Free agency is grinding down to a halt, but Dirk Nowitzki re-signing with the Dallas Mavericks, David West joining the Golden State Warriors bandwagon and the San Antonio Spurs trading Boris Diaw is worth telling the story.
So what happened yesterday?
- After waiting a little bit to allow the Dallas Mavericks adding some players, Dirk Nowitzki chose his usual return, signing a two-year, $20 million contract. It’s back to the fee he used to earn, but it probably won’t get him closer to another championship. Just a well-deserved contract, and the opportunity to play for the team he has always been on
- Gerald Henderson didn’t do too badly in his bench role on the Portland Trail Blazers. He averaged 8.7 points in 19.9 minutes per game, and he joins the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year, $18 million contract, with the team hoping to climb out of the NBA’s basement
- David West said in 2014 that he’s not going to end up being a championship chaser. He did exactly that in 2015 by joining the San Antonio Spurs, and ended up getting knocked out in the conference semifinal. He did the same thing this year. He opted out of his deal and joined the Golden State Warriors on a veteran’s minimum
- After one year of being a useful backup center in Orlando, Jason Smith takes his talent to the capital, joining the Washington Wizards on a 3-year, $16 million deal, where he’ll probably be backing up Marcin Gortat
- Shabazz Napier moves on to the Portland Trail Blazers, traded by the Orlando Magic for cash. Napier has one more guaranteed year on his contract, $1.3 million, before it becomes really difficult for him to stay in the league
- The Spurs needed to clear some space for Pau Gasol, and so traded Boris Diaw to form a pretty good team in Salt Lake City. The versatile big man played less last season but kept his per minute numbers like in the previous season. He has $6.5 million coming to him in 2016-2017, and $7 million in the 2017-2018 season, but he can be waived by July 15 and not cause any cap problems