The winners and losers of this NBA offseason
Grant Liffmann and Kurt Helin review a chaotic offseason in the NBA, breaking down the teams that improved and those that fell short.
The winners and losers of this NBA offseason originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Video Transcript
Hey, everyone, Grant Lithman here alongside Kurt Helin, and we are here to talk about free agency this off-season, what ended up being an absolutely crazy, insane, probably the most transactions I've ever seen in terms of stars being moved.
Finally, all the rumor mill, it started hitting there, Kurt.
So- Yeah so much happened, and I really wanna start talking about who are some teams that got better, teams that probably have a lot more questions than answers.
Then also, maybe some, let's give some love to a team that perhaps maybe isn't getting much love for their off-season, but actually improved, as well.
And let's just get this out of the way, and I'm just gonna start off, Kurt.
Let, let, let's, let's I think you and I are on the same page here.
If we're talking about a team this off-season that got objectively better, I mean, duh, it's the Philadelphia 76ers.
Yeah.
Let's, let's just I'm just gonna set the stage here for a second.
We have Jaylen Brown replacing Paul George.
We have LeBron James replacing Kelly Oubre.
On a smaller note, you have Dean Wade replacing someone like Quentin Grimes.
They added Anfernee Simons.
They have Huck Portey brought in.
They drafted LeBaron Philon at 22, which I think is a great steal.
And you add all that plus just their front office, and I think this had a lot to do with their off-season, got upgraded.
You know, you have Bob Myers and Mike Gansey there now, too.
So all in all- I, I just, it's hard to say anyone but the Sixers.
What, what are your thoughts?
Well, exactly.
If they are the, the I, I don't wanna say the low-hanging fruit.
They're just the obvious choice.
And Mike Gansey might have won himself Executive of the Year in July, right?
Like, to get Jaylen Brown, but not just get a guy who was sixth in MVP voting last year, you're getting off one of the ugliest contracts in the NBA in Paul George.
And yes, you're gonna have to pay Jaylen Brown, but And Paul George is still a, when he's healthy, he's still a good player.
Like, he is still brings some value, but not nearly what Jaylen Brown did.
And you add that with L- like you said, LeBron on a minimum kind of being the glue now who can bring a lot of this stuff together.
They can use him to initiate the offense and have Maxi off the ball a little more.
Like, this whole thing just clicks on paper.
It, it really looks good.
It was a great off-season.
Yeah.
The on paper's a key part because another people, a lot of critics, and, and understandably so, they're being reasonable when they bring up on paper also the usage rates of all these guys.
Yeah.
So they're gonna have to figure it out.
It's not gonna be seamless.
And I, you know, I liken it to when the Warriors brought in Kevin Durant.
People- Yeah just expected it be, to be this immediate hit.
And also, let's talk about the Miami Heat Big Three, so many.
And their records end up being great, but it's a little choppy at first because there's a lot to figure out, a lot of new dynamics.
You have a lot of alpha players out there at the same time.
So it's gonna, it could be a little clunky at first.
And of course the, the critics are gonna be like, "I told you so," but I, I think you gotta preach patience here, especially with a team that's older and might have some injuries.
We don't know what's happening with Embiid.
He says he's healthy right now.
So there, it, it's gonna be one of those experiments, Kurt, that we may really only can fully grade how they're doing by, by All-Star break sometimes, or maybe a little before that, December, January.
And then also playoffs, right?
This says new expectations.
Yeah.
This is championship contender expectations now.
Exactly, and which is why the regular season might be a little rough also, just because you're gonna keep Le- LeBron, but especially Joel Embiid and his knees fresh, right?
You're gonna play him 40 games, 42 games, 45 games?
Like, you're not gonna stress him at all, and you've gotta, gotta give them time to figure it out together.
And I thought the Miami Heat was a perfect example because it took a while for Dean Wade to re- Dean Wade, sorry.
Now we're back in, in, in, in Ph- Philadelphia.
It took Dwyane Wade a while to figure out what he had to sacrifice.
