A handful of notable players – including Lauri Markkanen and Paul Millsap – remain available on the free agent market, and it’s possible we’ll still get action in the coming weeks on a trade involving a star like Ben Simmons or Damian Lillard. But for the time being, it looks like most NBA teams are finished with their major offseason roster moves.
With that in mind, David Aldridge of The Athletic ran through all 30 teams this week, ranking which clubs had the best and worst offseasons. As Aldridge explains within his piece(s), his list isn’t about which teams have the best roster heading into the 2021/22 season, but rather which teams made the summer moves he liked the most.
Even with that caveat in place, Aldridge’s top pick is still a bit of a surprise. The veteran reporter lists the Rockets as having the NBA’s No. 1 offseason, despite the fact that the team was fairly quiet on the trade market and made just one significant free agent addition (Daniel Theis). Houston’s offseason was primarily about adding four players draft in the top 24: Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Usman Garuba, and Josh Christopher.
While I didn’t see Aldridge’s top pick coming, I don’t believe that making big splashes in free agency and via trades is necessarily indicative of having a great offseason. For instance, no team made more noise on the free agent market than the Bulls, who added DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, and Alex Caruso. However, I didn’t like the price Chicago paid to get DeRozan, who will earn $27MM+ per year for the next three seasons and cost a first-round pick to acquire via sign-and-trade. Your mileage may vary — Aldridge ranked the Bulls at No. 4.
Rounding out Aldridge’s top five are the Clippers at No. 2, the Nets at No. 3, and the Lakers at No. 5. The Wizards, Hornets, Heat, Jazz, and Pistons also made the top 10.
I agree with some of those picks more than others. Aldridge’s rankings suggest a belief that the Russell Westbrook trade was a win-win for Los Angeles and Washington, but I preferred the Wizards’ return, since they badly needed to improve their depth and I’m not entirely sold yet on Westbrook’s fit with the Lakers.
A top-two ranking also seems a little generous for the Clippers, whose major moves were re-signing a star recovering from an ACL tear (Kawhi Leonard) to a four-year, maximum-salary deal and adding Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, and a draft picks. Bledsoe is coming off a bad year and has struggled in the postseason, Winslow has had a hard time staying healthy, and those draftees are pretty raw.
However, I did like the team’s deals to bring back Reggie Jackson and Nicolas Batum — and if Leonard makes a full recovery and is back to his old self for the 2022/23 season, that investment should be worth it.
What do you think? Which clubs do you believe had the best offseasons in 2021? Are there any potential moves to be made in the coming weeks that could shake up your list?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
Westbrook’s fit with the Lakers is questionable, but I like it if he is willing to be the third option, with the potential to carry the load when James and Davis need to take time off. I also like the fact that the Lakers got rid of Kuzma. That guy has talent, but mentally he simply was a detriment on the Lakers. He seemed to buy into the third option hype and thought he was better than he is. He fits better with the Wizards and I think that trade could go down as a win for both teams.
I think Westbrook could be an amazing add for the lakers and I also think it could be a absolutely drama filled season of underachieving and egos clashing, however as of today I think that’s a nice move for both teams, I’m a bulls homer but I don’t understand why so much dislike for the derozan move, the bulls number 2 scorer last year was Coby white, now they have Zach and demar who are both gonna average over 20 a game and when one has a bad night you still have the other to lead the team in scoring, defensively I get it but the bulls are tryin to win and that first round pick is very much a dice roll, lauri Wendell and Coby were all picked 7th overall by us, albeit by moronic garpax, but Coby is probably goin to be a 6th man scorer at best in his career and lauri/Wendell are horrible players I don’t care what anyone says theirs stats affect the game in no way…trading a pick for a known commodity while trying to win is a sound move
Lakers got worst than last year
Schroeder, Kuzma, KCP and Harrell for Westbrook
Lakers would have huge upgrade if they keep Schroeder and Caruso
Caruso and KCP are losses. Schroder is addition by subtraction. Lakers made moves to replace Caruso and KCP, but I recognize those losses. Overall, I think they have done well this offseason. Certainly better than last offseason.
