July 2 open thread: $1.7B committed, how Ross/Valanciunas deals look, updated free agent list

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: DeMar DeRozan has agreed to a five-year deal to stay with the Toronto Raptors, reported to be worth somewhere between $137.5 million and $145 million.

While everyone else was starting their Canada Day (or July 4) long weekend, the basketball world was at the starting line of the 2016-17 season, champing at the bit to strike first in free agency, leverage the new wheelbarrows full of cap space, and ultimately change the landscape of the NBA in short order. Free agency began at the stroke of midnight late Thursday/early Friday, and with it we enter a pretty strange new frontier: The New TV Money Era, where a ludicrous national rights deal will push the NBA’s salary cap from $70 million to $94 million, based on the latest reports.

We won’t know the exact cap level until July 7, when the league’s free agent moratorium is lifted and all of the moves you’ll hear rumored over the next week can become official. That won’t stop – and hasn’t stopped – teams from being incredibly active, and you’re going to see some insane numbers being thrown around. That’s already begun. By my count, $1.712B was dolled out across 27 agreements on July 1, and it stands to change how we evaluate some existing Raptors contracts (more on that below).

Over the weekend, we’ll have daily open threads to discuss the latest rumors and signings, and of course, we’ll make separate posts if the Raptors do anything. For now, consider the open thread a means of discussing all the insanity.

Resources

If you haven’t yet, go and read my free agency primer, which goes into a lot of the details about the Raptors’ cap situations and what they can and can’t do. My follow-up mailbag is up, too.

As a quick refresher, this is what the Raptors’ cap sheet looks at right this second:

To help calibrate with the new cap money, here’s a chart comparing what different salaries will take up in the cap this year compared to last year. Basically, you need to change your benchmark for what $10 million means, or how valuable an asset on a cheap (looking at you, Patrick Patterson) or rookie deal is.

Re-calibrating some Raptors deals

So again, $1.712B was spent on 27 agreements on July 1. The Raptors acted early in the fall, pre-empting the market with extensions for Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas before they could reach restricted free agency. They also worked quickly to re-sign DeRozan, and they gave Cory Joseph a deal that some scoffed at last year. It’s hardly fair to compare Joseph’s deal, signed with a $70-million cap, to deals signed yesterday – they were negotiated in entirely different economies – but it’s at least nice to know that contract is a great one for the next few years (and ditto for the obscenely good final season on the Patterson and Lowry deals).

Here’s how the Raptors’ contracts signed in the last 12 months compare to some of the deals signed so far in free agency (excluding rookie deals, which look unbelievably good for every team in this economy). These are the annual average amounts over the remaining life of the deals, not the 2016-17 cap hit, and I’m drawing somewhat arbitrary lines for the groupings to try to show similar player types. As much as it may be anticlimactic for the Raptors to appear to be “sitting out” right now, they acted early with their guys and look fairly smart for it through one day of The New Market.

Guards
Mike Conley, $30.6M
Jordan Clarkson, $12.5M
Jeremy Lin, $12M
Matthew Dellavedova, $9.5M
Jerryd Bayless, $9M
E’Twaun Moore, $8.5M
Cory Joseph, $7.6M
D.J. Augustin, $7.3M
Ish Smith, $6M

Wings
DeMar DeRozan, $27.5M (est.)
Bradley Beal, $25.6M
Nic Batum, $24M
Chandler Parsons, $23.5M
Kent Bazemore, $17.5M
Evan Turner, $17.5M
Evan Fournier, $17M
Terrence Ross, $10.3M

Forwards
Jeff Green, $15M
DeMarre Carroll, $14.8M
Solomon Hill, $13M
Mirza Teletovic, $10M
Jared Dudley, $10M

Bigs
Andre Drummond, $26M
Hassan Whiteside, $24.8M
Dwight Howard, $23.3M
Joakim Noah, $18M
Timofey Mozgov, $16M
Jonas Valanciunas, $16M
Al Jefferson, $10M
Darrel Arthur, $7.7M
Justin Hamilton, $3M

We can also better compare DeRozan’s reported deal to what some other near-max names received:

Max/Near-Max Deals
Mike Conley, 5-$153M (full max)
DeMar DeRozan, 5-$137.5M (to $145M) (90-95% of max)
Andre Drummond, 5-$128-130M (full max)
Bradley Beal, 5-$128-130M (full max)
Nic Batum, 5-$120M (78.5% of max)
Hassan Whiteside, 4-$98.6M (full max, if no Durant)
Chandler Parsons, 4-$94M (full max)

Raptors rumors

Earlier

*DeRozan is re-signing at 5 years, $139M (or somewhere near there).

*Power forward is a stated area of need, but the asking price was too high on Serge Ibaka.

*Nerlens Noel, however, may be a more reasonable target, and the Raptors have interest.

*Here’s some more on both the Ibaka and Noel fronts from Bruce Arthur:

Raptors GM Masai Ujiri is said to believe he can get Ibaka in free agency next year if he desires, but the big man’s flatlining rebounding and shot-blocking indicate that he may not be the player he once was.

