raptors: Jose Calderon, $10.562MM
Sixers: Andrew Bynum, $16.889MM

Southeast Division
Bobcats: Ben Gordon, $12.4MM 
Hawks: Josh Smith, $13.2MM
Heat: LeBron James and Chris Bosh, $17.545MM (tie)
Magic: Hedo Turkoglu, $11.816MM 
Wizards: Emeka Okafor, $13.49MM 

Central Division
Bulls: Derrick Rose, $16.403MM
Bucks: Monta Ellis, $11MM
Cavaliers: Anderson Varejao, $8.368MM
Pacers: Roy Hibbert, $13.669MM
Pistons: Corey Maggette, $10.924MM 

Southwest Division
Grizzlies: Zach Randolph, $16.5MM
Hornets: Eric Gordon, $13.669MM
Mavericks: Dirk Nowitzki, $20.907MM
Rockets: Kevin Martin, $12.44MM
Spurs: Manu Ginobili, $14.107MM 

Northwest Division
Jazz: Al Jefferson, $15MM
Nuggets: Andre Iguodala, $14.968MM 
Timberwolves: Kevin Love, $12.922MM
Thunder: Kevin Durant, $16.67MM 
Trail Blazers: LaMarcus Aldridge: $13.5MM 

Pacific Division
Clippers: Chris Paul, $17.779MM
Lakers: Kobe Bryant, $27.849MM
Kings: John Salmons, $8.083MM
Suns: Goran Dragic, $7.5MM
Warriors: Andrew Bogut, $13MM

Storytellers Contracts was used in the creation of this post.

The Lakers' deals for Steve Nash and Dwight Howard coupled with the Heat's acquisition of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, among other moves this offseason, have lent fuel to the sentiment that the NBA's high-dollar marquee franchises can more or less spend at will to bring in talent. 

By and large, though, there's little correlation between teams that were successful last year and those that spent heavily this summer, nor is there a strong connection between those that carried high payrolls last year and those that continued to spend in the offseason. The 10 teams that committed the most money to free agents this offseason, per the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Tracker, averaged just 34.3 wins during last year's lockout-shortened 66-game schedule. The top 5 teams in that category averaged 32.4 wins, for a winning percentage just below .500. 

The story is much the same if we look at team salaries as they were calculated for luxury tax purposes last season. Just three out of the top 10 teams on that list are also among the top 10 spenders this summer, and only the Celtics appear among the top five teams on both lists.

The primary reason for this appears to be the salary cap. Though the NBA operates under a "soft" cap, with exceptions that allow teams to go over it for a variety of reasons, it more or less keeps spending in line throughout the league. Teams are also obligated to spend a certain amount each year, so there isn't too much disparity among payrolls from top to bottom. 

While the Lakers and Heat had two of the top three payrolls from last season, they were just 13th and 24th, respectively, among spenders this offseason. The Lakers acquired Nash via sign-and-trade using the trade exception they acquired when they shipped Lamar Odom to Dallas, and they got Howard in a straight-up four-way swap. The Heat were successful in convincing Allen and Lewis to accept below-market contracts, just as the Lakers did with Antawn Jamison. L.A. and Miami were shrewd, but they weren't spendthrifts.

For a broader look, here are all 30 teams ranked first by wins, then 2011/12 payroll, and finally by their spending this offseason: 

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Hoops Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NBA player movement 365 days a year, but those aren't the only updates you'll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you'll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here's a rundown of a few of them:

• Our Free Agent Tracker features up-to-date details on this summer's free agent signings, with data sortable by team, position, contract years, and contract amount.
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Last week, we took a look at each of the NBA's six divisions, recapping 2012 free agent spending around the league. The upshot? The five Atlantic teams combined to spend way more than any other division, while the Southeast squads spent significantly less than any other division. The results provided a number of other items of note though, so let's take a look at some of our findings.

Because these figures are based solely on free agent spending, our numbers don't take into account money committed to draft picks or salary exchanged in trades. Additionally, these totals are based on the potential earnings for every free agent if he plays out his whole contract, so option years and nonguaranteed years are included in our calculations. Here are this summer's top five spenders in free agency:

• Brooklyn Nets: $243.053MM
• Boston Celtics: $133.606MM
• Indiana Pacers: $128.366MM
• New Orleans Hornets: $108.948MM
• Denver Nuggets: $63.875MM

Bottom five spenders:

• Washington Wizards: $1.801MM
• Detroit Pistons: $4.875MM
• Oklahoma City Thunder: $7.598MM
• Cleveland Cavaliers: $7.682MM
• Utah Jazz: $8.000MM

And each division's total commitments:

• Atlantic: $498.269MM
• Southwest: 262.169MM
• Central: 196.083MM
• Pacific: $189.221MM
• Northwest: 179.711MM
• Southeast: $71.836MM

For more information on the offseason's free agent spending, check out our posts for the individual division (linked above) or peruse Hoops Rumors' free agent tracker.

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Splashy, big-ticket free agent signings make headlines, but subtle pickups often make the difference between winning and losing. Players who can be had at bargain prices may be much more valuable than their contracts indicate. Two ways of evaluating that value are PER and win shares per 48 minutes, a pair of metrics designed to go beyond box score stats and evaluate a player's efficiency and contribution to the team.

Using the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Tracker, I've taken the average annual salary that each free agent signed for this summer and compared it to their PERs and win shares per 48 minutes from 2011/12. I divided the average salaries, listed here in millions, by the PERs and ranked the dividends from largest (most valuable) to smallest. For the second chart, I divided salaries by win shares per 48 minutes and ranked the results from smallest (most valuable) to largest.  

Not surprisingly, many of these guys are minimum-salary players. The minimum salary goes up for each year of experience a player has, but teams aren't on the hook for any amount beyond the minimum for a player with two years of experience, which is set at $854K this year. The league provides the rest of the money for the players. The salaries that have been adjusted down to the two-year veteran's minimum appear in yellow in the charts below. In cases where a signee didn't play last season, or appeared in fewer than 10 games, I substituted the PER or win shares per 48 minutes from the last NBA season in which he played at least 10 games, and those stats are shown here in gray. 

First, the PER chart:

Now, the win shares chart:

Some observations:

• Eight players appear on both 10-man lists: Patrick Mills, C.J. Watson, Daniel Orton, Nate Robinson, Chris Wilcox, Ronnie Brewer, Ronny Turiaf and Cartier Martin.
• The only teams to have multiple players on these lists are the Nets and Bulls. There's been criticism of the Bulls for their overhaul of the team's bench this offseason, but the numbers Robinson and Radmanovich put up last season suggest they can provide roughly the same value as departing reserves Watson and Brewer.
• P.J. Tucker's appearance on the PER chart might be something of a red herring, since it's based on a 17-game sample from back in 2006-07 with the Raptors, his only NBA experience. Though he played only 83 total minutes, he made the most of them, averaging 13.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per 36 minutes. He's the only player on either top 10 to make less than the two-year veteran's minimum, since he has only one season of experience, but if we took him off the list, the player to replace him would be Roger Mason of the Hornets. Mason's 2011/12 PER of 12.1 divided by his $854K veteran's minimum salary for next year results in a score of 14.169. 

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