The offseason business for NBA teams is winding down with most of them simply filling their training camp rosters and handing out two-way contracts at this point of the summer.
With that in mind, NBA.com’s David Aldridge revealed his annual offseason rankings on Monday. The rankings solely reflect how successful teams were in improving their rosters and/or cap situation this summer. Aldridge’s top three included the Thunder, Lakers and Nuggets, who all achieved their major goals via free agency and trades.
On the opposite spectrum, Aldridge viewed the Hornets, Cavaliers and Heat as having the worst offseasons, with Miami holding the ignominious bottom spot. The Hornets got a low rating despite moving Dwight Howard‘s contract as they eventually wound up with Bismack Biyombo and his bloated contract on the roster. Kemba Walker‘s future beyond next season also remains unresolved.
Cleveland’s low ranking is for the most obvious reason, losing LeBron James, though extending Kevin Love‘s contract to coincide with rookie point guard Collin Sexton‘s rookie deal was viewed by Aldridge as a positive.
The Heat received the bottom ranking mainly due to being hamstrung. They’re capped out and couldn’t improve through the draft. They haven’t been able to move a bad contract and have precious few players with upside, which means the team certainly hasn’t improved its stock since the end of the season.
It could be argued that losing a major player, such as Cleveland or the Clippers (DeAndre Jordan), or trading away your best player under pressure (Spurs), should put those teams below the Heat in the offseason rankings. It could also be argued that paying a heavy price to retain players, like the Bulls (Zach LaVine) and Magic (Aaron Gordon) did, is more detrimental than standing pat by necessity.
That leads us to our question of the day: Did the Heat have the worst offseason this summer, as Aldridge ranked them? If not, which team do you feel had the worst summer?
Please weigh in on this topic in our comments section. We look forward to your input.
I thought Charlotte had a really good offseason. Addressed the backup PG(Parker and Graham), added a future, if not immediate, starter in Bridges, added talent through the draft (Bridges, Graham, Kulboka), and got rid of a locker room cancer in Dwight.
I agree, especially since Charlotte added a lot of second round picks, while addressing all those above. Granted second rounders aren’t very valuable it still is a plus.
Any word on Melo? I haven’t heard anything since he cleared wavers
Going to Houston, not officially signed though.
He’s been in Africa with the NBA players touring.
GSW’s offseason doesn’t count since they’re playing a completely different game than the rest of the league.
But even with that, I think OKC had the best offseason. First, they shocked the world by getting Paul George to stay. Then, adding Schroeder and Noel, while actually finding a taker for Carmelo Anthony made them a lot better.
With Roberson back in the fold, I think you can really make a case for the Thunder as the second best team in the West.
I always laugh at narratives brought on by media that have no understanding of basketball, nor any idea of who certain players are beyond the perception that is being pushed by the collective
Worst offseasons are Cavs, OKC, Portland, Minnesota, Atlanta (trae young), San Antonio for me
Heat went cold for sure. Spurs wounded from self inflicted wounds.
Portland. I doubt they will see better from their middle with Davis gone, Collins still young and Nurkic with a new contract, and unheralded forwards.
CHA went nowhere and must be tired of each other by now. Pat Riley should vacate. Some of the weaker-looking teams (ATL 6r1s in 2 yrs) look better with future assets gained. But Losing James is the worst.
I can’t really accept the idea that the Heat had the worst offseason. You could argue that previous offseasons put them in the position to where this offseason was bad, but they didn’t do anything. Sometimes that is bad, but I think doing nothing is not nearly as bad as making poor decisions. So let’s look at some other candidates.
Lakers – Getting LeBron is good on the surface, but he has 15 seasons on his legs. That’s about the same number as when Kobe fell off. I really think his contract will be a huge albatross for the Lakers in a year or two. Plus their other additions were tepid at best.
Spurs – I actually like what they did. DeRozan can keep them relevant and I have learned to never count out Popovich. They will find players from Moldova or Bosnia or Mozambique that will come in and help them.
Hornets – Picking up Biyombo was puzzling definitely, but he was good there not long ago. Maybe coming home and getting the expensive free agent pressure off his mind could do him some good. Even though he is still expensive, he was traded for instead of signing his deal here. Less pressure.
Cavs – I like what they did as well. Kevin Love has been viewed as LeBron’s second banana, but it wasn’t that long ago that he led some really bad Minnesota teams to a .500 record. This Cleveland team is not really bad. I look for the Cavs to be very close to their 50 wins last year.
Clippers – Not a fan. Trading Griffin for the package they got would have been fine for a team trying to reload instead of rebuild. However, losing Jordan is a move of a rebuilding team, not a reloading team. On top of that, after losing their two big men, in the draft with their 2 lottery picks they choose guards. They may end up great players, but it seems one should have been a frontcourt guy.
Portland – Losing Ed Davis is going to be a much bigger factor than a lot of people realize. Signing Nurkic to his deal is probably going to end up a mistake as well. I think Portland’s biggest mistake was not breaking up their backcourt. Keep Lillard and get him extended, he is the better player. But McCollum should have been moved for a star big man.
I’m gonna say Portland was worst. Followed by the Clippers, Hornets, Heat, Lakers. That doesn’t mean I think they will be the 5 worst teams this year or even that I don’t think some or all make the playoffs even. But I didn’t care for their moves.
You’re high if you think the Lakers has a bad off season. They got the best player in the league. In his 15th season he had his best season of his career and played every single game. Doesn’t matter how it plays out years from now we are talking about this off season and people are acting like getting the best player isn’t a big deal. It’s huge! And the Lakers kept their young core who improved from the year before and actally won some games last year against some good teams and were close against good teams even if they did lose so you are another year to those guys, LeBron and some other young guys they drafted and they aren’t s bad team at all. The guys they added in Fa are just for depth but Rondo actually will help a lot I think.
Not high, I just disagree with you.
And it does matter how it plays out years from now, if those years were added this offseason. If you just look at how it affects teams during this offseason, then no one is a winner or a loser because there are no games during the offseason.
The Lakers may have kept their young core, but they hired older players that will ensure that young core is on the bench quite a bit. LeBron doesn’t play well with younger players and it won’t be long before he is demanding they trade Ingram/Kuzma/Ball for some older players.
Hahahahahahaha
No doubt Lakers had the best offseason, with OKC & Denver right up there. For the worst, I see the point of Cleveland for loosing LBJ but the rest is good.
I agree with Miami is just plain bad as they have the biggest collection of bad contracts in the league, all for mediocre players, so Riley has damaged them a lot, they just have to wait & lose a year at least & see next year. Also Charlotte, very disappointed with them, they let go their best player of the last year & they get instead the biggest bum in the league (at least Mozgov can play), for an extra year & not much cheaper, also Parker is way finished as a contributor, he can help as a mentor, but realistically Charlotte isn’t a young team, apart of Monk, Bridges & Willy, & surely Kemba could do that role, also they haven’t managed to get rid of any bad contract, DH12 was probably their best contract as it was expiring, real bad. Only thing that could redeem them to me would be if they put Monk, Bridges & Willy as a starters with Kemba & then one of their bad players, at least they would be looking ahead, but really disappointing.
Warriors had the best off-season (How many teams in the history of the NBA had 5 legitimate all star starters?) And the Lakers had the worst. They gave an old man over a hundred million dollars, and brought in veteran versions of all their young up and comers. They took a huge step backwards for name value.
Yooo pass me whatever you’re smoking
Don’t sleep on Houston. Rockets will take a major step back when they sign Anthony.
Shouldn’t that be “don’t wake on Houston”?