Live Thread: NBA Free Agency Midnight Madness 2018

What’s wackier than a 1980 Disney movie about an all night college scavenger hunt? This year’s installment of the NBA’s Free Agency Midnight Deadline of course. And, as in the movie, Los Angeles seems to be the de facto epicenter of this gigantic game, with the Lakers being linked to just about every top name on the board. Now, that doesn’t mean the purple and gold will wind up with the prizes they covet, especially since they’ve come up short on so many free agency occasions over the past half-decade. However, they do have some Magic on their side this time around…

As far as actual activity goes though… tonight may wind up being a bit more dull than the past few midnights of madness. There’s at least a decent chance the primary dominoes of LeBron James, Paul George and (not-a-free-agent-but-possibly-about-to-be-traded) Kawhi Leonard won’t decide their fates until early next week. Also, there’s likely to be few surprises amongst some of the other big targets. Bad rumors of text messages from The King aside, it’s basically a foregone conclusion that Kevin Durant will re-up with the Warriors. Unless Nikola Jokic channels his inner Carlos Boozer, the big man will sign a max deal with the Nuggets. And, despite apparent tensions over promises made by prior ownership, it would be a major shocker if Chris Paul turns down whatever the Rockets offer to stick around a while.

So, where does that leave us? Well, pretty much waiting to see which big man is in which team’s chair when the music stops. DeMarcus Cousins (his achilles notwithstanding), Clint Capela and DeAndre Jordan could all potentially have new homes after tonight. To a lesser degree… other young bigs like Jusuf Nurkic, Julius Randle, Aaron Gordon, Jabari Parker and Derrick Favors might have to file change of address forms. Another interesting category is who will be the most overpaid former Celtic guard in the wee hours of tomorrow morning… Marcus Smart? Avery Bradley? Isaiah Thomas? Rajon Rondo? The possibilities for madness are nearly endless…

For us Cavs fans, outside of the obvious cocktail of dread and hope we’ll be slowly sipping after midnight, there’s not a whole lot more oddly to wonder about. Sure, there’s the minor issue of whether another team will be ignorant enough to offer Rodney Hood more than the qualifying offer the Cavs extended… or, maybe you’re the type of masochist who will stress over the prospect of losing Jeff Green or Jose Calderon. Barring that, though, it’s hard to imagine the Cavs having the latitude to do much until they know where LeBron stands. Regardless of what he decides, however, they still most likely will only have the $5.3 million taxpayer’s midlevel exception available beyond vet minimum contracts… unless there are some salary dumping trades in their future this summer.

Okay, don’t reach for your Ambien just yet… even if the madness isn’t quite as insane as years past, it’s still worth staying up to find out things like:

• Will Mark Cuban drive to DeAndre Jordan’s house to sign him this time?
• Will DWade do a sign and retire?
• Will the Raptors blow it up?
• Will Elfrid Payton find a taker now that he’s chopped off his trademark hair?
• Wherefore Dwight Howard?
• Will Jamal Crawford be this year’s Swaggy P signing for the Warriors?
• Will anyone sign Derrick Rose?

The answers to these burning questions and more should be known… after midnight. So, hang out and watch the madness unfold…