The 10 Best NBA Free Agent Fits
Stars like Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving are going to go wherever they please.
If they want to sign to a team that doesn’t have the cap space to sign them, that team will find a way to create the necessary cap space. If they want to sign to a team that doesn’t have the best roster fit, that team will move pieces around until the roster complements their strengths. If they don’t like the locker room culture of a team, they can quickly dictate cultural change upon their arrival.
However, lesser players do not have those same luxuries.
They are restricted to a more limited number of suitors because not every team values them equally. Also the situation they sign themselves into can make or break their earning potential on the backend of their careers.
As a result, there is a lot more thought put into how they mesh with certain rosters, certain coaches and certain cultures.
With that in mind, these are the 10 best NBA free agent fits for players whose team infrastructure matters most.
D’Angelo Russell - Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers won 48 games last year playing a large portion of the season without a legitimate shot creator. Their inability to create off the dribble was shown on full display in the first round of the playoffs as the Boston Celtics swept them with relative ease.
Victor Oladipo was one of the league’s better scorers the last time we saw him on the floor, but he won’t return until December at the earliest, so it’s likely he’ll be spending much of the regular season knocking off rust. And even if he returns to peak form, the Pacers will need more offensive firepower than Oladipo alone if they really want to become a threat in the East.
Insert D’Angelo Russell. A versatile scorer and playmaker who has spent his whole career playing next to combo guards like Oladipo.
With Thaddeus Young, Bojan Bogdanovic, Darren Collison, Cory Joseph and Tyreke Evans all headed to free agency; the Pacers will need to reallocate their scoring responsibilities. And D’Angelo would give them a more explosive source of offense who should be able to make up for a lot of their production on his own.
Russell and Oladipo shouldering the offensive load would allow both Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner to become more efficient on offense and expend more energy on defense.
During the playoffs, Domantas Sabonis shot a mere 41.4% from the field, nearly a 20% drop from his regular season average. Myles Turner shot a putrid 40% from the field and 21.4% from 3, nearly 10% and 20% lower than his regular season averages respectively.
When the lights were brightest and Indy needed their big men to dominate the most, they were nowhere to be found.
If the Pacers want to remain invested in Turner and Sabonis, they need to be more purposeful about the roles they occupy on the team. Adding Russell along with getting back Oladipo would allow the two bigs to play to their strengths and their strengths only.
Tobias Harris - Sacramento Kings
Harris is capable of scoring efficiently from every level of the floor and is constantly expanding his game. He’s also very durable, missing just 8 games in the last four seasons combined. Not to mention he’s turning 27 years old in July, so whoever signs him would likely be getting him in his prime years.
The issue with Harris as a free agent is he’ll likely command the max or something close to it. And there will only be so many teams that would actually feel good about giving him that money.
Harris is fairly young, but not young enough to add to a team in the midst of a rebuild. Harris is a very good scorer, but not good enough to be your primary scoring option despite commanding the salary of one. Lastly, Harris doesn’t have an explosive enough game to sell some of the big market fanbases like the Knicks and Nets on him being their consolation prize for losing out on Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard.
So where does Tobias fit in?
He needs to go to a team where the expectations aren’t high and the front office will be more than fine with overpaying for him. He needs to go to a team with other established shot creators so the burden to create offense isn’t solely his. And he needs to go to a team that can convince themselves they are a Tobias Harris away from competing.
Who fits that billing better than the Sacramento Kings?
This would be similar to the situation he had when he was with the Clippers where several bonafide shot creators shared the scoring load.
With De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Marvin Bagley III and Bogdan Bogdanovic; the Kings had four players who averaged 14 point per game or more.
They traded for Harrison Barnes, asoon-to-be free agent, at the All-Star break and he went on to average 14 points per game as well. Tobias Harris would take over his spot at forward and provide better efficiency at a higher volume.
Al Horford - Los Angeles Clippers
History would repeat itself here with Horford joining a franchise that has historically struggled to attract marquee free agents.
Much like in Boston, he’d be joining a promising young team who unexpectedly scrapped their way to 48 wins the season prior. And much like in Boston, he’d help bring his new team some legitimacy as they sought to attract even bigger stars.
In the summer of 2016, Horford signed with the Celtics two days before Kevin Durant ultimately decided to join the Warriors. But by all accounts, Boston was Durant’s second team of choice and their signing of Horford played a big role in Durant’s consideration.
Horford is a reliable big who makes life easier for elite shot creators with his floor spacing, passing ability and effectiveness in the pick and roll. The Clippers having him in-tow would increase their chances of signing Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard.
