Paywalls are all the rage right now – and for good reason, as paying for quality work makes sense – but what ESPN has on Insider today shouldn’t even be given away for free, much less appear under those four decreasingly important letters. Here’s Jeremias Engelmann with the single worst take of the offseason, calling the J.J. Redick signing one of the five worst deals of the offseason (from CBS Philly):

“While his deal is for only one season, it seems the 76ers were bidding against themselves and probably could have signed him to two years at the same price,” Engelmann wrote.

Good God this makes my head hurt.

The Sixers had GOBS of cap space to use this season. In fact, even after signing Redick they’re still $6 million short of the league minimum, which is around $89 million. So they essentially have to spend money anyway (lest they yet again take on cap dumps through trade without having to pay anyone). The whole point behind a one-year deal was to assure themselves maximum flexibility next offseason, when they’ll have a better gauge of what they have with this young core of players, so they can go out and spend on a very strong free agent class, which will most likely include LeBron James. But they wanted Redick, badly, and they were willing to pay a little extra for him. He will make the team better this year, and there will be nothing preventing them from re-signing him should they decide it makes sense.

The fact that Engelmann’s simplistic take of just looking at the name and salary is behind a paywall is maddening. ESPN let go of talented writers for this?