Hawks won the draft with 2 huge steals, versatile, dynamic combo forward Jalen Johnson at 20 & CP3 clone Sharife Cooper at 48. We hired 1 of the best coaches in the league rn, Nate McMillan, on a long term deal. We traded Kris Dunn & Bruno Fernando (2 guys that combined to contribute nothing last season) for 1 of the best backup pgs in the league, Delon Wright. We locked up arguably the best young duo in the league (Phoenix, NO & Boston all have great young duos as well), Trae & John for their respective primes. We resigned A-Town legend Lou Williams to a reasonable deal. Losing Okongwu to shoulder surgery was the only negative of the off-season but Dieng was signed as his temporary replacement & O will be back around the all-star break. Houston, Boston, DC & Philly all had good off-seasons but Hawks definitely had the best
You keep saying “we.” Are you employed by the Hawks? Just a legitimate question.
Yea I’m Harry the Hawk.. any “legitimate” questions about anything relevant to the discussion topic?
Just amuses me when fans identify themselves with an organization in which they are not affiliated to legitimize their existence. Just teasing you. I do like “Harry the Hawk.” Not a bad nickname. Heck, I go by “Chief” online.
Legitimate sarcasm.
Sounds like a real fan to me… one that says “We lost” instead of “They lost”. Nothing wrong with being invested in your team.
That said, not sure either of those players are “steals” at their draft selections. Summer league doesn’t validate/invalidate that – the Winter league does. And that might even take a year or two. But a glorified AAU week and a half settles nothing – ‘Zo was the second coming of Magic Johnson in Summer league.
JJ and Sharife being steals isn’t just about what they did in Vegas. It was extreme obvious during the draft that those guys were the steals of the draft. I been watching Sharife for years. He’s from Atlanta & him, Ant Edwards & BJ Boston been hot for yrs around here. if Sharife stayed in college 2yrs like CP3 he’s a top5 pick like CP3. Jalen being picked 12 spots after Franz Wagner looks absolutely ridiculous now & is gonna look even worse soon. His talent is extremely obvious as soon as you watch like 2or3 possessions of him. He’s not gonna be LeBron but his skillset is very similar to Bron at age 19
I dont see Chris Paul there…I would say Ish Smith, maybe Rajon Rondo, and lowkey shades of Trae young with some of the passes. Effort defensively and awareness off the ball, consistency with that and everything else, shooting, and his size are his biggest questions. Also doesnt really have the in between/mid range game
Sharife is a much much more natural scorer than Ish or Rondo ever were. He’s a great finisher, good shooter & draws fouls with ease. He’s not nearly the defender Rondo was at the same age either. He’s a pure pg that can score sorta like a Terrell Brandon or CP3. His mid-range game is literally one of his main strengths. That’s where he was doing so much of his damage in Vegas. He gets by guys with ease & he’s a great decision maker & scorer
Ya I kind of went with Atlanta too. Delon Wright and Jalen Johnson are literally perfect fits for what they needed, and Dieng is also perennially underrated, and is useful behind Capela and Collins, and Johnson in small lineups, at the 5
I think the fact that we got JJ is gonna let us play Gallo more at the 5 next season while Okongwu recovers. JJ is a really young kid but he seems ready to play, moreso than Okongwu was last season tbh. I see a lot of Josh Smith in JJ’s game fr, Josh was ready to contribute a lot earlier than I thought he was gonna be also. Delon Wright is a guy I’ve loved ever since he was at Utah. I felt bad for both him & JoVal when Toronto won the title without them a few yrs ago. I still think Toronto was better with those 2 guys tbh. Delon is a great fit like u say tho bc he’s so versatile. He’s very similar to Bogdan fr they just know how to play the game
I remember seeing him around when he was a kid, here in Miami…but ya he is a versatile defender that can play next to Trae/Bogdanovic, and playmake, and knows what he is doing. Johnson is the versatile 4/5 that can take the ball off the rim in transition and make plays, and he defends across multiple positions. Has kind of an Aaron Gordon/Rudy Gay/James johnson with more offensive use thing going for him. Regardless of what he is in the future, they needed that type of a piece, besides what they get from Solomon Hill defensively at the 4
I love the fact that Delon could play with Trae or anybody bc of his high bball iq but I feel like he’s gonna spend most of his pt as the lead guard when Trae is outta the game.. and JJ is more of a 3/4 to me fr. He’s not nearly big enough to be wrestling with big guys. I think he could challenge Solo Hill for a rotation spot tho bc of just how talented & athletic he is. He’s way more skillful than even pretty skilled forwards like Gordon/Rudy/Deng. This kid could end up being an all-star playing as a 4, as a wing OR as a LeBron/Simmons/Magic type point forward. He’s got the frame to fill out & get near Bron size eventually too. I was shocked when SA didn’t get him at 12 but fr Orlando is the team that really messed up by not drafting him up at 8
