The Recent History of NBA Free Agency Vol 1

This summer has been tame in terms of NBA free agency when compared to the last 5 summers. Yesterday in The Washington Post there was a great article highlighting the major free agent moves of the last 5 years, I found it interesting that most of the teams who re-signed their big free agents ended up regretting it. Here is the list for 2000 and 2001 big free agent signees, with my commentary of course.

2000

Tim Duncan: re-signs with San Antonio for 3 years and $33 million
Grant Hill: signs with Orlando for 7 years and $93 million
Brian Grant: signs wtih Miami for 7 years and $86 million
Eddie Jones: signs with Miami for 7 years and $93 million
Jalen Rose: re-signs with Indiana for 7 years and $93 million
Austin Crochere: re-signs with Indiana for 7 years and $51 million
Tim Thomas: re-signs with Milwaukee for 6 years and $67 million

Its funny how Tim Duncan was the only big free agent that re-signed with his team to live up to and pass his contract. Jalen Rose was traded the year after signing his contract, Crochere is still with the Pacers, but is buried on the bench. Tim Thomas was traded to the Knicks and can currently be seen stealing checks in New York.

2001

Chris Webber: re-signs with Sacremento for 7 years and $123 million
Allan Houston: re-signs with New York for 6 years and $100 million
Michael Finley: re-signs with Dallas for 7 years amd $102 million
Vince Carter: re-signs with Toronto for 6 years and $79 million
Dikembe Mutombo: re-signs with Philadelphia for 4 years and $68 million

Out of this group of signees its shocking that only Chris Webber had an immediate positive impact on his team. Houston has been injured for much of the last 3 seasons. Finley has been on the decline the last couple of seasons, not to mention his injury problems. Carter never emerges as the leader an $80 million dollar contract makes you. And in the most ridiculous signing, Dikembe "Mount" Mutombo signs for 68 million. Hopefully the GM that made that deal has since been fired.

The overall theme of these signing is that when a team tries to keep its "star" player in house, it very rarely works out. With Duncan being the only real exception, it seems as if not caving in to ridiculous contract demands by your 'in house' free agents is the way to go. So for Wizards fans (me) and fans in genereal maybe there is a silver lining for your favorite player leaving via free agency.