Clint Capela tops my new list of the top 17 remaining NBA free agents, as his situation has yet to be resolved by the Rockets or tapped into motion via a max offer from any other team. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports the Rockets offered Capela a 4-year, $85 million deal with potential bonuses bringing it to $90 million. But apparently Capela wants more like Steven Adams’ four years, $100 million. Seems reasonable.
No team can currently extend an offer that big to Capela without making other moves. Remember, the Kings do have that money that was earmarked for Zach LaVine, but that’s less than what Houston has offered Capela. The Atlanta Hawks have a little more, but don’t seem interested in playing the part of the belligerent third party making huge offers to restricted free agents. Other teams would need to open up space to roll the dice on stealing Capela away at an exorbitant price.
The real risk for Houston here, as I write in my rankings, is that Capela becomes the best player ever to take his qualifying offer in order to become an unrestricted free agent in 2019. If Capela is currently financially secure and willing to bet on health and himself — and willing to walk away from $85 million guaranteed in hopes of a sliver more — then he could very well do it. The market should flow much better 12 months from now.
Meanwhile, in the Dub ...
Five of the six best teams in the WNBA are in the Western Conference. Conference imbalance knows no bounds! The good news is the WNBA has open seeding in the playoffs, so the top eight teams regardless of conference will be seeded Nos. 1-8. Right now, that’d mean five West teams and three East teams.
Meanwhile, Howard Megdal revealed his WNBA All-Star ballot. The ballot presents some tough decisions. You’re fine as long as you include Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, and Maya Moore, though. Vote here by midnight!
Links galore
Programming note: since the doldrums of the NBA offseason are finally here, we’re moving to a new publishing schedule for Good Morning It’s Basketball: Tuesdays and Thursdays until October, with special editions coming as the news requires it.
Department of Corrections: stale old links got sent out in Tuesday’s edition by mistake. Bummer! You can find the proper Tuesday links right here, though.
Mike Conley seems not just healthy, but superhero-ish?
Adam Silver again reiterates that he’s ready to rescind the NBA age minimum. Here’s a brief timeline of Silver’s evolution on the topic. However, for some reason, it’s going to take three years to unwind the age minimum? I’m not a lawyer, but I feel as though if any rising high school seniors or juniors wanted to sue for inclusion now they’d have something like a case.
Two great deep dives on LeBron to Los Angeles: one from Lee Jenkins and one from Ramona Shelburne. Read them.
Great story from Ricky O’Donnell on what the BIG3 is trying to be.
Two interesting notes from Joe Vardon’s piece on Collin Sexton’s nice Summer League play: Sexton and Wendell Carter played for Chris Paul’s AAU team and the Hawks offered the Cavaliers No. 3 in a deal trying to get off Kent Bazemore’s contract.
Kevin Pelton, who has a keen, trained eye, thinks Wendell Carter might have been the best big man in Vegas. Chicago has a nice little frontcourt going.
Michele Roberts is sticking around with the players’ union.
Chase Budinger is out of the NBA ... but he’s now a pro beach volleyball player! Whitney Medworth talked to him.
Zach Lowe’s free agency winners and losers.
Marc Stein has some good points about how Carmelo Anthony could work in Houston.
The Warriors are losing their beloved head trainer Chelsea Lane, who is joining former Warriors assistant general manager Travis Schlenk in Atlanta.
Tom Haberstroh on when we can expect DeMarcus Cousins back.
Jack McCallum talks to Jerry West about LeBron moving to L.A. and the history it follows.
Yao Ming, a top-10 human, graduated from college. The photos are incredible.
Gauging what LeBron would make without an individual player max by looking at Cristiano Ronaldo’s new contract.
Shea Serrano x Las Vegas Aces Live.
The story about how Stephen Curry signed off on the Warriors’ addition of DeMarcus Cousins is pretty good.
Another day, another Bill Russell middle finger. Bill Russell flipping someone off is the new NBA logo.
Maya Moore on the cover of SLAM!
And finally: Kevin Durant is now using his real Instagram account to argue with teenagers online. Progress?
Be excellent to each other.