With a quarter of the season almost done, it is pretty clear that some of the free agents signed this offseason have been living up to expectations. While, others have been nothing but disappointments. The salary cap going into the 2016 season saw a $24 million jump, and NBA veterans were able to snatch contracts that would normally be given to All-Star players.
Free agent signings always carry some risks, especially for teams that sign unproven or subpar players. Here we will be looking at some of the best and worst NBA free agent contracts from the 2016 offseason.
Eric Gordon from Houston Rockets signed a 4-year $53 million contract with the squad. During his prime, Gordon proved to be one of the league's most reliable scorers, who is currently experiencing a career renaissance in Houston. He was injured for most of his tenure with New Orleans and only managed to play a total of 221 games in his six seasons with the team. His current average of 17.0 points per game as a substitute to Mike D'Antoni where he gained his highest PPG of the 2011-2012 season. While also making 3.4 three-point field goals per game, ranking him second to Steph Curry. If he can stay healthy, Gordon has a good chance of walking away snagging this season's man of the year award.
Then, we have Joakim Noah who signed a 4-year contract with the New York Knicks worth $72 million. This wouldn't be a problem if Noah is still playing like he used to. Unfortunately, those days seem to be long gone for the big man. There are two reasons why Noah's massive contract has been considered one of the worst in the league because of his injury history and his age (31).
It is hard to believe that Noah was the 2014 Defensive Player of the Year who is now just a shell of his former self. He is rebounding the ball at a pretty respectable rate (8 RPG), but he hasn't really done much in other facets of the game.
Another player who has proven to be a good pickup is Moe Harkless of the Portland Trailblazers with a 4-year contract worth $42 million. His teammates Allen Crabbe and Evan Turner are made $75 million and $70 million respectively, which was way more than what Harkless is making. However, Moe showed his worth and is one of the best investments Blazers have made during the offseason.
His shooting touch from three (37.1 percent), and he is Blazers' third leading scorer (13 ppg) behind Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Blazers is one of NBA's worst defensive teams per ESPN's team stats. But, Harkless has been a true bright spot for them taking on assignments that would normally be reserved for the injured Al-Farouq Aminu.
Last on the list is Luol Deng of the Los Angeles Lakers who signed a 4-year contract worth $72 million. While the Lakers have been performing surprisingly well under new head coach Luke Walton, the 13-year veteran is in the worst statistical season of his career.
To be fair to Deng, he was already showing signs of slowing down during his tenure with the Heat. But, none of us could have predicted he would have dropped his production this poorly with his a career low average of 6.6 PPG to go along with horrendous shooting averages across the board (34 percent on FG/ .279 percent on 3-pt GF/ 71 percent on FT). The only bright spot from the veteran this season is his defense, which is still reliable. But, the rest of his game is not worth $18 million per year for the next 4 years.
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