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There are still a few notable free agents out there (Christian Wood, Kelly Oubre, PJ Washington), but for the most part free agency is wrapped up and the NBA is on summer break as we all wait for the potential deals involving Damian Lillard and James Harden. 

In the meantime, let's take a look back at some of the best value deals we saw this summer. 

Herb Jones: 4 years, $54M

This is great value for Jones, who could easily outplay this contract if his 3-point game follows the trend of his last few months of last season. We know about his defense. That alone is arguably worth more than an average annual salary of $13.5M. Jones was restricted, but the way the money shook out on the market it wasn't a fruitful enough landscape to provide an offer that pushed New Orleans up. 

Good for Jones. This is life-changing money for a second-round pick, and if New Orleans ends up with too many big salaries on the books, which is a distinct possibility, this contract could be traded in a heartbeat. Really good value for both sides. 

Grant Williams: 4 years, $54M

If it's a good value deal for Herb Jones in New Orleans, it's a good value deal for Grant Williams with Dallas. We always love to talk about "fits" but mostly that's an overused term; good role players fit everywhere, and Williams is just a flat-out good player. He fell out of favor in Boston toward the end of the season and was a DNP-CD guy early in the playoffs. Then he got back on the floor, and the impact was immediate. Boston will miss him, and their loss is Dallas' gain. 

You want to talk fit? Williams is a 40% 3-point shooter for his career and he could easily double his volume in Dallas, where he could be one of the leading corner 3-point shooters in the league playing off the driving creation of Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic, who is the best collapse-and-kick passer in the world. Jason Kidd can use Williams in all kinds of ways defensively, too, including as a small-ball five, and you know Dallas had to address its defense. 

Seth Curry: 2 years, $8 million

Let's stay with Dallas, which gets Curry on damn near a minimum deal. Are you kidding me? We know what Curry can't do at such a high level (defend, create individually), but we also know what he can do -- and it's worth more than four mil a year. 

Curry's an elite shooter both from 3 and in the pull-up range and can do some things with the ball. There's not much more to say about this other than getting Curry, who will be a real contributor and could actually prove crucial, at this number is bargain shopping at its best. 

Austin Reaves: 4 years, $56M

The Lakers lucked out that nobody else offered Reaves big money they would've had to match. Another team could've signed him to an offer sheet for up to $102 million and really put the Lakers to the fire. Instead, they get him at four years, $56 million, an average annual salary of $14 million, just north of the non-taxpayer midlevel exception. That is an absolute steal for Reaves, who could've helped a lot of teams and enters this season as L.A.'s pretty clear third-best player. 

Here's to hoping Reaves continues to be featured in the ways he was down the stretch and in the playoffs. We know LeBron is going to do his thing and Anthony Davis will get his touches, but Reaves needs to be stealing some creative opportunities from D'Angelo Russell and should be the Lakers' lead dog for plenty of non-LeBron minutes. Would love to see a lot of Reaves-Davis pick-and-roll throughout the regular season as LeBron saves himself for the playoffs. 

Gabe Vincent: 3 years, $33M

Vincent is the best point guard the Lakers have; my guess is he'll be starting over Russell by the playoffs, possibly earlier. To get a starting playoff point guard, let alone one that just shot out of his mind on a Finals run, at $11M annually is supreme value. 

The Lakers also did well to ink Russell to just a two-year deal, which is both palatable money for a regular-season innings eater who is less valuable in the playoffs and realistic trade candy. Again, for my money, Vincent becomes the starting point guard and Russell becomes a potential salary filler in a trade at the deadline. 

Keep an eye on ...

  • Nerlens Noel: Noel lands in Sacramento on a one-year, $3.1M deal. It's nothing earth-shattering. Most fans probably didn't even hear about the signing. Noel could easily end up barely seeing the court. But there's also a chance he becomes a big-time value signing. The Kings desperately need rim protection, and I'll remind you that the last time we saw Noel on a full-time basis was in 2020-21 with the Knicks when he led the league in Defensive Box Plus-Minus, was second in block rate and third in blocks per game. That season, scorers converted just 41.9 percent of the shots Noel defended, a super-elite mark. That wasn't that long ago. If this goes well, Sacramento will have scored a great under-the-radar guy on an almost nothing contract.