All anybody wants to talk about these days is two guys — Stephen Curry, who has shattered the record for most 3-pointers in a postseason — and LeBron James, who has an opt out in his contract that he’d be nuts to exercise. He’ll be a free agent in the summer of 2016, after he has had two chances to bring that elusive first professional sports title to Cleveland since 1964. We’re about to have a heck of an NBA Finals, and
Last summer, we ran a post detailing which players received the biggest raises in salary from the previous year. The list was made up of three types of players. A. Players who received maximum salary deals as their second contracts, such as DeMarcus Cousins. B. Former first-round picks who received sizable contract extensions, although not necessarily max deals, such as Larry Sanders. C. Second-round picks who had been making near league minimum and signed new deals, such as Lance Stephenson. The latter category has
I had a long talk with DeMarre Carroll of the Hawks on the night Atlanta eliminated Brooklyn from the playoffs, and the discussion turned toward money — as in how much money Carroll will be worth on the open market, and whether it would be worth the risk for him to sign a one-year deal and then hope to cash in big-time in the summer of 2016 when the salary cap jumps to $90 million. Since our conversation, Carroll has had
Beyond the young stars who will receive their first max contracts this offseason, few players have improved their stock and value in the NBA this postseason more than Atlanta Hawks small forward DeMarre Carroll. The only Hawk starter who wasn’t an Eastern Conference All-Star this season, Carroll brings energy, intensity, strong perimeter defense and a smooth 3-point stroke. At a time when the NBA emphasizes “3 and D” players more than ever before, Carroll (22nd in our Free Agent Rankings) is set to
Twenty teams already are into their offseason and will be joined by two more this weekend. That means those teams already are looking at a free agent market that will be the last as we have come to know it. The projected salary cap for teams this summer is $67.1 million with a projected tax line of $81.6 million. The cap is rising more than 6 percent from last summer’s $63.065 million, which is actually a smaller increase than the jump
BROOKLYN – You can’t spell Brooklyn without “Brook,” and the Nets couldn’t win Game 3 without Lopez. The big question after this big game: What will the big man do this summer when he has a chance to become an unrestricted free agent? It remains an open question. The 7-footer led the Nets with 22 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks in 42 minutes with the season essentially on the line. By getting the win, Brooklyn avoided the daunting task of attempting
Five top sleeper free agents are all playing in the playoffs with the hope of cashing in big this summer as I outlined in a previous SheridanHoops column. With the NBA projected to increase the salary cap to roughly $90 million in 2016, teams will spend big this summer with the hope those deals will be bargains in retrospect once the new salary cap kicks in. Despite the anticipated gold rush for free agents in 2016, there are some players who would
Many teams are preparing for a free agency bonanza in the summer of 2016 when the salary cap is projected to rise to roughly $90 million with stars such as Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Joakim Noah, etc. all potentially be available. However, teams that aren’t in the running for a superstar in 2016 will spend big this summer on players who are valuable but not household names. Any deal signed this summer will ultimately be considered below