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2022 Free Agents - Ben McLemore

Summary
After nearly falling out of the league around 2018-2019, McLemore had a bit of a revival in the '19-'20 season with the Rockets, playing nearly 22 minutes per game over 71 games and shooting 41% from three. McLemore cut out nearly all midrange attempts, taking only nine total that whole season. With good shooting from outside and some pretty solid shooting at the rim as well, McLemore finished in the 97% percentile in eFG% for this position, per Cleaning the Glass.

However, those numbers were down across the board over the past two seasons. McLemore shot 36% from three, took more midrange jumpers, didn't finish well at the rim, and his minutes were down. The situation in Houston in '20-'21 was a mess, and he never got comfortable with the Lakers for the latter part of that season. He wasn't able to contribute for the Blazers in '21-'22, either before or after they threw in the towel for the season.

McLemore and his agent will certainly look to convince teams that the '19-'20 season is more representative of his actual abilities than this past season, and that he can get back to that level. However, his recent seasons suggest otherwise, so he may struggle to even get a fully-guaranteed contract.

 
Cap Considerations
McLemore 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 Blazers could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $3.1 million. This should be enough to retain McLemore, since he settled for the minimum of $2.4 million to come to Portland. Alternatively, the Blazers could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception to re-sign McLemore if he demands more than $3.1 million.

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign McLemore as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also likely that McLemore only gets minimum offers, and may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.

Potential Teams: Mavericks, Trailblazers, Pacers, Heat, Wizards

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.6 million (non-guaranteed) with the Mavericks

Last updated: 5/1/2022

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