NBA free agency: Players that signed with the wrong team

8. Leandro Barbosa — Phoenix Suns

One of the more unlikely spark plugs for the Golden State Warriors on their way to a 73-win regular season last year and their subsequent run to the NBA Finals for the second-straight year was undoubtedly Leandro Barbosa. Despite many people thinking that he might be washed up, the Brazilian Blur was still as blurry as ever when he came off of the bench for the Warriors and showed that he could be a player that could really help a contender as a pace-pusher and offensive threat off of the bench.

All of this makes it exceedingly curious as to why he ultimately decided to sign with the Phoenix Suns this offseason in free agency. Despite the plethora of young talent that the Suns can boast, no one is going to mistake them for a contender or even really a playoff team at this point. Therefore, Phoenix bringing Barbosa back to the desert seems a bit odd as he’s not really going to move the needle for them.

On top of that, Barbosa is already limiting his minutes a great deal by signing with the Suns. When healthy, the backcourt in Phoenix is already overcrowded with young guards like Eric Bledsoe, Devin Booker, and Archie Goodwin, just to name a few. Subsequently, you’d have to imagine that Barbosa is going to fall behind these guys in the pecking order, thus leaving him to essentially waste his talents on the bench more often than not. It seemingly would have made exponentially more sense for him to sign with a team that’s more in contention and less crowded in the backcourt, but here we are.

Next: No. 7 Scola