Comprehensive Review: Every NBA Team’s Free Agency Status

HE PICKED ME! HE ACTUALLY PICKED ME!!!

• Houston –

The excitement from Rockets GM Daryl Morey over getting the star center he has craved for so many years was almost palpable (and audible) all the way from Houston. They were so excited that they prematurely started making moves, waiving solid contributor Carlos Delfino and trading a nice, young prospect Thomas Robinson, to free up the required cap space to give Howard the max. Fortunately it was all validated as Dwight finally made his decision to play in Houston (although a series of conflicting reports late Friday night may have given the Rockets brass a minor heart attack).

Dwight has long expressed a desire to be a post player, despite both his numbers and past successes in Orlando pointing pretty distinctly at him being a far superior pick-and-roll player. His choice to play in Houston seems like an embracing of his pick-and-roll game as the Rockets half court offense is basically just one long series of pick-and-rolls until a shot is a attempted. Houston’s next move seems to be trading Asik and Lin to make room for a Josh Smith signing, and while Asik should garner great interest, Lin becomes the turd in the punchbowl in this equation. The team also has some minor spacing problems with a sudden lack of shooters but these are the worries of a contender, a long desired yet unreachable caste the Rockets finally belong to.

WELP

• Los Angeles (Lakers) –

It is difficult to gauge where the Lakers go from here, as it seems to be relatively uncharted territory. Having a franchise star walk away from not just more money, but the Lakers storied franchise is a shocking hit to the brand. It’ll be tough convincing Nash, Pau, and Kobe that tanking is the route they’ve chosen and it may be in the franchise’s best interest to forcibly move on without them.

However, this seems a tad unrealistic given Kobe’s stature and likely unwillingness to cede his last few years for the sake of floundering on a team building for the years beyond him. No, what’ll probably end up happening is Artest will get amnestied to keep Pau and Kobe will heal up in time to pitch the wonders of LA to the gilded free agent class of 2014. Maybe he won’t even Britta’d it this time.

• Dallas

This was the Mavericks’ last chance to salvage what, in retrospect, seems to be a rather big mistake in dissembling the 2011 championship team. The following offseason saw them let Tyson Chandler walk only to strike out hard on both Deron Williams and Dwight Howard, and despite receiving another shot, they struck out again. The team is in limbo once again this season after spending all of last year mired in it, and, again, seem to be looking with starry eyes at the free agent class of 2014.

But Dallas has two offseason failures weighing on their back and despite possessing only a measly sum in committed salary next year, it’s hard to see their status as a free agent destination changing, especially with the assumed loss of Dirk. Their initial consolation prize from losing out on Dwight turned out to be 4 years, $28 million to Jose Calderon, a good if not very defensively flawed point guard turning a worrying 32 in September. The move shrouds even more mystery as to what kind of team Dallas is building now and for the future.

• Atlanta –

Cap space is a dangerous thing, especially when Plan A of how to use it gets taken off the table. But Atlanta GM Danny Ferry has quite the steady hand, and soon after hearing they missed out on Dwight he swung an absolute steal of a deal to the tune of 2 years, $19 million for Paul Millsap. Both the short length and monetary value for the borderline All-Star in his later prime are excellent and the deal only puts a minor dent in Atlanta’s swath of cap space. Having two rangy bigs like Millsap and Horford presents its own kind of spacing problem but with Horford’s passing and Millsap’s post game, a steady high-low game between the two is bound to bear fruit.

This leaves Atlanta with something like $16-$18 million left to fill out the rest of the roster. They can remain flexible to help facilitate trades in turn for future assets, they can trade for Asik, they can throw a respectable offer at Josh Smith, or even make a run at Andrei Kirilenko. Completing a deal for this caliber a player while still remaining flexible cap-wise is rare indeed and in the capable hands of one Daniel John Willard Ferry, the remaining space will be put to good use.

• Golden State

It was hardly feasible seeing the Warriors create enough cap space to resign all their players, much less enough to fit Dwight Howard in and yet somehow they turned water into wine. Or rather they dumped off all their muddy water onto Utah in the form of the $24 million owed to Richard Jefferson, Brandon Rush, and Andris Biedrins and turned their new fancy cap space into a hyper athletic, supremely muscled, defensive-stopper wine. With the addition of Andre Iguodala, its hard to envision a better way a team could have fallen on their feet after “losing” Dwight Howard.

Iguodala brings a defensive presence in the backcourt that makes hiding either Steph or Klay much easier, his spacing problems are mitigated by Golden State’s sundry of shooting, and he brings the ball handling to play serviceably in both big and small lineups. It’s hard to envision a scenario where this move doesn’t make the Warriors a force for the Clippers, Thunder, Grizzlies, Spurs, and Rockets to reckon with (god there are a lot of good teams in the West).