Which teams made the best moves on Day 3 of NBA free agency?

ByKEVIN PELTON
July 4, 2016, 5:10 AM

— -- On Day 3 of NBA free agency, some teams added key pieces to their rosters, while others made questionable deals.

Here's a team-by-team analysis of the latest major and minor deals:

(To look back at Friday's best, worst and craziest contracts, click here, and catch up on everything from Saturday here.)

Atlanta Hawks

1. Agreed to sign guard Malcolm Delaney to a two-year contract

An interesting function of the rising NBA salary cap is it shouldn't be matched by any across-the-board increase of salaries in Europe, making it easier for NBA teams to bring quality veterans across the pond. Delaney qualifies as one of the better players in Euroleague in recent seasons.

Based on my Euroleague translations, Delaney projects as an average or slightly better backup point guard. He doesn't figure to be great in any particular area in the NBA, but he shoots the 3 well enough to space the floor and is a capable ballhandler. And while contract terms haven't yet been reported, given that the Hawks have only about $3 million in cap space, Delaney's likely to come much cheaper than the $6-7 million backup point guards like D.J. Augustin and Ish Smith have gotten so far this summer. So this should be good value for Atlanta.

Brooklyn Nets

1. Agreed to sign guard Tyler Johnson to a four-year offer sheet worth a reported $50 million

I wrote about whether or not the Heat should match the Nets' offer and what Johnson could mean to each team here.

Chicago Bulls

1. Agreed to sign guard Rajon Rondo to a two-year, $28 million deal

I liked the Bulls' trade in sending Derrick Rose to the New York Knicks, for a couple of reasons: It put the ball in Jimmy Butler's hands, with which he was most effective last season; and it saved them some cap space for the summer of 2017 by taking them out of the market for starting centers in free agency. Signing Rondo threatens both of those rationales, though you can still make a case in favor of the move.

Naturally, Rondo is going to be the lead ball handler anywhere he goes, so Butler is back off the ball. But unlike Rose, Rondo is likely to put Butler in position to score as a passer. According to SportVU tracking on NBA.com/Stats, Rondo's  Sacramento Kings teammates shot an effective field-goal percentage of 54.3 percent (weighting 3-pointers as 1.5 field goals) on his passes last season; it was one of the league's better marks among point guards. By comparison, Rose's teammates shot 51.4 percent on his passes.

Having Rondo under contract for 2017-18 would probably prevent the Bulls from being able to offer two max contracts next summer. However, ESPN's Brian Windhorst has reported that the second season of the contract is only partially guaranteed and it appears Rondo has a player option that would allow him to get back on the market if he plays well. So Chicago's plans for 2017 free agency might be intact.

That being the case, my biggest on-court concern is defense. As impressive as Rondo's box score stats were last season (11.9 points, a league-high 11.7 assists and 6.0 rebounds per game), he was a pale imitation of his peak form defensively. Back when Rondo got traded from the Boston Celtics to the Dallas Mavericks, he admitted conserving energy on D, and the assumption was his effort would get better in Dallas. It didn't, and it probably got even worse last year in Sacramento, when Rondo seemed more focused on accumulating steals and blocks than preventing his opposing number from getting to the paint.

With Rondo at point guard and the aging Mike Dunleavy at small forward -- as well as possible liabilities in  Doug McDermott and Denzel Valentine coming off the bench -- the Bulls would need strong interior defense to be as good as last season's league-average defensive rating. Alas, presumptive starters Nikola Mirotic and Robin Lopez don't give them that kind of presence. (Chicago's likely second-unit frontcourt of Taj Gibson and Cristiano Felicio should be somewhat better defensively.) So the Bulls will have to improve on last year's 25th-ranked offense to be a playoff team.

Dallas Mavericks

1. Agreed to re-sign forward Dwight Powell to a four-year, $37 million deal

2. Agreed to re-sign guard Deron Williams to a one-year, $10 million deal

On Sunday evening, the Mavericks brought back a pair of their own free agents to help fill out a sparse 2016-17 roster.

On a one-year, $10 million deal, Williams should be an excellent value. I'm willing to bet some other team was willing to offer Williams more years, if not necessarily more money per year, to be a backup. However, he's still getting paid by the Nets from last summer's buyout, so Williams could afford to sacrifice security for the ability to start and play at home.

Powell was more expensive to retain. Even in the context of a rising cap, $37 million seems like a lot for a player who averaged 14.4 minutes per game last year. But Powell rated as an average reserve or better -- ESPN's real plus-minus (RPM) pegged him slightly better than league average overall -- and at 24, he should maintain or even improve his performance over the life of this contract.

