We’ve known the big names set to hit the market for a while, but which pending NBA free agents have come out of nowhere this season to grab our attention as we enter the summer of 2017?
When it was announced that the NBA’s salary cap would rise from $70 million in 2015 to $94 million in 2016, as a result of the new $24 billion television deal, everyone thought GM’s would spend their cash like Monopoly money on NBA free agents last summer.
That’s probably understating what actually transpired. The thought was that this would carry over to 2017 as well, but with news that the second cap spike would be much less than originally anticipated (up to about $102 million, as opposed to $108 million), those expectations died down.
Still, this summer promises to feature significant free agency spending, with about two-thirds of the league poised to have at least $10 million at their disposal, and some teams having quite a bit more. We’ve known the big names hitting the market for a while, but just like last summer when Evan Turner, Solomon Hill, and Ian Mahinmi ended up with huge contracts, players who weren’t on anyone’s radar before this season will wind up scoring big paydays.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the pending NBA free agency who nobody was talking about before this year but now are poised to end up with a hefty raise when the beginning of July rolls around.