In a roundtable discussion, Howard Beck, Chris Mannix, Robin Lundberg, and Rohan Nadkarni discussed the best, worst, most surprising, and most intriguing moves of the 2022 NBA offseason, agreeing on some issues and sharing opposing views on others.
For instance, while Beck and Mannix both view the Rudy Gobert blockbuster as the best roster move of the summer, Beck makes the case that the Jazz‘s side of the deal was the offseason’s top move, while Mannix argues for the Timberwolves‘ side.
Beck, Lundberg, and Nadkarni, meanwhile, all named the Hawks‘ acquisition of Dejounte Murray as the summer’s most intriguing roster move, while Beck and Lundberg agree that Kevin Durant‘s trade request with four years left on his contract was the offseason’s worst move. From a basketball perspective, Durant would be best off staying in Brooklyn and playing for a Nets team that looks capable of contending for a title, Beck writes.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The NBA’s tampering rules aren’t exactly working as intended, but it’s unclear if there’s any obvious way to fix them, writes Sarah Todd of The Deseret News. “The threat of harsher penalties and random audits doesn’t even make teams flinch,” one source told Todd. “And at this point, if we investigated every possible instance of tampering, the whole league would come to a screeching halt and nothing would ever get done.” According to Todd, multiple front office executives that she spoke to expressed support for moving free agency ahead of the draft, among other changes to the current system.
- David Aldridge of The Athletic wrapped up his series on which teams improved the most and least this offseason by listing his picks from 20 to 11 and from 10 to one. The Sixers were Aldridge’s choice for the team that made the best roster upgrades, followed by the Hawks, Nuggets, Celtics, and Timberwolves.
- Dan Devine of The Ringer shines a light on seven under-the-radar free agent agreements that he’s intrigued by, including the Heat‘s three-year deal with Caleb Martin, the Timberwolves‘ acquisition of Kyle Anderson, and the Pistons‘ investment in Marvin Bagley III.
Not having the Knicks finally addressing the PG position among the biggest improvements is what happens when an agenda gets repeated so often people start believing it.
The Knicks overpaid for a mediocore, backup PG, and moved heaven and earth to do so. Typical Knicks move. I would hardly count that as one of the biggest improvements in the off-season.
Honestly, Quickley could be better than Jalen Brunson as early as next season. At 1/10th the price.
Overpaying for Gobert is 100% about upgrading the PF position to be one of the best in the NBA.
People who gets stuck on the two center idea, the low value of the center position or the cost are completely ignoring the leaguewide weakness at PF and the fact that the wolves now have elite players at C and PF.
I also think we have a big discrepancy in the valuation of reaching the next tier as a team. The Wolves have a very legit 3 man core to build around.
Unprotected picks can be very valuable but nothing reduces their value more than having that kind of a core.
Since the only reason to have picks is to build a championship contender some day you’d have to be the dumbest man alive to decline to accept the 3 man core because you hope to build one in 5 years.
It’s embarrassing to see people argue for “suck real bad” insurance like a 2029 draft pick over a young 3 man core in 2023. Having Towns and Edwards on your team and preserving a draft pick in 7 years instead of adding a third star would have been a criminally incompetent move.
That’s what you call fear of success or destined for failure.
The Rudy trade was about improving their defense/rim protection too. You’re right tho they def have a big time frontline rn
My Grammy is big into rim protection.
How do expect fans to believe that there’s no tampering going on when players still under contract just waiting for a buyout to finalized the player and new team already announced he’s going to them
Lol @ the Bagley mention. One of these things is not like other, one of things just doesn’t belong.