7 Remaining NBA Free Agents Still Worth Pursuing

2019 NBA Free Agency dried up quickly, but under the radar signings like Delon Wright, RHJ, WCS, and Tyus Jones could be some of the summer’s biggest bargains

NBA FREE AGENCY CAME IN WITH A ROAR IN 2019, and almost every key free agent not named Kawhi Leonard was signed before July 1st even arrived. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are Nets. Kemba Walker and Terry Rozier swapped jerseys. D’Angelo Russell is in Golden State, and Jimmy Butler is in Miami. It all happened in a few frenzied hours, and when the dust had settled, the entire landscape of the league had changed.

Free agency has been much quieter since then, as we await Kawhi’s decision with a few stray signings here and there. But now is the time for smart teams to swoop in for the type of bargain contracts that can save a team’s season or set them up for years to come. I found 7 key free agents that look like great under-the-radar signings. We’re not talking about veterans like JaMychal Green, James Ennis, Justin Holiday, and the Morris twins. All nice players but we know what you’re getting and there’s not much potential surplus value. Names like Boban Marjanovic or Luc Mbah a Moute are worth a shot too. But these guys below are players you lock up for several years in hopes that they might far exceed their contract. Let’s take a look…

DeMarcus Cousins

Boogie is good.

This is not a sentence I’ve typed much, nor said very often the last few years. Boogie is genuinely good, and he’s actually gotten better and more efficient the last few seasons after leaving Sacramento and getting some real coaching and expectations. This year, Cousins cut his turnover rate and boosted his two-point percentage, and he’s over 56% true shooting three straight seasons.

Boogie remains supremely talented at a ton of stuff that exactly doesn’t grow on trees. He’s an awesome rebounder and a really good passer, and we saw that passing on display with the Warriors. He’s a very efficient scorer in the paint, and his defense has improved and actually become a positive in most situations. The turnovers are still high but dropping, and the three-point percentage is all over the place and needs to be a smaller part of his game, but Cousins is still very good. He also saw almost no real drop in his per-minute numbers this year even after the Achilles tear and in a new, smaller role.

The re-injury threat is real, but so is the upside. Cousins has All-NBA potential and can dominate like few others when healthy. His numbers a year ago were on par with 2019 Joel Embiid. A motivated and healthy Cousins makes a real, genuine, positive difference for a team.

Only the Clippers, Mavericks, and Lakers have the money left to give Cousins a real contract. They ought to consider a two-year deal, as weak as the market looks next summer, something like two years for $25 million. That might end up a slight overpay, but it could also end up with huge surplus value. For the Clips and Mavs, Boogie could be the difference in them making the playoffs in a loaded West. For the Lakers, he’d have a similar bench role to what he had for the Warriors, and he already has chemistry with Anthony Davis.

Boogie is good and has real upside at this stage of free agency. On the right contract, he could end up being one of the key signings of the entire summer.

Danny Green

I’m not exactly breaking news telling you Danny Green is good, but I need you to know just how valuable Green is.

Green is an elite guard defender. I picked him for my All-Defense team, and his defensive metrics are consistently terrific and even better in the playoffs. Green might be the best transition defender in the league. He’s also a career 40% three-point shooter in both the regular season and playoffs and hit 46% from behind the arc this season. He’s hit 58% true shooting six times in his career. When you talk about 3-and-D guys, you’re literally describing Danny Green. These are the sort of guys that populate winning NBA rosters. Green has played 10 NBA seasons. He’s won 50+ games nine times and 60+ five times. He’s played in the Conference Finals in half of his NBA seasons.

Green’s defense is so valuable on its own that any offense is almost a bonus. That’s why his teams are so unbeatable when he does hit threes. Green elevates the rest of the team. He led the NBA champion Toronto Raptors in on-court rating at +14 and on/off metrics at +18. He also ranked 14th among NBA guards in BPM and 15th in VORP. That’s higher than names like C.J. McCollum, Marcus Smart, DeMar DeRozan, De’Aaron Fox, Klay Thompson, and Donovan Mitchell. The only shooting guards ahead of him are Bradley Beal and Jrue Holiday.

You might call Danny Green a “role player,” but everyone but a few superstars plays a “role” in the NBA. Danny’s role is making winning plays on winning teams. If Green is really the 15th best guard in the NBA, he’s worth something close to a max contract. That’s the sort of deal most of those other guys we just listed are getting. But Green has never even cleared $10 million in a season. You get a player this valuable and you get him on a bargain deal.

Willie Cauley-Stein

I’ve long been a Willie Cauley-Stein admirer. I thought he was a Defensive Player of the Year candidate out of Kentucky, with his unique size and athleticism combination giving him huge switchability on the perimeter and the ability to guard one to five with excellent mirroring.

