KJ McDaniels re-signs with Rockets for 3 years/$10 million

[saltlover]

I can see the players acquiescing to some sort of arrangement in the next deal that gives teams some level of control over 2nd-rounders who unexpectedly "pop," since the union always protects established players over younger ones. That's why first-rounders are still controllable their first four years in the league.

That is what the Gilbert Arenas provision is for.

Interestingly, the Gilber Arenas provision only applies to players with 2-3 years of experience who are early Bird free agents and restricted.  KJ McDaniels would not have qualified.  Nor would Mickeg qualify next year.

I don't think that's correct:

"Teams are now limited in the salary they can offer in an offer sheet to a restricted free agent with one or two years in the league. The first-year salary in the offer sheet cannot be greater than the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception (see question number 25). Limiting the first-year salary in this way enables the player's original team to match the offer sheet by using the Early Bird exception (if applicable -- see question number 25), or Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception (provided they have it and haven't used it already)"

Of course, this only applies to teams that go over the cap that were found they didn't have cap room to match offers to their restricted free-agents (who they didn't have Bird rights on).

So I think it applies to Mickey.

Have to pay attention to the 3rd year of contracts in offer sheets if signed, those can be quite high.

My mistake.  I missed the part about the MLE, and focused on Early Bird rights, which first year players don't have.  TP for the correction.

Was waiting to take revenge on your for correcting me the other day! Payback is a... :p

With our logjam at PF, it'll be hard to see him playing himself into an un-matchable offer, but we'll see. That said, if he took the tendered offer in one year, he might also be open to do it once again... which might be quite interesting to see.

I don't think he'd get an unmatchable offer, but with the cap spiking next season it wouldn't surprise me to see him get near what McDaniels gets, even if he just sits on the bench all year (I bet he'd tear up the D-league for part of the season tho).

By taking a 1-year deal, he'd be risking what happens if he tears an ACL near the end of the year. Then it will be harder for him to get much.  Some team with not much use and limited future picks (Brooklyn, Clippers, Knicks) might be willing to buy a young guy, especially if that opportunity were likely to vanish in a new CBA.

[Jon]

As Roy said, this isn't a good barometer for Mickey to measure his worth since this seems to be more of an outlier than a rule.

More importantly, Mickey (and/or his agent) seem to be real fools if they think Mickey's situation is anything like McDaniels.

McDaniels knew he was signing with one of the worst teams in NBA history, a team with talent on par with many D-League teams.

While the '15-16 C's aren't going to be remembered in history books, they are a deep team with SIX players ahead of Mickey on the depth chart (Johnson, Lee, Zeller, Sullinger, Olynyk, and Jerbenko).

McDaniels played about 26 mpg in Philly. For Mickey to get minutes like that, he is going to have to pass at least four of them on the depth chart. For Mickey to get minutes at all, he is going to have to pass 2-3.

So this isn't a case of a "if Ainge trades Sully, Mickey can play" scenario. This is a "Ainge needs to trade Sully, someone needs to get hurt, and Mickey will still need to beat out a couple of guys" scenario.

So I don't get this playing hard ball mentality by Mickey and his agent. If Mickey signs a one year deal, there's a far better chance he's out of the league in a year than cashing in on a 3 year 10 million dollar deal.

[Roy H.]

Morey overpaid. McDaniels hadn't proven that he's rotation-worthy yet.

It's of course a very small sample size, but I'd disagree. McDaniels has shown to be a defender ahead of most other young players. It's at worst a good gamble by Morey IMO, but I think will turn out to an excellent value contract (3yr $10 now is like $3yrs 6 was before, right)

His rookie season was arguably better than his teammate (and not-bad-comp) Corey Brewer:

http://bkref.com/tiny/P3iiB

I would disagree.

In Houston, McDaniels averaged 1.1 points on 33% shooting, and didn't hit a single 3PT.  He picked up 19 DNPs in 29 games, and didn't play a second in the playoffs.

To me, that's not a guy who is worth $3 million+ per year.

[Boris Badenov]

Morey overpaid. McDaniels hadn't proven that he's rotation-worthy yet.

It's of course a very small sample size, but I'd disagree. McDaniels has shown to be a defender ahead of most other young players. It's at worst a good gamble by Morey IMO, but I think will turn out to an excellent value contract (3yr $10 now is like $3yrs 6 was before, right)

His rookie season was arguably better than his teammate (and not-bad-comp) Corey Brewer:

http://bkref.com/tiny/P3iiB

I would disagree.

In Houston, McDaniels averaged 1.1 points on 33% shooting, and didn't hit a single 3PT.  He picked up 19 DNPs in 29 games, and didn't play a second in the playoffs.

To me, that's not a guy who is worth $3 million+ per year.

I think we're still learning who's worth what in the strange new world of the NBA.

[Moranis]

Morey overpaid. McDaniels hadn't proven that he's rotation-worthy yet.

