Over the last couple months, Hoops Rumors has been breaking down the 2021 offseason moves for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and other key news and transactions. Our Offseason in Review pieces for each of the league’s 30 teams are linked below, sorted by conference and division.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Atlantic Division
Central Division
Southeast Division
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Northwest Division
Pacific Division
Southwest Division
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Washington Wizards.
Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.
Spencer Dinwiddie: Three years, $54MM. Third year partially guaranteed. Includes $7,714,284 in unlikely incentives. Acquired via sign-and-trade.With Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook on maximum-salary contracts and Davis Bertans earning $16MM per year, it was difficult to see how the Wizards would be able to make meaningful upgrades to their roster entering the 2021 offseason. They had limited financial flexibility to pursue free agents with all three players on the books, but they had no interest in moving Beal, and Westbrook’s and Bertans’ pricey salaries made them mediocre trade chips.
So when Westbrook approached the team with a request to be sent to the Lakers, it was something of a blessing in disguise.
It’s generally considered a disaster for a team if a star player requests a trade, and the Wizards likely would’ve felt that way if Beal had asked out. But as impressive as Westbrook was down the stretch last season when he helped lead the team to a playoff spot, a roster headlined by him and Beal almost certainly didn’t have championship upside.
Westbrook’s unwieldy contract (he was owed nearly $92MM over two years) also reduced his value — the Wizards likely would’ve had trouble getting fair value from any team besides the Lakers. Knowing LeBron James and Anthony Davis supported the move, L.A. was willing to meet Washington’s asking price. So, rather than having to try to figure out how to add a third impact player to complement their All-Star backcourt, the Wizards were able to load up on reliable role players when they dealt Westbrook to Los Angeles.
Trading a star for a handful of rotation players is another outcome that an NBA team typically tries to avoid, but it made sense for the Wizards. Last year’s roster was short on depth, and turning Westbrook’s $44MM cap hit into several mid-sized salaries will give the team more options on the trade market if Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and/or Kyle Kuzma need to be flipped down the road.
The deal with the Lakers also netted the Wizards a first-round pick, which they flipped to Indiana in exchange for point guard Aaron Holiday and the No. 31 overall pick that became Isaiah Todd. The move allowed Washington to add more veteran depth while also taking a flier on a young prospect with some upside.
Neither Holiday nor the re-signed Raul Neto could be relied upon to take Westbrook’s place as the starting point guard, however, so the Wizards went shopping in free agency. Even after shedding Westbrook’s salary, Washington didn’t have the cap room necessary to offer more than the mid-level, but when Spencer Dinwiddie zeroed in on the idea of becoming a Wizard, the front office got creative to make it work.
Without the ability to sign Dinwiddie outright, the Wizards folded his three-year, $54MM+ deal into the agreed-upon (but not yet finalized) Westbrook and Holiday trades, negotiating sign-and-trade terms with the Nets.
When the dust settled, five teams were involved in the mega-deal, which cost the Wizards several future draft assets. In order to complete the Westbrook swap, entice the Nets to accommodate the sign-and-trade, and dump Chandler Hutchison‘s salary onto the Spurs, Washington surrendered five second-round picks and a second-round pick swap. Still, it was a win for the Wizards to be able to replace Westbrook with Dinwiddie, four solid (and reasonably priced) rotation players, and a promising rookie without giving up a first-round pick.
That five-team trade encompassed most of the Wizards’ major offseason moves, but there were a few others worth noting. The club used its own first-round pick to add some shooting, selecting Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert with the No. 15 overall selection. Kispert played four college seasons and was viewed as one of the draft’s most NBA-ready prospects, though he has gotten off to a slow start this fall.
The Wizards also locked up center Daniel Gafford to a long-term contract, picking up his minimum-salary team option for 2022/23 and then tacking three more years onto his deal. Washington’s depth chart at center is relatively crowded, with Gafford, Harrell, and Thomas Bryant (who is still recovery from ACL surgery) all in the mix, so that extension is a nice vote of confidence for Gafford, who was acquired at least season’s deadline and played well in D.C. down the stretch.
The Wizards also made a head coaching change, parting ways with Scott Brooks after five years and hiring Wes Unseld Jr. as his replacement. Unseld’s father is a franchise legend who won a championship with Washington as a player and later served as both a front office executive and head coach. However, hiring his son wasn’t just a sentimental move by the Wizards — the younger Unseld paid his dues as an assistant coach for four NBA teams over the course of 16 seasons, earning the opportunity to finally lead his own team.
The Wizards’ offseason moves diversified the team’s offensive attack and improved its defensive personnel. The team lacks star power – it’s hard to imagine anyone on the roster besides Beal making an All-Star team – buts its newfound depth makes it a more well-rounded group than we’ve seen in D.C. for the last few years.
As much as I liked Washington’s offseason, I still don’t view the club as a legitimate contender to come out of the East this season. Still, the early returns have been good — Unseld’s squad has an 8-3 record, tied for the top mark in the conference.
