The best, worst and craziest from Day 1 of NBA free agency

ByKEVIN PELTON
July 2, 2016, 2:20 AM

— -- After Friday's 27 deals (and counting), which teams have improved the most, what silly-looking money was actually silly -- and what is still to come?

Team-by-team analysis of the major and minor deals:

Note: You can get analysis on all of the late Friday and Saturday deals here.

Atlanta Hawks

1. Agreed to sign center Dwight Howard to a reported three-year, $70.5 million deal

2. Agreed to sign forward Kent Bazemore to a reported four-year, $70 million deal

I wrote about Dwight Howard's fit in Atlanta and whether or not he would be an upgrade over Al Horford here and the impact of Bazemore's deal here.

Brooklyn Nets

1. Agreed to sign guard Jeremy Lin to a reported three-year, $36 million deal

2. Agreed to sign center Justin Hamilton to a reported two-year, $6 million deal

In a sea of bad contracts during free agency's first few hours -- when most teams had to overpay to get players to commit so quickly -- Lin's deal stood out as an oasis of sanity. Insider's Bradford Doolittle already broke down why Lin was the best option for the Nets to fill their glaring need for a starting point guard, so let's focus instead on where Brooklyn goes from here.

The Nets still had about $40 million in cap space remaining and could use a replacement for Thaddeus Young at power forward as well as backups at point guard and both frontcourt spots. Look for Brooklyn to continue to target players like Lin -- relatively good values who are young enough to improve over the course of the contract, or at least maintain their value.

One of those players is apparently Justin Hamilton, last seen in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2014-15. Hamilton was surprisingly impressive in 17 games in Minnesota, making 53.5 percent of his 2-pointers and posting an 18.0 player efficiency rating. Nonetheless, limited NBA interest sent Hamilton overseas to play for Valencia in the Spanish ACB. He was outstanding there and helped Valencia threaten traditional Spanish powers FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Hamilton was my deep, deep sleeper for this summer's free agency, and the Nets seemed like the perfect landing spot for him. He can play either frontcourt spot depending on how else Brooklyn fills out the roster and $3 million per year has a chance to be a tremendous bargain.

Charlotte Hornets

1. Agreed to re-sign forward Nicolas Batum to a reported five-year, $120 million deal

Getting Batum back at far less than his maximum salary (an estimated $151 million over five years) is great news for the Hornets, who still were able to use their Bird Rights to offer more guaranteed money than Batum could have made on a four-year deal elsewhere.

While Batum was unquestionably Charlotte's first priority, the Hornets suffered defections elsewhere with Lin and center Al Jefferson. Charlotte can probably replace Jefferson in-house, having survived his extended absence due to injury last season. Filling Lin's spot in the rotation is going to be a lot trickier, and puts pressure on the Hornets to re-sign Marvin Williams using Bird rights and take advantage of his small cap hold.

With cap holds for Williams and starting shooting guard Courtney Lee on the books, Charlotte would probably stay over the cap and use its $5.6 million midlevel exception on a backup point guard. That's about what Ish Smith got, while D.J. Augustin got slightly more. So there's plenty more work to be done for the Hornets.

Denver Nuggets

1. Agreed to re-sign forward Darrell Arthur to a reported three-year, $23 million deal

Arthur has quietly become a fixture on a young Nuggets team, giving Denver good minutes off the bench last season. With about $15 million in cap space and little else to do with it, re-signing Arthur to a modest deal made sense.

In fact, since the Nuggets have full Bird rights on Arthur, they can spend the $15 million if they find a good use and then officially re-sign Arthur using his slightly smaller cap hold.

Detroit Pistons

1. Agreed to re-sign center Andre Drummond to a reported five-year max deal worth an estimated $126.5 million

2. Agreed to sign guard Ish Smith to a reported three-year, $18 million deal

It's no surprise that the Pistons quickly agreed to terms with Drummond. Both sides decided he was worth the max, and simply waited on a possible extension so Detroit could take advantage of his small $8.2 cap hold and use the resulting room before officially signing Drummond last.

