NBA free agency Day 6: Rating best, worst, most surprising deals

— -- On Day 6 of NBA free agency, here's our team-by-team analysis of the major and minor deals.

Updates on each deal will be posted here throughout the day.?

All deals listed alphabetically by team.

Dallas Mavericks

1.?Agreed to a reported two-year, $10 million deal with forward Dirk Nowitzki

2.? Will reportedly trade center AJ Hammons to Miami for forward Josh McRoberts and second-round pick. You can read my trade grades here.

Starting with 2013-14, the last year of a long-term contract, Dirk Nowitzki went from making $22.7 million to a little less than $8 million in 2014-15, a little more than that in 2015-16 and $25 million last season. Now, he'll make $5 million as part of a two-year contract with a team option on the second season,? according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon.

The ups and downs have related to the Mavericks' ability to create cap space. Because Nowitzki had a smallish cap hold last summer, Dallas could sign him last and pay him up to the maximum without affecting the team's ability to add talent. That high salary meant an enormous cap hold for Nowitzki this summer after the Mavericks declined his team option, so to free up room they had to sign him to a smaller deal first this time around.

Assuming Nowitzki's deal is for a flat $5 million each season, Dallas is looking at $11.5 million in cap space with Nerlens Noel's cap hold and several non-guaranteed contracts on the books. Depending on how much the Mavericks spend now, Nowitzki's small team option (or cap hold, if declined) could also help them be players in free agency next summer if Wesley Matthews declines his $18.6 million player option.

It's possible this could be the final season for Nowitzki, who will be 40 by the 2018-19 season. But his shooting remains valuable offensively, and Nowitzki shows no indication he's planning to retire just yet.

Detroit Pistons

1.?Signed center Eric Moreland

Moreland, who was one of the top players in the D-League with the Canton Charge last season, has stood out for the Pistons in this week's Orlando Pro Summer League. Moreland averaged 7.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.8 blocks, a performance that earned him a contract.

I'm still a little skeptical that Moreland will translate this performance to the NBA, but he's certainly worth a look for a team in need of a third center on the cheap after Aron Baynes declined his player option and became a free agent.

Los Angeles Clippers

1.?Agreed to a reported two-year, $12.3 million deal with guard Milos Teodosic

Perhaps the best player in Europe in recent seasons, Teodosic will finally try his hand at the NBA at age 30. Teodosic is a gifted pick-and-roll player who projects as a quality distributor. His translated EuroLeague production, adjusted for aging, puts Teodosic at 9.3 assists per 100 team plays in 2017-18. That rate would have ranked 18th among NBA regulars last season.

The longer 3-point line will be an adjustment. A 37.4 percent career 3-point shooter in EuroLeague play, Teodosic may not be dangerous enough from the NBA 3-point distance to force defenders to go over screens against him. Teodosic also figures to struggle defensively, a weakness even against European competition.

I'm curious to see how the Clippers' backcourt rotation shakes out. As ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski notes, Teodosic played with new teammate Patrick Beverley for Olympiacos in 2009-10 and the two are a pretty good match skills-wise since Beverley can defend the stronger opponent and play off the ball. Teodosic could also pair well with Austin Rivers, but a second-unit duo of Teodosic and Lou Williams figures to be flammable defensively and have a ballhandling overload.

From a financial standpoint, getting Teodosic for a portion of the non-taxpayer midlevel exception helps the Clippers stay under the hard cap they face after acquiring Danilo Gallinari in a sign-and-trade transaction. The Clippers can also use the remainder of their midlevel to sign second-round picks Jawun Evans and Sindarius Thornwell to contracts longer than two years, if desired.

Factoring in minimum salaries for Evans and Thornwell, the Clippers can spend a maximum of about $8 million filling out the final two spots on their roster. (Keeping some wiggle room under the hard cap is also advisable.) We'll see whether that's enough to bring back starting forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who remains an unrestricted free agent.