They’ll almost certainly slide down the standings a little as the season progresses, but these Wizards appear capable of at least repeating last year’s result (making the playoffs via the play-in tournament), and general manager Tommy Sheppard has more flexibility to make roster moves going forward without Westbrook’s massive cap figure on the books.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Utah Jazz.
Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.
Mike Conley: Three years, $68.04MM. Third year partially guaranteed. Includes $4.5MM in unlikely incentives. Re-signed using Bird rights.The 2020/21 season represented Utah’s best chance in over a decade to make a serious playoff run. The Jazz posted the league’s best regular season record (52-20) and, after dispatching the Grizzlies in the first round of the postseason, they faced a Clippers team that lost its best player – Kawhi Leonard – to a season-ending knee injury in Game 4, with the series tied at two games apiece.
The Jazz, who had a couple banged-up starters in their own right, couldn’t take advantage of the golden opportunity, dropping the next two games to the Kawhi-less Clippers to bring their season to an end.
It was a discouraging finish, but a promising season overall for the Jazz, whose top six most-used players remained under contract for 2021/22, providing a solid starting point for this season’s roster.
Although Utah didn’t have to worry about bringing back stars like Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, the team was facing a bit of a cap crunch. Re-signing Mike Conley and Georges Niang while retaining all of last year’s roster would have put team salary way over the luxury tax line, and while new owner Ryan Smith was willing to become a taxpayer, he wasn’t quite prepared to spend like the Warriors or Nets.
In order to keep the payroll in check, the Jazz made some tough decisions. Conley was a crucial part of the club’s success last season and had to be re-signed, but Niang was allowed to walk, while Derrick Favors was attached to a protected future first-round pick and sent to Oklahoma City in a salary-dump trade.
The Favors trade put the Jazz in a better financial position to give Conley a three-year deal worth about $68MM, plus incentives. It’s a steep price to pay for a point guard who turned 34 in October, but it cost Utah less to lock him up than it cost the Suns and Heat to sign Chris Paul and Kyle Lowry, who are older, or the Bulls to sign Lonzo Ball, who is less accomplished. Conley’s third year also isn’t fully guaranteed, so the Jazz will have an exit ramp if they need one.
With Conley back and Favors and Niang gone, fortifying the frontcourt was a top priority for the Jazz. The team addressed that need by using the full taxpayer mid-level exception to add forward Rudy Gay, signing center Hassan Whiteside to a minimum-salary contract, and acquiring forward Eric Paschall in a minor trade with Golden State.
Gay is an especially intriguing addition. Like Niang, he has the size to match up against bigger opposing forwards. Unlike Niang, Gay has the ability to create his own shot on offense, giving Utah another weapon alongside Mitchell, Conley, and Bojan Bogdanovic. Gay is recovering from offseason heel surgery and has yet to suit up for the Jazz, but he looks like a nice fit. He’ll likely cut into Paschall’s minutes once he’s ready to play.
In replacing Favors with Whiteside, the Jazz acknowledged that they don’t need to spend big on a big man who is essentially just there to back up Gobert. Whiteside isn’t the star that his numbers in Miami and Portland might’ve suggested, but as long as he’s willing to accept a modest role and buy into a team-first philosophy, he’s perfectly capable of providing 15 or 20 productive minutes per game, especially going up against second-stringers.
The Jazz saved a little more money and acquired some future assets by moving down from No. 30 to No. 40 on draft night. The deal netted Utah a pair of future second-round picks (one was flipped to the Warriors for Paschall) and allowed them to fill out the roster with a minimum-salary player instead of a first-rounder who would earn $2MM as a rookie. And by all accounts, Jared Butler – the prospect the club selected at No. 40 – was the same player Utah was eyeing at No. 30.
Butler, originally viewed as a potential mid first-round pick, slipped down draft boards due to reported concerns about his knees and a heart condition. However, he received full clearance from the NBA’s Fitness to Play panel, and the Jazz loved what they saw from the former Baylor star in training camp. He may not get to play much on a veteran-heavy team with title aspirations, but Butler has a good deal of upside for a mid second-rounder.
The other major development in Utah this offseason was the demotion of longtime head of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey, with general manager Justin Zanik taking the reins. The move didn’t necessarily represent a significant change in direction for the organization, given that Zanik had worked under Lindsey for several years. But it was certainly looked like a vote of confidence in head coach Quin Snyder, who reportedly had a “long-running disconnect” with Lindsey.
I wrote above that last season was Utah’s best chance in a long time to make a deep playoff run. But this year’s team might be even better. Barring injuries, there’s no reason not to expect the Jazz to finish the 2021/22 campaign with one of the NBA’s best records, and they’ll be a very tough out in the playoffs.
