NBA Free Agency: 10 players most likely to move this summer
By Tom West
9. Ryan Anderson
After another season proving himself as one of the premier shooting power forwards in the NBA, Ryan Anderson played himself towards a big contract wherever he lands in free agency this summer.
Overall, Anderson isn’t the most efficient player you could hope for. He’s had a 42.3 field goal percentage for his career and was almost exactly on par with that again this season at 42.7, but it’s his stroke from three and pick-and-pop action just inside the arc that make him so valuable. With 17 points per game and a 36.6 three-point percentage (two makes a night), it’s hard to find many more reliable 6’10” players who can space the floor so easily for your offense.
That’s what any team will see in Anderson this summer, and it’s still somewhat surprising that the Pelicans didn’t trade him away at the deadline in February out of fear of losing him for nothing in free agency. He seemed like one of the hottest trade commodities, and instead has the current options to stay in New Orleans or test the market, which is something he’s very interested in doing.
“For me, I want to play all the cards. I want to enjoy this process and see where New Orleans is at this summer,” Anderson said on J.J. Redick’s podcast for The Vertical. “I want to see where, I don’t know, Houston is at or Sacramento or Washington. So for me, I’m not going to say, ‘Listen, I want a trade’ when I don’t know what’s going to happen this summer.”
Of course, there’s no knowing where Anderson will end up and exactly how interested he is in those few teams he mentioned to Redick.
However, with the cap soaring and the value of three-point shooters and floor-spacing big men as high as it has ever been, large offers for Anderson will come in thick and fast. Don’t expect him to hastily turn them down to stay put with a Pelicans team that continues to hover at the depths of the West.
Next: 8. Josh Smith