As  Dirk Nowitzki ages, expect Powell to grab more of his minutes at power forward. And if Powell adds 3-point range after flashing it at last year's NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, he could eventually develop into a starter.

Factoring in a reported max offer sheet to  Harrison Barnes, the two deals leave the Mavericks with a little more than $9 million in cap space to sign a player to start at center or at least compete with  Salah Mejri.

Incumbent  Zaza Pachulia is still on the market and still could come cheap. Besides him and  Pau Gasol, there's not a lot of starting experience left in the center market. Badly in need of more rim protection, Dallas could consider younger options, such as  Dewayne DedmonMiles Plumlee or Willie Reed.

If the Warriors match Barnes' offer sheet, the Mavericks would be back to $31 million in cap space, though they'd need a starting small forward at that point or at least a good backup to second-year player  Justin Anderson.

Los Angeles Clippers

1. Agreed to re-sign guard Jamal Crawford to a three-year, $42 million deal

Getting Crawford back makes the Clippers a better team next year. It also creates a tricky cap situation for the Clippers. For the second time in the past three years, the Clippers are hard capped by virtue of using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (to sign Wesley Johnson, a deal analyzed in Saturday's roundup). Teams using the larger, non-taxpayer exception cannot under any circumstances spend above the luxury-tax apron, which is $4 million above the tax line -- set at $117.3 million this year.

With new contracts for Crawford and Austin Rivers (three years, $35 million), the Clippers are currently at $109.4 million for 11 players, including the non-guaranteed contract of second-year forward Branden Dawson.

Since they're down to their $2.2 million biannual exception and minimum-salary offers, the Clippers can't spend much more in free agency. The hard cap won't be an obstacle to them filling out the roster, as it was in 2014 -- a situation that forced the Clippers to give up a first-round pick in order to move Jared Dudley's salary to the Milwaukee Bucks for two players whose salaries they could stretch over multiple years after waiving. (Those players, Carlos Delfino and Miroslav Raduljica, still count against the Clippers' cap for $850,000 a year.)

The hard cap could become an issue if the Clippers try to make trades during the season, limiting their flexibility.

Still, the Clippers had few alternatives to replace Crawford, since renouncing his cap hold and re-signing Johnson wouldn't have created much additional space. The Clippers would have had to go bargain shopping for a backup shooting guard, and with so much money available, the minimum salaries they used to fill out their bench last year (including Johnson and Cole Aldrich) aren't available this time around.

So instead, the Clippers are stuck committing $14 million a year to a 36-year-old. Despite winning his third NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award last season, Crawford wasn't nearly as effective statistically. His usage rate declined slightly to 24.9 percent from 27.6 percent, yet Crawford was no more efficient as a scorer. As diligently as Crawford stays in shape, it's hard to imagine him maintaining his value throughout this generous contract.

Memphis Grizzlies

1. Agreed to sign forward James Ennis to a two-year, $6 million deal

Ennis is the one who got away from the Grizzlies, who cut him in March because they needed to sign a big man with Marc Gasol and Brandan Wright injured. Memphis could have had Ennis making less than a million dollars in the final season of his contract this year, and now will instead pay him three times that amount.

According to ace Grizzlies observer Chris Herrington, part of the issue was that former Memphis head coach Dave Joerger wasn't as high on Ennis as the front office. Replacement David Fizdale coached Ennis with the Heat, who originally drafted him, and is apparently more of a fan. After Ennis scored like crazy and made half his 3s with New Orleans late in the season, I liked him as a value free agent, and the Grizzlies did well to grab him with what will presumably be their room exception.

The last big move for Memphis will be using some or all of their $7.5 million in remaining cap space before officially re-signing Mike Conley, going over the cap, and then signing Ennis.

Minnesota Timberwolves

1. Agreed to sign center Cole Aldrich to a reported three-year, $22 million deal

Believe it or not, after a whirlwind first two days of free agency, Aldrich was the eighth-highest-rated player remaining from my projections of the top 25 free agents on the market.

Despite Aldrich's impressive per-minute stats --  according to Basketball-Reference.com, he and Hassan Whiteside were the only two players in the NBA to average better than 12 points (14.8), 12 rebounds (13.0) and three blocks per 36 minutes (3.1) -- teams apparently didn't consider him among the starting centers on the market.

So while players such as  Bismack Biyombo, Ian Mahinmi and Timofey Mozgov got $16-18 million a year, Aldrich had to settle for less than half of that.