Until the Jazz break through, there will be questions about Mitchell’s ability to be a No. 1 option on a championship team, about Gobert’s ability to make the sort of impact in the playoffs that he does in the regular season, and about the team’s ability to slow down offensive initiators with size, like LeBron James and Paul George. Utah will be motivated to answer all those questions this spring.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Toronto Raptors.
Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.
Gary Trent Jr.: Three years, $51.84MM. Third-year player option. Includes $750K in unlikely incentives. Re-signed as restricted free agent using Bird rights.Kawhi Leonard left Toronto during the 2019 offseason and both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka departed a year later, but it wasn’t until 2021 that it felt like the Raptors began a new era in earnest. Having gone 53-19 in 2019/20, a year after winning its title, the team fell off a cliff in a ’20/21 season spent far from home.
The Raptors’ slide down the standings can be blamed on a handful of factors that go beyond having to play their home games in Tampa — injury issues and a midseason COVID-19 outbreak didn’t help matters, and the club’s inability to adequately replace Gasol’s and Ibaka’s production at center played a part. Regardless of the reason for it, Toronto’s ’20/21 collapse opened the door for president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri to retool the roster.
That retooling process began with a 10-28 finish to the season, which bumped the Raptors to seventh place in the NBA’s lottery standings. Some good fortune on lottery night resulted in the team climbing a few spots higher and securing the No. 4 overall pick. While that selection didn’t give the Raps an opportunity to draft Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, or Evan Mobley, it put them in a great position to nab a potential All-Star from what was considered a four-player top tier.
However, the Raptors disagreed with the conventional wisdom that slotted Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs alongside those top three prospects. Ujiri and company passed on Suggs in favor of Scottie Barnes, a promising young forward who was viewed as a talented, versatile defender whose offensive game remained quite raw.
It might take years to determine with certainty whether the Raptors made the right call by taking Barnes over Suggs, but fans disappointed by the selection on July 29 have to like the early returns — the 20-year-old Barnes has averaged 16.6 PPG and 8.7 RPG on 52.4% shooting in his first nine NBA games, and his defense has been as good as advertised, if not better.
As one potential cornerstone arrived in Toronto, another departed. After earning six All-Star nods and a title during his nine years with the Raptors, Kyle Lowry decided to move on and maximize his remaining years by joining a team closer to title contention. Toronto accommodated a sign-and-trade deal that sent Lowry to Miami.
If the Heat hadn’t been confident in the Raptors’ willingness to play ball on a sign-and-trade, they could’ve declined Goran Dragic‘s team option and made some other small moves that allowed them to open up the cap space necessary to sign Lowry outright. In that scenario, the Raptors would’ve been able to create some cap room of their own rather than taking on Dragic’s expiring $19MM+ contract in the Lowry sign-and-trade.
Operating over the cap allowed Toronto to acquire Precious Achiuwa along with Dragic in exchange for Lowry, then to use part of the mid-level exception to re-sign Khem Birch. If the Raptors had instead gone under the cap and simply let Lowry walk, they could have made a competitive offer for a big man like Richaun Holmes (they could’ve outbid the Kings), then tried to re-sign Birch using the room exception (their offer would’ve been limited to about two years and $10MM, rather than $20MM over three years).
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Holmes would’ve wanted to come to Toronto or that Birch would’ve accepted a little less to remain with the Raptors, but it’s an intriguing “what if.” The Raps made a big bet on Achiuwa, and perhaps are counting on Dragic to maintain enough value to make him a useful trade chip rather than just a buyout candidate.
Outside of the Lowry sign-and-trade and the Barnes pick, the Raptors’ most notable transaction was re-signing restricted free agent Gary Trent Jr. to a three-year, $51MM+ contract that includes a third-year player option.
The terms of that deal were a little surprising. Of the reliable rotation players available in free agency this offseason, few – if any – were younger than Trent (22), so Toronto’s decision to negotiate a contract that allows him to reach unrestricted free agency at age 24 was curious. It will be interesting to see whether or not that deal ultimately works out better for the Raptors than a longer-term commitment would’ve.
The Raptors filled out their roster with minimum-salary players and second-round picks. Among those, the most noteworthy additions were Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, a solid sharpshooter who had a down year but had still made 36.2% of his career 3-pointers entering this season, and Dalano Banton, a second-round pick out of Nebraska whom ESPN’s Jonathan Givony described as “one of the more unique players in college basketball” due to his combination of size (6’9″) and play-making abilities.
Finally, you could make a case that the biggest news of the Raptors’ offseason wasn’t related to player movement at all — it was the extension and promotion the organization awarded Ujiri. The cost was significant – Ujiri will reportedly earn a $15MM salary and can receive incentives based on the franchise’s value continuing to increase – but it looks like a worthwhile investment for one of the most talented executives in the sport.
Even with Leonard, Lowry, Gasol, and Ibaka gone, the Raptors still have a couple key pieces from their 2019 title team still on the roster, in Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam. OG Anunoby, who didn’t contribute to that championship run for health reasons, has taken a huge step forward over the last couple years, Trent is a reliable rotation player, and Barnes looks ready to contribute immediately.
