Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Happy Canada Day to all our readers up north.
In today’s SI:AM:
📝 NBA free agency tracker
🏊♂️ Caeleb Dressel’s comeback
🏃♀️ U.S. star breaks her own record
NBA free agency is officially open. In fact, it’s been open since 6 p.m. ET Sunday, at which point players and teams could begin agreeing to terms on contracts. Those deals can’t be officially signed until one minute past noon on July 6, though, so all moves being made now must be considered unofficial. Here are some of the most important free agency developments to this point.
George is one of the biggest names on the market this year, having chosen to become an unrestricted free agent by declining his player option with the Los Angeles Clippers. Early Monday morning, he reportedly agreed to terms on a max contract with the Philadelphia 76ers (four years, $212 million, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski).
Adding George gives the Sixers another star, joining Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey after they traded away James Harden at the start of last season. (Maxey has agreed to a five-year, $204 million max contract extension, Wojnarowski reports.) George is 34 but is also coming off his healthiest season in years, having played 74 games after failing to play more than 56 games in any of the previous four seasons.
Health will be the main concern for the Sixers’ new core. George and Embiid are among the league’s truly elite players when healthy but also prone to injuries. The hope will be that if one of them goes down, the other can pair with Maxey to keep the team afloat until it can have its full complement of stars back on the floor. Last season Philadelphia went 31–8 in games that Embiid played and 16–27 in games that he missed.
Losing George puts the Clippers in a tough spot. Harden is reportedly set to return to Los Angeles and will join Kawhi Leonard as the core of the squad, but the Clippers don’t have much firepower beyond that. They’ll be opening a new arena this season (the first time they won’t be sharing a home with the Los Angeles Lakers since 1999) but they aren’t going to be fielding the sort of team that will make fans excited to come out and see the new gym.
Paul’s tenure with the Golden State Warriors ended when he was waived on Sunday, but it didn’t take long for him to find a new home. He has reportedly agreed to a one-year, $11 million deal with the San Antonio Spurs.
At 39, Paul is far from the perennial All-NBA player he was earlier in his career, but the Spurs were in need of an upgrade at point guard over last year’s tandem of Tre Jones and Malaki Branham. Most importantly, though, Paul will bring veteran leadership to what was the youngest team in the league last season. Working with Gregg Popovich could also help serve as a springboard to a coaching career, if that’s something Paul is interested in.
Speaking of veteran leadership, one of the Eastern Conference’s up-and-coming teams added a player who’s been on two of the last five NBA championship teams.
The Orlando Magic have reportedly agreed to terms (three years, $66 million) with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who won titles with the Lakers in 2020 and Denver Nuggets in ’23. He’ll join an Orlando team that was the fourth-youngest in the NBA last season but posted its best record in more than a decade.
Caldwell-Pope’s greatest skill is something that was the Magic’s biggest weakness last season. He made 40.6% of his three-pointers last year, while Orlando was one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the league (last in threes made per game and eighth-worst in three-point percentage). The Magic had an elite defense but were held back by a below-average offense. If Caldwell-Pope is able to knock down threes like he did in Denver and Los Angeles, the offensive boost he’d provide the Magic could make them a real contender in the East.
… things I saw yesterday:
5. Oneil Cruz’s 452-foot home run.
4. Akshay Bhatia’s par save after his drive hit a tree and traveled only 97 yards at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Bhatia missed a short putt on the final hole and finished one stroke behind Cam Davis.
3. Aaron Rai’s driver off the deck that barely skirted the edge of the water.
2. Jude Bellingham’s 95th-minute bicycle kick to keep England alive in the Euros against Slovakia. England went on to win in extra time.
1. The reaction to Bellingham’s goal at this watch party in London.