Returning home to Minnesota, Aldrich is a great value, though not necessarily an ideal fit. Adding him to a frontcourt of Gorgui Dieng and Karl-Anthony Towns probably forces Towns to play most of his minutes at power forward, where he's a great prospect but not as uniquely skilled as he is at center.

My hope had been that the Timberwolves would look at a combo forward to stretch the floor next to Towns. However, that market has mostly dried up at this point, so it's understandable that Minnesota would believe the better solution is to play bigger -- at least for now.

Sacramento Kings

1. Agreed to sign guard Garrett Temple to a three-year, $24 million deal

2. Agreed to sign forward Matt Barnes to a two-year, $12 million deal

Much of the explanation for why prices are skyrocketing in free agency has looked at salaries as a percentage of the new $94 million cap to equate them to past salaries when the cap was smaller. The problem with this logic is that salary is a function of two things: the cost of replacement level, and the cost of a win above replacement level (WARP).

The cost of replacement level hasn't changed much, since the pre-set minimum salary hasn't gone up as quickly as the cap. It's the cost of wins that's dramatically increased. Temple is a good example of the issue. Temple's deal might equate to about the mid-level under the 2014-15 cap, but it pays him like a player producing close to two WARP per season, since I've estimated the value of a win at about $4.5 million. Temple's career high for WARP is 1.0, in 2014-15, and he rated a bit below replacement level by my metric last season.

Since he's a good defender, Temple fares better by ESPN's real plus-minus, which rated him nearly average last season. (Temple's multi-year RPM is not as strong.) But he's also 30 and likely to decline over the next three seasons. If Temple should be getting more than the veteran's minimum, it's only for a couple of years at most, and not this much money.

Later in the day, the Kings reportedly agreed to bring back forward Barnes, a Sacramento-area native who last played for the team in 2004-05, long before emerging as a quality role player. Barnes came surprisingly cheap, at $12 million over two years, though at the cost of a player option on the second year. While the value is good, the fit is odd. As for backups on the wing, Sacramento already had Temple;  Omri Casspi; whichever of Arron Afflalo and Ben McLemore doesn't start at shooting guard; and rookie Malachi Richardson.

Second and perhaps more importantly, the Kings have now exhausted their cap space without finding a backup to starting point guard Darren Collison. If they're looking at Temple in that role, that's probably a mistake. It's hard to see Temple running an offense without more ballhandling help than Sacramento's second unit has to offer.

Perhaps the Kings have someone in mind for their room exception. That apparently won't be Seth Curry, since the Kings are expected to revoke his qualifying offer, making Curry an unrestricted free agent.

However, I wonder if the Kings see Barnes replacing Rudy Gay as their starting small forward and plan to trade Gay for a point guard. Don't be surprised to see that move down the road.

In a technical note, if No. 13 pick Georgios Papagiannis is headed to the NBA this season --  as Vlade Divac has indicated -- the Kings would have to waive Caron Butler and stretch his 2016-17 salary to create enough room for this offer to Barnes, if my cap numbers are accurate.

Washington Wizards

1. Agreed to sign forward Andrew Nicholson to a reported four-year, $26 million deal

2.  Traded for Utah guard Trey Burke

3. Agreed to sign guard Tomas Satoransky to a three-year, $9 million deal

Consider Nicholson the latest case of the Magic undervaluing their own young talent. (See also: Tobias Harris, Maurice Harkless and possibly Victor Oladipo.) Orlando didn't even make Nicholson a qualifying offer, but as an unrestricted free agent, the Wizards were willing to offer him a four-year deal worth $6.5 million a year.

The price for Nicholson isn't bad -- any rotation player is probably worth $6.5 million in this year's market -- but the four-year commitment does seem like a lot. Though Nicholson just finished his rookie contract, as a four-year player at St. Bonaventure he's already 26, and this deal takes him through age 30. The length of Nicholson's contract won't be an issue if he plays like he did last season, when he shot 36 percent from 3-point range and, perhaps more importantly, took nearly all his jumpers beyond the arc instead of specializing in long 2s. Thanks to improved accuracy and shot selection, Nicholson pushed his true shooting percentage from an inadequate .483 all the way to .567.

Having also traded for Trey Burke, Washington added another piece to its bench by reportedly reaching an agreement to sign 2012 second-round pick Tomas Satoransky.

I like the fit of Burke and Satoransky, a big guard (6-foot-6) who can play the point. I'd expect Satoransky to defend shooting guards when they play together while mostly handling the duties of primary ballhandler -- a good thing, since he's not a great spot-up shooter.

The Wizards could still use a backup small forward, and we'll see if the Satoransky signing left more than the room exception available to add such a player.