If the Raptors can get decent production out of some combination of Achiuwa, Birch, and Boucher up front, and a few of the reserves step up and provide consistent minutes, there’s enough talent here to make Toronto a playoff team.
Still, this roster as constructed doesn’t look like a great bet to make a run in the postseason, so the priorities this season should be developing Barnes and assessing how the club’s top three forwards (Siakam, Anunoby, and Barnes) fit together. While earning at least a play-in spot is certainly a realistic and achievable goal, the Raptors are probably still at least a year or two away from making any real noise in the East.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the San Antonio Spurs.
Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.
Doug McDermott: Three years, $41.25MM. Includes $750K in unlikely incentives. Acquired via sign-and-trade.It’s been more than two decades since the Spurs have needed to rebuild, but it appears the youth movement is now fully underway in San Antonio. The veteran core that led the team to the play-in tournament last season is gone, and the roster is constructed around a promising group of 25-and-under players.
The transformation began last winter when San Antonio shut down and eventually reached a buyout agreement with LaMarcus Aldridge, who was the starting center for the first half of the season. DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay, and Patty Mills all departed in free agency over the offseason, speeding up the transition to a younger group.
Gregg Popovich, the league’s oldest and longest-tenured head coach, has welcomed the opportunity to start teaching again after so many years of having a veteran-laden team. The Spurs are now led by 25-year-old Dejounte Murray, who leads the team in points, assists and steals through the early part of the season; 22-year-old Keldon Johnson, who earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team; and 25-year-old Jakob Poeltl, whose strong play last season led to the decision to part with Aldridge.
The Spurs spent the summer searching for players to complement their young nucleus. They added a sharpshooter by acquiring Doug McDermott from the Pacers in a sign-and-trade deal that didn’t cost them any assets besides cap room. McDermott is a career 40.7% shooter from three-point range who should help stretch opposing defenses and provide plenty of driving lanes for San Antonio’s guards.
More shooting came through a reunion with Bryn Forbes, who played a role off the bench for the champion Bucks last year after spending his first four NBA seasons in San Antonio. Forbes, whose modest $4.5MM deal fit into the room exception, is another deadly outside threat, connecting at 41.2% for his career from beyond the arc.
The Spurs gambled on former Trail Blazers big man Zach Collins, who has been through multiple foot surgeries over the past two years and was limited to a combined 11 games in that time. Collins agreed to a three-year, $22MM contract, but the only guarantees are $7MM for the first season and half of his $7.35MM salary in the second season. The team hopes Collins will be ready to start playing sometime after Christmas.
The other significant offseason addition was Thaddeus Young, who was part of the return in the sign-and-trade that sent DeRozan to Chicago. Now in his 15th NBA season, the 33-year-old power forward brings a touch of veteran leadership to the roster and figures to be in demand at the February trade deadline.
Al-Farouq Aminu, who was acquired from the Bulls in the same deal, was waived before the start of the season, despite having a guaranteed $10MM+ salary. The Spurs also opted to part with Luka Samanic, whom they took with the 19th pick in the 2019 draft. He’s only 21, but San Antonio had more than 15 players with guaranteed contracts in camp and Samanic didn’t produce enough in his two years with the organization.
The Spurs provided one of the surprises of this year’s lottery, using the 12th pick on Alabama guard Joshua Primo, who was the youngest player in the draft. Primo has already been assigned to the G League and may spend much of the season there so he can get regular playing time and develop his skills.
With the 41st pick, San Antonio drafted Iowa guard Joe Wieskamp, another shooting specialist. He has also been sent to the G League, and like Primo, is considered more of a long-term prospect than someone who will help right away.
The Spurs reaching the playoffs used to be the safest bet in sports — they got there in a record 22 consecutive seasons. Those days are gone now, as the rebuilding team that may be a long shot to return to the play-in tournament. Instead of molding a title contender, Popovich will focus on developing his youngsters and paving the way for the next era of Spurs basketball.
The Spurs have drafted well over the years and have plenty of talent on the roster. Derrick White, Devin Vassell and Lonnie Walker IV are other intriguing members of the young core, and San Antonio has plenty of roster flexibility, with no player earning more this season than Murray’s $15.4MM salary.
The most pressing question about the Spurs’ future is how much longer Popovich plans to be part of it. With his 73rd birthday looming in January, he’s already the oldest coach in NBA history and he accomplished a major career goal over the summer when he led Team USA to an Olympic gold medal.
There have been conflicting rumors about Popovich’s plans for the future, but the latest report indicates the Spurs are expecting him to step down within the next two years. Before that happens, he almost certainly will pick up the 23 victories he needs to become the all-time leader in coaching wins. Popovich may not coach another title contender before he leaves, but he can develop some of the players that could eventually take San Antonio to that level again.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post. Luke Adams contributed to this post.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Sacramento Kings.
Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.
The most notable aspects of the Kings’ offseason were the things they didn’t do. They tried to pull off a blockbuster deal with the Lakers involving Buddy Hield, who had just completed the first year of a four-year, $94MM contract extension. However, Los Angeles shifted gears when Russell Westbrook became available and moved some of the pieces that may have gone to Sacramento — including Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell — to Washington.
The Kings also explored trades for colossally disappointing Marvin Bagley III, the No. 2 pick of the 2018 draft. They couldn’t move the oft-injured Bagley, then declined to pursue a rookie scale extension with the young big. He’s currently buried on Luke Walton’s bench.
Re-signing center Richaun Holmes was a priority, but heading into free agency it was anticipated that the Kings would be priced out of his market. Speculation was that Holmes would command between $15-$20MM annually, so Sacramento was pleasantly surprised to retain his services for four more seasons at less than $12MM per year.
Defense-oriented veteran wing Maurice Harkless re-signed at a reasonable price and Sacramento retained young shooting guard Terence Davis, who was acquired from Toronto for a second-round pick prior to last season’s trade deadline.
The Kings also brought back center Alex Len for a second stint. Len was with the club during the 201920 season. He and Tristan Thompson will provide depth in the middle behind Holmes.
Thompson was the only player Sacramento wound up acquiring via the trade route — his expiring $9.72MM contract may be more valued by the front office than whatever he’ll add on the court.
Draft night produced Sacramento’s biggest offseason addition. The Kings surprised a lot of people by adding Baylor star Davion Mitchell to their backcourt with the No. 9 pick. Mitchell’s perimeter defense and winner’s mentality were coveted by an organization lacking in both areas. His ability to distribute the ball and knock down 3-pointers added to his appeal.
In an ironic twist, the Kings are trying to end their 15-year postseason drought by emphasizing continuity. Walton is in his third year as head coach and the club has a quality, youthful backcourt rotation led by De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton and rookie Mitchell. Re-signing Holmes provided some stability to the big man rotation.
A trip to the playoffs should certainly be the expectation for this group, since it’s had ample time to build chemistry. Finding a new home for Bagley would be a bonus — the current situation doesn’t seem particularly healthy for either party. A strong season from Hield, who has become a high-priced sixth man, is also a necessary ingredient for a playoff push. Sacramento thus far is off to a 4-4 start with Harrison Barnes showing signs that he might have a career year.
If the Kings come up short again, there will certainly be many more changes made next offseason, or perhaps even before this season’s trade deadline if things go sour this winter.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post. Luke Adams contributed to this post.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Portland Trail Blazers.
Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.
Norman Powell: Five years, $90MM. Re-signed using Bird rights.The addition of Norman Powell at the 2021 trade deadline put the Trail Blazers in position to make some noise in the playoffs — the five-man lineup of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Robert Covington, Jusuf Nurkic, and Powell was one of the NBA’s best down the stretch, and the Blazers drew a fairly favorable first-round matchup, facing a Nuggets team that was missing Jamal Murray.
However, the Blazers couldn’t get past Denver, sending them back to the drawing board this summer. The disappointing finish to Portland’s season also prompted Lillard to do some summer soul searching.
The six-time All-Star professed his loyalty to Portland over and over again during his first nine years in the NBA, but a frustrating 2020/21 season made him question that commitment, if not for the first time then at least more seriously than he has in the past. For several weeks, it seemed as if Lillard might be on the verge of requesting a trade, especially since the Blazers didn’t exactly swing for the fences with their moves in free agency.
Lillard ultimately decided he wanted to remain in Portland, in large part due to the one major change the team did make in the offseason. After parting ways with longtime head coach Terry Stotts, the Blazers chose first-time head coach Chauncey Billups as his replacement.
The move initially received significant push-back from a number fans in Portland due to a perception that the Blazers didn’t look into a 1997 sexual assault case involving Billups as thoroughly as they should have. President of basketball operations Neil Olshey was cagey about the team’s investigation, simply asking fans to trust the organization’s findings and its belief that Billups hadn’t engaged in any wrongdoing.
Despite that shaky start to the Billups era, the team ultimately weathered the PR storm and the new head coach quickly established a strong connection with Lillard, who recommitted to the Blazers after weighing his options for much of the summer.
Of course, Lillard’s decision to stick with Portland came with a caveat — he wants to make sure the front office is doing all it can to build a roster capable of competing for a title. That led to speculation that the capped-out Blazers might make a major splash in the trade market this offseason, perhaps moving McCollum or Nurkic.
Instead, the team was relatively quiet in July and early August, signing Cody Zeller, Tony Snell, and Ben McLemore to minimum-salary contracts while parting ways with free agents like Carmelo Anthony, Enes Kanter, and Zach Collins. The only major move the Blazers made at that point of the offseason was an expected one — they committed to a lucrative new five-year deal for Powell, using his Bird rights to pay him $18MM per year over the course of the contract.
