MOST of the top- and second-tier players in the NBA free-agent race have followed the same path (signing with their old employers) or decided to make a new trail (relocating with a new team).
However, there remain a few prominent free agents who are still available on the open market although it seems unlikely that they will depart for another destination.
“The King” LeBron James and enigmatic Earl (J.R.) Smith III, who both played an integral role in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ unprecedented seven-game NBA title finish last month after falling behind 3-1 in the Finals.
Just days after snaring the third ring in his illustrious 13-year pro career that included seven Finals appearances and propelling the Cavs to their first-ever NBA crown since joining the circuit in 1970-71, the multi-dimensional James, who is in Hawaii on vacation, opted out of the second year of his two-year, $47-million deal with the Wine City unit – worth $24 million.
The idea is not really to leave the city of Cleveland, which ended a 52-year title drought in the four U.S. major pro team sports leagues (major-league baseball, National Football League, National Hockey League and the NBA) with the Cavs’ success.
Rather it is to secure a more lucrative contract – though not necessarily a longer one – in keeping with the current times wherein NBA money is overflowing and just about every Tom, Dick and Harry is taking advantage of that phenomenon.
From $70 million per team, the NBA cap on player salaries will skyrocket to $94.143 million per team in 2016-17 as the league’s national television deals worth $24 billion over nine years kick in.While co-NBA top-three superstar Kevin Wayne Durant, the one-time NBA Most Valuable Player 2014 and four-time league scoring leader, who decided to bolt the Oklahoma City Thunder after nine title-less seasons (including his rookie campaign with the Seattle SuperSonics before the franchise move toafter the 2007-08 wars), and commence his “My Next Chapter” journey to the Bay Area with the back-to-back NBA finalist Golden State Warriors, the 31-year-old James, the Akron, Ohio native with four Maurice Podoloff trophies (regular-season MVP) and three Bill Russell hardware (Finals MVP), is unlikely to follow the path of Durant and leave his hometown Cavaliers for a second time.
The monstrous 6-8, 240-pound physical specimen spent his first seven seasons in Cleveland (2003-10, NBA Finals in 2007) and then made “The Decision” to go to South Beach where he and Dwyane Tyrone Wade and the now ill-stricken Christopher Wesson (Chris) Bosh helped lead the Miami Heat to consecutive championships (2012 and 2013) in four straight Finals trips before coming home to the Cavs in the summer of 2014.
A close friend of James’, the 6-4, 34-year-old Wade, decided to leave the Heat on July 6 following 13 seasons and three titles to return to his childhood home and accept a measly $7 million more from the Chicago Bulls on a two-year, $47-million agreement that includes a player option that will allow the 2006 Finals MVP to return to free agency after the 2016-17 season
Identical to Wade’s contract arrangement, James, who turns 32 in late December, will likely accept another two-year deal with the Cavs with a player option after one season so he could again test free-agent waters in the summer of 2017 when the NBA’s salary cap is expected to balloon to $102 million (downgraded from an earlier projection of $107 million).
Smith had had a tumultuous stint (and some hilarious moments such as repeated attempts to untie the shoelaces of opposing players during free-throw situations that earned him a fine of $50,000 from the NBA on January 8, 2014 for unsportsmanlike conduct) with the sad-sack New York Knicks from 2011-14. While the 6-6, 30-year-old 2-guard earned NBA Sixth Man of the Year honors with the Knicks in 2013, he hopped onto the bandwagon of LeBron in a three-team midseason trade on January 5, 2015 that eventually produced a pair of Finals trips.
While Smith declined to pick up the $5.3 million player option for 2016-17 that was only partially guaranteed (the final year of a four-year deal he had previously inked with the Knicks), he is expected to return to the Wine and Gold for a more lucrative contract.
Meanwhile, 40-year-old Timothy Theodore (Tim) Duncan, the longtime face of the San Antonio Spurs franchise with five league championships tucked under his belt, announced his retirement on July 11.
Duncan, who has spent his entire 19-year NBA tenure with the San Antonio Spurs, decided to hand his jersey following the club’s free-agent acquisition of erstwhile Chicago Bull Pau Gasol, the Spanish frontliner who turned 36 last July 6, on a two-year, $30-million commitment.
The 7-foot, Virgin Islands-born Duncan forfeited $5.6 million in the second-year of his “Best Buy” bargain-priced two-year pact worth $10.4 million. Prominent stars like James, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki and Duncan who have bankrolled millions and millions of dollars throughout their storied NBA career, agree to take a pay cut in order for their clubs to clear salary-cap space and entice free agents to come aboard.