Some of that cap space went to Smith, an interesting choice as a backup point guard. Smith got too much of the credit for the Philadelphia 76ers regressing to the mean after his arrival, particularly given the team played better with backup T.J. McConnell on the court. But his performance in both Philadelphia and New Orleans last year proved that Smith is a rotation-caliber player.

I worry a bit about how Smith will age given how quickness accounts for virtually all of his success, and this contract takes him through age 29, but under Stan Van Gundy the Pistons have consistently chosen the best player over the best value and Smith allows them to maintain the same style they play with starter Reggie Jackson.

Indiana Pacers

1. Agreed to sign center Al Jefferson to a reported three-year, $30 million deal

In a market where there are more quality centers available than teams in need of one, I figured Jefferson might be the odd man out. His skill set (post scoring and poor defense) has never been in less demand. However, the Pacers moved quickly to sign him to a three-year deal.

Based on the price point and Indiana's addition of Thaddeus Young, it looks like the Pacers are viewing Jefferson as a backup to second-year starter Myles Turner. That's a reasonable role for Jefferson, minimizing his defensive limitations while also putting him in position to dominate smaller opponents in the post. Indiana can run its second unit through Jefferson, which might be an issue for Rodney Stuckey but should work well with shooters like C.J. Miles and Joseph Young on the perimeter.

The confusing aspect of this move is how it works with Larry Bird's stated desire to play faster. Perhaps the starting lineup will play fast with Young at power forward and Turner in the middle while the second unit slows things down.

The Pacers still have a little more than $12 million in cap space if they renounce the rights to incumbent starting center Ian Mahinmi, an unrestricted free agent who now seems headed elsewhere. With few needs, Indiana may earmark much of that space to renegotiate and extend the contract of newly acquired point guard Jeff Teague.

Los Angeles Lakers

1. Agreed to sign center Timofey Mozgov to a reported four-year, $64 million deal

2. Agreed to re-sign guard Jordan Clarkson to a reported four-year, $50 million deal

I tried to make sense of Mozgov's contract earlier Friday. Let's talk more about Clarkson, who was in an interesting spot as a restricted free agent limited by the so-called "Gilbert Arenas provision" of the CBA.

Because of the Arenas provision, an offer sheet to Clarkson for another team was limited to the midlevel exception this year and the next (with a typical raise), but then could have increased to his max the next two years for a total value of up to $60 million. Instead, he signed a deal for slightly less that pays him under a typical structure.

It's tough to tell whether Clarkson compromised because he wanted more money up front or because he didn't think a max Arenas offer was forthcoming because teams expected the Lakers to match. Either way, this is a less optimal outcome for the Lakers, who eat into their cap space this summer and more importantly in the summer of 2017.

As I noted in the Mozgov story, they currently figure to have about $47 million in space under the projected $107 million cap, not close to the $60 million or so needed to offer two players with 7-9 years of experience (such as Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook) max contracts, let alone more experienced players. And that figure assumes the Lakers lose their first-round pick, which is again protected for the top three spots.

The Lakers can get close by moving Lou Williams and Nick Young, so I wouldn't say these moves prevent them from having two max spots. They do make it a lot more difficult than if they matched an Arenas offer to Clarkson and stuck to one-year offers this summer. Your mileage may vary on whether the sacrifice was worth it.

Memphis Grizzlies

1. Agreed to sign forward Chandler Parsons to a reported four-year max deal worth an estimated $94 million

2. Agreed to sign guard Mike Conley to a reported five-year max deal worth an estimated $153 million

I wrote about the Parsons contract in detail.

Subsequently, they agreed to terms with Conley, which came as little surprise. So far, Conley is the only free agent to get the full five-year max of an estimated $153 million. That contract could get ugly, given how poorly small guards tend to age. Still, Memphis had little leverage because of the impossibility of replacing Conley in free agency, so here we are.

Conley's small cap hold does allow the Grizzlies to clear about $5.6 million more in room by waiving Vince Carter and stretching the $2 million guaranteed portion of his 2016-17 salary.

It's tough to say what that amount -- equivalent to the non-taxpayer midlevel exception -- is worth in this overheated market, but Memphis would surely be in the market for another wing with merely Parsons and Tony Allen as rotation players currently on the roster.

