Stacking Up The Winners And Losers Of NBA Free Agency
The dust has settled in the NBA offseason. Who came out on top — and who came out worse off?
From even before the tip-off of free agency, things in the NBA were a bit wacky. The Clippers traded Chris Paul, the Pacers traded Paul George, the Bulls traded Jimmy Butler and the Hawks even found a taker for Dwight Howard. Once things got into gear on July 1, we were already looking at a changed league.
Now that the dust has settled on NBA free agency, it’s time to assess who came out of the last few weeks on top, and who faltered.
Winner: Oklahoma City Thunder
One year ago Kevin Durant walked, and despite the contract extension last summer and the MVP this summer, the risk of Russell Westbrook following him out the door in 2018 was real enough that OKC needed to do something bold. Such as trade for Paul George.
It was a master stroke by Sam Presti that should vault Oklahoma City into the top half of the West. The Thunder made good moves in the rest of the rotation, too, bringing back Andre Roberson and getting Patrick Patterson on a steal of a deal. The risk here is that George is a free agent next summer with eyes on the Lakers, and Westbrook has not signed an extension past this season (there’s no reason for him to, he doesn’t make more money sooner doing it) — both could walk next summer. Still, it’s a gamble the Thunder had to take, because if those two bond and thrive, if this team wins enough, they both might stay. It’s all a roll of the dice by the Thunder, but a good one.
Loser: New York Knicks
There was a positive: They dumped Phil Jackson before he could ruin the team’s free agent summer. That should make the relationship with face-of-the-franchise Kristaps Porzingis better. However, turns out the Knicks didn’t need Jackson to have a bad summer.
If an owner is going to let go of the guy at the top of basketball operations days before free agency starts, he had better have a quality “Plan B” in place and ready to go. New York eventually talked to David Griffin about coming on board, but he wisely wanted his own people in place and full autonomy over the roster, and the Knicks balked at that so he walked away.
So now, Steve Mills has stepped into the top job, and his one big move was to overpay to get Tim Hardaway Jr. — four years, $71 million for a guy who can shoot, but is not a good shot creator for others and is a minus defensively. In a tight market, they overpaid. The Knicks are adrift and trying to trade Carmelo Anthony, but finding that a challenge (Houston still is there, but the Rockets don’t want to give back much as they want to contend). I feel bad for Knicks fans, it’s hard to see how they get out of this cycle.
Winner: Minnesota Timberwolves
Tom Thibodeau is in a distinctly good mood walking around Las Vegas Summer League — and he should be. With the addition Jimmy Butler at the two, plus adding Jeff Teague, Taj Gibson, and Jamal Crawford, the Timberwolves have gone from “we’re going to be good in a few years” to “we’re going to be a playoff team next season and potentially a contender in a couple of years.” Minnesota still has the borderline All-NBA big man Karl-Anthony Towns, who is still improving, and Andrew Wiggins. They need to start thinking about affording this all when Towns and Wiggins come off their rookie deals, but the Timberwolves are poised to be a force.
Loser: Indiana Pacers
It’s not just that they lost Paul George with only Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis in return — it’s that the rest of Indiana’s signings didn’t go much better. They gave a two-year, $21 million contract to Bojan Bogdanovic, who is 28 years old, and added point guards Cory Joseph and Darren Collison to replace Jeff Teague and the waived Monta Ellis. The Pacers are beginning a rebuilding process, but the problem is, they only really have one sure rebuilding block on hand, big man Myles Turner…
Winner: Boston Celtics
Boston got the big score of the offseason by signing Jazz free agent Gordon Hayward, pairing him with his former college coach, Brad Stevens, and putting the Celtics that much closer to the Cavaliers in the East. The Celtics now have a core of Hayward, Al Horford and Isaiah Thomas, as well as some young players who shined in summer league — No. 3 pick Jayson Tatum, last year’s № 3 pick Jaylen Brown and rookies Semi Ojeleye and Ante Zizic.
They still have, potentially, two top-five picks in next year’s draft, so the Celtics have emerged from this summer with an All-Star caliber core of veterans and a budding group of youngsters behind them.
Loser: Utah Jazz
It pains me to put them here because they did everything right, it just wasn’t enough. They lost Gordon Hayward and will take a step back. Utah is not terrible and has pieces to retool around — Rudy Gobert remains one of the best centers in the game, guys like Alec Burks and Rodney Hood are good, and Ricky Rubio can run the show — but it’s all not the same without Hayward.
Sorry Utah…
Winner: James Harden
It’s entirely possible that the Harden-Chris Paul experiment will flame out completely, and the potential addition of Carmelo Anthony might not help. But if the Rockets are able to make it work, Harden is due for even more MVP-type numbers. At the very least, he got himself a commitment from his team that has thus far been unmatched: a four-year contract extension worth about $170 million that will bump his total salary over the next six years to $230 million, a league record.
Loser: Dan Gilbert
Gilbert can probably thank Dolan for outdoing him on the scale of owners who had offseason disasters, but Gilbert’s missteps this summer could have a long-lasting impact. Gilbert bungled the situation with former general manager David Griffin, then bungled his talks with Chauncey Billups, the potential replacement for Griffin, by making him a low-ball offer.
The Cavs personnel moves were limited to the adding of Jose Calderon and Jeff Green, while re-signing Kyle Korver, so there is not much to celebrate there. Worse, LeBron James can be a free agent next summer, and given this summer’s troubles, would anyone blame him if he wanted to leave?
