Best and worst of NBA free agency
NBA free agency is about to begin and it won’t take long for things to reach a fevered pitch. Beginning at midnight tonight, players and teams can agree in principle on contract terms — many deals will begin to be reported in the next 24 hours even if they can’t become official until the league-imposed moratorium ends a week from now.
In this tiny lull before the madness begins, we decided to have some fun with the full array of free agents available. Several of our NBA experts have joined us to offer up the best and worst five-man rotations they could imagine, using just free agents. We did not bother with petty limitations like restricted and unrestricted status, or financial feasibility. Joining us are Scott Rafferty (@crabdribbles, Editor of Hardwood Paroxysm), Chris Reichert (@chris_Reichert, Editor of Upside and Motor), Daniel Rowell (@danieljrowell, Staff Writer for Hardwood Paroxysm), John Buhler (@buhler118,FanSided contributor), and Tom West (@TomWestNBA, Editor of Clipperholics and FanSided contributor).
Please enjoy!
Make the worst possible starting five from players available in NBA free agency. State your case.
Scott Rafferty: If this team is going to lose, they might as well lose in style. I’m switching up the rules a little by going with a starting lineup that might not challenge the Philadelphia 76ers for the worst record of all-time, but will be bad nonetheless.
PG: Marcelo Huertas
SG: Isaiah Canaan
SF: Troy Daniels
PF: Steve Novak
C: Marreese Speights
I’m still convinced Daniels is the greatest shooter the NBA has ever seen — #FreeTroyDaniels — so he’s going to be this team’s leading scorer (especially with Huertas setting him up with all the three-pointers he could ever wish for). His former D-League running mate Canaan can provide similar firepower, and they’ll play five-out with Novak and Speights manning the power forward and center position. This team won’t stop anyone, but they’ll provide enough flair on offense to be a decent league pass team.
Chris Reichert: Look man, this team is going to be rough and I’m here for it. Prigioni dropping beautiful passes only to watch The Machine, “Mr. Endless Potential”, Chase Budinger and “I was never good”, Ryan Kelly miss jumpers would be glorious for all the wrong reasons.
PG: Pablo Prigioni
SG: Sasha Vujacic
SF: Chase Budinger
PF: Ryan Kelly
C: Anderson Varejao
With that said, the acting done between Prigioni, Vujacic and Varejao would be akin to acting performances of Jay & Silent Bob — hilarious, but not good in any way shape or form. Chase Budinger drops 25 a night and who the heck doesn’t wanna see that!?
Daniel Rowell: The true mark of a bad free agent is a player that brings his own brand of basketball with him. I’m sure there are plenty of on-their-way-out veterans and whose-man-is-this D-Leaguers to fill a five man roster with some ‘Would this team lose to Duke?’ basketball. But I want the kind of five every-man-for-himself lineup that you could hide underneath the Sept in King’s Landing, place a candle over it, and watch it glow with a nice cab.
PG: Ty “has his own TMZ tab” Lawson
SG: Lance Stephenson (The Selfie Superfan)
SF: Matt Barnes (any time Kanye West can write a song about you, you did something write)
PF: Josh Smith (paging Doctor Drain!)
C: Timofey Mozgov
And let’s be real about Mozgov. He may be the best player on that team for the first 3 months, until he finds out where every Chipotle in the city is located.
John Buhler: I’m going to go about this a little bit differently. While anybody can form a tank-tastic team like the Philadelphia 76ers did under former general manager Sam Hinkie to try to lose every game, here’s a starting five of solid soon-to-be free agents that would be an absolute dumpster fire a dysfunctional NBA front office that has convinced themselves that they’ve got a real winner on their hands.
PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Bradley Beal
SF: Chandler Parsons
PF: Ryan Anderson
C: Dwight Howard
The Rondo/Howard pick-and-roll partnership seems like a chemistry nightmare waiting to happen. Rondo is a basketball savant, though immensely gifted, is incredibly difficult to work with. So let’s give him the most immature 30-year-old center in the league in Howard! Rondo doesn’t want to shoot and Howard’s offensive game is still raw 10+ years later. Expect Rondo to throw the basketball at Howard’s head in frustration on national television well before the All-Star Break.
As for the bevy of jump-shooting stalwarts two through four, yes, Beal, Parsons, and Anderson will be able to sink threes in the first half. However of the possible 246 games (82 x 3) between the three, expect them to appear in roughly 160 and be unavailable late in the season for a playoff push. They all will play mediocre defense and demand a maximum contract in 2017 NBA free agency by opting out after one year. This team would finish in 10th place in the Eastern Conference and both the head coach and general manager won’t be back in 2017-18.
Tom West: Give the people what they want. Give them awkward, behind the head three-pointers, crossed-up (not crossover) highlights, and steals where the player hides behind an opposing coach. Marcelo Huertas starts off this nightmare team at point guard, and things only get better.
PG: Marcelo Huertas
SG: Lance Stephenson
SF: Steve Novak
PF: Ryan Kelly
C: Matt Bonner
Lance Stephenson, while certainly not one of the worst guards available, is being included for the sole purpose of an all-buckets, entertainment mindset. We want to see him try too hard to cross someone up and instead tumble over his own toes. There’s genuine Shaqtin A Fool potential with Stephenson and Huertas in the backcourt.
