Typically, I do an annual piece profiling my picks for the 10 best players available in NBA Free Agency. I'd planned to do that again on the Friday (June 28th) after the Draft wrapped up, but after OG Anunoby and Nic Claxton signed their new deals ahead of the start of the Draft on that Wednesday, I basically panicked and expected that all of the heavy hitters were going to be off the market within the following 24 hours. That ended up not being the case, but by the time I realized that it was too late to move forward with the piece.
Now, we arrive at my solution to this self-imposed misstep: Offering some analysis on the biggest moves of free agency and where certain teams stand now that most of the action has come to an end. I hope you enjoy this loosely structured piece and sincerely apologize for the boneheaded screwup that I made a couple weeks back.
-High trade price point aside, Mikal Bridges is a perfect fit on the Knicks. Adding an elite 3-and-D wing to one of the best defensive teams in the NBA is almost unfair and his rapport with Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo is obviously elite since they all played together at Villanova. Playing under Thibs is definitely going to fuck up his absurd consecutive games played streak, but that won't be a big deal unless it gets broken due to a major injury.
-The Sixers pushing all their chips on Paul George is just hilarious. Yes, George represents a huge upgrade over Tobias Harris at the 3 on both ends of the floor and is coming off his best season in ages with the Clippers. But the reality is that George just turned 34 in May, is one of the most injury-prone players in the league and hasn't even come close to sniffing a title in the NBA. How is a player like this going to change the Joel Embiid-era Sixers track record of underachieving and/or having their playoff runs derailed by injuries? Quite simply, it won't. If anybody is going to change the Sixers culture, it's going to be the young gun Tyrese Maxey, not George.
-A lot of people that know much more basketball about me are lamenting Demar DeRozan going to the Kings. The common theme among these critiques is questioning how he fits next to De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Malik Monk and Keegan Murray. While I have no clue how he'll fit with their established core, bringing in DeRozan should still be a net positive for this team that is trying to establish itself in a deep Western Conference. He plays his ass off every night, scores at a high clip with remarkable efficiency and is one of the best locker room guys in the league. How could having him around for the next few years be a bad thing for a mostly young team that hasn't quite figured out to put it all together yet?
-The Thunder's two big moves this offseason sit at complete opposite ends of the spectrum for me. On the positive end, landing Alex Caruso is huge for them. He's one of the best defenders at the guard position in the league and his ability to hit 3's at a high clip should bolster the effectiveness of an offense that regularly struggled to make outside shots last season. Only having to part with Josh Giddey to make the deal happen makes it even sweeter (I could write a whole lot about what the Bulls have been doing this offseason, but that's probably not necessary given their current status in the league).
On the other end, lies the signing of Isaiah Hartenstein. The journeyman center was a nice story for the Knicks last season given how he admirably filled-in as a starter following the injuries to Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson and his status as a physical 7-footer who can rebound and has a soft touch around the rim should provide the Thunder with something they haven't had since they traded Steven Adams to the Pelicans following the 2019-20 season, but were his contributions to the Knicks valuable enough to make him worth a 3 year/$87 mil deal? He was basically just a 10th or 11th man before 2023-24 and he wasn't good enough this past season to quell the fears that he could regress back to being that level of player in the future. This deal kind of reminds of when Evan Turner got a huge deal from the Blazers after he served as a solid role player for the Celtics for a couple of seasons and pretty much immediately fizzled out when he was thrust into a heightened role. While there's clearly enough ascending young talent on the Thunder for him to not be asked to be a top-tier contributor, he's still going to be high enough in the rotation to be playing big minutes every night and I'm just not convinced he's cut out to do that in the long-term.
-Given all their asset mismanagement in recent years, the Warriors being able to land Kyle Anderson and Buddy Hield is a noble effort to make the most out of a bad situation. Anderson brings some grit, toughness and leadership to the floor every night while Hield is a productive enough outside shooter to allow them to retain the floor spacing they're losing with Klay Thompson leaving. These moves might not make them contenders again per say, but their presence might help emerge.
