Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
2025 Free Agents - Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
The Thunder liked Robinson-Earl enough to trade the 34th and 36th picks to move up just a couple spots and select him 32nd overall in 2021. Robinson-Earl ended up starting 36 of his 49 games played as a rookie, but mostly fell out of the starting lineup in '22-'23, and was traded to Houston prior to the start of the '23-'24 season, where he was waived and eventually signed a two-way contract with New Orleans. Robinson-Earl has played most of his minutes at center, despite being seen as a combo forward coming into the draft. He provides some ability to stretch the floor as a big. He mostly operates as a pick-and-pop big, but can stretch the floor from the corners as well. He has hit a respectable 34% from three. He can also operate as a roll man because he has nice hands and a good feel to make plays out of the short roll. He has struggled to finish inside though, only hitting 56% of his shots at the rim, according to Cleaning the Glass. At 6'8", he's a little undersized for a center, and he's not someone that's super bouncy and will get a lot of dunks, so he needs to develop some craft to finish among the trees inside. Defensively, he has good positional awareness on defense that somewhat makes up for his lack of size and athleticism. He moves his feet decently for a big, but isn't someone that is a real switchable threat like you would want from a small-ball big in today's NBA. He gets very few blocks, and has had a really low defensive rebounding rate. Robinson-Earl could carve out a nice career for himself as someone that is good at a lot of things, but not great at anything. If he can hit enough shots, his ability to space the floor offensively as a big will likely be what keeps him in the league.
Summary
Robinson-Earl will be an unrestricted free agent with a $2.3 million cap hold and Early Bird rights. The Pelicans could offer Robinson-Earl a starting salary of up to 5% more than the average salary (likely around $13.5 million) using the Early Bird exception, which should be more than enough should they wish to bring him back. Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Robinson-Earl 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. It's also possible that he only gets minimum offers, and he may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.
Cap Considerations
Orlando Robinson (1 year minimum, partially-guaranteed, 2024) Xavier Tillman (2 year minimum, 2024) Luka Garza (2-1 year minimum, , 2024)