How Free is Free Agency?

Six parts transaction reaction, one part philosophical inquiry

It’s one of the tried and true adages of professional sports, kinda like how they say holding could be called on every play.

You could call tampering on every major signing.¹ It’s tough to police, and probably impossible to eliminate. People talk. What can ya do.

I’m reminded of what John Hollinger wrote for The Athletic a few years back.

"News flash: Free agency is 90 percent done by the time it allegedly starts. Virtually every player of significance had a deal announced in the first 36 hours this year. Many of those announcements, no doubt, were still foot-dragged to provide the cover of plausible deniability."

The NBA does try, here and there. They upped the penalties for tampering in 2019, which has mostly resulted in the loss of second-round draft picks. You know who lost a couple of those picks the last few years? I’ll give you a hint. They’re the team in the headline of Hollinger’s 2022 piece above, and I won’t be shocked if they attract some more heat after this offseason.

Paul George to Philadelphia wasn’t quite as obvious as a move like Damian Lillard to Miami would’ve been last year, had that one actually happened. But I’ll tell you what — this wasn’t that subtle either. Watch Joel Embiid hit him with the side eye on national television during the Finals.

If you’re the Sixers though, losing a 2nd-round draft pick that you could’ve used on the likes of Bronny James isn’t going to deter you from doing everything in your power to ensure you get your guy. That’s why they keep doing it, and that’s why they’re going to keep getting caught doing it. There are too many reasons to risk it.

It brings me to a larger question of fairness and equity that’s been front of mind this offseason, what with all the concerns over the league’s new apron system. The NBA is not an even playing field. That’s not a bad thing to aspire to, but it’s never going to be. Parity can only be legislated so far before it becomes self-defeating, and I do think that doing more damage to roster continuity probably isn’t a good thing in the long run, even if the league thinks — maybe rightly — that player movement is good for business.

It’s true on two fronts, then. Free agency ain’t free. Never has been, but it’s getting pricey. Careful out there, folks.

Now, on to the offseason report card, which feature no grades, to be clear. I just thought that might get your attention. Let’s start with the good news, right?

Commendations:

OKC Thunder

It might not by hyperbole to say that the Thunder are one of the best-positioned teams in modern history. To be the #1 seed in the far tougher Western Conference, a few breaks away from the Conference Finals, and then add this much talent while largely maintaining your war chest for any future Godfather opportunities is quite the feather in Sam Presti’s well-plumed cap.

No other team in the West, and certainly none at the top end, have done as much to improve their roster this offseason. Not Minnesota, not Dallas.² Not Denver, who we’ll get to. Oklahoma City, who was already a fairly complete team, gave themselves a more credible option to play big and a better fit to play small.

Isaiah Hartenstein helps with the anemic rebounding. Alex Caruso brings much-improved shooting and elite defense. And they drafted a nice project guy at 12 in Nikola Topic? What’s not to like?

Philadelphia 76ers

They got their guy. That counts for a lot in today’s NBA. Moreover, it’s not like the backup plans were all that palatable. Paul George was by far the best player available this offseason, and he’ll complete one of the league’s few true Big 3s next season.

That move alone puts them back in the title picture, if they ever truly left it. Adding Caleb Martin, and though they’re not what they once were, two solid veterans in Andre Drummond and Eric Gordon, makes this a clear W.

Do I still have some questions? Why yes, I do. But that didn’t stop the Celtics this year, so why should it stop the Sixers? Put it this way. If this offseason was about placating Embiid, then mission accomplished. The big man’s smiling.

New York Knicks

The ‘Nova Knicks are absolutely thriving. It feels like the Mikal Bridges trade happened a year ago now, but that was this offseason, and they therefore earn a spot here on the basis of immaculate vibes.

They also managed to keep OG Anunoby, which was not a given. They could’ve lost him to the team above, in fact. If Jalen Brunson’s your engine, you need defense where you can find it, and they now employ a very good two-way wing rotation. I’m told that’s a nice thing to have these days.

They lost Hartenstein, who they will well and truly miss, and I continue to be unsure of where Julius Randle fits in all this. I hope he slots in smoothly, as I’d really love to see this team continue to compete. Like the Sixers, the Knicks are now a little more firmly in the title mix, if they ever left.

Citations:

Denver Nuggets

Shame! Shame! Shame! I’m genuinely upset about this one, so much so that when

Royce Webb

last gave me the opportunity to write about something, I used that time to rant about the apron-dodging going down in Denver.

