Philadelphia 76ers: Mike Scott is the bargain of free agency

After finally re-upping Tobias Harris, the Philadelphia 76ers got the absolute bargain of free agency by signing Mike Scott to a two-year, $9.8 million deal.

Great news Philadelphia 76ers fans: Mike Scott is back.

Now, this is obviously great news, as Scott was easily the Sixers best bench player last season down the stretch, but the best part may actually be the contract he opted to sign: two-years, $9.8 million.

Wow.

Now that’s obviously a lot of money, but when you compare it to other similar deals signed on the first day of free agency, it’s hard not to imagine Scott outplaying this number and quickly becoming the biggest value signing of the 2019 free agency period.

Need proof? Look no further than Scott’s stat line last season.

In 27 regular seasons of action, Scott averaged 7.8 points and 3.1 rebounds a game while knocking down a team-high 41.2 percent of his 4.4 3 point attempts a game.

That’s a higher clip than his former teammate J.J. Redick, his now once and future teammate Tobias Harris, and even Landry Shamet – the player Philly traded to bring him to town.

While losing Redick and potentially Butler is obviously a pretty big blow for the Sixers, retaining a player like Scott who can provide similar value at a fraction of the cost is a deal that should be lauded, even if free agency as a whole has kind of been a wash for Philly.

In 27 regular season games for the Sixers, Scott made 49 3 pointers. If you extrapolate that number out over a full 82 game regular season, Scott would conceivably make 148.8 3 pointers; 87 more than Butler made last season. While a full season of Scott won’t completely replace Redick’s 240 made 3s from the 2018-19 season, his return in an expanded role will certainly help to fill the void.

With the Mid-level exception still in play and Butler’s future still up in the air, retaining two super-sized combo forwards in Mike Scott and Tobias Harris has to be considered a win for the Philadelphia 76ers and their unique brand of switch-happy big basketball.