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I’m old enough to remember when hat space meant something, when “maximum space” was enough to titillate your home fans about the possibility of NBA stars taking to the court for the home team next season.
At the very least, there was a moment of excitement to be in the game, right? Just being one of the teams chosen to hold a meeting on July 1st at a seaside getaway was special.
now? We only had one All-Star team this summer in free agency — one-time All-Star Fred VanVleet. Only two players – Kyrie Irving and VanVleet – have had the cap. James Harden, a Hall of Fame player who scored 42 points in a road playoff game six weeks ago, generated so little interest that he opted to enter the final year of his deal. So did Kristaps Porziņģis on this matter.
It wasn’t because of a lack of money flowing in. Eight teams entered the offseason with max or close to max money spent in free agency: Detroit, Houston, Indiana, Orlando, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, San Antonio and Utah. Three others (Charlotte, Washington, and the Lakers) could have jumped in as well if they wanted to give up their free agents. That’s more than a third of the league! And while many of those teams were rebuilding themselves, they also had ambitions of taking big steps forward this summer.
However, the net result of all that cover space was one really exciting move for the free agent (VanVleet to Houston), followed by…a few things. Let’s just say when the word “max cap space” came out this spring, Detroit fans couldn’t have imagined Joe Harris.
I must emphasize what this change represents.
Until 2019, Seven All-Stars Teams changed hands in free agency in one summer. Kawhi Leonard jumped from the Raptors to the Clippers with cover space. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving did the rare and amazing “double max” to work together in Brooklyn. Kemba Walker left Charlotte for Boston cap space. Jimmy Butler left Philly, though not in the cap space, but once he did, the Sixers had enough space to sign Al Horford away from Boston and into the void. D’Angelo Russell may not be your idea of an All-Star, but the seventh was when he left the Nets as the outsider of the trade mark for Durant.
Initial instinct is to blame the Big Bad New CBA for this, but the actual culprit is last CBA. The relaxed restrictions on contract extensions, especially the arrival of the Supermax extension, have greatly reduced the number of star talent making it to free agency in the first place. The summer of 2019 — which also featured Paul George, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook — marked the final moments for the old world model of free agency.
With that in mind, take a look at what our cover-room friends did this summer. I get it we’re not quite done yet and there are still a couple of restricted free agents on the market and they can receive bid sheets. However, there is no player in this group who can hold a candle to our class for 2019, so I think the point will stand regardless.
• Houston was the only team to follow the “old model,” going into a frenzy that saw the Rockets sign VanVleet, Dillon Brooks and Jeff Green while trading three former first-round draft picks. Everyone else went in a different direction.
• Detroit, with near-maximum room and clear orders to improve, turned nearly $30 million in cover room to Harris and Monte Morris while harvesting one second-round pick.
• Oklahoma City had an area larger than Detroit. Thunder used it to A) pay $33 million to raise Two points in the draft by facing Davis Bertans, b) taking a second-round pick for Victor Oladipo, and c) signing Vasa Mikić to a contract that would fit a room exception if they actually used the rest of their cap space.
• Indiana turned its hat room into a short-term overpayment for Bruce Brown – at least that room had some ballpark appeal – and a trade for Obe Tobin. We’ll talk more about the Brown deal in a minute.
• Orlando had to compromise players like Gary Harris or Markel Fultz for maximum space and chose not to; However, the magic’s only real move was to fill the void with Joe Engels for a year.
• Sacramento broke new ground by using cap space to overpay their own player rather than another, with a $217 million renegotiation and extension for Domantas Sabonis that I would describe as player-friendly.
• San Antonio has volunteered to be a dumping ground for Sidi Osman and reserves plenty of space to hold any debris from the inevitable trade in James Harden and Damian Lillard products.
• Yuta used the bulk of her room to take over someone else’s contract problem, turning Rudy Gay into John Collins. The Jazz still have enough room to renegotiate and extend Jordan Clarkson or enter into another bad contract.
• Charlotte and Washington could have entered the fray, but they didn’t have the guts to jump in. The status of the Hornets remains unclear pending restricted free agents PJ Washington and Miles Bridges, but they haven’t been players in unrestricted free agency yet.
• Even the Lakers – LakersFree agent destination people par excellence For decades now – take one look at the options and decide “Nah, we’re good”.
So in total, $30 million or so in the cover room gets you… a few seconds? That’s it???
Things seem to have really changed. You don’t get an elite player for free anymore; Teams are getting very smart and scaling players is very easy. On the flip side, no one is foolish enough to spend money on slums because they have the money; Deng Mozgov’s summer will probably be a thing of the past.
In fact, the smartest plays I’ve seen on the board have come from teams like Orlando and Indiana, who have adopted something of a hybrid strategy by turning their hat-room into a useful player and commercial exception.
Bruce Brown is overpaid by $45 million over two years, but with a team option for a second year, he’s basically serving as a commercial exception. If any deal is struck to make the Pacers a player who truly makes the difference, they have the expiring big deal they need…and that’s right anytime in the next two years if they choose the option. In the meantime, they managed to get a really useful player to help out in the backcourt; This is way higher up the food chain than sucking paycheck dumping.
Orlando had a similar concept with half the money; Engels isn’t at Brown’s level, but having his deal on the books allows the magic to pivot quickly if a business opportunity presents itself.
For teams like the Magic and Pacers who are still figuring out what they’ve got, I thought this was a particularly smart use of their cap room, and I was a little surprised that more teams weren’t overpaying in the short term as a way of rolling over cap space.
One thing is for sure: the hood space is not that great anymore. The dream of signing an All-Star free agent is impossible if none of them become free agents in the first place. As a result, teams will need to think more strategically about what type max cap room means anymore, and what options are truly viable for franchises in that position. Many of them earned 50 cents on the cap room dollar this year, and with so few true stars making it to free agency, I’m not sure ROI will improve much in seasons to come.
(Top photo by Fred Van Fleet: Cole Burston/Getty Images)