Zeller, Snell, and McLemore are solid veterans, and there was a sense that moving on from offense-first players like Anthony and Kanter might help shore up a defense that ranked 29th in the NBA in 2020/21. Still, it felt like an underwhelming offseason for a front office under pressure to show Lillard it was serious about winning. Even if Billups could make a positive impact, he wasn’t taking over a championship-caliber roster.
Just when it looked like the Blazers’ offseason was over, Olshey ventured into the trade market, getting involved in a three-team trade with the Bulls and Cavaliers in order to land Larry Nance Jr. from Cleveland in exchange for Derrick Jones‘ expiring contract and a lottery-protected first-round pick.
It was a nice bit of business for Olshey and the Blazers. Nance isn’t a star, but he’s an underrated two-way contributor who is on a team-friendly contract (two years, $20.4MM). He gives the team another reliable rotation player who brings plenty of energy and doesn’t need the ball in his hands to be effective. While Nance may not be the missing piece for a title, he increases Portland’s floor and ceiling for the 2021/22 season.
The Blazers are off to an underwhelming 3-5 start this fall, but their underlying numbers look a little better than that (they have a positive net rating) and Lillard is mired in a shooting slump that presumably won’t last too much longer.
When the dust settles, I expect Portland to finish somewhere in the neighborhood of where they did last season, when they claimed the sixth spot in the Western Conference and were tied with both the fifth- and seventh-place teams.
As that result showed, there’s little margin for error in the West, so the Blazers will need a couple of their bench players – perhaps youngsters Anfernee Simons and Nassir Little – to step up and complement a strong starting five if the team hopes to clinch a playoff spot without going through the play-in tournament.
It’s easy to write the Blazers off as first-round playoff fodder for the conference’s more dangerous teams, but it’s worth noting that Portland made the Western Conference Finals just two years ago in 2019. The team still has enough talent to a win a playoff series or two if everything breaks right. If everything goes wrong, Lillard’s future could become a hot topic again in 2022.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Phoenix Suns.
Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.
Mikal Bridges: Four years, $90,000,000. Starts in 2022/23.Phoenix’s 8-0 run during the 2020 summer restart at Walt Disney World portended the team’s jump in the standings in 2020/21, but even the most optimistic of Suns fans must have been pleasantly surprised by just how successful a season it was.
After finishing below .500 for six consecutive years and missing the playoffs for an entire decade, the Suns put up the second-best regular season record in the NBA (51-21) and knocked off the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, then just kept winning. Phoenix ultimately got within two games of the title before being stopped by the Bucks.
The Suns benefited from a little injury luck during their 2021 playoff run, but their success wasn’t a mirage — this is a deep, talented roster, and the club’s offseason moves reflected a desire to keep the group intact.
That meant re-signing Chris Paul, even if the idea of committing four years and $120MM to a 36-year-old may have been hard to swallow for team owner Robert Sarver. Fortunately for the Suns, only the first two years of that contract are fully guaranteed, which means that even if Paul’s performance drops off a cliff in the next year or two, it should never become a major albatross.
For comparison’s sake, CP3’s new deal includes less total guaranteed money ($75MM) than John Wall was still owed ($91.7MM) at the time the Rockets shut him down indefinitely earlier this year, and about the same amount ($74MM) that Kemba Walker was owed when he reached a buyout agreement with the Thunder.
The Suns locked up three more of their own free agents, re-signing Cameron Payne, Abdel Nader, and Frank Kaminsky. Nader and Kaminsky will play modest roles, but bringing back Payne as Paul’s backup following his career resurgence was crucial. Securing him to a new deal helped allow Phoenix to package its third-string point guard – Jevon Carter – with a first-round pick in a deal for another floor-spacing wing, Landry Shamet.
Carter is a solid defender, but reliable outside shooters like Shamet are harder to come by in today’s NBA, and the win-now Suns were unlikely to draft an immediate contributor with the No. 29 pick, so the deal made sense — especially since Phoenix was able to replace Carter on the depth chart by signing another defensive specialist, Elfrid Payton, to a minimum-salary contract.
The Suns’ other notable outside free agent addition was JaVale McGee, a solid veteran center who can help Deandre Ayton match up with star big men like Nikola Jokic, Anthony Davis, and Rudy Gobert in the playoffs.
Phoenix’s offseason signings didn’t push team salary for 2021/22 into tax territory, but the club projects to be a taxpayer starting in ’22/23. That knowledge informed many of the team’s remaining roster moves.
For instance, the Suns were unwilling to exercise Jalen Smith‘s 2022/23 team option after having drafted him with the 10th overall pick less than a year ago. There has simply been no room in the rotation for Smith since he arrived in Phoenix, and the club clearly didn’t expect that to change much going forward. Rather than paying Smith a $4.67MM salary in ’22/23, the team will likely sign a minimum-salary player next year to be that emergency big man off the bench.
