The dust has pretty much settled on the NBA free agent period and most of the players who were eligible have found a new home for the upcoming season. There are of course a few stragglers who have yet to ink new deals; however, the stars and second-tier guys have found their homes. With the ink now dry on the new deals and press conferences complete, it is time to take a peek in at the new faces in new places and assess just how they will fare in terms of fantasy value for the season. We continue our look by finishing out the Eastern Conference with the Southeast Division.
Atlanta Hawks:
The Atlanta Hawks prioritized signing their own unrestricted free agent in Paul Millsap and their strategy paid off as Millsap did indeed re-up with the Hawks for another three years. Millsap should continue to enjoy success in Atlanta as his fantasy production has been pretty even keel of late. Nothing spectacular here; however, he is an excellent floor-spacer who can score from almost anywhere and he continues to rebound well.
Washington Wizards:
The Wizards were not too aggressive this past offseason in acquiring expensive new talent, mainly because they know they will need to have somewhere around $25 million in available cap space if they want to even be considered in the Kevin Durant free-agency sweepstakes. All four free agent signings were all on one year deals so that their salaries could come off the books at season’s end and while this is a good strategy heading into the 2016-17 offseason it does little to help their chances this coming year.
Miami Heat:
The Miami Heat took care of business this offseason as they were able to hold onto Luol Deng, Dwyane Wade and Goran Dragic. While they didn’t attract any new free agent talent, these re-signings to place along side Chris Bosh and Hassan Whiteside make the Heat a playoff team in the Eastern Conference. Expect Wade to show the same sort of decline in terms of fantasy production that he has been showing over the last three season. Deng has a lot to prove coming into this season and he could be a wildcard in all of this if he can bounce back. Dragic won’t be putting up numbers like he did in Phoenix simply because of the offensive structure; however, he is still a very serviceable point guard who can rack up the points and assists on a good night.
Charlotte Hornets:
In a bit of a surprise the Hornets did nothing at free agency to bolster their roster. This is a squad that missed out on the playoffs last season after coming off a playoff year prior to that. To miss out again here in this conference would be a blow to the franchise at this point in the roster’s development. The Hornets needed an infusion of talent here to propel the team forward and it just didn’t happen.
Orlando Magic:
The Orlando Magic don’t figure to be a playoff team this year so for them spending big bucks on a free agent didn’t make much sense at all. Instead the Magic wisely targeted their own Tobias Harris and locked him up for another four years at a cap-friendly contract. Harris will definitely see an increased role for this team as he along with Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton and Nikola Vucevic make up an exciting and young core group of players.