Talks for Philadelphia power forward Nerlens Noel, the sixth pick in the draft two years ago, fell apart on draft night — per sources, Terrence Ross would have gone the other way, but the Raptors apparently asked for more. Either way, Ross is in play. A lot of pieces could be in play, for the right return.

*Marc Spears and Sam Amick are reporting that DeRozan’s deal may be closer to $145M than $137.5-139, but Arthur and Grange have held firm at $137.5. It’s possible that reported difference could be due to incentives in the contract that would set the initial cap total at $137.5M with the upside to reach $145M. By adding incentives deemed to be “not likely to be achieved,” they won’t count against the cap until realized. Things like certain point or assist plateaus, All-NBA inclusion, MVP, and so on are things that could fall under this category.

*Dwane Casey was spotted with Meyers Leonard in L.A. but there’s probably nothing to it.

*The Raptors met with Ryan Anderson yesterday.

New

*The Raptors aren’t tied to the rumors at all, but there’s speculation the Hawks could be looking to move Paul Millsap to create the space to keep Al Horford, or could lose Horford. Just wanted to note that A) the Raptors weren’t among the three known teams Horford met with Thursday (and would need to unload a bunch of salary to get in the mix for him), though there’s a mystery team in play, and B) While the Raptors may have some trade assets, they can’t offer Atlanta the thing they’d want most in a Millsap deal: Cap relief. The Raptors could only help the Hawks clear about $4-5M in space, not enough to get space beyond Horford’s cap hold, so they’d need to get a third team involved to eat some salary.

Again, the Raptors aren’t tied to any of this, I just got a few tweets asking about it so thought I’d pass along those cap notes. (Plus, if Ujiri was up to something, we wouldn’t hear about it anyway.)

By the way, I love Millsap and think he’d be a terrific fit on the Raptors, assuming the price wasn’t astronomical.

*As a follow-up here, Woj reports that Horford might be out and that Boston and Washington are the favorites to land him, but that “Millsap has been involved in trade talks in recent days.” All the caveats above apply, but the Raptors should kick the hell out of the tires if Millsap hits the market or the Hawks are suddenly amenable to a Horford sign-and-trade (there would be a ton of cap gymnastics and likely a third team in either scenario).

*BISMACK BIYOMBO is gone to Orlando on a 4/$72M deal. Sigh.

*The Raptors could look toward Pau Gasol now.

*Take Ryan Anderson off the target list.

*Al Horford is off to Boston, which means Paul Millsap is almost surely off the block. Sigh again.

Reported agreements/close – Friday

(Note: I was keeping track source by source originally but lost the handle, so I’ll refer you to the fine work of CBS Sports or USA TODAY Sports for more.)

Re-sign

Mike Conley – Memphis – 5 years, $153M (full max)
DeMar DeRozan – Toronto – 5 years, $137.5-139M (90.9% of max)
Andre Drummond – Detroit – 5 years, $128-130M (full max, with player option on year five)
Bradley Beal – Washington – 5 years, $128M (full max)
Nicolas Batum – Charlotte – 5 years, $120M (78.5% of max)
Hassan Whiteside – Miami – 4 years, $98.6M (full max)
Evan Fournier – Orlando – 5 years, $85M
Kent Bazemore – Atlanta – 4 years, $70M (with player option on year four)
Jordan Clarkson – L.A. Lakers – 4 years, $50M
Darrell Arthur – Denver – 3 years, $23M

New homes

Chandler Parsons – Memphis – 4 years, $94M (full max)
Evan Turner – Portland – 4 years, $70M
Joakim Noah – New York – 4 years, $72M
Dwight Howard – Atlanta – 3 years, $70.5M
Timofey Mozgov – L.A. Lakers – 4 years, $64M
Solomon Hill – New Orleans – 4 years, $52M
Matthew Dellavedova – Milwaukee – 4 years, $38.4M (offer sheet)
Jeremy Lin – Brooklyn – 3 years, $36M
E’Twaun Moore – New Orleans – 4 years, $34M
Jared Dudley – Phoenix – 3 years, $30M
Al Jefferson – Indiana – 3 years, $30M
Mirza Teletovic – Milwaukee – 3 years, $30M
D.J. Augustin – Orlando – 4 years, $29M
Jerryd Bayless – Philadelphia – 3 years, $27M
Ish Smith – Detroit – 3 years, $18M
Jeff Green – Orlando – 1 year, $15M
Justin Hamilton – Brooklyn – 2 years, $6M

Remaining free agents

Here’s an updated table of remaining free agents and their most common positions in 2015-16, as explained in more detail here.

Reported agreements/close – Saturday

Re-sign

Marvin Williams – Charlotte – 4 years, $54.5M

New homes

Al Horford – Boston – 4 years, $113M
Ryan Anderson – Houston – 4 years, $80M
Luol Deng – L.A. Lakers – 4 years, $72M
Bismack Biyombo – Orlando a- 4 years, $70M
Courtney Lee – New York – 4 years, $50M
Jon Leuer – Detroit – 4 years, $42M
Arron Afflalo – Sacramento – 2 years, $25M
Joe Johnson – Utah – 2 years, $22M
Trevor Booker – Brooklyn – 2 years, $18M
Anthony Tolliver – Sacramento – 2 years, $16M