Nobody sacrificed like Chris Bosh on that team.
Everybody had to make changes to adjust to what they were gonna be, and they eventually did, and, you know, got the ring for it.
Yep, absolutely.
Okay.
Let's, I think we can agree that that was the team- Yeah that got objectively better, on this one, Kurt, unless you had another wild card in there that you- I will, I will throw another team in there that I like.
I thought the Toronto Raptors had a spectacular off-season, with the caveat that the Kawhi Leonard trade goes through, which I, everybody around the league I think ex- and I, if you heard differently, everybody expects it to.
It's just kind of a when that's going to happen thing now.
But I think Kawhi is kind of a perfect fit next to Scottie Barnes in terms of not forcing Scottie to do a lot more shot creation.
You can take some of that away.
And defensively, they've got Jamal Shed.
They've got Colin Murray Boyles, and those guys are off the bench.
That's not counting Kawhi Leonard and Barnes on the wings.
There's health questions.
There's Jakob Poeltl questions.
But I really like Toronto, the way they're built.
And by the way, they might be the most fun team to watch in the league this year.
Which is funny because just last year I could see a lot of people were kind of like, "Ugh, I'm tired of watching the same old Toronto Raptors."
You know, you had guys come, you know, little, "Your ball, my ball," et cetera.
But- Yeah Kawhi Leonard on that squad, I agree with you.
If, if But, you know, it's such a question mark.
Is it happening or not?
And that's, and, and I agree with you.
People do expect it to happen, but we will see.
All right.
Let's talk about teams with more questions than answers right now.
Kurt, you go first on this one.
I'm gonna talk about the New Orleans Pelicans, and I'm gonna sound a lot like, the Jeremy Culhane from Saturday Night Live doing his, Tucker Carlson impression.
Like, what are we doing?
What's going on here?
Like, you won 26 games last year with a team that didn't tank.
Or they didn't have their pick.
They didn't try to tank.
They won 26 games and were largely healthy, and you run it back with, look, I like Jamal Mosley as a coach.
He was a floor raiser in Orlando, but- You didn't get a-- Whether you trade Trey Murphy or Herb Jones or explore the market for Zion Williamson, which probably isn't great, you've got to do something.
You're just running it back with a 26-win team makes no sense to me.
Yeah, I mean, they obviously think they have talent there.
Maybe they thought, maybe not Trey Murphy, but maybe they thought they have the chance to maybe make their assets a little better.
Maybe if they play better, you know, get a healthy part of season for DeJounte Murray.
I, I, I'm with you.
I don't fully understand the plan, but apparently their plan is to see what they got with Jamal Mosley as coach.
So I guess we'll find out what their plan is.
So a lot of questions right there.
I agree with Kurt.
I, for me, it's Cleveland.
You know- Yeah we saw them again.
They had a nice moment getting in the playoffs.
They win their series, and everyone goes, "Okay, here we go," you know?
This is a new Donovan Mitchell, you know, you know, the guy who's gone further than he had done in the past.
And then they stall out, and we saw the same Cleveland, and no one fully believes in them to be an actual contender despite a lot of talent.
They're bringing back the same core.
They miss out on LeBron.
They probably thought they were gonna get him.
They didn't.
They ge- they signed Mario Hezonja, but okay.
But they lose Dean Wade, who was their best perimeter defender.
You put him with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, that was a formidable defense.
Without him, I think people are kind of sleeping on how much he meant to that defense, especially his on/off numbers.
Keon Ellis didn't play much for them, but I thought he might have, sh- should have.
He's gone.
But the point is that they didn't improve the roster.
They kind of just are running it back again, and at some point just gotta go when is, when or, when is it answers and not questions, you know?
When do we say, like, "We kind of know what we got here," versus just always wondering, what's next for this team?
Kurt- Yeah do you have any thoughts on that?
No, it's exactly, it's-- Isn't this what every personal trainer always says?
If you're not getting better, you're getting worse, right?
Like they stayed the same.
They were just flat.
And I don't, I think they're a little bit worse than they were.
