We’re a couple of weeks into NBA free agency, and if you’re reading this, chances are you’re aware that most of the biggest names on the market have already concluded their business. But while the eyes of the league understandably gravitate toward the biggest names and the biggest paydays — Paul George joining Joel Embiid and a newly maxed-out Tyrese Maxey in Philadelphia, LeBron James staying in Los Angeles, OG Anunoby staying in New York, DeMar DeRozan landing with the Kings, etc. — there are a host of comparatively smaller moves that also merit our time and attention. At this level, the line between winning and losing can be vanishingly thin; so often, which side you land on comes down to just how much magic you can make in the margins.
As the market settles down and we begin getting our arms around the league’s revamped rosters, let’s take a look at some not-quite-household-name players whose deals could wind up paying major dividends for the teams that scooped them up, starting with a useful utensil in Dallas …
Naji Marshall, Mavericks
Contract: 3 years, $27 million
Every time I think about Marshall, I think about the way Pelicans head coach Willie Green once described him:
Oleh @OlehKosel: “Larry is your swiss army knife, what label would you give Naji?
Willie Green: “Naji is just a knife”
— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) December 11, 2022
Naji’s just a knife. It fits: After all, you can’t carve the path Marshall has — from undrafted out of Xavier to a two-way deal in New Orleans, G-League stints with the Erie Bayhawks and Birmingham Squadron, spot starts and rotation minutes for a playoff team, and now a multi-year, multi-million-dollar deal — without being pretty damn sharp.
In Dallas’ roster reimagining, Marshall effectively takes the place of Derrick Jones Jr., the defend-’em-all swingman who helped kickstart the Mavericks’ transformation into an elite defensive team with the goods to make a run to the Finals. It might not work out quite that cleanly in practice; for one thing, Jones’ starting spot will likely go to Klay Thompson, who’s coming in to play Pop-a-Shot off of kickouts from Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. But there’s a lot to like about the move to Marshall, who lacks Jones’ above-the-rim pop as a lob threat, but offers slightly more size (6-foot-7, 220 pounds, 7-foot-1 wingspan) and physicality on the perimeter, and more overall offensive juice to boot.
A knife slices: Marshall logged 48 more drives to the basket than Jones in 520 fewer minutes last season, with more wiggle off the bounce and comfort beating a closeout to get into the teeth of a defense and make the next play. A knife spreads: Marshall averaged 3.7 assists per 36 minutes as a complementary playmaker in New Orleans, and dropped more dimes over the last two seasons (317) than Jones has in his career (306), which could make him a handy addition should Dallas’ offense look to introduce a bit more dynamism and diversity.
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A knife pokes: Marshall tallied a combined 4.2 steals and deflections per-36 last season, compared to 3.6 for Jones. Perhaps most importantly, a knife retains its edge: Marshall shot 40.7% on wide-open 3-pointers in the regular season and 41.7% on them in the Pelicans’ brief playoff run, compared to 35% and 35.1%, respectively, for Jones. (One suspects Marshall will see a hell of a lot more of those playing off of Luka and Kyrie than he did in New Orleans.)
Dallas may well miss Jones’ on-ball defense against quicker guards, and the ability to use him as a vertical-spacing threat in the pick-and-roll. But Marshall’s more varied game feels tailor-made for the grimier aspects of postseason play — a perfect fit for a Dallas squad that just rode toughness, tenacity, physicality and versatility to the Western Conference crown.
