Josh Hart
Restricted free agency is tricky for players to navigate. Teams are hesitant to sometimes sign restricted free agents to offer sheets, as the original team has the opportunity to match that offer. Also, it could tie things up as they are pursuing other free agents.
That would seem to be the case with Josh Hart this offseason. Hart has yet to receive an offer sheet from anyone and remains a free agent. He likely could have been signed away from the New Orleans Pelicans with a big offer sheet, but it never came.
At this point, a sign-and-trade might be the best option for a contending team to snag him away from the Pelicans. New Orleans has already executed multiple sign-and-trades this offseason, so it wouldn’t be anything new for them.
Hart is the exact kind of player that a contending team would love to have. He is a versatile defender, capable of matching up with at least three, sometimes four, positions in a single game. His rebounding is elite for a 6’5” wing, as he averaged 8.0 per game this past season.
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The Villanova product is a 34.8 percent 3-point shooter in his career. If he could push that closer to 37 percent over time, he would be a legitimate 3-and-D player. Even without the knockdown shooting, his defense and energy are something that could be the missing piece for contending teams.