I mean… Jalen Johnson definitely can make plays. I dont know about in half court situations, what his jumpshot will be over time, and his lack of consistency and awareness at times defensively, but ya he should be a valuable piece at those positions, at least for now. I think he could play small ball 5 in certain situations. He defends pretty well at the rim. He has similarities to James Johnson
His j looked good at Duke & it looked good in SL, both his form & his efficiency. Only issue with his shot fr is his confidence in it & willingness to take shots that he should take. He’ll probably be up&down with his j this yr but so will Solomon Hill tbh, it’s rare you have a backup 4 that’s a great 3pt shooter. Much like Bron & most every other player he’ll tighten his j up over time, practice & experience. Same thing with his defensive awareness. Every teenage basketball player is gonna have defensive lapses. Overall JJ is gonna be a plus defensively tho. Solomon Hill def better defender rn but JJ could soon be an elite defender, along with guys like DeAndre Hunter & Cam Reddish who are already elite defenders… James Johnson was the 3rd or 4th best player on Wake Forest when he was a 22yo senior. JJ was the best player on Duke as soon as he stepped on campus. They’re in different leagues athletically & just overall skill wise. I loved that Wake squad with James tho, he’s pretty much the poor man’s version of what Jalen is gonna be tho. Jalen ain’t big enough to play the 5 unless it’s like a shot clock off end of game situation. Gallo would be our small ball 5. And Collins would play the 5 before JJ does. Tbh he might end up playing more on the wing than at 4 if we end up signing Millsap or somebody like that
Ha formerlyz got Sankara going! GM Schlenk does keep making smart moves, even little ones, and Ressler opened the spigots for signing. I made light of the resulting roster mess but they were never without talent, and injuries shortened the rotation for them. It turned out a good strat for a year of injuries.
Value picks made… Too much might have been made of Jalen Johnson’s early departures in a weird year… not to mention the glut of “Jalen”s! Cooper looks small, and there’s a lot of those around… He has to turn out smart too.
I dislike ‘we’ all the time, but I did it when young too. Suspicious habit for an older guy.
No one added by Atlanta is even close to Jalen Green.
And the Rockets won the draft hands down with their fantastic four.
Houston should have drafted Jalen Johnson tbh they definitely would have won the draft if they did that. They had a great draft tho. None of their picks were really steals tho except maybe Josh Christopher. Both of the Hawks picks were obviously huge steals.. plus the off-season is clearly more than just the draft. Free agency & trades & more make up the off-season. And off-season is about more than just adding players. It’s often about keeping your elite talent from going elsewhere. Hawks locked up our 2 best players (both better than Jalen Green rn) for the next 5yrs this off-season.
A lot of teams did really well, so far, to be honest, especially if you include draft picks/young players. I feel like Washington, Atlanta, Toronto, Boston, Charlotte, the Lakers, Dallas, Brooklyn, Indiana, Detroit, Houston, Utah, GS, and lowkey, the Spurs all did really well
There are a few teams that also did well, but had a couple of questionable moves like the Bulls, Heat, Knicks, and then some teams kind of in between/a couple of good moves, but not enough….There is still some players out there, and training camps dont start until next month, so cant completely judge everything yet, or at least for me, I usually wait until right before training camp starts, and then again before the regular season starts
I think the Knicks had a top 10 off-season and a lot of the negativity towards them is unwarranted. Taking their cap situation into context as well as the realistically available options in free agency both this off-season and next, the moves the Knicks made in terms of money and term make complete sense both from a basketball and business perspective.
You can argue that the Knicks overachieved last year in Thibodeau’s 1st year as coach, but this is also a team that Scott Perry and Leon Rose can keep together for at least two years to see its ceiling. None of the deals they handed out are especially egregious and the mid-level money on a variety of players they signed also means it’s easier for them to cobble together trade packages for a star should one be available.
