NBA free agency kicked off Wednesday with "plenty of lucrative deals without much player movement," and teams spent "freely as the league waded into a new era of inflated payrolls," according to Scott Cacciola of the N.Y. TIMES. The Cavaliers re-signed F Kevin Love to a five-year deal worth around $110M, while also keeping F Tristan Thompson and G Iman Shumpert. Among the other big deals agreed upon, the Bulls kept G Jimmy Butler with a five-year deal worth $95M, while a league official indicated that the Nets re-upped with two players -- C Brook Lopez "will receive $60 million over three years," while F Thaddeus Young "will get $50 million over four years." Pelicans F Anthony Davis, who was not a free agent, "agreed to a five-year extension" worth about $145M. Cacciola notes there "had been speculation that many players would opt for shorter contracts to take advantage of an influx of revenue next summer from the league's new television deal," but that was not the case (N.Y. TIMES, 7/2). CBSSPORTS.com's Matt Moore wrote the first day of free agency "was crazy," as one estimate had teams spending as much as $1B on Wednesday. It was a "wild day with deals, a trade and big, big money handed out hourly" (CBSSPORTS.com, 7/1). GRANTLAND's Zach Lowe wrote the NBA has "never, ever seen a day" like Wednesday, with "so many transactions at all salary levels packed into a single 24-hour window." Most players "gravitated toward guaranteed cash over higher risk-reward choices." There will be some "brave souls who gamble on getting back into the free-agency bonanza for 2016 and 2017, but the player pool in those years may not end up quite as deep as everyone anticipated." Lowe: "It is really, really hard to turn down enormous sums of guaranteed money when they are thrust directly under your nose" (GRANTLAND.com, 7/1).
OWNERS SITTING PRETTY: CSNBAYAREA.com's Ray Ratto wrote with the salary cap "tearing the metaphorical envelope into tiny shreds not just this year but for each of the next two afterward, the owners and ... general managers have been hurling money at free agents and potential free agents as though the meteor that destroys the earth has been rented for the weekend." It is days like Wednesday, when "second-tier players ... break the seal on the new spending fury, that you realize just how well the owners have it" (CSNBAYAREA.com, 7/1).