Contract: 4 years, $48 million
He wasn’t the highest-priced free agent Oklahoma City signed this offseason. Hell, he’s not even the highest-priced guy named Isaiah that the Thunder have inked this month. But keeping Joe on what looks like a sweetheart of a deal — one that descends in annual salary and features a team option for Year 4, according to Mike Scotto of HoopsHype — was a fantastic piece of business for a Thunder team whose offense was predicated on shooting, spacing and the ability to tie defenses in knots with its inverted pick-and-rolls and guard-guard screening actions:
Joe’s ability to set those screens — or at least feign like he’s setting them before flaring out beyond the arc in what’s commonly referred to as a “ghost” screen — and drill 3-pointers on the move adds spice and menace to Oklahoma City’s attack. He’s shot 41.2% from 3-point range on 9.5 attempts per 36 minutes across two seasons with the Thunder. Only five players in the NBA have matched that combination of accuracy and volume over the past two years: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Donte DiVincenzo, Buddy Hield and Sam Hauser. And among players to hit at least 100 catch-and-shoot 3s last season, only six drilled them at a higher clip than Joe’s 43.4% mark: Curry, Norman Powell, Grayson Allen, Paul George, Kevin Durant and Sam Merrill.
That kind of on-the-move shooting threat helps widen the driving lanes for MVP finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and ascendant star Jalen Williams, serving as a nitrous-oxide boost for the Thunder’s go-go offense. Oklahoma City scored 123.4 points per 100 possessions with Joe on the court last season, and 118 points-per-100 when he sat, according to Cleaning the Glass — the difference between the league’s best offense and one that would’ve ranked 10th.
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Joe might not step into a significantly larger role for a Thunder team that features incredible depth on the wing. With Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Luguentz Dort, the also-re-signed Aaron Wiggins, rising sophomore Cason Wallace and big-swing trade addition Alex Caruso all in tow, the four-year veteran might find it tough to crack 20 minutes per game.
Even so: When you have the chance to lock down the prime years of a just-turned-25-year-old elite shooter who’s better than you might think defensively for what’s projected to account for less than 7% of the salary cap midway through the life of the contract — at which point extensions for the likes of Williams and Chet Holmgren will be kicking in, and Oklahoma City will need as much low-cost/high-productivity help as it can find — it makes a ton of sense.
Jonas Valančiūnas, Wizards
Contract: 3 years, $30 million
One pretty important thing Washington was bad at last season — and Lord knows, on a team that went 15-67 and got outscored by nearly 10 points per 100 possessions, there are plenty to choose from — was grabbing the basketball after somebody shot it. So: What do you get for the team that finished dead last in offensive rebounding rate, defensive rebounding rate and total rebounding rate last season? Well, how about a gentleman masher who’s spent the better part of the last decade near the top of the league in those categories — including 12th, fifth and sixth in 2023-24 — to help nudge the Wizards toward respectability by narrowing the possession deficit they face every night?
What the 13-year veteran lacks in the sort of state-of-the-art functionality included in newfangled models of big men — he’s taken 1.4 3-pointers per game over the past two seasons and missed two-thirds of them, and he’s not the nimblest mover in space on defense — he makes up for with blood-simple old-school brutality.
Valančiūnas gets guys open, ranking in the top 35 in the league in screen assists per 36 minutes and points generated via screen assist per-36 (minimum 1,000 minutes played). He uses his 6-foot-11-inch, 265-pound frame to carve out space in the paint, hold on to it, and make something helpful happen; including trips when he passed the ball back out, Valančiūnas generated just under 1.26 points per possession as the roll man in the pick-and-roll and 1.1 points per possession on post-ups last season, according to Synergy.
All told, Valančiūnas shot 60.9% on 2-pointers during his final season in New Orleans, and was tied for 54th in the NBA in offensive estimated plus-minus — nearly 10 spots ahead of the most efficient offensive performer on last season’s Wizards. (That was Tyus Jones, an unrestricted free agent point guard who might not be coming back.) I wouldn’t necessarily expect a Washington team featuring Jordan Poole, Kyle Kuzma and newcomer Malcolm Brogdon to run its offense through the big fella; there’s a decent chance, though, that it’d work better and score more often if it did.
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Most importantly, though: Valančiūnas has proven himself to be the kind of vet happy to do the dirty work down low and bang bodies with burlier bigs. He did it for a young Jaren Jackson Jr. in Memphis; he did it for Zion Williamson in New Orleans; and now, he’ll do it for Alex Sarr in D.C., allowing the Wizards’ freshly plucked No. 2 overall draft pick the time to get acclimated to the speed and physicality of the NBA game from the comparatively safer vantage point of the power forward position.