And even if they failed to sign an elite wing as Boston failed to do so in 2016, adding Horford to their frontcourt with Montrezl Harrell would be more than enough to make them a threat in a wide open Western Conference and incentivize them to be aggressive in the trade market in hopes of winning a ring.
The Clippers have enough assets to trade for someone like Bradley Beal while still keeping Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell on the roster and still having enough cap space leftover to add more pieces.
Signing Al Horford to a two or three year deal is the first big step the Clippers can make to build the title contender they’ve always dreamed of.
Nikola Vucevic - Dallas Mavericks
Many believed that Kristaps Porzingis would be a full-time center at this stage in his career, but that has not been the case and it may never be.
In a 2017 interview with the Daily News Porzingis said,
“Me at the 4, especially if I’m playing against a non-shooting 4, I can do a lot. When I’m playing against the 5, I’m fighting with the big a lot of times and I’m wasting a lot of energy. Obviously, offensively I have an advantage at center, but I’m just more comfortable playing at the 4.”
Porzingis’ production has consistently plummeted at the midpoint of each the three seasons he’s played in due to his body wearing down. With durability already being a concern, the last thing the Mavericks want to do is put their biggest investment in a position where he’s expending even more energy.
Dallas should be in the market for a center in a free agency class that is filled with options at the position. And there isn’t a center available that fits better with Porzingis and the Mavericks franchise as a whole than Nikola Vucevic.
Turning 29 in October, Vucevic gives the Mavs young core veteran experience while still providing prime level play. Vucevic is most effective in the low post so he doesn’t interfere with Porzingis’ mid-range game. Also Vucevic’s improved three-point shooting provides spacing for the likes of Porzingis, Luka Doncic, Jalen Brunson and Tim Hardaway Jr when they are slashing to the rim.
On the defensive side, Vucevic’s great rebounding ability masks Porzingis’ inability to rebound. And Porzingis’ elite rim protection masks Vucevic’s inability to protect the rim.
They will struggle at times against smaller quicker frontcourts, but they’ll always be able to impose their will on the offensive side and head coach Rick Carlisle will know when to stagger their minutes if the matchup dictates it.
Julius Randle - New York Knicks
In all likelihood the Knicks will strikeout on the Kevin Durants and Kawhi Leonards of the world that they had been planning to lure to New York for years now.
Rather than overpaying for the next tier of veteran stars like Kemba Walker, DeMarcus Cousins, Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic; the Knicks would be better off if they signed affordable young players who could grow alongside their current young core.
And Julius Randle fits right into their timeline.
Randle has established himself as one of the league’s more efficient scoring bigs over the past couple seasons and he turns just 25 years old in November. He would join a 21-year-old Mitchell Robinson in the frontcourt.
Ideally the Knicks would want a proven knockdown shooter to play opposite of the rim-running Robinson, but beggars can’t be choosers and Randle is the most talented player available who fits into the Knicks ambitions for the future.
New York would hope Randle continues to build upon his 34.4% 3-point shooting on 2.7 attempts last season so the paint isn’t completely cluttered. And they’d hope Mitchell Robinson can continue to defend at an elite level to make up for Randle’s numerous shortcomings on that side of the ball.
If those two things can happen, Randle and Robinson should give the Knicks a formidable frontcourt for years to come.
Also if the Knicks are able to sign Randle at a reasonable price, he could be used as a trade chip in the future should the opportunity arise to acquire a superior talent.
Nikola Mirotic - Los Angeles Lakers
Y’all only come to Hog Maw for the most in-depth of sports analysis so I’m letting y’all in on something that people don’t talk about nearly enough: LeBron James’ teams are very very good at basketball when they have great perimeter shooting to space the floor. There. I said it.
Now this NBA free agency class has plenty of great perimeter shooters at nearly every position. But if the Lakers cap situation remains tight due to the oversight of Rob Pelinka during the Anthony Davis trade negotiations, they need to be very cautious about how they allocate their money to role players.
Rumors are swirling every day about the Lakers interest in guys like Danny Green, JJ Redick and Patrick Beverley; but the Lakers should be in a position where they can find shooters at the point guard and wing positions via buyouts and various cheap vets looking to chase a ring.
Shooting bigs on the other hand, are much harder to come by. And for that reason the Lakers should make signing a big man who can space the floor their number one priority.
Under these circumstances, who is a better addition than the guy who played the best basketball of his career opposite of Anthony Davis?