Miami Heat

1. Agreed to re-sign center Hassan Whiteside to a reported four-year max deal worth an estimated $98 million

While Whiteside returning to the Heat wasn't a surprise once they offered him the max, it's still an interesting deal. A full max would leave Miami with a little less than $19 million in cap space. Presumably, most or all of that figure is earmarked for Dwyane Wade, whose Bird rights the Heat have to renounce to re-sign Whiteside. That doesn't prevent them from re-signing Wade, but it does mean they have to use cap space to do so.

Looming over everything, of course, is Miami's pitch to Kevin Durant -- scheduled for Wednesday. My hunch is the Heat may be encouraging Durant to wait for the summer of 2017 to decide on a long-term destination, which would allow Miami to re-sign Wade and Whiteside and potentially clear space for Durant if Chris Bosh is forced into medical retirement.

If Durant tells Pat Riley & Co. he's headed to South Beach, then things get interesting in terms of how the Heat clear the necessary space. (Apparently, Whiteside offered some wiggle room in his max in case of that possibility.) But we'll worry about the possibility of trading Goran Dragic if and when that happens.

One super-technical note: Because teams are allowed to offer players the raises they would have been eligible for on an extension even if they renounce their rights and sign them using cap space, Whiteside was able to make about $4 million more from the Heat than he could elsewhere as a potential early-Bird free agent. He was limited to four years, however, since Miami did not have full Bird rights.

Milwaukee Bucks

1. Agreed to sign forward Mirza Teletovic to a reported three-year, $30 million deal

2. Agreed to sign guard Matthew Dellavedova to a reported four-year, $38.5 million offer sheet

The loss of reserves Jared Dudley and Zaza Pachulia played a big role in Milwaukee's decline from a playoff team to the lottery last season. With their core relatively set, the Bucks therefore decided to go shopping for depth on the first day of free agency.

Dellavedova was a natural fit for Milwaukee because of his ability to defend point guards while playing off the ball on offense alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. Dellavedova could even start in that role, which would make him a good value at a little less than $10 million a year. I expected his offer sheet to go higher, yet all indications are the Cleveland Cavaliers will not match the deal.

I'm less bullish on the value for Teletovic, who played well off the bench in Phoenix last year but is already 30 and may not hold his value through a three-year contract. That noted, Teletovic's floor spacing (his 209 3s as a reserve were an NBA record) from the power forward spot is useful for a shooting-challenged team and he has played for Jason Kidd before with the Nets, making this a good fit all around.

New Orleans Pelicans

1. Agreed to sign forward Solomon Hill to a reported four-year, $48 million deal

2. Agreed to sign guard E'Twaun Moore to a reported four-year, $34 million deal

Last fall, the Pacers declined the $2.3 million option on the last year of Hill's rookie contract. Whoops! After he showed promise during an impressive playoff series against the Toronto Raptors, Hill was priced out of Indiana's range because the team was not allowed to offer him any more than the amount of the option they declined.

Instead, Hill gets a contract for more than five times more per season than he was scheduled to make. That's a lot of money for a player who was out of the rotation much of last season. However, I like it for New Orleans because Hill is the rare unrestricted free agent who at 25 is just coming into his prime. He can grow with Anthony Davis.

The Pelicans have also been in desperate need of two-way role players, and Hill might fit the bill -- particularly if he plays power forward. That's where Hill primarily played during the playoffs. Though just 6-foot-7, Hill is strong enough to defend most power forwards, and his quickness becomes an asset going against bigger, slower defenders.

Hill's shooting also becomes a plus at power forward, particularly if he's making better than half his 3s as he did in the playoffs. That's not sustainable, but Hill's 32.5 percent career 3-point shooting is adequate as a power forward. At small forward, it's not good enough, so if New Orleans views him primarily as a 3 the team may be disappointed.

I wrote about the Moore deal here.

New York Knicks

1. Agreed to sign center Joakim Noah to a reported four-year, $72 million deal

I broke down what the Noah contract means for New York and how he might fit on Knicks roster here.

Orlando Magic

1. Agreed to sign guard D.J. Augustin to a reported four-year, $29 million deal

2. Agreed to re-sign forward Evan Fournier to a reported five-year, $95 million deal

3. Agreed to sign forward Jeff Green to a reported one-year, $15 million deal

A busy day saw the Magic use up more than half of the $38 million or so in cap room the team had entering free agency. Based on the return, it's hard to argue Orlando was wise to clear additional space by trading Tobias Harris to the Pistons before the trade deadline.