The Suns also didn’t complete a rookie scale extension for Ayton, a former No. 1 overall pick, despite the fact that so many other members of his draft class (a record-setting 11) got new deals. Ayton’s camp reportedly refused to entertain anything less than a five-year, maximum-salary contract, which Phoenix was unwilling to offer.
Waiting until restricted free agency to work something out with Ayton is a risky move for the Suns, since it opens the door to some less desirable outcomes. Phoenix may have to match an offer sheet that features a trade kicker and an early opt-out. There’s even a chance Ayton could accept his one-year qualifying offer, putting him on track for unrestricted free agency in 2023.
But the franchise appeared more comfortable taking those risks than making such a significant financial commitment to its starting center. The best-case scenario for the Suns is that a lack of suitors with cap room results in no offer sheet for Ayton, who in turn accepts a little less than the max to remain in Phoenix, like John Collins did with Atlanta this past offseason.
The Suns did complete rookie scale extensions for Shamet and Mikal Bridges, viewing them as core players who could be locked up at a reasonable price (about $10.6MM per year for Shamet and $22.5MM annually for Bridges).
Paul won’t play at an All-NBA level forever, but further improvements from young players such as Devin Booker, Ayton, and Bridges could offset some regression from the future Hall-of-Fame point guard. And while there are plenty of talented teams in the West, there’s not one that stands out as the clear-cut favorite to win the conference, like the Warriors were from 2016-19. Another deep playoff run is a reasonable goal for Phoenix.
One more trade to address the hole left by Dario Saric‘s ACL injury would help solidify the Suns’ place as a legit title contender, but assuming Paul doesn’t take a major step back and the team isn’t plagued by more bad injury luck, the biggest question marks in Phoenix this season may be about off-the-court issues, rather than on-court talent.
Will Ayton be distracted at all by his contract situation? Will the rumored report accusing Sarver of a series of misdeeds see the light of day? If so, will those allegations be deemed credible enough to cause an ownership shake-up?
The Suns won’t sneak up on anyone in 2021/22, so it will be fascinating to see how capable they are of defending their Western Conference crown with a target on their backs and potential off-court distractions looming.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Philadelphia 76ers.
Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.
Following some major changes prior to last season – most notably the hiring of Doc Rivers as head coach – Philadelphia wasn’t particularly active this summer. The Sixers didn’t make a noteworthy trade and their free agent moves were mainly window dressing. Under normal circumstances, they would have been under the radar, quietly preparing for another winning season and banking on their recent playoff experiences to prime them for a championship run.
Instead, the Sixers were all over the news, thanks to their disgruntled point guard in the early stages of his maximum-salary contract. Ben Simmons‘ subpar performances in last year’s playoffs, punctuated by a reluctance to shoot and woeful free-throw numbers that made it difficult to keep him in at crunch time, had a carryover effect. His offensive issues led to plenty of criticism and contributed mightily to the team’s conference semifinal loss to Atlanta. There were all kinds of detractors who wondered whether the Sixers could ever win a championship with Simmons running the show.
He could have used that as fuel to prove the critics wrong. Instead, he took the opposite approach. With four years left on his max deal, Simmons made it clear during the summer that he had no desire to suit up for the organization again. Team executives, coaches and players couldn’t make Simmons change his mind. The front office and his agent, Rich Paul, looked into potential deals but Philadelphia made it clear from the start it wanted a major haul for the three-time All-Star.
Simmons eventually ended his holdout, but the drama continued into the regular season. He has yet to play this season while top executive Daryl Morey publicly dug in his heels, saying he has four years to get a deal done.
While Simmons pushed to leave Philadelphia, the team’s other big star was happy to commit long-term with a new max extension. Despite some concerns about Joel Embiid‘s health issues, the Sixers made it clear that they’re determined to win a title with their All-Star center leading the way.
Philadelphia also brought back two key perimeter players in free agency, re-signing Danny Green and Furkan Korkmaz. Green has started on the wing since he joined the 76ers prior to last season and brings plenty of championship experience to the table. Korkmaz has been a valuable reserve the last two seasons, providing some size on the wing along with 3-point shooting.
The Sixers did go shopping for upgrades at forward and center on their second unit. They opted for former Jazz backup Georges Niang and former All-Star Andre Drummond. Niang is another player who does most of his offensive damage from beyond the 3-point line.
Drummond’s value has dropped dramatically since his first few seasons with Detroit. He had a chance to reestablish his worth when he signed with the Lakers last season after he was bought out by Cleveland following the trade deadline. Drummond was so ineffective that he wound up getting benched in Game 6 of the conference quarterfinals against Phoenix. He’s capable of putting up big numbers at times, but he’s not used to coming off the bench.
Rivers admitted that the Simmons drama took some of the fun and excitement out of the start of Philadelphia’s season. The franchise is in a win-now mode and that doesn’t figure to change with Embiid locked up long-term.
