2024 Free Agents - Bismack Biyombo

Summary
After going unsigned as a free agent in 2021, Biyombo signed a 10-day hardship exemption contract with Phoenix and played well enough to turn that into a contract for the rest of the season, and re-signed with the Suns in 2022. After going unsigned early in 2023, he later was signed by the Grizzlies due to injuries to Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke. Biyombo even started some games for Memphis in '23-'24 when they were short-handed, before finishing the season in Oklahoma City.

Biyombo's eFG% of 61.8% in '21-'22 was a career high, as he finished better at the rim than he ever had previously. That's partly due to the situation, as he has never played with a point guard as good as Chris Paul, so he was getting more open dunks. His hands have improved, allowing him to catch more passes and finish inside. He also has a very good offensive rebounding rate. However, he hasn't been quite as good in the past two seasons, posting a 57% eFG%. 

Defensively, Biyombo isn't the biggest center at 6'9", but he has decent enough length to bother some shots inside. He has always had a good block rate, but could have better defensive awareness and instincts to be a true rim protector. His overall rim protection numbers have been good.

Biyombo can move his feet decently on the perimeter, and can survive when switching in late-clock situations, but you probably want him in drop coverage the majority of the time. In the Mavericks series in 2022, the Suns started playing Biyombo over JaVale McGee because of his superior ability to hold defend on the perimeter.

Biyombo has proven that in the right situation he can still be a serviceable backup center, which should allow him to stick in the league a little longer. However, his efficiency has dipped compared over the last couple seasons. He'll be nearly 32 years old as a free agent in 2024, so some age-related regression could be coming as well.
 
Cap Considerations
Biyombo will be an unrestricted free agent with a $2.1 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Thunder could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $4 million. This should be enough to retain Biyombo, since he settled for the minimum of $3.2 million to come to OKC. Alternatively, the Thunder could use cap space or their Room Mid-Level Exception to re-sign Biyombo if he demands more than $4 million. 

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

Potential Teams: Kings, Grizzlies, Trailblazers, Raptors, Thunder

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $3.3 million (non-guaranteed) with the Kings

Last updated: 6/10/2024