SI NBA Roundtable: The Offseason

[jonathanlambert33]

1) On a grading scale between A+ and F, what grade would you give your team's offseason?
 
nolafan33 (Pelicans): I would give the Pelicans an A.  I know that may seem a little high, but this summer for the Pelicans was about adding in my opinion, the best realistic and possible player they could have added to the roster this offseason while keeping all their core and young pieces together.  That is a major win.  I also like the addition of John Salmons, who I think will be asked to play a role that he fits better than what he has played in Sacramento and Toronto, and that is defending and knocking down spot up threes.
 
elcheato (Cavaliers): Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's pretty safe to say the Cavs off-season was an A+. When you add the best player in the world, who has not even turned 30 yet, it's hard to give a lower grade. And that is without mentioning originally winning the draft lottery, and trading that pick for Kevin Love, who depending on who you ask is a top 10 player in the NBA, who is also only 25. Have also added depth with Mike Miller, Shawn Marion, and potentially Ray Allen as well. The Cavs have become a free agent destination, and LeBron has done more recruiting in the last month and a half than he did in his first 7 years here. Also have Brendan Haywood's non-guaranteed 10 million dollar contract for the next off-season, which could net the Cavs a very good free agent in a S&T, or just a normal trade with a team trying to avoid the luxury tax. Still have the Memphis potential lotto pick. Good time to be a Cavs fan I'd say.
 
Bware4DWare94 (Rockets): D. Losing Chandler Parsons is going to bite this team in the ass, and hard. He was what they call the "glue guy" on this team who was a link between our two egotistical dipshit superstars and the rest of the team. Now that that link to camaraderie is gone, I fear the worst for this Houston team. I think we're looking at the 6 seed, at best. 
 
GMF1991 (Knicks): B- : Knicks didn't have a great offseason, and by no means improved their roster dramatically. Having said that, I still give them a B. They were able to re-sign Carmelo Anthony, and it seemed like it would be a long shot heading in to free agency. They traded Tyson CHandler and got rid of Ray Felton, and acquired Jose Calderon who will fit in to the system well, will be a good pair with Stoudemire and their other Bigs, and is absolutely an upgrade over Felton. 
 
bosoxlover12 (Celtics): Boston gets the letter B. We are not competing for the playoffs, so what do we do? Draft Marcus Smart at #6; kid will be a lockdown defender in the league, James Young as a great value pick at #13. We traded away meaningless cap space to help Cleveland re-land Lebron, and in the process we got depth at positions we needed (center and small forward/shooting guard), and got an additional 1st round draft pick out of it. We killed it.
 
Mobruler (Pistons): I give the Pistons a C+. First, the good things they've done. The overhaul of the front office and coaching staff is something that can't be anything but better. The free agent signings of Jodie Meeks, Caron Butler and DJ Augustin are moves that are very directly trying to improve the Pistons' biggest weakness last season, perimeter scoring. They also needed a veteran who is a good locker room guy, and Butler fills that role is well.
The problem, the problem of all problems, is the Greg Monroe/Josh Smith issue has not been solved. They didn't trade Smith, didn't sign and trade Monroe, and now Monroe is going to accept a qualifying offer to stay on the team and leave for nothing next season. That Smith/Monroe black cloud will still be looming and it drops their grade substantially.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

2) Which positions or skill sets, if any, were not addressed on your team this offseason?  If they were all addressed, which position or skill set was addressed the least?
 
nolafan33 (Pelicans): By Jrue returning from injury and bringing in John Salmons and Russ Smith we improved our perimeter defense, but more importantly we greatly improved our interior defense, post defense, and rebounding by bringing in Omer Asik.  We improved our perimeter shooting by replacing Al-Farouq Aminu (27% 3pt shooter) with John Salmons (39% 3pt shooter) and adding Jimmer Fredette (48%) to the roster.  I am really not sure what we failed to address.  Right now the most important thing is for our young core of Jrue, Rivers, Reke, Gordon, Anderson, Davis, and Asik to grow together.
 
elcheato (Cavaliers): The Cavs still are lacking plus defenders. I'm not going to say rim protector, because I think it's an old cliche and not necessarily needed but the Cavs do lack defense all-around. One would hope/assume Kyrie and Dion can take a jump defensively, as they are young and haven't been coached up (or just haven't listened to their coaches, which seems more likely). But they're both athletically gifted and can move laterally, so they should be able to improve vastly. No reason not to, other than desire. They do need more depth at center though, unless they think Tristan can play a lot of minutes at center (I believe he's better suited to play back up C than PF, so I'd be fine with it). 
 
