NBA 2019-20: 5 Bloated contracts offered during free agency this offseason

If you thought the past couple of NBA offseasons were happening, the events of this free agency window seem to have trumped all the events of 2017 (the Kyrie trade, the Wiggins signing, the Chris Paul and Paul George trades among others) or 2018 (the Summer of LeBron, the Kawhi trade, Durant's last short-term contract with the Warriors, the Boogie Cousins blooper).

The thrifty spending from the offseason of 2016 (when cap space ballooned for every team in the league at the same time prompting some ill-advised expenditure) seems to be a one-time aberration, as a number of playoff teams have made sensible changes to their roster without weakening themselves significantly. The moves made by the Rockets and the Warriors are worth as much praise as those made by the Nets or the Clippers, who are the clear winners of this summer's action.

Despite that, one can always find supply chain inefficiencies in any system, and there have been mistakes made across the league. We attempt to grade some of the most obvious ones in the article below:

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#5 Bojan Bogdanovic - 4 years, $73 million

Bojan Bogdanovic

Call me crazy, but Bojan Bogdanovic's contract is going to be traded at least once over the next 4 years, if not more. Spot-up shooters typically have long careers, but given the current economics of the free agency market, a swingman who can do little to slow the likes of Kawhi, LeBron or Paul George in the playoffs should not be making $18 million in the playoffs.

Bogdanovic really is a good player, and he is a quality starter. But he would have been a better fit on a team with an offensively dominant big man, and Rudy Gobert is not going to be that guy for the Jazz in the near or far future. It remains to be seen whether he is able to play as a stretch 4 defensively, as the loss of Jae Crowder will hurt the Jazz more on the defensive end than on the other side of court.

#4 Al Horford - 4 years, $109 million

Al Horford vies for the ball

Unlike the Jazz, the Philadelphia 76ers aren't a small-market team with small-market aims of nabbing any free agent who'd give them a second look. With that in mind, acquiring Horford as a free agent seems to be a brand-new approach with no prior success record in the modern NBA.

Horford is the perfect player and has well and truly earned his contract, but given the Sixers' size and the fact that their point guard is a handy 6'9", they don't exactly lack for size in their frontcourt. It is tough to envision a playing five that fields Horford and Embiid on the regular, as it will make it easy for the guard-heavy league to hunt for mismatches and expose Embiid's relatively slow footwork on the perimeter.

At best, the rationale for this signing seems to be a move to make sure that Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo's best big man defender in the conference was on their roster, but that does not justify the price tag the Sixers are paying to the veteran given the glaring need for a lockdown defender on the perimeter for the roster.

#3 Marcus Morris - 1 year, $15 million

Marcus Morris

The New York Knicks continue to maintain the 'Lolknicks' narrative that has made a joke of the franchise that is tenanted at the Mecca of basketball over the last 20 years. Having already signed 3 power forwards with very little versatility or ability to stretch the floor in Taj Gibson, Julius Randle and Bobby Portis on the very first day of free agency, they continued to build up a curious roster chock-full of misfits.

Marcus Morris was their fourth signing at the PF position. 10 years back, Morris may have been a conventional small forward with his size and skillset, but the modern NBA dictates that he strictly see the floor only as a 4. I'm left wondering, as is usual with the Knickerbockers front office, what the exact rationale behind this signing was.

David Fizdale has been a coach focused on developing the youngsters on his roster (he does have a fair amount of raw talent at his disposal), and he's unlikely to give Morris an extended run if he does not start the season off hot.

#2 Kristaps Porzingis - 5 years, $158 million

The Unicorn

When he came to the NBA as an unknown import from the EuroLeague in 2015, the main concerns for the 7'3" unicorn were exactly the same as the ones skeptics have today. In the 3 seasons that Kristaps has suited up for the Knicks, he displayed a noticeable drop in his performances as the season ground through December and into January.

In my opinion, a player who has not demonstrated that he can be a regular difference-maker through the course of an entire season does not deserve a contract paying an average of $31.6 million over the next 5 seasons. The Mavericks held his Bird rights and could have waited for the market to demonstrate his true value, but they decided to play it safe and offer him the full max that he's eligible for, right away.

If the Zinger is able to maintain health over the course of his prime, this deal would look eminently fair and I'd have to eat my words. But the Mavericks quite clearly missed a trick this summer, and should KP be regularly absent due to injury concerns, wonderboy Luka Doncic may be forced to demand a trade to a contending team in his prime.

#1 Terry Rozier - 3 years, $58 million

Terry Rozier

Taking the cake in terms of handing out bummer contracts are the Charlotte Hornets, who seem to take no lessons from past free agency blunders. You know, like offering Nicolas Batum a 5-year max deal (at the time), or throwing a 4-year contract to the way of defensive specialist Bismack Biyombo. At least this duo is worth giving limited minutes to, but their other 4-year contract from the summer of 2016 was handed to Marvin Williams, who is as good as washed at this point in his NBA career.

Terry Rozier showed flashes of promise during the Celtics' fairytale playoff run in 2018, but he is too inconsistent as a shooter and is somehow unpolished at finishing in the paint despite his strong frame and athleticism. He projects as a volume scorer who can get picked off on mismatches against bigger wing players regularly (as LeBron demonstrated in the Conference Finals).

In my opinion, Terry is overpaid by at least $8-10 million per season given his market value. That makes this the worst free agent signing of the summer.