Mere days away from the start of 2018 free agency, the NBA rumor mill is churning out stories all over the internet.
The Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard figure to garner most of the headlines between now and July 1, when free agency officially begins, but there will be plenty of other names to monitor.
In addition to LeBron, this week also produced nuggets on the Indiana Pacers, and their desire to chase Will Barton or Tyreke Evans, as well as the Memphis Grizzlies, who appear set to pursue Avery Bradley.
LeBron James to the Lakers?
As everyone follows the clues surrounding LeBron's 2018 free-agency decision, one executive seems confident the league's biggest name is headed to Los Angeles.
"Surely, James would not pack up and go West to play with guys more than a decade younger than him," Sean Deveney wrote for The Sporting News. "But league executives aren't so sure the Lakers need to make pre-emptory moves in order to get James to come to L.A. One told Sporting News he expects James to sign with the Lakers, even before the team remakes its roster."
L.A., surely aware of such whispers, aren't resting on their laurels, though. ESPN's Ramona Shelburne reported on Wednesday that the Lakers were still aggressively pursuing a trade for Leonard:
Ramona Shelburne @ramonashelburneUpdate from this morning’s story. The Lakers re-engaged the Spurs Wednesday in aggressively pursuing Kawhi Leonard. Story w/ @wojespn coming shortly on ESPN. This is the first contact between the teams since the Spurs “shut the door” on them after an initial call.
If LeBron is willing to sign with an incomplete Lakers squad, going to one that already has Leonard seems all the more enticing.
And depending on what happens with L.A.'s own free agents, they may have just enough to wiggle room to still squeeze one more big name onto the roster. Position-less basketball with LeBron, Leonard and Paul George would be terrifying. Or, imagine pick-and-rolls with LeBron and DeMarcus Cousins, flanked by Leonard.
And even if the Lakers wound up with "just" LeBron and Leonard, they'd still figure to be one of the West's better teams. L.A. would obviously have to give up some good young players to trade for Kawhi, but their treasure chest of assets and solid young players is pretty loaded.
Pacers Looking for New Wings?
Outside of a little detour that took him to five different teams in three seasons, Lance Stephenson has been something of a fixture for Indiana since 2010-11, his first season in the league.
In fact, since that season, he's seventh among Pacers in Wins Over Replacement Player, per Basketball Reference. His most recent season with Indiana wasn't as successful as his first stint, though. In those first four seasons, he had a combined Box Plus-Minus of one. In 2017-18, it was minus-2.1, per Basketball Reference.
So, maybe it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise when the Pacers declined Stephenson's team option for the 2018-19 season. And the targets to replace him, reported by ESPN's Chris Haynes, make sense, too:
Chris Haynes @ChrisBHaynesESPN Sources: With Indiana declining team option on Lance Stephenson, Tyreke Evans and Will Barton are expected to be two of its free-agent targets.
Indiana figures to be one of the few teams with cap space. Without doing much beyond declining the option for Joe Young as well, the Pacers should be able to open up enough room to sign someone to the mid-level exception (which will start at around $8.6 million annually).
With the market so tight this summer, that'll be about the range Tyreke Evans and Will Barton may have to sign for, despite their strong 2017-18 campaigns:
| Stephenson, Evans and Barton | |||||
| Lance Stephenson | 9.2 | 5.2 | 2.9 | .495 | -2.1 |
| Tyreke Evans | 19.4 | 5.1 | 5.2 | .561 | 3.6 |
| Will Barton | 15.7 | 5 | 4.1 | .562 | 1 |
| Basketball Reference | |||||
Pairing either of those players with Victor Oladipo would help Indiana continue to move in the right direction after changing course with last summer's George trade.
Avery Bradley to the Grizzlies?
Despite having one of the worst statistical seasons in the NBA in 2017-18, there's some interest around the league for Bradley as well.
Among the 212 players with at least as many minutes, Bradley finished 209th in Box Plus-Minus, per Basketball Reference. Only Josh Jackson, De'Aaron Fox and Tyler Ulis were worse.
That didn't appear to stop the Grizzlies from picturing him alongside Mike Conley, as reported by Marc Stein of The New York Times:
Marc Stein @TheSteinLineHearing that the Grizzlies -- who will be looking for wing upgrades with their mid-level exception -- have Avery Bradley high among their free-agent targets
If Bradley could get back to around the league-average level he played at during his last two seasons with the Boston Celtics, he'd still be an upgrade for the Grizzlies. Memphis had multiple guards log rotation minutes while playing well below replacement level.
A healthy Conley, a maximized Bradley, No. 4 pick Jaren Jackson and a healthy Marc Gasol could have Memphis pushing back toward playoff contention in a hurry.
Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of NBA.com or Sports Reference.
Andy Bailey covers the NBA for SLC Dunk and Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@AndrewDBailey) and listen to his Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by B/R's Dan Favale.
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