Now that I’ve gotten that rant out, I should qualify my frustrations just a bit. KCP was not great in last year’s run, and he’s not some totally irreplaceable piece for the league’s best floor-raiser in Nikola Jokic. But this is starting to feel like the late-stage Pats’ receiving corps with Tom Brady, or to take a more recent example, the Chiefs trying (and, we must note, succeeding) to get away with the same approach with Pat Mahomes.

One mustn’t get too comfortable, and I for one am not comfortable with Christian Braun becoming the fifth starter, not least of all because he was the Nuggets’ single competent bench player. The reserves have been flat-out bad, and now they’re worse. Can Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther step up? Denver better hope so. But I don’t like where this team is trending right now, and as a huge fan of the way they play ball, I sincerely hope I’m wrong.

LA Clippers

I think we can safely say that the Kawhi-PG swing hasn’t gone to plan. You’d do it all again given the chance. Of course you would. So let’s not get into the woulda coulda game. Still, it’s painful to watch the Thunder do allllllll that with the spoils of that trade, while the guy you got has already walked.

Derrick Jones, Jr., Mo Bamba, Nicolas Batum… those are fine enough moves on a team where you believed the star power could anchor the roster. But Kawhi Leonard just doesn’t play enough basketball to make me believe that anymore, and that was true when he had his running mate the last few years. Why would things be better now? I’m out on these guys, sad to say.

If anything, they’re more of a cautionary tale. (To be fair, James Harden’s last three destinations have been.) Nobody wins anything in the offseason.

Golden State Warriors

I considered switching them out after seeing the full scope of how they’ve replaced Chris Paul and Klay Thompson, two aging veterans, with a bunch of younger depth: DeAnthony Melton, Buddy Hield, and Kyle Anderson. Those are all good players, and I believe they’ll help the Warriors remain competent and maybe even improve.

However. Not to reduce the offseason to big swings only, but lest we forget, this is a team with Steph Curry on it. He’s not through yet, but I fear he might be before there’s a contending roster around him again.

Disclaimer: I will come back and revise this judgment if they manage to land Lauri Harkonnen. Sorry, Markkanen. Is that anything? Please advise.

Also, This

🎾 I’m traveling next week, so I’ll have an only slightly updated Wimbledon post for you next Friday. It’s about an unusual trend I noticed with players pleading for coaching on the court, which reared its head in a total meltdown from the current pride of American tennis, Coco Gauff.

🎾 That said, good efforts from Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz on the men’s draw. Even Tiafoe, who gave Carlos Alcaraz a match too. Neither had it in the end, but I guess I’m encouraged? Maybe I shouldn’t be, but hey.

🏀 As we suspected last week, down goes Gregg Berhalter. The question now turns to who will replace him, and it should not surprise you to learn that I don’t know! I’ll say this, though. That first half of Netherland-England was the best I’ve seen in the Euros, and honestly looked like a different sport than whatever the USMNT was playing against Uruguay. Long way to go, you might say.

⚽ Now to an American team we can believe in. Glad to see the U.S. basketball team overcome some stilted offense by putting the clamps on Canada this week. But man, it is a shame to see Kawhi have to walk away from this team. There’s something ironic about it being Grant Hill making that announcement, by the way, from one chronically injured superstar to another. I would say there was a 1-to-2-year span where Kawhi was the very best player on the planet, and that just feels irretrievably far away now. Damn shame.

⚖️ Johnson v. NCAA, a case we covered on The Option, moved forward this week. A U.S. appeals court ruled that there must be a test to differentiate those students who play college sports recreationally and those whose playing sports “crosses the legal line into work,” thus begetting employee status. This is not something the NCAA wants to entertain. Now it heads back to the trial judge for fact-finding, so there’s nothing definitive here. Just another L, albeit in pencil, for the last gasps of amateurism.

⚾ If you’ll allow me to close with some inside baseball, is this finally the year the Cardinals move Dylan Carlson? He’s a strange case. Formerly a top prospect, he was once an “off-limits” guy whose stock has steadily fallen the longer he’s been in the league. What’s more, the Cardinals are in a bit of a liminal space this year. They can do the Cardinals thing — make the wildcard, hope to get hot, probably flame out — but are they really looking to make an acquisition to get there? The thing is: it’s the outfield where they need to find the production. Maybe moving Ivan Herrera helps?

1. Tampering is becoming an issue in the college ranks too, as memorably claimed by Pitt’s head football coach Pat Narduzzi over Jordan Addison’s transfer to USC a few years ago. (We talk about that ‘incident’ on The Option, by the way. I continue to think that was an important moment for where we’ve landed. Listen below!)

2. Sorry, Klay Thompson. Nothing personal. Big fan.