Miami Heat

1.?Agreed to a reported four-year, $50 million deal with Kelly Olynyk

2.?Agreed to a reported four-year, $60 million deal with James Johnson

The Heat's interest in Olynyk came as a surprise, but the fit could be a good one if Olynyk proves capable of defending power forwards. I suspect Miami may view Olynyk as a bigger, more versatile version of Luke Babbitt, who started 55 games for the Heat last season.

Because Hassan Whiteside is such a dominant defensive rebounder, Miami can get away with a weaker rebounder alongside him in the frontcourt. Whiteside can also help cover at the rim if a slower power forward gets beaten off the dribble, though that kind of defense-collapsing play is not advisable.

At the other end, the floor spacing a quality shooter such as Olynyk (36.8 percent on 3s) provides can help keep the paint free for Whiteside to dominate inside. The Heat may also be looking at Olynyk as capable of helping make up for Justise Winslow's poor spacing if they play Winslow at small forward. Winslow could defend the better opposing forward in such lineups.

I'm still a little skeptical that Olynyk will hold up defensively in big minutes at power forward. On the plus side, Miami can also get minutes from Olynyk as a backup center. A frontcourt combination of Olynyk and James Johnson gives coach Erik Spoelstra plenty of options.

Since Olynyk was one of the top big men remaining on the market, and was newly unrestricted, his price is reasonable. He's essentially being paid as a low-end starter or a high-end reserve. A four-year deal does take Olynyk through age 30, but that's not an enormous risk to take.

Signing Olynyk forced the Heat to create additional room for the four-year deal Johnson agreed to later Wednesday evening, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Miami accomplished that by dealing Josh McRoberts to the Dallas Mavericks in a separate cap-clearing move.

As compared to Olynyk, a four-year deal for the 30-year-old Johnson presents significantly more downside risk. Essentially, this contract pays Johnson as if he'll continue to perform the way he did last season. That's not a realistic assumption given his age and track record.?

Still, re-signing Johnson was important for the Heat. Miami was 3.4 points per 100 possessions better with Johnson on the court last season,? according to NBA.com/Stats, and that impact matched up with Johnson's career-best individual statistics. Improving his conditioning helped Johnson reach a new level. We'll see whether that can also help him offset the effects of aging.

But this is way too much money over way too many years, and the cost will impact the rest of the roster. It appears fitting that Johnson's starting salary will require the Heat to waive shooting guard Wayne Ellington, whose $6.3 million 2017-18 salary is non-guaranteed if he's waived by Friday.?

New York Knicks

1.?Agreed to a reported four-year, $71 million offer sheet with guard Tim Hardaway Jr.

Restricted free agency is perhaps the clearest distillation of how free agency reflects the economic theory known as "the winner's curse." The concept was developed to describe auctions for offshore oil fields of unknown value. Economists noticed that the winning bid tended to come from the company that most overestimated the value of the field, meaning winning bids were almost certain to be overpays.

That idea applies to any sport's free agency, but because of matching rights it's doubly true for restricted free agency. To get a restricted free agent means crafting an offer the other team isn't willing to match, which is almost by definition an overpay.

This is an overpay.

Set aside the fact that the Knicks traded Hardaway to the Hawks two years ago, which shouldn't really be relevant now. The question at hand is whether Hardaway is worth $71 million over the next four years, and my answer is an unqualified no. I'd put his value in the neighborhood of $15 million per season at my most optimistic. A more standard estimate of his value would be $12 million per season.

Hardaway has improved in Atlanta, becoming a far better defender and a more accurate 2-point shooter. (Hardaway's 3-point shooting, considered his strength entering the league, has never consistently gotten much better than league average.) He's credible at both ends of the court, a valuable trait on the wing where such players are always in demand.

Nonetheless, this seems a lot to me like the Brooklyn Nets' offer sheet to Allen Crabbe, which also came on Thursday. The Portland Trail Blazers swallowed hard, matched, and now are taxpayers. If they want to move Crabbe to lighten their tax burden, his 15 percent trade bonus would make it difficult to get value in return.

