2024 Free Agents - Wesley Matthews

Summary
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. He shooting percentages have dropped in recent years, and his defensive ability has waned gradually as he ages into his mid-to-late thirties.

The Bucks picked up Matthews mid-way through the '21-'22 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 in 2022.

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. In '22-'23 though, he didn't start at all and is minutes were down, and he continued to struggle for the Hawks in '23-'24, and wasn't in the regular rotation.

Hopefully Matthews can shoot better than he has in the past few seasons, as he has hit under 34% from three over the past four seasons. At this point, Matthews is likely just a typical veteran minimum guy, and his NBA career might be on its last legs, especially since he will be almost 38 years old once the '24-'25 season begins.
 
Cap Considerations
Matthews 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 Hawks could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $4 million. This should be enough to retain Matthews, since he settled for the minimum of $3.2 million to come to Atlanta. Alternatively, the Hawks could use their Mid-Level Exception to re-sign Matthews if he demands more than $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, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also likely that Matthews only gets minimum offers, and may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.

Potential Teams: Hawks, Nuggets, 76ers, Heat, Clippers

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

Last updated: 5/18/2024