It’s difficult to gauge how this season will unfold until there’s more clarity regarding Simmons’ status. It’s hard to imagine him getting back in uniform and winning over Philadelphia’s demanding fans after what has transpired over the last few months. At this point, a trade would seem like the best option, but Morey will have to drop his asking price for that to happen.
The Sixers still have the league’s top big man, a rock-solid scorer and rebounder in Tobias Harris, and a promising young point man in Tyrese Maxey. They also have plenty of shooting, led by Seth Curry. But even if Embiid is healthy for the playoffs, the Sixers will need to add a quality starter via a Simmons trade to make a spirited run this season.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post. Luke Adams contributed to this post.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Orlando Magic.
Note: Exhibit 9 and 10 deals aren’t included here.
A whirlwind 2021 trade deadline paved the way for the Magic to have a relatively quiet offseason. Back in March, Orlando decided to launch a full-scale rebuild and finalized three separate trades that sent Nikola Vucevic to Chicago, Aaron Gordon to Denver, and Evan Fournier to Boston.
That type of roster overhaul is more common during the summer than midway through the season, but the Magic had been hit hard by injuries and had lost 27 of 35 games leading up to the deadline after winning six of eight to open the year. They weren’t going to make the playoffs and they were in a position to be one of the league’s few major in-season sellers, so they struck early.
That decisiveness allowed the Magic to perhaps extract more for Vucevic than they would’ve if they’d taken a more patient approach. When the Bulls sent their top-four protected 2021 first-rounder to Orlando in the package for the standout center, they were presumably counting on grabbing one of the last couple playoff spots in the East and sacrificing a pick in the 15-16 range. Instead, Chicago struggled down the stretch and had to convey the No. 8 overall pick to the Magic.
The Magic’s draft luck continued when, despite having their own pick land at No. 5 in the lottery, they were able to land one of the consensus top-four prospects in the 2021 class. Toronto surprised observers by snagging Scottie Barnes at No. 4, allowing Jalen Suggs to slip to Orlando.
Whether Suggs will turn out to be a better pro than Barnes remains to be seen, but the former Gonzaga guard was the higher-ranked player on most experts’ – and, by all accounts, most teams’ – draft boards. The Magic likely could’ve extracted a significant price from a club interested in trading up for Suggs, so staying put and selecting him – even with point guards Markelle Fultz and Cole Anthony already locked up for the next three years – is a good indication they’re high on his potential.
Orlando used its second lottery pick (courtesy of the Bulls) to select Michigan’s Franz Wagner, a talented young forward who looks capable of becoming an impact player on both sides of the ball. The idea of pairing Wagner with Jonathan Isaac – once Isaac gets healthy – and letting the two young forwards loose on the defensive end is a tantalizing one.
While adding Suggs and Wagner were the Magic’s major moves of the summer, the team also decided to invest long-term in Wendell Carter after acquiring the former Bulls big man in the Vucevic trade. The price Orlando paid – $50MM over four years – suggests the team is confident the former Duke standout can continue to improve after putting up pretty similar numbers in each of his first three seasons.
Even if Carter plateaus, the contract will never be an albatross. Its descending structure means it will be worth just $10.85MM by its final year in 2025/26, making it a good trade chip if WCJ is no longer in Orlando’s plans by then.
The Magic were relatively quiet on the trade market and made just a couple free agent additions, bringing in steady veterans Robin Lopez and E’Twaun Moore on inexpensive one-year contracts. Lopez, in particular, is a heady player who will be able to impart plenty of knowledge on young big men Carter and Mohamed Bamba over the course of the season.
Orlando’s offseason was ultimately defined by the rookies it added, both on and off the court — besides drafting Suggs and Wagner, the team hired first-time head coach Jamahl Mosley to replace Steve Clifford. Mosley gained a strong reputation for player development during his time in Dallas under Rick Carlisle and will be tasked with guiding a young Magic team through the toughest stage of its rebuild. The losses will come early and often for Mosley, but if guys like Suggs, Wagner, Fultz, and Isaac are improving under his tutelage, he’ll be doing his job.
The Eastern Conference will be competitive this season, with 12 or 13 teams eyeing a playoff berth or at least a play-in spot. The odds of the Magic joining that group are slim — they and the Pistons are good bets to occupy the 14th and 15th spots in the conference, in some order.
Still, there are some intriguing building blocks here, especially once the team gets healthier. Suggs, Wagner, Carter, Fultz, Isaac, Bamba, Anthony, Chuma Okeke, and R.J. Hampton aren’t all future stars, but there’s plenty of untapped upside in that group, and the Magic have the ability to add a few more assets to their collection by trading Terrence Ross at some point in the coming months.
There’s a long way to go before the Magic will be talking about contending again, but the rebuild has taken a good first step or two this year.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Spotrac was used in the creation of this post.