Nikola Mirotic was the New Orleans Pelicans third scoring option during their most successful season of the Anthony Davis era. He provides just enough off the dribble to take turns with Kyle Kuzma as the Lakers tertiary source of offense behind LeBron and AD and he’s a very competent defender to boot.
Mirotic would give the starting five much more spacing and significantly better defense than Kyle Kuzma would. And he’d ultimately allow Kuzma to come off the bench as the 6th man where he is best suited at this stage in his career.
Derrick Rose - Philadelphia 76ers
And speaking of 6th men, the resurgent Derrick Rose could prove to be the missing piece of the Philadelphia 76ers championship puzzle.
The 76ers bench struggling to manufacture any offense became one of the prominent takeaways from the 2019 NBA playoffs as they were literally a fingertip away from potentially beating the current NBA champions.
The margins of error were minuscule every time one of the 76ers’ starters needed a breather. And having a prolific scorer off the bench like Derrick Rose would provide the remedy.
Not only would Rose help the 76ers with their complete lack of depth, but if his improved three-point shooting last season was no fluke, he’d give the76ers frontcourt better looks in the paint by providing the spacing that Ben Simmons cannot.
There have been many times throughout the 76ers run over the past couple seasons where Ben Simmons looks better without Joel Embiid on the floor and Joel Embiid looks better without Ben Simmons on the floor.
Obviously with the talent those two have you don’t want to completely stagger their minutes, but by adding a proven playmaker who can shoot, the 76ers would be afforded the opportunity to play Embiid on the floor without Simmons just a wee bit more often.
And conversely with the 76ers constantly keeping an eye on Embiid’s minutes, getting peak play out of Embiid with Simmons on the bench would give Embiid more time to rest and provide Simmons with more spacing when it’s his time to run the show without Embiid on the floor.
Darren Collison - New Orleans Pelicans
The soon-to-be 32-year-old Collison returning to the franchise that drafted him back in 2009 would be one of the more mutually beneficial pairings to come out of this offseason.
The Lakers were one of the few teams who believed they could re-sign Anthony Davis if they were to receive him in a trade so the Pelicans were forced to make do with the package of young assets that the Lakers had to offer.
Getting all of those picks along with Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram was a very good haul considering the circumstances. The only issue is none of those guys are knockdown shooters. And if New Orleans wants to get the best out of Zion Williamson and Jaxson Hayes, they will need to surround them with three-point threats.
Darren Collison not only gives the Pelicans a career 40% three-point shooter, but he provides a veteran presence for a team that is looking to make a playoff run despite their youth.
Whether Collison starts or Ball starts at point guard, Collison (or a player similar to Collison) will need to play big minutes in order for this team to maximize their potential this year.
UPDATE: Darren Collison has retired from the NBA (via The Undefeated)
So Patrick Beverley would probably be the Pelicans next best choice to fill this role at a higher price tag.
Rudy Gay - Golden State Warriors
With Durant missing the entire year and Klay Thompson likely missing the entire regular season, the Warriors are going to need to find cheap wing scoring with their taxpayer mid-level exception.
Rudy Gay is fresh off scoring 13.7 ppg on 50.4% from the field and 40.2% from 3. He also closed out the season with a pretty damn good playoff series against Denver in the first round.
Luckily for the Warriors, he’s turning 33 years old and is still in search of his first ring. But despite him being in the waning years of his career, he’s shown he has plenty left in the tank and remains a legitimate threat on offense.
If the Warriors sign Gay and he can duplicate the performance he had last season, that should be more than enough to help them get a decent seed in the playoffs. And if Klay Thompson can return in time, that roster gives them yet another shot at competing for an NBA championship.
Dewayne Dedmon - Houston Rockets
Houston much like the Golden State Warriors are millions and millions of dollars over the cap. Currently the only real addition they can make would be via the mid-level exception.
With Clint Capela being dangled in various trade offers, his days in Houston seem numbered. And even if he were to remain on the roster, the Rockets would still have a glaring need and that’s a big who can space the floor.
After attempting just one three-pointer through the first four seasons of his career, Dewayne Dedmon has been knocking down threes at an above league average rate ever since he arrived in Atlanta two seasons ago.
On top of being a good three-point shooter, he also provides great rim protection and rebounding.
If he were to sign with the Houston Rockets there is a very good chance he would make the team noticeably better than Clint Capela did.
Given their team needs and their salary cap constraints, it would be absolute malpractice if the Houston Rockets didn’t have their eye on Dedmon as a candidate for their mid-level exception.
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