Green is a particularly curious fit. Signing a player to a large one-year deal is a reasonable use of the Magic's room after Orlando was unable to lure any big targets. Making Green that player seems less reasonable. Besides his spotty track record in terms of advanced statistics, Green doesn't fill the Magic's biggest need, a quality defender on the wing after trading Victor Oladipo.

Additionally, Green seems to compete for playing time with Aaron Gordon, the most promising player on Orlando's roster. Optimistically, the Magic plan to play Serge Ibaka regularly at center, freeing playing time for Gordon at power forward. Otherwise, Gordon and Green now must share minutes at small forward, and given Gordon is both better now and a part of Orlando's long-term future, there's little compelling reason to play Green over him.

As for Augustin, modern mathematicians have been able to prove the seemingly unprovable Fermat's Last Theorem, but they still have yet to crack the paradox. Augustin only plays well when he plays heavy minutes, but he doesn't play quite enough justify heavy minutes. So teams are always disappointed with the results they get from him.

Such was the case the last time Augustin played for new Orlando head coach Frank Vogel in Indiana. The Pacers picked up Augustin thinking they were getting an above-average backup point guard, but Augustin couldn't find his shot and shot a below-average .527 true shooting percentage (TS) in Indiana before moving on after one season. Having locked him up through age 32, the Magic won't be able to move on that quickly.

Orlando did much better to get Fournier for scarcely more over five years than he could have gotten on a four-year max offer sheet from other team. His deal might be the best of the first day of free agency from the team's perspective, and his small cap hold allows the Magic flexibility to continue shopping with up to $16 million in room or use that money to renegotiate and extend Ibaka's contract before officially re-signing Fournier and going over the cap.

Philadelphia 76ers

1. Agreed to sign guard Jerryd Bayless to a reported three-year, $27 million deal

Welcome to the new era of Sixers basketball. During Sam Hinkie's three years at the helm in Philadelphia, the largest contract the team handed out to a free agent was about $8 million over four years for Kendall Marshall last summer, of which only a little more than $2 million was guaranteed. It took Bryan Colangelo less than a day of free agency to blow past that record.

Of course, no matter the GM, the 76ers were likely to turn their attention to free agency this summer now that their core is relatively complete with the arrival of Ben Simmons. And there are things to like about Bayless' fit in Philadelphia. He's a nominal point guard who is used to playing off the ball and a capable outside shooter (43.7 percent from 3 last year, though that's out of line with his 36.5 percent career mark), which makes Bayless a good fit alongside Simmons.

With eight seasons of experience at age 27, Bayless also brings a nice combination of veteran presence without being so old that a multi-year contact is problematic.

Still, I'm underwhelmed by the value. Bayless has never rated well by ESPN's real plus-minus (RPM), and was minus-2.1 points per 100 possessions by RPM last season -- worse than incumbent Sixers point guard T.J. McConnell (minus-1.5 as a rookie). Given how much money Philadelphia has to spend, I'd have favored throwing big money at Bayless for one year and reevaluating next summer rather than locking in a three-year deal for a relatively marginal talent.

Phoenix Suns

1. Agreed to sign forward Jared Dudley to a reported three-year, $30 million deal

I wrote about the value of Dudley's new contract here.

Portland Trail Blazers

1. Agreed to sign forward Evan Turner to a reported four-year, $70 million deal

Finding the market tepid two years ago after a disastrous post-deadline stint with the Pacers, Turner had to settle for a two-year, $6.7 million make-good offer from the Boston Celtics. Make good Turner did, earning more than 10 times as much on this, his next contract.

For the Blazers, Turner was plan B after Parsons spurned their post-midnight advances to sign instead with the Grizzlies. While Parsons' fit in Portland was easy to see, at least this offseason, Turner is a much more curious fit. He's a player who requires the ball in his hands to succeed joining two guards ( Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum) who are both superior shot creators.

