Sacramento Kings
This summer the Kings have prioritized adding some NBA vets to help balance out their young core. Sacramento surprised a lot of people with their run for the 8 seed last season but fell just short as they dropped multiple close games at the end of the season. The hope for this season is that their young guys will take another leap as they’re surrounded by more playoff experienced players which is why they signed Harrison Barnes to a 4 year $85 million dollar contract as soon as free agency began. Some people called it an overpay, which it might be, but the truth is that today’s NBA really favors guys like HB. The most valuable things about him is his ability to switch on defense and play as a small-ball four but he also brings good spacing, playoff experience, and a great locker room presence to the team. If Sacramento hadn’t offered him that contract, any other team with money to spend would have. I think Barnes is a perfect 3rd or 4th option (Behind Hield, Fox, and likely Bagley) for this team.
Sacramento also signed Trevor Ariza, who will likely serve as the team dad alongside Zach Randolph (Z-bo was healthy all year but never played; he basically got paid $12 million to sit front row every game and go workout sometimes which is my dream). Ariza slots into the role that Vince Carter had on the team a couple years ago. He’ll play maybe 10 mpg but really he’s just there to mentor the younger guys, specifically Buddy Hield. I expect to see Buddy become a better defender due to Ariza’s presence with the team. I think he’ll spend a lot of time working with him on using his length on the defensive end. To shore out the roster Sacramento signed Dewayne Dedmon and Cory Joseph. The Dedmon pickup makes sense as he’ll take the backup center position as Marvin Bagley moves to the starting lineup but I’m not sure where Joseph fits. Sacramento already has a short spark plug point guard off the bench in Yogi Ferrel so it would be tough to play the two of them together. Joseph does play stronger defense though so the backup guard spot might depend on matchups. I think the Kings definitely improved, especially with Bagley now starting (in games where he played 30 minutes he averaged 21/11) but the rest of the West just got so much better. I don’t see the Kings making the playoffs unless some of the top teams fall out due to injuries.
Bagley should end the season as the Kings second leading scorer behind Hield. I think they're at their best with Fox focusing on distributing to those two.
San Antonio Spurs
As always, the Spurs were very quiet this summer. They traded Davis Bertans for Demarre Carrol early on, which many people expected to be just a preliminary move to set them up for another free agent. Then...nothing happened. There was talk that Demar Derozan had been recruiting Demarcus Cousins but he signed with LA instead ( Demar-Demarre-Demarcus sounds like a Pokemon evolutionary chain which makes me even more disappointed that Boogie chose the Lakers) and Marcus Morris had even verbally agreed to a deal with the team before he reneged and went to the Knicks to complete their slightly above average power forwards infinity gauntlet. Soon after the Morris deal fell through, the team sort of just settled for Trey Lyles it seemed like, just to fill the hole that Bertans had left at forward. Overall, it felt like the Spurs swung and missed on a deep free agency class, but everyone just kind of forgets they exist until the playoffs start so no one noticed. The good news is that San Antonio will get Dejounte Murray back after his ACL injury last summer that held him out for the year. With Murray back at point guard, the Spurs guard rotation should be a bit less hectic (they were starting 5’11 Patty Mills and 6’4 Derrick White in the backcourt some nights which is just not ideal) and the defense should see a boost. The team was devastated by injuries last season so it’ll be interesting to see what they can do at full strength this year but I don’t think they have the firepower necessary to make any real noise. I still fully expect Coach Pop to drag this team to a 6 or 7 seed at worst though.
With Tim Duncan joining the Spurs coaching staff, could we see him get ejected for laughing again?
