Atlanta was the NBA's busiest team in free agency, and it is coming for a playoff spot. Its All-Star point guard now has all sorts of help: a backcourt partner who can both shoot and create, a crafty veteran forward overqualified for his sixth-man role, a 34-year-old backup who can keep things organized and a 26-year-old combo guard who reinvented himself as one of the best ballhawks in the game. The front office might have also nabbed the best big man in the draft.
A future Hall of Famer saw enough in the bubble to want to go to Phoenix, and the front office saw enough in the bubble to trade for a 35-year-old point guard and go all-in. The Suns then used its midlevel exception on a two-way stretch 4, used its biannual exception on a combo guard coming off a career year, added another rotation-caliber guard for the minimum and re-signed two of its own free agents to reasonable contracts. As a result, a postseason berth is likely, as long as the former No. 1 pick in the middle continues to grow.All in all, an undeniably successful offseason, even if you're skeptical that their draft-night reach will work out as well as last year's did.
A Spurs-y 3-and-D wing fell to them in the draft, and they retained two young bigs on team-friendly deals. This is enough to make it a good offseason, but fundamentally they're still occupying the weird middle ground where they've lived for the past few seasons.Sometimes, the most important offseason moves are the ones that aren't made. In San Antonio's case, its four medium-to-high-priced vets on expiring contracts are all returning. This organization almost never makes in-season trades, but that could change this year.If you're not a contender, then trading a 30-year-old guard for three first-round picks and two swaps is a massive victory. New Orleans also managed to extend its 23-year-old All-Star without surrendering a player option. bet365가입 Good stuff all around.
Orlando's most promising player tore his ACL in the bubble, and some organizations would have taken this opportunity to have a gap year: Move all the vets, bottom out and add another core player in a stacked draft.This is not what the Magic did. They'll probably be a bit worse offensively with a 20-year-old rookie in the spot that was previously occupied by a 33-year-old floor general, but they'll be disciplined, get stops and, health permitting, be in the mix for a lower-rung playoff spot. Excited?
After agreeing to a blockbuster trade with the New Orleans Pelicans for Jrue Holiday, the Bucks thought they had another deal in place with the Sacramento Kings that would have seen them acquire Bogdan Bogdanovic. Adding those two would have been a significant upgrade, but the Bogdanovic move fell apart and they had to pivot and signed a number of veteran bench players who aren't quite as exciting.While they still did pretty well overall, the sting of losing Bogdanovic -- reportedly Giannis' top target this offseason -- is hard to forget when the stakes are this high. If Giannis re-signs, the Bucks will be locked in as title contenders for the foreseeable future. Which is why, joke gifts aside, Middleton has made it clear to Giannis how he feels.
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