Milwaukee Bucks
After an incredibly successful season, it was no surprise that the Bucks would do all they could to keep their core together, especially with the league as wide open as it’s ever been. Khris Middleton’s agent obviously knew this which is probably why he was signed to an enormous extension. Middleton wisely re-signed with the Bucks for 5 years, $178m, which was likely much more than he would get anywhere else, especially since he was coming off sort of a down year. Though the Bucks were kind of backed into a corner on this deal (Middleton is a great sidekick to Giannis and also one of his best friends on the team, they couldn’t afford to lose him now) it’s definitely an overpay. Middleton provides the Bucks with some solid scoring and shooting, and does surprisingly well as a passer and playmaker, but his play always tanks in the playoffs. Besides the seven game series against Boston in 2018, (when he shot a ridiculous 61% from 3 which was somehow even higher than the 60% he shot from the field overall) Middleton’s scoring and efficiency have fallen drastically in the postseason each year. Even this past year while he was trying to earn a max contract, Middleton posted 17ppg on just 42% from the field. Not ideal for your second option (really Eric Bledsoe was better in this role but Middleton got the all-star nod anyways) but the Bucks are still hopeful that he’ll play up to his new contract.
Milwaukee wasn’t able to keep everyone though as Malcom Brogdon left for Indiana and Nikola Mirotic went back to the EuroLeague, which I thought was a bit of a shock. Mirotic never really thrived in Milwaukee like he did at the start of the season in New Orleans and his departure might indicate that he wasn’t always happy with how he was utilized. In his absence, the Bucks doubled down on their Lopezes by picking up Robin Lopez (the wilder twin brother ofBrook Lopez who had a resurgent year with the team last season). Robin should give a boost to the bench defense though he lacks the scoring ability that Mirotic provided. New arrival Wes Matthews should be able to help there though. He didn’t have a great year in Indiana though I thought he was asked to do a bit too much after the Oladipo injury. I’d expect him to be a solid 3&D vet in Coach Bud’s system. All in all, I think the Bucks are poised to make another run at the top spot in the East, though I don’t think they have the star power necessary to top some of the more stacked teams out West.
With any luck, the huge contract he got will motivate Middleton to play like this more often
New York Knicks
Oh the Knicks. Those poor, poor Knicks. You really just have to feel bad for those guys now. I mean, the disappointment didn’t even wait until the offseason this year as Porzingis just decided he was done and bailed on the team in the middle of his rehab (which might seem like a bad look but really who can blame him at this point). After he left, Zion became New York’s new basketball messiah. Knick fans expected to suffer through the slog of another terrible season in hopes that they’d be rewarded with the first pick in the draft. They’d draft Zion, whose young talent would attract stars like KD and Kyrie (who both have ties to New York) who would form the league’s next big three and finally drag the Knicks out of the dirt! Nope. They struck out on all three guys. Instead, the New York Knickerbockers signed Julius Randle, Bobby Portis, Marcus Morris, Wayne Ellington, Elfrid Payton, and Taj Gibson. Not exactly what they were hoping for. To make things worse, four of those guys are power forwards (3 of them being 6’9 or under) and the team currently only has one center on the roster. It’s going to be another rough year in New York.
Still, I’ll try to find some positives to this offseason. Though they didn’t land Zion, RJ Barrett is nothing to scoff at. He seems like the most NBA ready player that the team has drafted in a long time. They also have a pretty good collection of talent to show between the four (I can’t get over the fact that a team really signed FOUR power forwards in one offseason) big men they signed this summer. Randle and Portis both have very similar skill sets, but they’re both young and can either continue to develop with the team or be used in a trade later on down the line. The most important thing here though is that almost everyone the Knicks signed this summer come off the books around the same time, meaning they should be in play for some of the bigger free agency classes that are coming up. We can assume the Knicks management realized this and essentially just threw in the towel for this year, which was their best option.
Though he had a pretty rough showing overall in the summer league, Barrett still showed some promise in the Knicks last game
Orlando Magic
After a surprise playoff appearance, the Magic had a tough decision to make regarding their star center Nikola Vucevic. After drafting Mo Bamba and Jonathan Isaac in back to back years, most people were expecting Orlando to move Vucevic to acquire assets for a rebuild. What they didn’t expect was to stumble into the seventh seed last year, which is probably why they hesitated to pull the trigger on a Vucevic trade. Now it seems that he’s going to be a part of the teams long term plan after Orlando signed him to a 4 year, $100m contract, which is a steal for a player of his caliber. Sure, he doesn’t really fit with the NBA’s new obsession with mobile, switchable bigs but he’s still a guaranteed 20/10 a night and his mentoring of the other young bigs on the team should really benefit their development.
Eventually the team will have to make a decision about what to do with Bamba and Isaac though. Both players are capable of playing the 4 or the 5 but those spots are already taken by Aaron Gordon and Vucevic. Bamba and Isaac have both shown promise but I’m not really sure that the Magic know what to do with them at this point. They’re too young to give up on but the team’s frontcourt is just too crowded to give them heavy minutes that would allow them to develop. I don’t think the Magic will trade either of them so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some frustration over playing time this season. Despite all that, the Magic are poised to have an even better season this year as they were able to keep their entire roster together (as well as add Al-Farouq Aminu, another solid vet who probably has no idea where he fits in with this team). Now that they’ve shifted into more of a winning mentality, I’d expect the team to push for a 5 or 6 seed.