Like the Dean Wade thing does hurt a little bit.
And I mean, unless Evan Mobley makes that leap we all keep waiting for him to make that I'm not sure is coming, I, on offense, I, I just don't see what this team does that's different or how they go forward from where they were.
Yeah, yeah.
All right, let's go to, let's get away from those question marks.
Let's go to a team that didn't maybe get enough praise, and, and I want to give, some love to the Phoenix Suns here.
And this may shock some people because the biggest move they technically made was the trade, that they did with Miles Bridges.
And to be clear, I actually don't necessarily love that trade.
I'm like, you know, I'm so-so.
I want to see how it plays out.
I'm not gonna give, you know, great thumbs up or grades to that.
So you're like, "Well then what are you praising about?"
Because I actually thought they crushed it on free agency and their signings and extensions.
The numbers they got across the board are, are so incredibly reasonable for a team that just, just either kept their depth or added depth.
Colin Gillespie at 4 for 48 is an absolute steal.
I, I'm- Yeah I'm obsessed with him.
His, his play, what he brings to a team, 4 for 48 is great.
Mark Williams at 3 for 38 is another great deal for a young center, as we just saw the center market was crazy.
Yes.
Jordan Goodwin was a really impressive factor, X factor for this team.
3 for 19 for him.
How about Luke Kennard 2 for 12?
You're talking about the best shooter, you know, spot-up shooter in the NBA right now.
And then- That may have been the best deal of the summer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then you even, you know, as I know this is under the, under the radar, but it's even like Pat Spencer.
It- you know, they just bring him in, just kind of slide him in, and he brings more culture and toughness.
And I, I just, I thought they crushed it with all those moves.
They, they're -- You, to have -- For a team like the Suns who are strapped for assets, don't have this, don't have that, money's an issue, you have to win the margins.
You have to win the margins and do the small things that helps you boost a little bit further.
And I just, I love all those moves.
I, I, I truly think they deserve a ton of praise for that.
Again, I am, I'm -- Jury's out on the Miles Bridges one.
I'm not sure about that.
But those, I want to give some love to.
Yeah, jury's not out for me on that.
I hate the Miles Bridges trade.
Like it's an unprotected first.
Like that was just way too much to give up for a, like a good four and, and a position of need for them.
But like I just thought they overpaid, especially we'll see what the extension looks like when that comes through.
But like I'm, I'm not sold on that.
But I do agree with you that outside of that trade, I thought they were fantastic.
I thought they had a really good summer.
The team I thought had a really excellent summer kind of under the radar was the Atlanta Hawks.
They added Lou Dort, which, I mean, they're defense now.
They're gonna start Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Walker-Alexander, and then have Lou Dort come in off the bench behind them, or they can try to play those three together in certain situations.
It's gonna be crazy.
They picked up Aaron Wiggins and Devin Carter for basically nothing.
Like just they got them pretty cheaply.
And CJ McCollum on a one-year deal is a good signing even -- I mean, yeah, it's a fair amount of money, but like it's a one-year deal for a guy who played well for you in the postseason last year.
I just, I really like the direction that team is headed and kind of where they've got -- what they did this summer to kind of bolster everything around Johnson.
Yeah.
And then don't forget Kingston Flemings and the draft that they had.
Oh, yeah.
Like Ejiro Four and, HS.
I, I really like the moves they made.
I, I'm a huge Aaron Wiggins fan, so that for me was like, when I saw that, I was like, "Oh, nice move."
but I agree.
I think the Hawks are just slowly chipping away, getting a little better, a little better.
So I, I agree with you there.
But, you know, there's a lot of question marks at some point.
You know, there's teams like the Lakers, we'll just have to see how it plays out their off season.
There's so many questions.
I know a lot of people are like, "You didn't say Golden State for question marks?"
And at some point it's like- no, we know the answer.
We don't have any question marks there.
We know the answer.
They may get much better.
So, so much, we'll have to break down as the season goes along.
But, that's Kurt.
I'm Grant.
Thanks for joining.
