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South Dakota State University

The Effect of NBA Free Agency on Player Utility

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>Observably, free agents in the National Basketball Association often make misguided decisions during the free agency period. These decisions may have a direct effect on a player’s performance and salary, affecting their overall utility. Research exists confirming that moving through free agency leads to an effect on player performance, but no study has explored the effect of changing teams through free agency on a player’s salary. As a significant number of players enter this market every year, research on this area is crucially important. The null hypothesis for performance is: H0: moving to a different team through free agency leads to a decrease in player performance. The hypothesis for a player’s salary is that moving to a different team through free agency will lead to an increase in the magnitude on a player’s contract. Ordinary Least Squares regressions were used to test these hypotheses for two datasets. The main findings of this study are that players who re-sign with the team they played for in the previous year (in free agency) will earn an estimated $494,723.60 more on average over the next two years of their contract while performing slightly worse (an average decrease in performance of 4.36%). With an awareness of the potential drop in performance, players who choose in free agency to re-sign could increase their utility by earning a larger salary.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science (MS)
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis - Open Access
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Economics
Year dc:date.available
2016

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Erikson, Austin
Contributors dc:contributor
  • George Langelett

Subjects

dc:subject × 9

Rights

dc:rights
Language dc:language
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/1035
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:openprairie.sdstate.edu:etd-2035

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
South Dakota State University
Base URL
openprairie.sdstate.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Erikson, Austin. The Effect of NBA Free Agency on Player Utility. Thesis - Open Access thesis, 2016. https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/1035