Much as the Crabbe offer sheet did to the Blazers, this one is designed to inflict maximum pain on the Hawks. Hardaway got a player option for the final season and an identical 15 percent trade bonus. All that makes Atlanta much less likely to match ... but also destroys the potential value for New York, which used all its remaining cap space to make this offer.

In what's supposedly the best-case scenario, the Hawks declining to match, the Knicks would have only their room exception available to add a point guard to a rotation that currently includes rookie Frank Ntilikina and second-year reserve Ron Baker. Unless New York has a deal lined up involving incumbent shooting guard Courtney Lee, this move doesn't fill the team's biggest need.

That hardly sounds like a win to me. Instead, it sounds like the winner's curse.

Sacramento Kings

1.?Agreed to a reported one-year, $8 million deal with guard Vince Carter

The Kings are doubling down on veteran leaders who played for coach Dave Joerger when he coached the Memphis Grizzlies. A day after reportedly agreeing with Zach Randolph, Sacramento has landed Carter on a lucrative one-year deal.

At 40, Carter has to be the oldest player ever to get a raise in free agency. (He barely made $8 million combined the past two seasons.) If Carter can perform at a level similar to his production last season, when he played nearly 1,800 minutes and shot 37.8 percent from 3-point range, he'll be a great value at that price. Heck, Carter might even be the Kings' best option to start at small forward.

Basically, Sacramento has done this offseason what critics wanted former 76ers?general manager Sam Hinkie to do with the Philadelphia franchise: spend some of the team's ample cap space to add experienced players alongside developing talent. The Sixers chose instead to use those roster spots on minimum-salary talent (including T.J. McConnell) or to take on salary (with draft picks) via trade.

Sacramento will surely have cap space left over after these moves but may not have any free roster spots if second-round pick Frank Mason signs an NBA contract.

San Antonio Spurs

1.?Agreed to a reported two-year, $17 million deal with forward Rudy Gay

This is a fascinating deal with wide-ranging implications for the Spurs. Let's start with what they can expect from Gay.

He's coming off what was, at age 30, the most efficient season of his 11-year NBA career, including a .559 true shooting percentage. At the same time, Gay is also coming back from an Achilles rupture, and the history of players who suffer that injury is ugly.

Going to San Antonio has the upside of allowing Gay to return at his own speed without pressure to play immediately. The Spurs have done a masterful job of managing their players' minutes during the regular season and don't need Gay to play heavy minutes because of their depth on the wing.

In time, if Gay proves healthy, he could allow San Antonio to play smaller than in recent seasons. A forward combo of Gay and Kawhi Leonard provides tremendous versatility at both ends of the court. Gay's defensive rebounding ability could be particularly important in such alignments.

Another reason the Spurs might be smaller next season is that they have limited avenues for adding big men to their roster. San Antonio could potentially use the biannual exception, and will be able to re-sign incumbents DeWayne Dedmon, Pau Gasol and David Lee using non-Bird rights. However, the Spurs must carefully manage their salaries, because using the non-taxpayer value of the midlevel exception puts a hard cap on them at the apron, $6 million greater than the luxury-tax line.?

Including deals for Gay and Patty Mills, San Antonio has about $31 million to spend while staying below the apron. A new multiyear deal for Gasol, who passed up a $16.2 million player option in the hopes of signing a longer contract, could swallow up a significant chunk of that money.

The Spurs also have early Bird rights to restricted free agent Jonathon Simmons. The addition of Gay could make San Antonio reluctant to match a lucrative offer to Simmons, who could receive a backloaded offer because his salary the next two seasons is limited by the so-called Gilbert Arenas rule. (Note that the Spurs would be able to match an offer to Simmons using his early Bird rights and would not need the midlevel exception to do so. Additionally, under the revised rule San Antonio would have the option of averaging Simmons' cap hit instead of having it backloaded, though the hard cap likely makes that option unpalatable.)

So there's plenty more work ahead for San Antonio this offseason. Signing Gay only makes the rest of the Spurs' moves more interesting.