Utah Jazz
With the West as wide open as it’s ever been, the Jazz made sure to reload before what should be a big year for them. They opened the summer by finally trading for Mike Conley, which is a move that’s been discussed all year solely because of how much sense it makes. Conley’s playmaking and defensive abilities will fit right in besides Donovan Mitchell who won’t have an entire defense focused on him every night now. Conley provides the team with that second scorer that they’ve needed to push them over the edge into the territory of elite teams. They didn’t stop with Conley though. They also signed Bojan Bogdanovic (somehow he’s not related to Bogdan Bogdanovic of the Kings) from the Pacers. Bogdanovic proved himself to be a capable scorer in Indiana last season after Oladipo went down, though he works best as a 3rd or 4th option like he’ll be in Utah. He’ll likely come off the bench but Coach Snyder may opt to try him out as a small ball 4 (if he starts next to Joe Ingles I’d like to see them nicknamed BoJingles) which would clear plenty of space up for Gobert to operate inside. I think the additions of Conley and Bogdanovic give Utah some much needed flexibility. Their one-note offense tended to drag at times and their great defense just wasn’t enough to get them past the elite teams in the West.
The Jazz also picked up Ed Davis, an incredible rebounder and great locker room guy, and Emmanuel Mudiay, who’ll probably end up starting at some point when Conley and Dante Exum inevitably get injured. They also signed Jeff Green, who’s probably just going to sign a 1 year deal with every team in the league at this point. Green should slot into the role that Jae Crowder earned last season before he was traded. Utah made all the right moves this season and I expect to see them hover around the top of the West but I think their success is all tied into Conley’s health. Conley hasn’t played over 70 games in a season since 2013 and any untimely injury could tank Utah’s seeding. As he’s getting older, there’s no reason to believe this won’t be the case at some point this year as well but it shouldn’t matter as long as he’s healthy come playoff time. To me, the Jazz have reached the point where I could realistically see them winning any matchup they’re faced with in the playoffs.
I think the Bogdanovic signing is flying under the radar a bit too much. Basically, the Jazz picked up a 2nd and 3rd scorer this summer when they didn't have either of those the last couple of years.
Atlanta Hawks
Spoiler alert: the Hawks are going to be bad again this year. They know it. That’s why their focus this offseason wasn’t on next season but on NEXT next season. Atlanta traded for Evan Turner, Chandler Parsons, Solomon Hill, and Allen Crabbe, four incredibly overpaid role players with not much to bring to the team except for their expiring contracts. Once those four come off the books, it’ll free up about $200 million for the Hawks. A good bit of that will undoubtedly go towards an extension for Trae Young once his rookie contract is up but they’ll still have enough space to take on another max contract. Whether the team can prove that they’re an attractive destination for future free agents is up to them. They definitely have some good young talent in Young (I didn’t know how to avoid this pun I’m so sorry) and John Collins but that talent didn’t translate to many wins last year and things don’t look like they’ll change much this year. Besides the trades, all the Hawks have done this offseason is sign Jabari Parker, who’s been bouncing around the league lately for a reason. Don’t expect much more from Atlanta but more tanking this season.
The Hawks suck and so does their mascot. Tough times in Atlanta
Boston Celtics
The Celtics continued their game of all-star point guard musical chairs this summer as they signed Kemba Walker to a 4 year max deal (in the last 5 years Boston has had Rondo, Isaiah Thomas, Kyrie, and now Kemba on their roster but never at the same time) while Kyrie left to join KD in Brooklyn. Kyrie didn’t leave all too gracefully, as he imploded in the Bucks series shooting under 40% in four straight losses, but he really set Kemba up to be a hero in Boston. Kemba has always been dreadfully underappreciated as he spent his first eight years in Charlotte, missing the playoffs each year. I’ve felt that he’s always deserved the spotlight that the Kyries and the Westbrooks of the league get, but he’s never had the help to warrant anyone paying attention to his team. Honestly, I don’t even know who’s better between Kemba and Kyrie . Sure, Kyrie has the playoff experience and an edge in flashiness as well as MAYBE being a slightly better scorer than Kemba (this is one of those debates I’ll probably write more about after Kemba’s played a season with the team because it’s just such a fun question and what makes talking about the NBA so much fun. Also, is Lillard better than both of them?), but he’s brought plenty of drama to his past teams which have lead to some messy break ups. I think that Kemba’s leadership and desire to finally play playoff basketball will put Boston in a good place.
