Grading the NBA Free Agent Signings

: $25 mil over three years. Kidd will be 39 when he finishes this one. Rick Carlisle helped resuscitate Kidd’s career; Kidd improved his three point shooting, and the Mavs did about as well I expected—50 wins.

Offensively, Kidd is still quite a player, and defensively he’s lost quite a bit. A two year deal would have been better, IMO. Cuban has the money, so it’s not as big a deal as it would be with other teams.

Chris Anderson—Denver

Overpaid: $25 mil over five years. Anderson was a killer shot blocker, leading the league with fully 9.3 percent of all shots blocks. Dwight Howard was at 5.9.

I haven’t watched Anderson enough to appreciate him getting that kind of money for one major skill, no matter how good he is at it. He also rebounds well, and the team’s defense is better overall on FG percentage and offensive rebounding.

Add in that he plays with the second unit for much of that, improves his value, IMO. If your second unit is positively impacting the game when you’re in—winner.

But consider this…Anderson was not only a shot blocker, he was the blockee on fully 19 percent of his own inside shots. To put that in perspective, Glen Davis—criticized by hoards of b-ball minions for getting his shot blocked far too much on the post—was only at 13 percent. 

You would have to go to rookie Bill Walker (22 percent) and Mikki Moore (21 percent) to find low post players on the Cs that got blocked more. And they both scored at a higher FG percentage inside than Anderson.

Chris Anderson will be 36 when that contract ends. Considering that he probably doesn’t improve much, I figure Birdman slightly over paid.

Maybe I’m wrong on this one.

We’ll see.

Antonio McDyess—San Antonio

Bargain: Three years at $15 mil. When everyone else on Detroit seemed to give up in the playoffs, only McDyess kept his intensity up to the end. He played more minutes than expected with Rasheed out, and filled up the stat sheet when he did.

As a starter for 30 games, he averaged 12 points and 11 rebounds in 34 minutes at age 34, and he could have scored more than that. He plays hard at both ends of the floor, is a character guy, and deserves every penny…and more.

Dahntay Jones—Indiana

Overpaid: Four years at $11 mil looks like a lot for a defensive stopper that has trouble stopping the big time players (Kobe) in the playoffs. I do like him and his toughness, but his plus/minus differential was at -9.9 overall.

His plus/minus was terrible with the starters (-18), but was a positive when playing with J.R. Smith instead of Carmelo (+13), and even more so when playing with Billups/Balkman/Anthony and Nene (+64).

Maybe not overpaid by a lot, but too long a contract. Two years would have been better to see how he fits with O’Brien and Indy.

Ron Artest—Los Angeles Lakers

Bargain: With his numbers and defense, he could have gotten more elsewhere, I believe. His baggage and super-ego is well known, and that works against him.

Still, even with his shooting going south, he is a game changer and one of the top defenders in the game. I wouldn’t want him on my team, but he’s worth the money to someone.

Whether he has matured and will accept secondary (tertiary with Gasol?) status all season is another story.

I’ll have a few more for the next installment.

Right or wrong?

Tom writes the Celtics Central blog for the Connecticut News site, the home site for four daily and four weekly Connecticut papers. This article first appeared there.

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