And hey: If, like fellow Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, Sarr looks like he’s ready to take over at the 5 earlier than expected, the Wiz can look to flip Valančiūnas’ eminently affordable contract — one that makes him just the 31st-highest-paid center in the NBA this season — for some future draft capital from a team that might be looking for some reinforcements in the middle. It wouldn’t be too big a shock if there was one; turns out, having a guy who can go get the basketball after somebody shoots is pretty useful.
Contract: 1 year, $2.4 million
To be clear: I’m not saying that McLaughlin’s going to, like, explode as a superstar in Sacramento or anything. I’m well aware that he’s joining a backcourt that features De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Kevin Huerter, late-season revelation Keon Ellis and rookie Devin Carter (though he’s going to be on the mend for a bit). Twenty-eight-year-olds who stand a generously listed 6 feet even and sign for the minimum don’t typically overtake All-Stars and lottery picks.
What I will say, though, is that I bet Mike Brown is going to friggin’ love Jordan McLaughlin; that the USC product is going to wind up earning his way onto the floor more often than his stature and salary would suggest; and that he’s going to help win Sacramento more than a few games with what Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch referred to last season as an “otherworldly” combination of hustle, skill and basketball IQ:
Watch McLaughlin after he checks in, and you’ll be struck by the perpetual motion — how he’s constantly fighting hard to get over screens, moving to cut off passing lanes, making brilliant rotations as a help-side defender or diminutive low man, looking to throw hit-ahead passes in transition, and finding pockets of open space where he can do offensive damage. He’s a per-minute make-s***-happen All-Star whose impact pops off the page (so long as you’re looking at the right part of the page).
Among 360 players to log at least 500 minutes last season, McLaughlin tied for 14th in deflections and steals per 36 minutes of floor time, and tied for 18th in loose balls recovered per-36. He did it with a 5.79-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio — a top-five mark among players to make at least 10 appearances and play 10 minutes per game — and while making a career-best 47.2% of his 3-pointers, which would be a very encouraging development if it continues over a sample larger than the meager 89 attempts he took last season.
In each of the last three seasons, McLaughlin’s on-court/off-court splits ranked among the very best on the Timberwolves. Those numbers confirm what the eye test suggests: that while McLaughlin’s almost always going to be the smallest guy on the floor, he’s capable of consistently making a pretty big impact.
“He’s a guy that’s, like, a natural ball-mover,” Wolves point guard Mike Conley said last season. “He’s a natural just with his high IQ, making plays and getting loose balls, just keeping plays alive … he definitely affects the game every time he comes in, for however long he plays.”
All I’m saying: Don’t be surprised if Brown winds up concluding that the duration of “however long he plays” needs to be a bit longer than he’d expected.
Contracts: veteran’s minimum
The Bucks entered last season hoping to vie for the NBA championship behind an elite offense helmed by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, but exited in the first round again — this time, with nine fewer regular-season wins and a different coach — thanks largely to a season-long struggle to get stops. After finishing in the top 10 in points allowed per possession four times in five seasons under Mike Budenholzer, Milwaukee dipped all the way to 19th in 2023-24, with a lack of size, length and athleticism at the point of attack on the perimeter the primary culprit for the decline in defensive efficiency.
In Wright (6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-7-1/2-inch wingspan) and Prince (6-foot-6 with a 7-foot wingspan), the Bucks essentially found bigger, younger, longer, more athletic — and, of late, more accurate from 3-point range — replacements for Patrick Beverley and Jae Crowder as veteran backups off the Milwaukee bench. They should offer Doc Rivers more flexibility in constructing lineups, with Wright having the size and defensive chops to be able to slide over to shooting guard to pair with Lillard and Prince able to slide between the 3 and 4 spots as needed to fit in among frontcourt incumbents Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis.