The NBA defense has been hit or miss. While the skills are there, Cauley-Stein’s recognition and defensive IQ have come and gone, and he hasn’t exactly had much help from the coaches or players around him. WCS’s 108 defensive rating the last two seasons isn’t too impressive, but it was best on the Kings and second best behind Boogie before that. He’s not a great defender, but there’s something there.

There’s not much on offense. Cauley-Stein has four career threes and very little touch, but he might have a role as a rim runner, and he got a lot more efficient this year with a real point guard and took a leap to 182 dunks. It was also his first time playing exclusively at center, where in past seasons the Kings foolishly dumped the ball to him in the post and asked him to do something, which was never his right role.

WCS is a surprising passer and an excellent offensive rebounder. He’ll be 26 this season and could be an excellent second-contract guy. I’d love to see him in a Kevon Looney role, especially on the Warriors, or he could be an awesome fit with the Celtics. Cauley-Stein could turn into a real value on the right deal. The Kings made him unrestricted, so he’s just waiting for the right offer.

UPDATE: Cauley-Stein signed with the Warriors! 1 for 1.

Delon Wright (restricted)

Delon Wright is restricted, so the Grizzlies will likely match any reasonable offer. They got Wright in the Marc Gasol trade, and he’ll be a great adult in the room backup point guard as they develop Ja Morant.

Wright is an excellent guard defender, and that’s his key value. He’s mostly neutral on offense, a below average shooter that rebounds well for his position with a nice assist rate in low usage. Wright would be valuable in a Malcolm Brogdon or Patrick Beverley off-ball role, and his size and defensive ability let him play either guard position. He has been a positive contributor his whole career and, at age 27, his next contract should cover the rest of his prime. He’s made under $5 million for his career, so if a team offers him that much per season for three or four years, you’d have to think he’d consider it. That’s a heck of a price for what looks like a solid rotation guard starter.

There are an increasing number of teams with lead wing handlers, and Wright is the perfect guard to play next to them. The Lakers (or Clips with Kawhi) should consider a big offer the Grizzlies might not match. If the Lakers miss Kawhi but walk away with Delon Wright and Danny Green in the back court playing off LeBron and Brow, they’ll be championship favorites.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson

Hollis-Jefferson is a terrific but overlooked jackknife defender. Are you noticing a theme? NBA teams still don’t properly value defense, and these players will be positive contributors on bargain deals because of it. Plus defenders with neutral value offense are still plus NBA players — that’s just simple math.

RHJ isn’t a neutral offensive player yet. He can’t shoot at all, at 47% twos and an ugly 22% threes for his career, and he’s struggled with a high turnover rate while being asked to do way too much in Brooklyn. A smart team will cut his usage and find ways for him to contribute off cuts and near the rim. RHJ is a great rebounder for his position and excellent drawing free throws.

And then there’s the defense. Hollis-Jefferson can legit guard one to five, one of maybe 10 or 15 guys in the league with that much switchability. He also creates plays on defense, one of 25 active players with steal and block rates both over 2%. That list is a veritable cornucopia of defensive versatility with names like Robert Covington, Draymond Green, James Johnson, Nerlens Noel, Andre Roberson, Boogie Cousins (hello!), and Danny Green (oh hey!).

RHJ is a really good defender and only 24. He could be the next bargain defender if a team can find some offensive role to keep him on the court.

Tyus Jones (restricted)

Every team in the NBA needs a competent backup point guard to run the second unit. Tyus Jones is that man. I’m not sure he’ll ever have much upside. He can’t shoot and is too small to be a positive defender, despite his effort and intelligence on that end. But man, can Tyus Jones run an offense! He had an absurd 6.85 assist-turnover ratio this season, one of the best all time, second only to Denver’s Monte Morris, a player he could become with more minutes.

Jones has a 117 offensive rating the last three years and has steadily improved as a passer and handler. He’s been a positive contributor in almost any lineup and consistently has one of the better on/off ratings on the Wolves. And he just turned 23! He’s not much older than the upperclassmen guards teams were eager to draft a couple weeks ago, and he’s better and NBA-ready.

At the very least, Tyus Jones is a very good backup point guard, and every team needs that. And at his age, there’s still a chance that he could learn to shoot and provide surplus value. Jones is restricted and the Wolves appear likely to match with Derrick Rose moving on, but the team did just add Shabazz Napier and they’ve never shown a commitment to Jones, so perhaps he can be had for the right deal.

Khem Birch (restricted)

Birch is also restricted, though he’s the most gettable RFA on this list now that the Magic have invested so heavily in Nikola Vucevic and Mo Bamba.

Birch is a nice rotation center, nothing life-changing but a real difference maker. He is a pretty good defender with solid block numbers, and he’s been super efficient on offense. Birch has a huge free-throw rate and posted a 129 offensive rating in two NBA seasons, especially impressive since it’s not like he’s playing on hyper-efficient Magic teams, plus 61% true shooting.

Birch is 26, so there’s not a ton of untapped potential, but he looks like a useful rotation big man and should come cheap. ■

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