Free agency can be confusing, especially with more and more players each year seemingly on the move from team to team and conference to conference.
For stars like Paul George, a change of scenery tends to shake up the NBA landscape. Rosters are deconstructed and remade around a player like him, and while that used to be a rare occurrence once upon a time, it's more of a regular occurrence at this point.
Common as it might be, signing players of that caliber is still difficult for teams without stars already established. The San Antonio Spurs were never at play for George, but they did manage to land Chris Paul from the Golden State Warriors as an unrestricted free agent — the same classification George had.
The other side of it, however, is where things get hairy.
Restricted free agency is quite different than the widely-recognized form of free agency that's taken the NBA world by storm the last few years. Instead of All-Star caliber players moving around, players entering restricted free agency are younger and either just coming out of their rookie deals, or two-way players.
Sandro Mamukelashvili, Dominick Barlow and David Duke Jr. all fit that category.
Mamukelashvili, fresh off of his fourth season in the NBA — second with the Spurs — is finally at the end of his rookie deal, while both Duke Jr. and Barlow are coming off of two-way deals that allowed them to split time between the mainstay Spurs and the Austin Spurs. As such, all three players' future with San Antonio was to be evaluated.
The result? Duke Jr. and Mamukelashvili were tendered qualifying offers, while Barlow was not.
Typically, teams tender offers for players they want to keep around without having to endure the hassle of full-on negotiation. Depending on the status of each player, theri accolades and even the NBA's salary cap for that season — which, ahead of 2024-25, was set at $140.588 million — that offer fluctuates in value, but it gives the team right to first refusal.
If any other team in the NBA wants to offer a contract to Duke Jr. or Mamukelashvili, the Spurs have the chance to match, which normally means the player will re-sign with the team. The only reason this wouldn't be the case for either player would be if another team wanted to pay Mamukelashvili like an All-Star.
At that point, San Antonio could match, but it likely wouldn't want to. In Barlow's case, however, no such thing exists. The 21-year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent and eligible to sign with any team without restriction just one season after declaring he was comfortable.
"I've definitely (had) a lot of growth," Barlow said at the end of his second season with the Spurs. "I've gotten stronger. Ive gotten more comfortable with our system. I think I became a better basketball player. ... That's a big thing for me. ... I work out hard during the season because I want to get better."
In terms of roster, not bringing back Barlow with a qualifying offer meant that San Antonio liked what it saw in Mamukelashvili — a big man who finished with double-digit points in seven of his final nine games of the season — and deemed that only one of him and Barlow could stay.
The Spurs do have interest in bringing Barlow back, but now they'll have to outbid other teams outright for the right to sign him, and that could mean spending a chunk of change. Whether or not they feel that he's worth that kind of money has remained to be seen.
"He's obviously, young and still developing, but doing a great job," Spurs general manager Brian Wright said of Barlow's development. "Offensively, he's made real strides with his touch around the basket and improving his range on the jump shot. We are happy with how he is continuing to grow."
Happy or not, the move was made to not extend a qualifying offer. Barlow is free to leave, meanwhile Mamukelashvili and Duke Jr. are likely to return to San Antonio to learn from Paul alongside Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle.
If he returns, it'd be a welcome surprise for many of San Antonio's faithful. If not, he'd be supported by the fanbase he won over in just two seasons.
Only time will tell which it will be.
Teams can officially sign free agents beginning at 11:01 a.m. July 6. Until then, only negotiations and "in principle" agreements can be made.
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