We are about three weeks into free agency and almost all big names are off the board and only one real big trade piece (that everyone is aware of) in Carmelo Anthony is still on the market.
That got me thinking about the casualties of the 2017 free agency period from a player perspective and not a team perspective like your typical free agency winners and losers article.
These are the guys that have not cashed as much as they had hoped or don’t appear to cash in anywhere near the level they projected heading into the 2017 off-season.
Nerlens Noel
Noel thought he was in line for a max-level contract this off-season as some team would sign him to a max-level offer sheet or close to it to try and pry him away from the Dallas Mavericks. Fast forward three weeks and the money has dried up, no such offer is on the table, and the Mavericks have a real chance of getting him next season for the qualifying offer of under $5 million.
Alex Len
It’s been a rough summer for members of the 2013 NBA Draft class to get extensions, not surprising considering how awful the class has been as a whole. While Len has most definitely been a disappointment his four seasons in Phoenix, averaging 6.9 points and 6.2 rebounds in just over 20 minutes per game, he is still a skilled 24-year-old center that has shown the potential to be a rim protector and double-double caliber guy in small glimpses. Last summer that would have materialized into a $16 million a year contract (see: Timofey Mozgov and Ian Mahinmi), this summer he is stuck with the qualifying offer for a team that has seemed to already give up on him.
JaMychal Green
Are you noticing a trend here? Free agency has not been kind to restricted free agents. Green is an improving 26-year-old power forward who filled in nicely as a starter in Memphis last season, averaging 8.9 points and 7.1 rebounds while shooting 38% from three-point range, which is a huge plus in today’s NBA. Why hasn’t he been offered a deal in the seven-figure range? Because teams are capped out or focused on saving their money for greener (see what I did there?) pastures plus the Grizzlies have no real cap space to spend to bring Green back with a bigger deal.
Mason Plumee
Has everybody forgotten about Mason Plumlee? He is a good and most would say a starting caliber center that averaged 10 points, 7 rebounds and 3.5 assists last season. He is a very good rebounder and an elite passing big man, but has garnered seemingly zero interest thus far this summer. His name doesn’t even come up on Hoopshype. He is just another big man lost in the shuffle for a league trying not to overspend after numerous mistakes in the 2016 off-season.
Jonathan Simmons
Simmons is the one player on this list who actually has been signed, and considering where he was just a few years ago, paying out of pocket for a D-League tryout, three years and $18 million is nothing to ignore.
Only $1 million of the third year of the contract is guaranteed though, which means it is essentially a three-year, $13 million contract at worst, a far cry from what people were anticipating he would get after a breakout post-season for the Spurs.
If this were the 2016 off-season, when players like Allen Crabbe and Evan Turner (what were you doing Portland?) got $18 million per season and a player like Solomon Hill got $12 million per season, Simmons would have gotten at least somewhere in the $14 to $16 million range. Just goes to show you, life is all about timing.
Derrick Rose
Rose is a shell of the MVP he was in the 2010-11 season, but he had his best season in years for the Knicks last season, averaging 18-4-3 on 47% shooting and came into free agency on a slightly higher note than expected. For a player making over $20 million the past four seasons, Rose is now facing a free agency climate where almost every team has their point guard vacancy filled and the only teams with money this off-season are saving it for the future. Unless the Bucks can move one of their bad contracts and offer Rose a seven-figure contract, he will likely have to take whatever he can get pretty soon.
