How the Mavericks completed another impressive offseason
The big names in free agency are mostly off the board and most signings at this time of the summer are low-impact acquisitions, but the Mavericks made a great, low-cost addition in picking up Al-Farouq Aminu.
Earlier in the offseason, Aminu made my list of potential under the radar free agents who could play solid supporting roles if they landed in the right situation at the right price. Well Aminu has landed in the right place considering the defensive deficiencies all over the Mavs' roster, and at $2.1 million over two years, has been had at an absolute bargain price.
The 23-year-old is a limited offensive player with a broken shot. He shot 26.3 percent on just 114 3-point attempts over the last three seasons after shooting 31.5 percent on 143 attempts in his rookie season alone, and shot a putrid 31 percent on field goal attempts outside of the restricted area last season. But at 23, he still has plenty of room to grow on that end of the floor, and even if his offense doesn't improve, the Mavs aren't paying Aminu to score the basketball. With the offensive weapons in their arsenal, they don't need him to.
Aminu is one of the best defending and rebounding small forwards in the NBA, and that's what Dallas is expecting the durable (he's missed eight games total over four seasons) youngster to bring to the table again in 2014-15. His length, athleticism, and defensive awareness make him a factor as both an on-ball and help defender, and among small forwards, he's finished in the top-three in rebound rate and first in defensive rebound rate in each of the last two seasons.
He seems to know his limitations on offense and plays within himself, and his defensive and rebounding contributions will be welcomed on a playoff team that finished in the bottom 10 in both defensive rating and rebound rate in 2013-14.
In terms of the value of his contract, it's tough to overstate how much of a bargain Dallas seems to have landed here. Many will point to the aforementioned offensive struggles and underwhelming base statistics, but there's only one ball to go around from an offensive standpoint and not everyone can score it. The other half of the court matters, too.
A good reference for the value of Aminu's contract might be ESPN's Wins Above Replacement measure, which factors in their Real Plus/Minus metric. Consider that according to those metrics, Aminu was worth 4.22 WAR as a Pelican this past season, and that teams have been paying an average of about $1.4 million per WAR so far this summer.
In that inflated market, Aminu should be worth around $5.9 million. Instead the Mavericks will pay him just over $1 million in 2014-15, or roughly one-ninth of what they paid a 35-year-old Shawn Marion last season.
It's all part of what has been an impressive summer for Dallas, and what's really been a solid couple of offseasons despite the team striking out in their pursuit of a number of high-profile free agents during that time.
Since missing the playoffs for the first time in 13 years in 2012-13, the Mavs, who had cleared cap space specifically for big name stars, have missed out on names like Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony.
But they've rebounded by adding Monta Ellis, who fit in beautifully last season, Jose Calderon, who has since been parlayed into Tyson Chandler, his expiring contract and Raymond Felton, Devin Harris (who has since been re-signed), Chandler Parsons, Richard Jefferson, Jameer Nelson (soon), and now Aminu after an agreement with Rashard Lewis fell apart due to a knee issue.
Of course, the Mavs also re-signed Dirk Nowitzki to an extremely team-friendly, three-year, $25-million deal that helps them maintain future flexibility and protects them in the event the future Hall of Famer begins to show the signs of his age - a statement made ridiculous by the fact that Dirk just averaged 21.7 points per game on a near 50-40-90 shooting split in his age-35 season.
They definitely overpaid Parsons with a three-year contract at his maximum salary that was meant to - and did - scare off the Rockets. But by locking Nowitzki up to such a steal of a deal and with mostly short-term commitments occupying their cap sheet, the Mavs were able to vastly improve a 49-win team that just made the playoffs in a historically strong conference and took the eventual champion Spurs to seven games, without sacrificing their long-term flexibility.
They may continue to swing and miss on big name free agents despite that flexibility, and they may have to rebuild once Dirk finally begins to slow down, but for now, the Mavs have rebounded from missing the postseason with an aging roster and being turned down by marquee stars about as well as a team possibly can.
They returned to the playoffs, have put together a cost-effective roster that should remain competitive in the short term as their longtime franchise player moves into his late thirties, and have maintained the flexibility required to sell hope in the long term.
A decade and a half after their run of sustained contention began, a couple of impressive off-seasons built around Plan B's have ensured Nowitzki and the Mavericks won't go away quietly.