Free Agency, the showstoppers!

 

Free Agency 2021 has been run, done and won and it was a great day by all. We had minimal technical hitches and some really interesting play outs along the way as well as thousands of GM points from many hours of work across the league disappearing in the blink of an eye!

A massive thank you has to go to Pistolpk, Pete, for hosting the event and doing his tech stuff on the fly also hammering out the little issues along the way and while we went closer to my expected 4 hours than to Pete�s expected 2, we had a great day and time and many of us completed what we hoped would be our goals of the day. Also to Rootsey for his job hosting.

So lets run down some highlights!

 

The above MLE scare fest

The big names and big dollars guys are always the ones who everyone covets�but often the case ends up that there�s not a whole lot of teams that can actually afford to take the swings at these guys. However, there are some�which is why we all jump around putting points down to �guarantee� our guy, so we don�t get a big fright.

Well, that was the theme most of the way. Points guaranteeing needed bodies, and others literally taking the chance that there simply wasn�t enough interest from the teams with space to worry about having some outbid their �resign� bonus.

Spencer Dinwiddie � 60 GM to secure S&T

Kyle Lowry � 40 GM to secure S&T

Norman Powell � 49 GM to secure return

Chris Paul � 10 GM to secure return

Evan Fournier � Free return for S&T

Tim Hardaway Jr � Free return

Will Barton � Free return

Kawhi Leonard � Free return

Mike Conley � Free return

 

But, then there were the couple of aberrations where we saw some real red hot action! We know this format can allow for stealing of players, but we don�t see too much of it in the bigger dollar range. Today was an exception where we saw some fireworks. One was a very near steal of one of the biggest names on the market, and the other was a very effective snipe down of a much desired big man on a good deal.

DeMar DeRozan � 99 GM outsider bid to try and take down the S&T chain of a lifetime! Phoenix however placed 50 points down, knowing that amount would pair with his better record of the only team left with space and guarantee the return. A nice try by the Hawks.

Richaun Holmes � This one might go down in the history books as the steal of a lifetime. The Pacers big man had a 50 point loyalty head start so they deemed to put only 2 points down to help the return. However, Leeroy and the Pelicans threw down a modest 50 GM as a hit and hope. By no means an all out assault like a 99 point bid, but they got the luck of the random factor at 4.65 versus 0.15 and took the win by less than 2 points overall, pinching away the very serviceable big man on a new longer deal.

 

In this bracket we saw one other particularly large bid, on Duncan Robinson, at 99 GMs to head to Milwaukee which went unopposed.

 

Perhaps one of the more interesting storylines at least to me for this bracket was that halfway down the list, we ended up having only the Atlanta Hawks with salary cap space to sign anyone in the bracket. They literally had the pick of the litter, all be it, a subdued and not particularly fantastic litter. The ability to choose your own destiny, for free, is something we all would love to feel someday though!

 

 

Below the MLE line, the GM points fly free

Would you believe that nearly 2400 GM points went to players in the below MLE pool. Think of the man hours! There were 99 point bids flying through the pool and even guys like Dewayne Dedmon and Bryn Forbes getting points thrown on them. It was an all out GM points fest as all those hours of writing finally came to a head and people wanted who they wanted!

Down here, we saw a common trend of a whole swathe of teams making bids on big name guys, but only a few players really going hard, often fully trumped by the now infamous 99 point bid to go out and get your top guy. We have the guys like Klemm cleaning up all the freebies on the guys that weren�t highly sought after with GM and then we have the guys with specific targets in mind with the point bonanza.

There wasn�t too many surprises down here, mostly because people had renounced the rights to a lot of the big names due to massive cap holds and no real signing bonus due to changing teams in the NBA. So there was only a couple of genuine �steals� from team to team, mixed in with a whole bunch of slugfest hits on open FAs.

Biggest GM Player: No surprises, it was Andre Drummond who�s services commanded two 99 point bids with the 78-4 team easily beating out the opposition.

Most Number of Bidders: Would you believe, out of everyone, 15 people bid on Enes Kanter! Only 3 were GM point bids, 62 from Memphis claiming him easily over the 28 from Charlotte. Half the league wanted Enes, while 14 teams went after Carmelo, Otto Porter, Nemanja Bjelica, Victor Oladipo and Rajon Rondo. Double figure bidders was a large theme occurring 16 times.

Still Got It: If you were asked who would have the 2^nd most GM points bid, and 2^nd most bidders, would you have actually thought the 37 year old Carmelo Anthony would be the answer? 190 GM points, 14 bidders, 99 points from the victor, Toronto.

Stolen? Of the 14 highest GM point guys, only 2 had their Rights held, and only 1 of those was in the Under MLE pool. That man? LaMarcus Aldridge. The man who was retired only 6 months ago was a �Bought out and signed� guy for OKC as he was waived in the NBA before coming back out of retirement and signing on again. In the NSL, his Rights are held until he has no contract or is renounced, so OKC still had the upper hand, all be it subdued. Unfortunately for their plans though, a 99 point bid was placed to eclipse the 40 point bid by the Champs and 17 point bid by the incumbent for a total of 156 points bid, with the winner being the Philadelphia 76ers.

Interesting Play: This could go to a few players really, but for me the most interesting play of the day in this pool was Victor Oladipo. The man has credentials, but is injured and on a 1 year minimum deal. That didn�t stop their incumbent trading a 1^st round pick for points to then place 70 of them on their guy to guarantee he returned. All of which, in the end, were not required. Would many of us trade a 1^st for Dipo outright right now? Let alone when you have the inside track to keep anyway? It�s a �one to watch� going forward.

Bad Beat/Big Ouch: Ok, maybe bad isn�t the word for it, but big ouch definitely fits. The Clippers went for 69 points on Dwight Howard as most of the other big players were gone and they had some record advantages, but a 99 point bid from the revamped but poor last season record Wolves saw their extra 30 GM secure a 22 point win of Dwight. That�s gotta hurt.
Honourable mention has to go to the Orlando Magic who were the Drummond bridesmaids having also thrown down 99, but were beaten by the record.

 

 

All in all, we saw some jostling, we saw some show boating, we saw some banter, we saw some bid points and we saw some big wins. The league now is all but shaped for the coming season with only minor roster modifications required to produce a legal roster by the start of the season next week. The rest of the FA pool will be live soon enough, headlines by the names of Daniel Theis, Danny Green, Kelly Olynyk and Doug McDermott, and the 2way guys for those who haven�t filled their slots from the draft or hold overs, will soon follow too.

 

Congrats to all and thank you again Pete and Rootsey for hosting!

 

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