Best Value Contracts in the NBA

Plus, a preview of Raps vs Knicks

Good morning! The Knicks have another “easy” game tonight, which they’ll need to take advantage of to keep up with the Joneses. We’ll look forward to that before we revisit Monday’s topic and rank Deuce McBride’s pact among the NBA’s most valuable.

Game Night

TONIGHT: Knicks at Raptors, 7:30 pm, MSG Network

Injury Report: Anunoby, Randle and Mitch are all still out. There are no new updates on any of them. For the Raptors, both RJ and IQ will miss the game, along with Scottie Barnes, Chris Boucher, D.J. Carton, Jakob Poeltl and Jontay Porter.

One piece of non-injury news: according to Sportando reporter Alessandro Luigi Maggi, Knicks draft & stash prospect Rokas Jokubaitis is “expected to leave Barcelona at the end of the season,” and plans to play in Vegas Summer League in pursuit of an NBA contract. The report also notes that if he stays in Europe, Zalgiris Kaunas is favorite to sign him.

Halftime Zoom: Here’s the link.

What to watch for: The Raptors have lost 11 consecutive games as they try mightily to retain the top-six protected pick they owe to San Antonio from the Poeltl trade. They have real NBA players on their team - Gary Trent Jr, Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown, most notably - but the rest of the squad is filled with kids and retreads. This should not be a competitive game, and presuming the Knicks come out with the same level of focus they did against Detroit, it probably won’t be.

Other games of note: Cavs at Hornets, Warriors at Magic and Indiana at Chicago.

Best Value Contracts in the NBA

On Monday, I detailed the unique circumstances that led to Deuce McBride signing one of the best contracts in the NBA, as well as the reasons why it has aged like a fine wine in just 12 short weeks. Today, I want to see where McBride’s pact ranks among the league’s best deals.

Before we get there though, some context…

First off, McBride was signed in the middle of the season, which is something of an odd time for NBA extensions. That, in turn, makes it slightly harder to compare it to other deals, because each July free agency period takes on its own unique feel.

That said, if we look back to the 2023 offseason (which took place six months before McBride extended), 27 players were signed to new contracts that totaled at least three seasons. Of those 27, McBride’s extension would slot between 24th and 25th in average annual value, ahead of only Julian Champagnie, Dwight Powell and AJ Green. Even among the two-year deals, Deuce would be in the middle of the pack in yearly dollars, ranking 15th out of 48 players. If we go back to the previous summer, McBride’s $4.3 million annual salary would rank between 21st and 22nd of the 24 deals that last at least three seasons, ahead of just Vlatko Cancar, Sam Houser and our own Jericho Sims.

Secondarily, I’ll note that trying to rank the value of McBride’s pact among every NBA contract is a fraught exercise. Guys making max and near max money are judged by a different set of rules. Take, for instance, Fred VanVleet, who signed in Houston about six months before Deuce inked his extension, and who earns about 10 times as much as McBride on an annual basis.

When they signed Fred, the Rockets were in the middle of the desert, desperate for a starting point guard / adult in the room who could give them some credibility at both ends of the floor. In that sense, he’s been everything Houston could have hoped for. Regardless of the fact that his per minute scoring stats are roughly equivalent to those of McBride (on much lower efficiency, no less), my guess is that Houston wouldn’t trade their guy for ours.

Because comparing every contract would be unwieldy and ultimately unproductive, I find it much more useful to put McBride’s deal side by side with others of its ilk. To do that, I looked at every non-expiring, non-rookie salary that pays someone UNDER $12.86 million for the 2023-24 season.

Why under $12.86 million? Because that’s what the full non-taxpayer midlevel exception is slated to be next season, and struck me as a good baseline before we start having to compare McBride (and others) to guys like Lauri Markkanen ($18 million in ‘24-25), Derrick White ($19.6M), Mikal Bridges ($23.3M) and of course, Jalen Brunson ($24.9M).

Why am I only considering contracts that last until the 2024-25 season? Because that’s when McBride’s new pact will kick in. I also strongly valued contracts with additional cheap years after 2025.

Lastly, before I get to the list, I want to point out just how hard it is to find “cheap” talent in the NBA bargain bin. Here’s a list of players on sub-MLE contracts that kicked in this season or last season (or ones that have yet to kick in) who have been on the fringes of an NBA rotation this year or out of one entirely¹:

• Marvin Begley III: 3 years, $37.5M ($12.5M annually), flat

• Zeke Nnaji: 4 years, $32M ($8M annually), starts in ‘24-25, descending, 4th year PO

• Jock Landale: 4 years, $32M ($8M annually), last three years non-guaranteed

• Vasilije Micic: 3 years, $23.5M ($7.8M annually) final year team option

• Nassir Little: 4 years, $28M ($7M annually), ascending

• John Konchar: 3 years, $18.5M ($6.16M annually), starts in ‘24-25, flat

• JaVale McGee: 3 years, $17M ($5.66M annually), ascending

Before we get to the list, a few ineligible players who you might expect to find: Herb Jones (just above the projected ‘24-25 midlevel), Isaiah Hartenstein and Kelly Oubre (both expiring).

Let’s get to the list:

Honorable Mentions