In that regard, none of the playes the Knicks signed are being overpaid for those purposes. At most you can argue Fournier being overpaid, but again if he produces to his career levels it’s a fair trade off, especially in the event he can be used in a trade package.
As for the terms of those deals, sure they’re listed as 3 and 4 year deals for Burks, Rose, Noel and Fournier, but as has been reported earlier all of the final years of those deals are team options essentially making them 2 and 3 year deals if they don’t work out, which lessens the risk.
The fact that the Knicks were able to negotiate those deals on that level where they wouldn’t have to include player options is a win, and in doing so they also convinced Randle to take less money on his 4-year extension.
Throw in a bargain 2-year deal for Kemba Walker, solid draft additions in Grimes, McBride, and Sims and it’s an all around great off-season for a team that had been one of the league’s two prominent punching bags of mediciority for the last 15-is years.
It’s certainly a huge improvement with more calculated and prudent spending than years past where they’d just throw money at the problem or make trades for the sake of making trades wihtout a consideration for fit.
Ya….this kind of went really far. I said they did well. I just feel like there are a couple of questionable things in there. Like how many guys they grabbed that need the ball in their hands, and losing Bullock on the wing. The Bulls did well, but then traded for DeRozan for some reason, and the Heat did well, but signed Markieff Morris, arguably gave too much to PJ Tucker, at least with who else was out there for cheaper, and didnt address the wing position, and also lost out on someone that would have been helpful in 1 of their 2 way spots, essentially relying on the health of all of Butler, Lowry, and Oladipo, at least until past the 50 game mark/buyout season. They’re also relying on Yurtseven to be their floor spacing big, and Strus to play a role on the wing, which could have its issues
Doesn’t look like much critical thinking here in the comments. Most people choose their team to brag on a off season that didn’t do much to change their teams. Nobody knows how well a team pick ups will do until midseason. Like how every year I read the LA Angels will be a playoff team and they can’t finish above .500.
I had my team in the did well, but made questionable moves list…also only a couple of people here so far, so kind of early to assume that. I will say though that I agree you dont really know until you see how coaches mess up…I mean use their rotations
You know how these comment boards work everyone thinks their team will be champs this year. Nobody talks about team chemistry or that it takes a half of season for a team to show if the new players will work. Its much easier to say which team had a terrible off season then the best.
To me, teams should generally fit without too much issue, if their coaches put them in the correct lineups, but I know what you mean, especially as that apparently rarely happens
I think both the Lakers and Wizards did well. The Lakers replaced their depth with free agents who on balance are better than what was sent to Washington. Now they have the depth they lacked a year ago. The Wizards traded a problem both in personality and fit (despite mad skills) and filled in the depth problems that they had. Both teams are at least favored for home court advantage in the first round now. Miami made some nice pickups. The Bucks got “the” guy they needed in George Hill. I haven’t considered the draft because despite teams best efforts, it’s still a crap shoot and Las Vegas don’t mean a thing.
I mean you right with LAL, but way off with WAS, loosing their best player for an assortment of underachievers, not good.
WAS at their very best will be a play in team as a matter of fact!
LAL yeah they are the clear favs in the WC!
Lol the Wizards are going to stink again this year probably worse than last year.
I guess no Bulls fans here.
I think the Bulls got better. It is hard to rank the teams and the writer is just triggering comments with his list, letting the subscribers have at it on purpose.
Some said there was a cheaper way to get DDR. IDK but I like the way he can score/get-fouled quickly, without the offense having to “bother” mounting an attack.
I hope Dono plays Caruso while I’m watching, and gives him freedom to operate.
They won’t have to rely on Vooch as much.
I quite like CHI, last season ZLV was the best player until Vucevic came in… then he was the 2nd best player… now with DMDR in there ZLV is the 3rd best player in the team & still they have Zo in there, it seems to me not a bad place to be.
They just need a physical & defensive oriented 4 & they will be good to go, not many teams have a 3rd best player at the level of ZLV!
So a 4, like Thaddeus Young, who they moved for a piece they didnt need, and doesnt fit…they could also use a pick and roll defending, rim protecting, rim rolling backup big