Neither Wright nor Prince profiles as a massive game-changer, but the theory of the Bucks’ case doesn’t need them to be. If Antetokounmpo, Lillard, Middleton and Lopez — a grouping that obliterated opponents by 16.3 points per 100 possessions in 677 minutes together last season — can stay on the floor more often this season, what Milwaukee needs most is more players capable of putting in a shift on defense, keeping the ball moving, knocking down open shots when they’re served up, and generally showing they can play off of the stars. Finding one of those at the minimum is fortunate; finding two of them could be a godsend.
And, hey, while we’re here, let’s do one more …
Contract: 5 years, $84 million
“Eighty-four million dollars for a former No. 6 overall pick” might not qualify as “under-the-radar” to you. Given how rarely we’ve seen Isaac over the last few years, though — just 78 total games since New Year’s Day 2020, when his left knee buckled and sent him down a path marked by a torn ACL, hamstring surgery, a torn adductor muscle and countless hours of rehab — I think it’s fair to say that he largely operates beneath the basketball-watching world’s notice.
Which is a shame. Because when that dude’s on the court … holy crap:
Remember earlier, when I referred to McLaughlin as a “per-minute make-s***-happen All-Star?” Well, Isaac might be the per-minute make-s***-happen MVP.
In limited, carefully managed floor time this season after missing the better part of four seasons, Isaac put up 15.5 points and 10.2 rebounds per 36 minutes of floor time, shooting 60% inside the arc and 37.5% beyond it — solid, non-eye-popping, perfectly cromulent production. It’s on the defensive end, though, that this bird can really sing: 2.8 blocks, 1.7 steals and 3.1 deflections per-36. That’s nearly eight plays per game he literally has a direct hand in screwing up — and the looming specter of him turning the next play into his ninth screws up even more.
Opponents shot just 52.7% at the rim when Isaac was defending their attempts — 10th-best out of 263 players to guard at least 100 up-close tries, according to Second Spectrum. Zoom out to the rest of the court, and Isaac held opponents 6% below their average shooting accuracy when he was guarding them — tied for the second-biggest differential among 310 players to defend at least 300 shots, according to NBA Advanced Stats. The dude he was tied with? Four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. The only one above him? Former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green.
That’s the kind of impact Isaac has when he’s on the floor — a level only the very best defenders in the world can reach. (Here’s where we note that he led the entire NBA in defensive estimated plus-minus last season.) If he’d done it with a clean bill of health rather than a medical file longer than his 7-foot-1 wingspan, he’d already be on a max. Instead, a Magic team that continued stacking long-limbed, multi-talented curiosities while Isaac recuperated was able to secure his services on what could amount to an absolute steal of a hometown discount.
After mostly spending its summer re-signing its own players and making its biggest splash on signing 3-and-D swingman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Orlando still had some cap space to spare, allowing its front office to renegotiate Isaac’s existing $17.4 million contract up to $25.4 million for the 2024-25 season. From there, they tacked on a four-year extension that drops down by $10 million in average annual salary — to $15 million in 2025-26 (when Franz Wagner’s new max extension kicks in and Jalen Suggs will likely be on a richer new deal), down to $14.5 million in both 2026-27 (when Paolo Banchero becomes extension-eligible) and 2027-28, and then back up to $15 million in 2028-29.
If Isaac can’t stay healthy enough to play at least 52 games in 2025-26, the Magic can walk away, on the hook for just $8 million in ‘26-27 money. If he can’t crack 52 games after that, they can walk free and clear, with the final two years fully unguaranteed. And if he can stay healthy, maintaining that level of defensive world-breaking while hopefully smoothing out some of the wrinkles in his offensive game? Well, then they just locked up superstar-level impact for what’ll amount to well below 10% of the salary cap at precisely the time they’ll need to have low-cost contributors as their brightest young things graduate from rookie deals to monster maxes.
It’s a calculated gamble — one that might seem foolish, given Isaac’s injury history. If it pays off, though, the Magic — the NBA’s fourth-youngest team last season, with All-Star playmakers and a snarling defense, just coming into their own — will be laughing all the way to the bank … and maybe to their first deep playoff run since Dwight Howard went west.