If you didn't think it was a big deal that Orlando was able to make the playoffs last season just look at how they were doing two years ago. (Really I'm just using any excuse I can find to show this video)
Philadelphia 76ers
The 76ers easily had the most underrated offseason this year as they managed to re-sign Tobias Harris as well as pick up Al Horford. Even when they lost Jimmy Butler they were able to flip him for Josh Richardson in a sign and trade deal with Miami that no one seemed to talk about. Richardson put up 16ppg pretty inefficiently last season, but was kind of forced to do so since the Heat didn’t really have a go-to-guy. I think he fits in perfectly besides Embiid and Simmons as a 4th option sort of player. Even if he just provides some strong defense he’ll be a plus. Horford should also help to improve the spacing of the team since he’s become a pretty efficient stretch four in the twilight years of his career (though its going to be rough when they’re paying him 27m a year when he’s 36). Hopefully this should keep Embiid from starting his offense from above the three point line as he did much of last season. Another underrated aspect of signing Horford is that Embiid won’t have to face off against him (Embiid has a 3-10 record vs Horford and his field goal percentage dropped to 44% and his turnovers shot up to 3.8 per game in those games) in any potential Celtics playoff matchups.
Holding on to Harris came at a pretty hefty cost but the Sixers were desperate for his shooting. He never really gelled with the team after he came on late in the year but I always thought his fit besides Jimmy Butler was pretty awkward. Harris had to go from being the undisputed number one guy on the Clippers to sharing the ball with Embiid, Butler, Redick, and Simmons. I think he should do better after a summer spent with the team and should play more as the second option besides Embiid.
Philly’s starting lineup of Simmons-Richardson-Harris-Horford-Embiid looks like the strongest in the league, at least on paper. The Sixers management did a great job of surrounding Simmons and Embiid with shooters to allow them more room to operate and in the process of doing so they came away with a lineup where everyone is 6’6 and over. Their defense should be terrifying for opposing teams to go up against now that they have the personnel to handle just about any match up in the league. The main problem with the team is going to be when this lineup sits or if there are any injuries. We saw this year with the Warriors that an amazing starting lineup can only get you so far and if any of these guys has to miss extended time, the bench (which currently consists of Mike Scott, Kyle O’Quinn and somebody named Shake Milton?) will get even weaker. With this lineup healthy, I think Philly can win any matchup but if anyone drops out, I can’t see them going far in the postseason.
With Horford joining the team, I expect Embiid to spend less time guarding the opposition's best big man. I think the Sixers will use Horford more as a defensive specialist and put his dad strength to good use.
Toronto Raptors
For the first time ever, a finals MVP left their team immediately after a championship when Kawhi Leonard signed with the LA Clippers in the biggest move of the summer. His decision leaves all of Toronto in a pretty weird place. Usually when a star leaves a successful team, there’s some bad blood (like when Kawhi snaked the Spurs last summer, a topic that got swept under the rug as soon as he became “silly laugh man.”). You’ll see the jersey burning videos and local radio pundits coming out with outrageous takes on how the team is better off without them, but Toronto really isn’t in a place for any of that. Kawhi came in and brought them their first championship, then left without any drama. The whole thing is very unique and interesting (also is Kawhi the Raptors GOAT after one season now?) but the Raptors are still going to have to move on this year. Without Kawhi and Danny Green (who left for the Lakers) the team is down two starters and were only able to replace them with Stanley Johnson and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Less than ideal but things could be a lot worse.
With Kyle Lowry turning 33 this year and his play beginning to decline I’m excited to see what Pascal Siakam can do as the teams first option. Siakam was one of the biggest surprises of last season as he became a full time starter and boosted his scoring by 10ppg. Though Lowry somehow got an all-star nod last year (probably just because he’s a bigger name) the spot really should have gone to Siakam who took over as the Raptors second option and posted some impressive numbers (like the 44 points on 15/25 he had against Washington) in games where Kawhi rested. If he’s the first option this year, I could see him being used as more of a point forward to push the tempo of the team’s offense. This would be a far cry from the iso heavy offense Toronto featured last season to play to Kawhi’s strength but a change in offense is needed with him gone. With the weird mix of ageing vets and young talent on the roster, I think this team has “5 seed” written all over it.
If you're not too familiar with Siakam's game, I think this video shows his whole skillset. I think he's in a position with the Raptors to become their next big star.
Washington Wizards
Well it didn’t take long for the Wizards season to be over as it was announced in February that John Wall (who was already recovering from season ending surgery on his heel) had ruptured his Achilles after slipping and falling in his home. Wall played in just 32 games last year and was obviously hampered by his heel already so coming back from the Achilles injury will be incredibly challenging. It’s unlikely that he plays at all this year so it’ll be up to Bradley Beal to do his best Lebron impression again and carry the team as hard as he can. Beal was impressive last year (25.6/5/5.5 on 47% shooting) but being the only scoring option on the team won’t be easy on his body. After playing all 82 games (in back to back years) and leading the league in minutes at 36.9 a game, I’m afraid the team may be running Beal into the ground a bit. This was likely what lead to Wall’s body starting to break down as well, since he played just about every game (and playoffs) with heavy minutes for years too. With Beal’s injury history and the bigger load he’ll have to take on this season, the team should consider resting him more often, especially now that they don’t have anything to play for.
Washington also took a flyer on Isaiah Thomas this summer, signing him to a 1 year deal. The signing works really well for both sides, in my opinion. The Wizards get a guy who will at worst provide some depth as a backup point guard and Thomas gets a situation where he’ll have the greenest of green lights to prove that he’s still the player we saw a few years ago with Boston (though with the Wizards recent track record I wouldn’t bet on that). The team was also able to re-sign their young center Thomas Bryant who showed some real promise last year. He was the only bright spot for the team besides Beal so I expect him to improve on a solid season. Besides these three guys, the Wizards roster is still looking pretty rough. I expect Washington to be a lottery team, but they’ll at least be a relatively entertaining one.
Sure, he won't do this every game (or probably ever again) but Bryant has the potential to develop into an ultra-efficient decent scorer like Rudy Gobert or DeAndre Jordan.