It's of course a very small sample size, but I'd disagree. McDaniels has shown to be a defender ahead of most other young players. It's at worst a good gamble by Morey IMO, but I think will turn out to an excellent value contract (3yr $10 now is like $3yrs 6 was before, right)

His rookie season was arguably better than his teammate (and not-bad-comp) Corey Brewer:

http://bkref.com/tiny/P3iiB

I would disagree.

In Houston, McDaniels averaged 1.1 points on 33% shooting, and didn't hit a single 3PT.  He picked up 19 DNPs in 29 games, and didn't play a second in the playoffs.

To me, that's not a guy who is worth $3 million+ per year.

And remember McDaniels is the guy that Philly just sold off and got a bunch of crap for.  Yet he didn't even get off the bench in Houston.

[Gainesville Celtic]

Morey overpaid. McDaniels hadn't proven that he's rotation-worthy yet.

It's of course a very small sample size, but I'd disagree. McDaniels has shown to be a defender ahead of most other young players. It's at worst a good gamble by Morey IMO, but I think will turn out to an excellent value contract (3yr $10 now is like $3yrs 6 was before, right)

His rookie season was arguably better than his teammate (and not-bad-comp) Corey Brewer:

http://bkref.com/tiny/P3iiB

I would disagree.

In Houston, McDaniels averaged 1.1 points on 33% shooting, and didn't hit a single 3PT.  He picked up 19 DNPs in 29 games, and didn't play a second in the playoffs.

To me, that's not a guy who is worth $3 million+ per year.

I don't know...

HOU was a team that was in the playoff push, so integrating a new player is always a challenge/dicey proposition*, and I (after putting on my tinfoil hat) assumed HOU didn't push harder to play/integrate him b/c they wanted to supress his value since they intended to resign him -- which i think was born out. There's no way to prove it but I think had he played the whole season in PHI he would have netted something like a 3yr $18M contract IMO.

He didn't play in the playoffs b/c he broke his wrist in the season finale:

https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/588799982485929984

Full disclosure -- I have him in the 20-team dynasty H2h league (defending champs, yo!) and think he's mash-up of Corey Brewer & Danny Green with less shooting touch than either (obvs Green >>>> Brewer shooting wise).


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*which is why, FWIW,  I never was a fan of Ainge's picking up of buyout guys in lieu of adding talent at the trade deadline or before during the Pierce/KG/Ray years.

[Gainesville Celtic]

Morey overpaid. McDaniels hadn't proven that he's rotation-worthy yet.

It's of course a very small sample size, but I'd disagree. McDaniels has shown to be a defender ahead of most other young players. It's at worst a good gamble by Morey IMO, but I think will turn out to an excellent value contract (3yr $10 now is like $3yrs 6 was before, right)

His rookie season was arguably better than his teammate (and not-bad-comp) Corey Brewer:

http://bkref.com/tiny/P3iiB

I would disagree.

In Houston, McDaniels averaged 1.1 points on 33% shooting, and didn't hit a single 3PT.  He picked up 19 DNPs in 29 games, and didn't play a second in the playoffs.

To me, that's not a guy who is worth $3 million+ per year.

And remember McDaniels is the guy that Philly just sold off and got a bunch of crap for.  Yet he didn't even get off the bench in Houston.

If any other team did that I would factor that in and agree. But it's Hinkie's MO, not a total reflection on McDaniels..

I'm sure PHI realized there was no chance KJ would resign (they wouldn't pay him what he could fetch on the market) and therefore "trusted the process" by flipping him for a cost controlled PG (I. Canaan) and another 2nd rounder.

He dealt MCW for the same reason, not b/c MCW has no talent (though we can all agree/disagree on how much) but that his talent was less than the value of the LAL's top-4 protected #1 they got for him AND the added years of cost control (eventually) of that player.

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Maybe soemone could revive the "board bets" idea that IP started to run alongside the (now departed) DKC.... If so I'd throw out "McDaniels plays 60 games and averages 20 mpg" 

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

My .02 on McDaniels for anybody who cares.

He's got legit Tony Allen potential on defense. The Guy is a freak athlete, and has good instincts. Right now though he is a bit overrated defensively because he chases highlights at the expense of team defense. Possibly one of the reasons Houston played him less than expected.

He started the year pretty hot from 3, but he really struggles unless he has a lot of time to get the shot off. Slow release, so when teams started respecting it following his hot start his efficiency plunged.

He can't really dribble to save his life either. Terrible handle so his ability to create is limited.

If he can consistently get to 35% from 3 he's a playoff series changer off a bench. Maybe even a starter. But there's a long list of guys like that. His defense alone makes him an NBA player though.

On the trade... They essentially got 2 early 2nd round picks for one early second round pick(who usually would go in the 1st, but 2014 was deep). The guy they drafted this year looks pretty good, but he just broke his elbow. And Isaiah Canaan is one of the best pull u shooters in the league, but he's terrible at... everything else?

It could back fire, or it could end up as a slight win for Philly. Doubt it ever looks great for Philly, but I think they saw the cash bonanza coming this off-season and didn't really think the guy was worth it because in Sampson and Grant they've pretty much duplicated his skill set for league minimum contracts.