-Klay Thompson heading to the Mavericks really is ideal. Playing next to Luka and Kyrie ensures that all he'll be asked to do is hit a few spot-up 3's per game and his deteriorating defensive effort will fit right in alongside the aforementioned stars in the backcourt.
-Congrats to Tobias Harris for finally fulfilling his dream of getting to pad stats on one of the worst teams in the league. He might even become a fan favorite during his second stint in Detroit considering how dire the shooting is on the Pistons roster!
-What is currently happening to Brandon Ingram is a perfect early example of how this new CBA is going to make teams more gun shy than ever. Under a climate with more cap flexibility and/or less strict financial penalties for hitting luxury tax thresholds, Ingram would've been dealt out of New Orleans weeks ago. Wings that are right in the middle of their primes (he turns 27 in September) who can score in a variety of ways, shoot almost 50% from the floor and facilitate when called upon are among the most valuable players an NBA team can have. The problem is that Ingram is entering the last year of his current contract and is eligible for a 200+ mil max deal, which dampens his appeal considerably especially since he has minimal playoff experience and is coming off a dud of a series against the Thunder (to be fair, he was dealing with a bone bruise on his knee at the time). The only two possible outcomes at this point appear to be that he remains with the Pelicans for the final year of his deal or agrees to take less than max money and/or a shorter-term deal to help facilitate a trade to a wing-needy team like the Magic, Blazers or Cavaliers. This is probably the most interesting storyline to watch for the remainder of the offseason and I'm very curious to see how it concludes.
-Kentavious Caldwell-Pope going to the Magic has to be my favorite move of the offseason. This is exactly the kind of player Orlando needed to take their next step forward. KCP immediately gives them a real outside shooting threat and pairing him with Jalen Suggs basically guarantees that they're going to have the most tenacious defensive backcourt in the league outside of the Celtics. If KCP stays healthy and their young guys (Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Suggs) take another step forward, the Magic should be competing to finish in the top 3 in the East.
-Speaking of KCP, the Nuggets allowing him and Bruce Brown to walk in back-to-back seasons is very bold. While they clearly have confidence in Christian Braun and Peyton Watson's ability to handle the increase in workload, these guys have logged a combined 16 career starts and have only played 18-21 minutes per night during their first two seasons in the league. And even if they do acclimate well to their increased roles, that doesn't change the Nuggets depth issues once you get past the 6th man role (which would presumably be filled by Watson if they make no further signings). If the Nuggets fall short of the Finals again this year with a fully loaded roster, don't be surprised if turning the keys over to Braun and Watson is a big reason why.
-Pat Riley's insistence on standing pat is fucking nuts to me. Everybody knows that the Heat are a tough, well-coached team and that Jimmy Butler turns it on in the playoffs in a way that very few guys in the league today can. But at what point is running it back with the trio of Butler/Adebayo/Herro and saying that your issues are related to health, not talent going to be unacceptable. This scrappy little engine that could has indeed reached the Finals twice during this decade so far, but they got dusted in both those series and have refused to match everybody from the Celtics to the Bucks to the f'n Pacers in the ongoing Eastern Conference arms race following either of those losses. Swapping out Caleb Martin for Alec Burks, getting Terry Rozier back from injury and re-signing Haywood Highsmith and Kevin Love isn't going to bring this team any closer to winning another title this season and it's kind of embarrassing that they refuse to seriously pursue bringing in additional top-end talent while their leader Butler-who turns 35 in September- inches closer to no longer being a viable star player by the day.
-Tossing aside the drama of the J.J. Redick hiring and drafting of Bronny James for a second, the Lakers more or less running it back after their ugly finish to the 2023-24 season makes zero sense. The entirety of Rob Pelinka's offseason plan was to re-sign Max Christie and sort of try to make a run at Klay Thompson? Seriously? There were no other discussions about adding other players before LeBron re-signed to a max deal? Are they aware that D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves don't appear to have much trade value? Are they even considering making any additional moves? It really is shocking to see just how dysfunctional and dumb this team has become and they're going to be trying to undo the wrongs of this era for a long, long time after LeBron retires.
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