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2022 Free Agents - Wes Matthews

Summary
Matthews had a disappointing year in '20-'21 with the Lakers. He shot a career low 34% from three, and his defensive ability has waned gradually as he ages into his mid-thirties. Matthews has never been strictly a 3-and-D player, but he also has never been significantly more than that. He can attack hard closeouts, and has enough vision to make plays for others if he gets an advantage on a drive.

The Bucks picked up Matthews mid-way through the season to bolster their depth, which was decimated by injuries and health and safety protocols. Matthews worked his way into the starting lineup for Milwaukee, even starting each of their 12 playoff games.

Matthews hit a career low 33.8% from three in 21-'22, and didn't shoot well, or frequently, from anywhere else on the court either. However, he was a valuable defender for the Bucks, as he was often tasked with guarding the opponent's best perimeter player, and overall did a solid job on that end.

Matthews may be slightly overmatched as a starter on a championship contender, but I think he showed he can still be a solid rotational player for even the best teams in the league. Hopefully he can shoot better than he has in the past two seasons. I wouldn't be surprised if Matthews got more than the minimum, but the league doesn't seem to think as highly of him as I do, and he also just seems to like playing for Milwaukee and may be fine taking the minimum to return.
 
Cap Considerations
Matthews will be an unrestricted free agent with a $1.8 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Bucks could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $3.4 million. This should be enough to retain Matthews, since he settled for the minimum to come to Milwaukee. Alternatively, the Bucks could use their Mid-Level Exception to re-sign Matthews if he demands more than $3.4 million.

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Matthews as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or possibly even the Room MLE or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. Since he signed a minimum contract in 2021, teams will hope to get him at the minimum in 2022 too.

Potential Teams: Bucks, Nets, 76ers, Jazz, Clippers

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.9 million ($1.8 million cap hit) with the Bucks

Last updated: 5/30/2022

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