He won’t be able to make up for everyone’s departures though. Al Horford, Marcus Morris, Terry Rozier, and Aron Baynes all left the team this summer, leaving the Celtics rotation in a state of disarray. All four played heavy minutes which will have to be replaced by...somebody. The Boston roster is honestly looking pretty scarce. They did manage to sign Enes Kanter, who would have been a great back up to Horford, but with the way things are looking, he might be the starting center come October. Kanter is great offensively, but the Boston starting lineup shouldn’t need much help there and his atrocious defense has been the reason why teams have always preferred to bring him off the bench. There are a few question marks floating around Boston’s upcoming season but the team’s hope is that Kemba will fit into Brad Stevens offense well while Hayward hopefully returns to his all-star form. With the East as weak as it’s ever been, I think Boston could cruise into the ECF depending on seeding.
Kemba and Kyrie are so similar it's hard to tell who might be better. They're both small point guards with incredible handles who can score from anywhere. I think Kemba will fit in better with Boston purely because of his attitude.
Brooklyn Nets
Brooklyn kicked off one of the wildest summers ever in the NBA when they signed KD, Kyrie, and Deandre Jordan to open up the free agency period. With how quickly the news broke, it’s obvious that the trio had been planning this for quite a while but it was still shocking to see it all come to fruition. With KD (do you think he changed his number to 7 so that he and Kyrie would be nicknamed “7/11” since one of them will always be open if they’re playing together? I might be reaching a bit but also this is exactly the kind of thing those two weirdos would go for, especially after KD never became a “Splash Brother”) out for all of next season, they won’t be able to prove if they’re a true super team just yet, which may actually be a blessing in disguise. There's always an adjustment period when an all-star goes to a new team, but we’ve never seen 3 all-stars (Remember that one year where Deandre Jordan was an all-star AND got first team all-nba? Yeah that was like two years ago, what happened to him?) move to a new team. It’s probably best that the Nets avoid this unprecedented territory and instead focus on getting Kyrie and DJ ready to play with the team. KD is good enough that he can slot in at anytime without much of an adjustment (assuming he comes back healthy) like we saw him do in Golden State. Unguardable seven-footers who can shoot from anywhere tend to do that, but a ball-dominant guard like Kyrie needs more time to build chemistry with the team.
Next season will be a pretty tough test for Kyrie, as he’s essentially just taken over for D’Angelo Russell. Kyrie’s a much better player, no question, but the Nets loved Russell and Kyrie’s proven himself to be a pretty terrible leader before. If he can get through the whole year without any locker room issues, coaching issues, or conspiracy issues I’ll be surprised. I don’t say this just to trash Kyrie though (maybe just a little bit). I think it’ll be tough to fit him in besides Caris LaVert and Spencer Dinwiddie who are both pretty ball-dominant guards themselves. Russell was eventually able to coexist with Dinwiddie but he struggled with consistency at the beginning of the year before LaVert got injured. He only broke out after that injury, which means that at least one of Kyrie, LaVert and Dinwiddie is going to have to sacrifice a bit and you can bet that it won’t be Kyrie.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Nets perform next year. The team is basically the same besides the switch of Kyrie and Russell. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Jared Dudley left in free agency and Jarret Allen will likely come off the bench in place of Deandre Jordan but I don’t see that making much of a difference. There really aren’t any expectations for Brooklyn this year which is good for them, they can just focus on getting healthy and staying drama free. I would be a bit concerned when KD gets back though if I were a Nets fan. I think the trio of KD, Kyrie, and DJ has the least amount of mental fortitude out of any big three in the league and the New York media could tear them up if they pick up on anything even close to drama.
I expect Brooklyn to bring Dinwiddie off the bench again this year to avoid playing him next to Kyrie. I could also see them using him as a trade piece if they realize they have a gap in the roster that needs to be filled.