NBA Free Agency 2018: One signing every team should make

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With NBA free agency almost here, here’s a good free agency fit for each NBA team.

The 2018 free agency period should be wild with LeBron James and some of the biggest names in the league potentially on the market, not to mention the potential for all sorts of trades. This is an opportunity for every team to get involved and improve their roster now and for the future. With that in mind, we looked at one player every team could use this summer.

Atlanta Hawks — Jose Calderon

As Atlanta rebuilds around Trae Young and John Collins, they’ll need wings and bigs who can shoot and fill in the gaps around those two players. The good news, though, is that they have no reason to rush into signing that type of player. Maybe their cap space this summer in a year where many teams are cap-strapped will allow them to nab someone at the right age and with the right skill profile. Aaron Gordon from Orlando and Joe Harris from Brooklyn both make sense at different price ranges and different positions. But, again, there is no rush for them to spend their money this summer and take themselves out of the running in 2019, 2020 and beyond. If anything, the Hawks are more likely to be active in the trade market while amassing assets.

That’s why someone like Calderon makes sense for them. It is worth asking if Calderon, who will be 37-years-old at the start of next season, would want to play for a team nowhere near contention. But has played in Atlanta before and Travis Schlenk, Atlanta’s general manager, was part of the front office that signed him in 2017 before having to cut him after Kevin Durant got hurt.

There’s also a need for a guy like Jose Calderon on a rebuilding team. He won’t threaten Young’s playing time, but can back him up and teach him the ropes of the day-to-day grind of an NBA season. And Calderon’s professionalism experience would help Collins, Kevin Huerter and Omari Spellman too. He’d also come cheap, likely on a minimum deal, or slightly above it, and not with any long term commitment

This is not a flashy signing, but it would be practical.

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