According to SportVU tracking data on NBA.com/Stats, Turner's time of possession with the ball was about 32.3 percent of the time he was on offense. By contrast, no Blazers regular besides Lillard (48.8 percent) and McCollum (29.9 percent) possessed the ball more than 10.8 percent of the time. Portland's wings generally spotted up in the corners and kept the ball moving in Terry Stotts' motion-based offense, very different from Turner's role in Boston.

The issue isn't quite as bad if Turner comes off the bench rather than starting at small forward alongside both Lillard and McCollum, but even then Stotts' rotations kept one of the guards on the court at any given time, so Turner would always be playing with another primary ballhandler.

It's worth pausing to note here that putting the ball in Turner's hands gives an offense a limited ceiling. For all the excitement about how he played with the Celtics, last season's TS (.513, the very best of Turner's career) still ranked 97th of the 117 players who saw at least 2,000 minutes of action last season. And Boston scored 4.9 fewer points per 100 possessions with Turner on the court, according to NBA.com/Stats.

Still, having Turner run the offense is probably a better option than having him spotting up because Turner is such a poor outside shooter. He made 20 3-pointers all season at a 24.1 percent clip, and while Turner is more accurate inside the arc, his slow release allows defenders to help over him. In my parlance, Turner has little gravity as a shooter, creating problems for Lillard and McCollum.

All of this might be worth it if Turner were a defensive upgrade. He improved at that end under Brad Stevens and was playable in the playoffs. Still, Turner isn't much better than average, and I certainly wouldn't call him an upgrade over Maurice Harkless.

Add it up and the Turner signing looks problematic before we even get to the money, which pays Turner like a player who creates 3-4 wins above replacement per season. (I actually project him a little below replacement over the next three seasons.) Portland threw most of its cap space at Turner -- all of it, in fact, before the team starts renouncing free agents who were part of the team's rotation last season.

Gerald Henderson is surely gone now, which would take his $9 million off the books, but if the Blazers still want to make a play for a starting center they'll have to make hard decisions on restricted free agents Harkless, Allen Crabbe and Meyers Leonard. As it is, re-signing all three players would surely take Portland deep into the luxury tax, a tough sell for a team battling for a bottom-four playoff spot. Signing Turner may be a hedge against Crabbe or Harkless getting an exorbitant offer sheet from another team. Still, it's hard to imagine their next contract being worse values than the one the Blazers gave Turner.

Toronto Raptors

1. Agreed to re-sign guard DeMar DeRozan to a reported five-year, $145 million deal

The Raptors couldn't extract the same kind of discount on DeRozan that the Hornets got with Batum, though they did end up a little shy of his max. This is a similar amount to what DeRozan would make on a five-year maximum deal with the 4.5 percent raises other teams can offer rather than the 7.5 percent Toronto could offer using Bird rights.

While I'm not the world's biggest DeRozan fan, I still think having him back is preferable to the alternative of creating modest cap space that might not even pay for a starter in this year's market. And getting the deal done quickly allows the Raptors to explore the possibility of re-signing backup center Bismack Biyombo, though that's a long shot.

Since Toronto would need to use cap space to pay Biyombo more than $5 million as a starting salary, the Raptors would probably have to move Terrence Ross at a minimum to have a shot at retaining Biyombo. That's also a lot to pay a backup center, particularly after drafting one ( Jakob Poeltl) last week. So more likely Toronto will instead stay over the cap and look to find a rotation-caliber power forward using its mid-level exception.

Washington Wizards

1. Agreed to re-sign guard Bradley Beal to a reported five-year max deal worth an estimated $126.5 million

Like Drummond and the Pistons, Beal and the Wizards shelved a new contract until this summer to take advantage of Beal's cap hold. Alas, that won't allow Washington to sign Durant, though it could still yield bench upgrades as the Wizards go shopping with potentially $30 million-plus in cap space before going over the cap to officially sign Beal to a max deal.

The one difference between the contracts is that while Drummond got a player option on the final season, Beal apparently signed a straight five-year deal. That may have been a concession to the fact that Beal isn't quite as coveted a free agent, particularly because of ongoing concern over his history of stress injuries to his right fibula. As a result, a five-year contract for Beal is a bit of a risk for Washington, although one the team had little alternative but to take.