It’s officially the second day in free agency, and players have already come to terms with teams. Let’s take a look:
Marcin Gortat will stick around in Washington, who rewarded his stellar play with a 5-year, $60 million dollar contract. Gortat started at center for the Wizards and greatly improved the ball club’s pick and roll game with John Wall. He averaged 13.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks last season and will be huge for a Wizards team that finished with a 44-38 record in the regular season. This move was obviously a great start for this organization, which hopes to add a couple more piece to challenge Miami in the East for the years to come.
In a rather surprising effort, the Golden State Warriors signed Shaun Livingston to 3-years, $16 million. Livingston, who almost had his career curtailed by a couple knee injuries and surgeries, regained momentum last season as a member of the Brooklyn Nets. He provided meaningful playing time behind Deron Williams, even stepping in to the starter role when Williams was out. The Warriors will hope for Livingston to do the same behind star guard Steph Curry, finally landing a solid rotation point guard.
The Detroit Pistons stole former Laker guard Jodie Meeks and agreed upon a 3-year, $19 million dollar deal. Stan Van Gundy was looking to improve the team’s 3 point shooting, an area where Detroit ranked 29th in the league last year. Meeks will come and contribute right away in that regard, with an average of 40.1 percent 3-point percentage last year.
Just today, Avery Bradley and the Celtics reached a 4-year, $32 million dollar deal. President of basketball operations Danny Ainge wanted Bradley to be a part of the C’s rebuilding efforts. The defensive ace is an integral part of the team, especially next to Rondo, creating a formidable defensive backcourt. Coming off a career season, Bradley is looking to keep the consistency on both ends of the floor that allowed him to average a career high 14.9 points last season and make the NBA All-Defensive 2nd team in 2013.
Finally, the Cleveland Cavaliers resigned their star player Kyrie Irving, thereby making him the face of the franchise for years to come. With $90 million over 5 years, Kyrie Irving is hoping to have enough time to do something LeBron James never did: bring home a championship to Cleveland. By adding Andrew Wiggins through the draft, Cleveland will look to make the playoffs this year, with Irving leading the way.
Of course, there are still a lot more players who haven’t committed their futures to any team yet. LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony will impact the signings of other players, just because of how great they are. The Pacers hope to re-sign Lance Stephenson, but the latest rumors indicate that they aren’t on level terms. The Cavs are supposedly preparing to offer Gordon Hayward a decent sum to lure him from the Jazz. And Kyle Lowry remains mull about which team he will potentially play for. The fun of free agency, everybody.
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