NBA Free Agency 2017: Day 5 Recap — Another slow day indicates just how tight the market is this year

Free agency was supposed to take off once Gordon Hayward chose his destination, but things are just as slow as they’ve been throughout, as teams just don’t have the money to spend big and players still seem to be looking at last summer as the baseline rather than a one-season anomaly. There were just three signings today, as Nick Young took the full mini mid-level in Golden State, Dion Waiters re-upped in Miami, and restricted free agency Andre Roberson came to an agreement with Oklahoma City before the end of the moratorium on Thursday.

Young taking the $5.192 million taxpayer mid-level in Golden State is yet another example of how the punitive luxury tax penalties, which were supposed to deter big market teams from overspending the smaller teams, are actually doing the exact opposite of the league’s intentions. Small-market teams are still avoiding the tax like the plague, as they should…but the big teams are blowing right through it without a care in the world. Young’s $5.192 million will cost ownership $18.6 million in salary and luxury tax penalties, but it hardly matters for the Warriors, who can go deep into the tax and still remain profitable.

At this point, it seems that Golden State are just about done. Bringing back Zaza Pachulia or JaVale McGee remains their final decision; it doesn’t make a ton of sense to bring back both with second-round pick Jordan Bell also coming into the team this year. Both can get up to the non-Bird exception: 120 percent of their previous salary. We’ll see you in June, Warriors.

In Miami, Waiters re-signed for four years and $52 million, a far cry from this time last year, when he was languishing in restricted free agency before ultimately having his qualifying offer pulled by Oklahoma City. He was forced to sign with the Heat on the room exception, but he put the work in this year and earned every dollar of the $52 million he’ll earn with them.

The Heat will have to break into their cap space to re-sign Waiters. Like Pachulia and McGee for the Warriors, he played just one year in Miami, so the Heat could only pay him $3.5 million under the non-Bird exception, a far cry from the $13 million average annual value of his new contract. Still, they’ll have quite a bit of cap space to bring in outside free agents or re-sign fellow non-Bird free agents James Johnson and Willie Reed. Since they’re not being brought back within the non-Bird exception, there’s no reason to hold onto their cap holds, so the Heat will renounce those and get to about $17.1 million in cap space.

There has been some buzz that the Heat may let go of Wayne Ellington’s non-guaranteed contract to get a bit more space, but unless that’s going to cost you a big-name free agent, of which there are almost none left, I think it would be a mistake to let him go. He’s a solid shooter who has settled into that role nicely, and while he brings nothing on the D end of 3-and-D, a 37+ percent three-point shooter is hard to find for $6.3 million. It’s possible, if Pat Riley continues to work his magic, that he could be waived and re-signed to a lower number, provided Ellington clears waivers and the Heat still have cap space to make that move.

Lastly, Andre Roberson re-signed in Oklahoma City for $30 million over three years, which is a hell of a bargain for the Thunder compared to what the expectation was for Roberson going into the summer. I had him penciled in for $12–15 million per year, so getting him at a $10 million AAV is yet another win for Sam Presti this offseason. The move does take Oklahoma City over the apron, but paying a significant tax bill is probably worth it for one year as they try to convince both Russell Westbrook and Paul George to stay with the team next summer.

I wrote about this a bit yesterday when Patrick Patterson’s deal was announced, but I worry a bit about their spacing offensively with their five best guys on the floor to close games. Roberson, for all his defensive gifts, can’t hit an open three more than about once in every four attempts, though he’s a good cutter and screen-setter. Defensively, this team is going to be a monster.

Oklahoma City’s offseason is just about done. They’ll add some guys on the fringes on minimum deals or two-way contracts, but the main cogs are in place for the 2017–18 season. Now there’s not much to do but sit back and hope like hell it works out, for their sake.