To follow at the last three positions, a return to the-worst-available ability is in order. Steve Novak can try his luck at small forward, while the often hopeless nature of Ryan Kelly’s scoring and the painful lack of speed and old man game of Matt Bonner’s marksmanship finishes the team. Essentially, a bunch of tall white guys who can stand around and hoist threes with Lance and Huertas wreaking havoc. Brilliant, right?
Make the best possible starting five from players available in NBA free agency. State your case.
Scott Rafferty: This is pretty simple. LeBron James brought a championship to Cleveland with Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson starting alongside him.
PG: Mike Conley
SG: Bradley Beal
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: LeBron James
C: Al Horford
Go small with James at power forward, put Durant in there for Smith or Love to score the most efficient 30 points per game he’s ever seen and fill out the rest of the roster with guys who can defend and knock down spot-up jumpers, and the possibilities are endless. Hopefully this means Beal will play more than 60 games in a season, too.
Chris Reichert: Honestly, I feel like there should be three names of each and every one of these lists — Conley, Durant and James. Fill that roster in with the defensive, jack-of-all-trades Nic Batum and rebounding, shot-blocker extraordinaire Andre Drummond and we ain’t losin’ any games. James is the perfect power forward to play next to Drummond as he can dominate in the post, run the pick-and-roll to perfection or slash off Conley penetration.
PG: Mike Conley
SG: Nicolas Batum
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: LeBron James
C: Andre Drummond
Drummond wins Defensive Player of the Year as the rest of the squad funnels opposing wings to their doom with a big can of “get that shit out of here” waiting for em. Conley probably averages 15 assists a night with this lineup and somehow people will still underestimate him.
Daniel Rowell: Yeah, I have to agree with Scott and Chris here on the Conley-James-Durant big three. Those three players would just be unstoppable together. But, unfortunately for Conley, he’s the second best point guard in my book because I’m slotting LeBron James at the point guard. In speculative fiction we get to break all the rules, and James is the best distributor and get-out-the-way drive and kick in the league. He needs to work on that jumper a bit more, but it looked good enough for a championship run. Durant, I’ll slide to the power forward, where his length and shooting can be a match-up nightmare. After that, I’d want players that can do other things than score at the rim and distribute. Outside shooting is great, defense and rebounding is even better.
PG: LeBron James
SG: Jamal Crawford
SF: Nicolas Batum
PF: Kevin Durant
C: Al Horford
Al Horford is an easy pick for center, he’s one of the best rebounding frontcourt players in the league and he’s a career 34 percent from behind the arc, pretty good for a player with a 8-foot-11-inch standing reach. It’d be like if Tristan Thompson could hit a corner three, just a total upgrade for LeBron’s ball screens and no loss on the boards.
Then for shooting guard, I’m going to do something a little unconventional. I’m going for the human cheat code, Jamal Crawford. Three-point shooting and defense with veteran status are too valuable, even at his age. Until EA Sports tones down the 99s, I’m going to sign Crawford every time.
Finally, for small forward, I’ve got to go with Nicolas Batum. He plays a lot of the same roles as Crawford but with less experience. Need to have that quickness on defense around the arc if I’m going to be playing James at the 1, and Batum does just that.
As for a name for this lineup? I think death lineup is done and overused. Let’s go with LeBrexit, pursued by a bear lineup.
John Buhler: This team might lose a few games, but will decimate its opponents with a great offensive team able to beat anybody it comes across in any playoff series.
PG: Mike Conley
SG: Dwyane Wade
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: LeBron James
C: Al Horford
Conley is the best point guard available in 2016 NBA free agency, so his inclusion is a no-brainer. Wade and James want to play together again. They are two of the game’s most clutch playoff players in NBA history. Their chemistry should still be rock solid. Durant is going to thrive on all the drive-and-kicks he’ll get from great passers like Conley and James. Horford stretches the floor even further with his solid mid-range game.
This team will be finesse and may lack firepower on the defensive end of the floor. However, it’s going to be impossible for the offensive onslaught this club of 2016 NBA free agents to be stopped by anybody. It won’t go 73-9, but should win the 2017 NBA Finals.
Tom West: The actual dream teams for 2016 free agents will be relatively similar and there’s no way to avoid it. Mike Conley doesn’t need an explanation at point guard (sorry, any ignorant Rajon Rondo fans out there). Bradley Beal is the farthest away from being a no-brainer in the group and injuries are always a concern, but with no cap space or undeserved max contracts to worry about, he can play off ball and flourish with all the easy catch-and-shoot opportunities in space as his teammates steal the attention of opposing defenses.
PG: Mike Conley
SG: Bradley Beal
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: LeBron James
C: Al Horford
So, as for the last three, a smaller Kevin Durant and LeBron James forward combination is pretty much as formidable and terrifying as you can get. To finish off at center, rather than Andre Drummond’s physicality and rebounding or Hassan Whiteside’s superstar defensive potential, a far more versatile, floor-spacing, and proven two-way talent in Al Horford gets the nod.
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