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2024 Free Agents - Caleb Houstan

Summary
Houstan was a five-star recruit coming out of college, but his freshman season at Michigan did not go all that well, and he ended up being a 2nd round pick in the 2022 draft. At 6'8", Houstan had promise as being a large wing that can shoot at defend. He shot a decent 35.5% from 3 at Michigan, and as a rookie he shot 36% in the G-League and his limited NBA minutes. That improved slightly to 37% in '23-'24.

Houstan doesn't have a ton of playmaking ability. He doesn't have a great handle, and his 2-point percentage has been really poor in college, the G-League, and the NBA. However, it has been on an extremely small sample size. A whopping 93% of Houstan's shot attempts in '23-'24 were 3-pointers. He's not very athletic, so he'll need to develop more craft to finish below the rim. If Houstan is primarily just going to be a shooter, he probably needs to hit closer to 40% from 3 in order to stick around in the NBA. 

Defensively, Houstan has potential for being a big, versatile wing defender, but hasn't quite lived up to that yet. He gives solid effort on defense and can use his length, but isn't a great point of attack defender. He also isn't disruptive, as he gets very few steals and blocks. His below-average athleticism also hurts him as a defender. 

Houstan will still only be 21 years old as a potential free agent in 2024, so he's still very young. However, if he actually hits free agency in 2024, it won't be a good sign because that will mean the Magic have given up on him.
 
Cap Considerations
Houstan's $2 million salary for 2024-2025 is non-guaranteed, and if he is waived he will become an unrestricted free agent and the Magic will have no form of Bird rights on him. If he is waived, teams could claim him off waivers, but would need to fit his salary within cap space or an exception to do so, as his contract was for more than two years.

If Houstan becomes a free agent, other teams will have multiple ways to sign him as even teams without cap space could use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. If Houstan is waived and clears waivers, his value will likely have dropped low enough that he would only have offers for the minimum.

Potential Teams: Magic, Jazz, Celtics, Bulls, Raptors

Predicted Contract: Not waived: $2 million
If waived: 1-year, $2.1 million with the Jazz

Last updated: 6/15/2024

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