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As we enter the second week of NBA free agency, the potentially league-shifting levers on the market — chiefly LeBron James , followed by Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh , among others — are still taking meetings and considering their options. While we wait for the major dominoes to fall, we've seen a number of players and teams reach agreement on new deals — Kyrie Irving's max deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Marcin Gortat's $60 million pact with the Washington Wizards; Dirk Nowitzki's major hometown discount to stick with the Dallas Mavericks and Kyle Lowry's sounds-about-right $48 million ; and a slew of comparatively smaller deals hammered out . Let's work our way through some more agreements reached over the past few days — "reached," but not completed, as no deal can become official until after the July 10 end of the league's annual moratorium on trades and signings — starting in San Antonio. *** • In news that will shock precisely nobody, Boris Diaw has decided to stay put with the defending champion San Antonio Spurs. At literally the same minute that Diaw was announcing his decision via Instagram: ("Hey spurs fans, Good news i stay in san antonio for a few more years," Diaw wrote . "Lets win it again #gospursgo") ... Yahoo Sports NBA columnist Adrian Wojnarowski was reporting the details of the 32-year-old Frenchman's new deal, which could be worth as much as $22.5 million over the next three seasons. (Diaw will get $15.5 million guaranteed over the first two seasons, but the third is only partially guaranteed, according to Woj .) It's not yet clear (beyond the partial guarantee, at least) how R.C. Buford and company will structure the payouts in each of the three years, but the $7.75 million average annual value of the first two years come in below the $8.93 million cap hold Diaw had entering free agency. With the existing deals for the 10 Spurs already on the roster, new deals for Diaw and Patty Mills , the expected addition of first-round pick Kyle Anderson, the Spurs look to have about $66.5 million committed to 13 players for next season. That would slot them in over the projected 2014-15 salary cap of $63.2 million, but below the projected $77 million luxury-tax line, which would grant the Spurs full access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, enabling San Antonio to sign a free agent to a contract with a starting salary of up to $5.305 million for the '14-'15 season. The Spurs reportedly have their eyes on Los Angeles Lakers free agent big man Pau Gasol for that MLE slot. That would be just about perfect, considering the Spurs' eternal commitment to heady and versatile international players who can pass. It could also spell the end of the line in San Antonio for one of the team's two remaining free agents, sharpshooting Matt Bonner and bruising Aron Baynes, since a Gasol addition would leave the Spurs with just one remaining roster slot before hitting the 15-player max. (Other potential Spurs MLE targets, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News , include Utah Jazz forward Marvin Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder wing Caron Butler and Lakers guard Kent Bazemore.) While it remains to be seen how San Antonio elects to round out this year's roster, the decision to bring back Diaw represents something of a no-brainer for a Spurs team that, in the words of head coach Gregg Popovich, is still learning how best to deploy the big man's gifts. I'd be lying if I said I saw this coming 2 1/2 years ago, when the then-Charlotte Bobcats waived an overweight and underwhelming Diaw after he fell out of favor with head coach Paul Silas during Charlotte's dismal descent to the worst winning percentage in NBA history . Upon joining the Spurs and longtime pal Tony Parker, though, Diaw soon began to flourish, thriving in the Spurs' free-flowing, ball-moving, space-creating offense. After years of lethargy, Diaw seemed motivated, energized by playing a fun brand of ball, taking to the San Antonio system like a duck to water as a reserve for the balance of the 2011-12 season before moving into the starting lineup for all 14 games of the Spurs' trip to the Western Conference finals, where they were eventually upended by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Diaw's revitalized play carried through his first two full seasons in Texas, which saw him transform into an effective fill-in-the-blanks super-sub, averaging 7.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and one combined steal/block in nearly 24 minutes per game , shooting just under 53 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line. His two-way versatility enabled Popovich to answer a variety of opponents' lineup decisions, and pose quite a few tough-to-answer questions of his own; as he had years ago during his breakout 2005-06 campaign with the Phoenix Suns, Diaw proved capable of spreading the floor, beating plodding defenders off the bounce, punishing smaller ones in the post, holding his own defensively against burlier fours and moving his feet well enough to chase opposing floor-spacers out on the perimeter. His capacity to allow the Spurs to play, as former Miami Heat reserve Mike Miller once said, "big and small at the same time" proved vital during the final two games of San Antonio's Western Conference finals win over the Thunder, in which he averaged 19.5 points in 32.2 minutes per game. He helped stymy an Oklahoma City defense bolstered by the mid-series return of injured shot-blocker Serge Ibaka and coming up huge in Game 6 to send San Antonio to its second-straight title-round matchup with the Heat. Diaw was even more instrumental in exacting revenge on Miami. He led the Finals in assists, finished second in total rebounds behind Tim Duncan, and had a 29-to-8 assist-to-turnover ratio. Despite shooting just 36.4 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3-point range in the five games, Diaw turned in the second-best plus-minus of the series behind only Manu Ginobili; San Antonio outscored Miami by 74 points in Boris' 176 minutes of floor-time. " Implementing Diaw into the lineup has given them another point guard on the floor," the Heat's James said after San Antonio's dominant Game 4 win in Miami. "So Manu, Tony, and Diaw and Patty Mills on the floor at once, they've got four point guards basically on the floor at once. So all of them are live and they all can make plays. So it's a challenge for us all." It's a challenge that Miami couldn't answer, and it's a challenge that Pop and company must be thrilled to be able to continue posing opponents as the Spurs bring back last year's title team and try to pull off something they've never done in the Pop-Duncan/five-titles-in-16-seasons era: win back-to-back championships. Plus, with that partially guaranteed third year, the new deal for Diaw maintains future flexibility for a Spurs squad that only has Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, Brazilian big man Tiago Splitter, reserve guard Corey Joseph and (pending their post-July 10 signings) Diaw, Mills and Anderson on the books beyond next season , when the Spurs might — might — actually begin that long-awaited post-Duncan-and-Manu era. (No rush, obviously, guys.) Considering the price tag, the short-term fit and the lack of long-term risk, there's an awful lot to like about one of the summer's least surprising signings. ***
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