NBA free agency started at 12:01 a.m. and while there have been some signings only one of them has a player joining a new team. So let’s take a look at who got what.
Stephen Curry resigned with the Golden State Warriors. Curry signed a 5 year $201 million dollar deal. He’s the first player to sign a new super-max deal. Golden State also resigned Shaun Livingston to a 3 year $24 million dollar deal.
While the Los Angeles Clippers traded away one superstar in Chris Paul they where able to resign their other superstar as Blake Griffin agreed to a 5 year $173 million dollar deal.
The San Antonio Spurs met with Andre Iguodala, but there was no signing reported there. The Spurs did however resign Patty Mills to a 4 year $50 million dollar deal.
The Milwaukee Bucks said they would pursue their own free agent Tony Shell when free agency started and they did. The Bucks resigned Shell for 4 years at $46 million dollars.
The Chicago Bulls will be bringing back one of their own free agents as they signed Cristiano Felicio to a 4 year deal worth close to $32 million dollars.
The New Orleans Pelicans resigned Jrue Holiday to a 5 year $126 million dollar deal to keep him in New Orleans.
So far the only free agent to actually change teams has been veteran point guard Jeff Teague. Teague played last season for the Indiana Pacers, but he signed a 3 year; $57 million dollar deal to join the Minnesota Timberwolves. Teague will fill the spot that Rickey Rubio use to occupy for Minnesota. Rubio was traded to the Utah Jazz for a protected 2018 1st round pick.
While he didn’t sign the deal as of this writing the Washington Wizards offered John Wall a contract extension of 4 years and right around $170 million dollars. Wall has said he want to consider the contract offer. This contract would be part of the collective bargaining agreements new super-max deals. It was made possible for Washington to offer Wall this because he made the All-Star team last season.
Even with free agency underway the biggest NBA news was that the Indiana Pacers traded Paul George. Now George has been rumored to be heading to the Boston Celtics. There was also some talk that the Cleveland Cavaliers where interested in acquiring George. Of course there was the talk of George heading to the Los Angeles Lakers since he’s made it clear that he wants to sign there after this coming season when he’ll be a free agent. Even late in a possible George deal the Houston Rockets name came up.
With all those teams in the running as a possible landing spot for George in the end it was the Oklahoma City Thunder who where able to complete a deal with Indiana for George. In exchange for George the Pacers will receive guard Victor Oladipo and second year big man Domantas Sabonis.
Oladipo started his career with the Orlando Magic, but spent last season with Oklahoma City. For his career Oladipo averages 15.9 points per game while shooting 43.4% from the floor. It’s a return to Indiana for Oladipo as he attended college at the University of Indiana.
In his first season in the NBA Sabonis played in 81 games last season starting 66 of them. Sabonis averaged 5.9 points per game and 3.6 rebounds per game.
The Thunder have been looking to add a name player to pair with M.V.P. Russell Westbrook. Oklahoma City checked in a Jimmy Butler, but he ended up being trade to Minnesota; so they went after and where able to work out a trade for George.
Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Foltynewicz had worked 8 innings of no-hit baseball against the Oakland A’s last night. It was a 1-0 game headed into the top of the 9th and Foltynewicz teammates added two runs to give him a bit of a cushion to work with.
A’s rookie Matt Olson was leading off the bottom of the 9th inning for Oakland. The first two pitches to Olson by Foltynewicz where balls. Olson then fouled off the next four pitches he saw. So with a 2 and 2 count on Foltynewicz’s 119 pitch Olson hit a 402 foot home run to rightfield to break up the no-hit bid and cost Foltynewicz a shutout. After the Olson home run Braves closer Jim Johnson was brought into the game and while he did give up a double to the first hitter he faced (Jed Lowrie) he proceeded to strikeout the next the batters he face to cap off a 3-1 Atlanta victory and a win for Foltynewicz.
With the win Foltynewicz improves to 6-5 on the season. Foltynewicz officially pitched 8 innings giving up just the one hit and one run. He did walk 4 hitters while striking out 8. Foltynewicz also recorded 4 ground ball outs and 12 fly outs. He also threw first pitch strikes to 19 of the 29 batters he faced.
Sonny Gray was the A’s starting pitcher and he also threw well Gray pitched 8 innings giving up one run on two hits while walking 1 and striking out 4. Gray threw 98 pitches in the game with 62 of them being strikes. He also threw first pitch strikes to 17 of the 26 batters he faced. Gray recorded 15 ground ball outs and 5 fly outs. Gray was tagged with the loss which drops his record to 3-4 this season.
The game took 2 hours and 45 minutes to play.
Gray has made 12 starts this season. He started the season on the disabled list and didn’t make his first start until May 13th. Last night was Gray’s best outing of the season, but his last two starts have been very good. Last nights 8 innings was his longest outing of the season, but he did throw 108 pitches three starts ago against the Houston Astros. With his outing last night Gray dropped his E.R.A. from 4.45 to 4.09.
If Gray is back to or close to his former self he could be a big, big trade piece for the A’s if they chose to go that route with him. Gray is 27 years old and is in his 4th season with Oakland. If you’re the A’s are you trading Gray?
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