Not every big name free agent in the NBA is Worth The Risk of overplaying for even though every contract signed in the Free Agency period comes with some risk attached. Some players are injury prone or may approach Old Father Time quicker than expected and be unable to play at the levels that they used to. Often they go into a steep decline. These Free Agents are often overpaid on the market and rarely live up to expectations. Some of the mistakes are unexpected and come down to mainly bad luck, while with other players it is often obvious that teams should not overpay as soon as they enter free agency.
There were plenty of bad deals made last summer
Many people acknowledged that Joakim Noah was not worth the $72.6 million contract that the New York Knicks gave him, while the $64 million deal that Timofey Mozgov signed with the Los Angeles Lakers looked like a poor deal as soon as pen was put to paper. There are such deals as the Chandler Parsons one which could have paid off dividends for the team if everything went according to plan. However, there is little to no room for error before the deal is identified as a bust or a poor decision by management.
Why Ian Clark is not worth overpaying
Ian Clark is 26 years old and is an unrestricted free agent. This summer in the 2016-17 season he averaged 6.8 points, 1.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.5 steals, 0.1 blocks, 48.7 percent shooting.
Clark is a good addition to an NBA team: that is if you have four All-NBA players on your team who change him into a superhero in garbage time. Even with these factors in play, Clark still managed to maintain his double personality act as pointed out by Adam Fromal of Bleacher Report.
"Which Ian Clark is serious? The person who flourished toward the start of the season, averaging 7.6 points per games during his initial five appearances while cutting 51.9/41.7/83.3?
The person who dropped amid the finish of the year, cutting 45.0/18.2/87.5 in his last 14 games? The person who's demonstrated the capacity to detonate off the pine amid the playoffs?
There will still be a team that will overpay
There will be multiple teams that will try and overpay Ian Clark to leave Golden State who will have no choice but to let Clark walk.
Compared to the previous summer there is not as much salary cap space as when Clark was a free agent. However with Clark being one of Stephen Curry's primary backups not only has he seen an increase in minutes but he has also improved on his shooting percentage from the 20-15-16 season.
Asking Clark to perform outside the comfort of the Warriors' motion offense is a legitimate expectation. However, paying him anything higher than the mid-level exception and expecting him to raise his play, as a result, is a risky move that no NBA team should make.
