1. Wesley Matthews — $3.6 million
This is probably my favorite signing of the entire offseason because of the sequence of events that it represented. The Los Angeles Lakers traded Danny Green and the 28th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft for Dennis Schroder, who is not on this list as he has a decent-sized salary.
Schroder is a fantastic addition to the Lakers and is essentially a massive improvement from Rajon Rondo that is going to bolster the bench unit tenfold on the Lakers. It cost getting rid of Danny Green, who was bad in the NBA Playoffs, but is still a really solid three and D player.
Then the Lakers went out and replaced Green with someone who, at worst, can be 90% of what Green was last season. So the Lakers are massively improving in Schroder without really losing anything in going from Green to Matthews.
Again, using D-PIPM to our advantage, we can see that Matthews and Green are close in terms of value defensively. That is important for two guys that essentially will play the exact same role on this team.
Green posted a 1.13 D-PIPM last season, Matthews posted a whopping 2.37 D-PIPM. Want to know something even crazier? They posted these numbers in the exact same number of minutes played — 1,529.
Their scoring marks are similar as well and Matthews can absolutely provide the same three-point presence that Green did last season. Green’s ceiling is certainly higher, but he shot 36.7% last season from deep while Matthews shot 36.4%.
The Los Angeles Lakers essentially got the exact same player for much cheaper. If that is not a bargain then I do not know what is. He might not be more talented than Montrezl Harrell, but he is a bigger bargain