Pitch-a-free-agent: Sending J.J. Redick our best offers
Free agency is when everything is possible. No matter how small your market is, all it takes is one sensational pitch. Because we’re helpful people here at The Step Back, we’re each picking teams and penning our best offers to the free agents we think those teams should chase. Here’s what we have for J.J. Redick.
Los Angeles Clippers
We’d love to welcome you back to Los Angeles if you’ll return. As you know, you’ve had the best individual seasons of your career with us, thus earning the privilege of making a boatload of money on the open market. A number of teams will throw so much money at you, and we would offer as much as them if we could. Ultimately, you will make the best decision for yourself, but we want to stress the value of continuity in the NBA. We own the fourth longest active postseason appearance streak behind only the Spurs, Hawks and Grizzlies, and you’ve been with us for four of those years. Each of those seasons, we won 51 or more games. Ultimately, we will be judged by what we accomplish in the postseason. If you, like us, believe we can still make serious noise in the Western Conference playoffs and that we’ve largely been derailed by bad luck (e.g. Corey Brewer and Josh Smith looking like the best 3-point shooters of all time in Game 6 of the 2015 Western Conference Semifinals or untimely injuries to our stars the past two postseasons), sign on to keep this thing going. Bad luck runs out. We know you’re too smart to believe in curses.
I’d like to close with your own words from a couple months ago at our shootaround in Dallas:
“I believe in continuity, and keeping a core group together. When it’s done right, you have a lot of success.”
We haven’t always done it right, but with our postseason failures that have provided critical lessons learned, we are getting closer to the Promised Land regardless of what the pundits are saying. Owner Steve Ballmer provides stability with his financial and terrible-dancing support, and The Basketball Logo will provide more reliable hands to steer the Clipper ship from a basketball perspective. Let’s keep sailing together and finally make it to a Western Conference Finals series. We’re certainly capable.
Our offer: Four years, $60 million
— Aaron Fischman (@byaaronfisch)
Portland Trail Blazers
JJ: We did it. We traded away Allen Crabbe and Meyers Leonard in exchange for one of those second rounders that are so protected they’ll never convey. It doesn’t really matter where. Yes, a It was all getting too much. We just kind of wanted to look at our cap sheet without lurching into an anxiety attack. It didn’t totally work, but we made some meaningful progress. Although Allen’s gone, now. Dang it. I gotta just breathe through it when those negative thoughts come up, you know? Or remember the positives, like how Leonard’s contract is off the books.
Anyway, JJ: Portland. You’re like one of the league’s better white players, and it’s just going to work. You saw Robin Lopez getting his weird on a few years ago. Meyers was too much of a Midwestern guy, you know, he didn’t really get it. We see you posting pictures of Voodoo Donuts, though, and guess what: a few months here and you’ll be sneering at people who go to Voodoo, because us locals don’t do that. We just kind of smile and shake our heads at the people who get so excited for Voodoo. You don’t want that to continue happening, do you?
We really felt that this was our strongest possible pitch here, and I think we totally nailed it.
Our offer: Two years, $30 million
— Miles Wray (@mileswray)
Philadelphia 76ers
We get it, JJ. Going from a 50-win team to a recent laughingstock might sound unappealing at first, but hear us out. If your Los Angeles Clippers somehow keep all three of you, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, they won’t be able to round out their bench without a) enduring an exorbitant luxury-tax bill and b) relying upon ring-chasing veterans who couldn’t latch on with the Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers or San Antonio Spurs. Lob City had a good run, but it’s time to go your separate ways.
What better place to do so than a team overflowing with young talent on the rise? Remember when Blake Griffin was young, fun and dunked all over everyone? Meet Joel Embiid, who’s four inches taller, touts three-point range and nearly ended Jae Crowder’s life. While we don’t have Chris “Point God” Paul on our roster, the 6-foot-10 tandem of Ben Simmons and Dario Saric will have you feasting on open three-point looks nevertheless. Soon-to-be No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz will only further ease your offensive burden, as he’ll be able to feed you for long-range bombs in transition and off drive-and-kicks. We value your sharpshooting, underrated defensive tenacity and playoff experience, as we’re hoping to add veteran leadership to an otherwise young locker room.
We can’t commit to giving you a four-year deal, but given your reported interest in a contract worth $18-20 million annually, we hope you find our offer intriguing enough to consider.
Our Offer: Three years, $60 million with a third-year team option
— Bryan Toporek (@btoporek)
Minnesota Timberwolves
Los Angeles is cool and all, I’m sure being there helps you jumpstart your future as part of the media, but you don’t really want to play for the Los Angeles Clippers again do you? It’s time to make a change. Time to get away from all the bickering and infighting, all the shortsighted front office moves, all the in your face screaming from a man you once hated.
Teaming up with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Doc Rivers looked great on paper, but it didn’t provide the results you were looking for in the end. Thanks to the great foresight of Rivers, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get the kind of raise staying with the Clippers as you could elsewhere on the open market.
That’s where we come in. We may not be flushed with cap space, but we have a lot more than the Clippers. The stepson of Los Angeles’ fandom is also likely to lose a lot of star power this offseason. Do you really think CP3 AND Blake are going to opt to return — no seriously, we want to know if you have any inside info J.J., we won’t tell anyone else we swear.
Come to Minnesota, you’ll be a television and multimedia juggernaut and you’ll still get the requisite pin downs and 3-pointers that you need.
Our offer: Three years, $50 million ($16.5 million a year average)
— Brandon Jefferson (@Jefferson_Hoops)
Phoenix Suns
Listen J.J.. There are better teams that want you, and teams that will pay you more, but do you know what those teams don’t have? They don’t have Devin Booker. You and Devin would combine to be an absolutely terrifying pair of lights-out shooters.
Don’t forget we’ve got Eric Bledsoe for at least 50 games a year too. When’s the last time you were in a starting lineup with more than one other shooter around you? Back in Orlando? I know the Clippers don’t have any besides Chris Paul and sometimes Jamal Crawford.
We’re a way better bad team then they are now, and we’ve got even more shooters we haven’t mentioned yet! Jared Dudley can nail some 3s. Leandro Barbosa does fun stuff all the time. Dragan Bender can theoretically shoot! Look at all the great pieces here in Phoenix.
Next: Pitch-a-free-agent: Sending Otto Porter our best offers
To sweeten the deal, we’ll let you put Jared on your podcast whenever you want. Jared loves doing podcasts, and he’s pretty dang good at it too! Why go to Cleveland and have to deal with a podcast diva like Richard Jefferson when we’ve got Jared Dudley here for you?
Our Offer: Four years, $70 million ($17.5 million per year average).
— Ti Windisch (@TiWindisch)