Bware4DWare94 (Rockets): Point guard. It's like Daryl Morey is content going into the season with a pit bull who can barely shoot in Patrick Beverly. I love Beverly's intangibles, and I look forward to see him starting with another defensive ace in Trevor Ariza, but Houston needs to have somebody, anybody who can come off the bench and score, hopefully someone who scores but doesn't fuck up as often as Jeremy Lin did. Even if we haven't addressed the position, thank god that asshat is out of Houston. 
 
GMF1991 (Knicks):  don't even know where to start with this one. Knicks really had no shot of improving any positions this offseason. 
 
bosoxlover12 (Celtics): We still have the huge lack of a low post defender. We acquired Tyler, not Cody, Zeller, to start at center… ok. That’s mediocre at best. Vitor? Dude sucks and just probably drove his chances of making the team out with his DUI. We need a guy who can protect the rim, badly.
 
Mobruler (Pistons): Point guard wasn't addressed in the way it needed to be, but I'm not sure that's the front office's fault. Kyle Lowry wasn't going to come to Detroit and the team did what they could. What they could do and did do was expend their only draft pick on a boom/bust PG prospect in Spencer Dinwiddie. Then they signed a very strong backup PG in Augustin. They weren't able to do enough to replace a starting PG whom nobody can win anything with in Brandon Jennings, but hopefully they've been able to light a fire under his ass. 

 

[jonathanlambert33]

3) Excluding the Cavs, which team had the best offseason?
 
nolafan33: I think I'll have to go with San Antonio.  I think they faced three possible scenarios this offseason that could have hurt their
chances of repeating.  First being Pat Riley retaining LeBron while retooling or reloading that roster with better players than they had last season.  That obviously did not happen.  Second being Oklahoma City being able to add to Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka, by adding someone like Gasol.  That obviously did not happen either.  Lastly, San Antonio faced the possibility of losing some key reserves like Boris Diaw and Patty Mills.  They resigned both of those guys.
 
elcheato: Minnesota. I don't think it's fair to judge their off-season by saying "they lost Kevin Love so it's not good". They were in a no win situation as soon as Kevin Love made it known he would never re-sign with Minnesota, and they ended up winning. LeBron deciding to return to Cleveland was the best thing that happened to Minnesota. Star players demanding to be traded never net the kind of package the Wolves got. Wiggins has star potential, and I think he has a better chance to reach that potential in Minnesota. I also have faith in Anthony Bennett. Bennett is usually the type of prospect that teams trading star's receive as the center piece, and he was basically their thrown in to sweeten the deal. If Miami has injury problems the draft pick they get could prove to be valuable, but they should still slip into the post-season, so it will at least net them an extra draft pick. LaVine has the makings of a really good two guard. Minnesota has a decent looking future, especially if they bottom out this year and get a top 5 pick. 
 
BwareDWare94: The Mavericks. They've put themselves right in the conversation for contention with the acquisitions of Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons. Hopefully the PG position straightens out for them, because that appears to be the only question mark on that roster, now.
 
GMF1991: Charlotte Hornets : Added Stephenson who will bring a lot of energy to that time, as well as Marvin Williams. They had a decent draft adding Noah Vonleh and PJ Hairston. And not only did they add Stephenson and a few others, but they god them for very reasonable prices. I think we all expected Stephenson to sign for a lot more money, so 3 years $27M felt almost like a steal. 
 
bosoxlover12: Philly. The Sixers are tanking, and everyone knows this. But god are they stacked for the future. They have the current ROY in Michael Carter-Williams. They have Nerlens Noel, a shot blocking fiend, who looked offensively great in Summer League. And in the draft, they get Joel Embiid, who will probably pull the Noel-route, and sit out the year. They also drafted Saric, who will come in 2-3 years to the Sixers. And most likely, they will be acquiring Anthony Bennett from the Cavs in the Kevin Love deal. They have the future damn set. And unlike the Thunder model, where they were good after they got Harden and went all in, they are STILL going to suck this year. Give the Sixers Emmanuel Muniday or Stanley Johnson in this next draft, and they will have one of the most lethal starting cores in the entire league when everyone pans out. They will be scary good. Great job by Philly.
 
Mobruler: The Warriors had the best off season by not doing much of anything, by not being tempted to give in on all of the trade speculations they were involved in. They surpassed temptation and kept the splash bros in-tact. If you have a great thing growing, let it grow. Adding Shaun Livingston just strengthened their foundation and these are the kinds of moves a team with a great looking young core needs to embrace. Stay on course and make moves to solidify it. 

 

[jonathanlambert33]

4) Excluding LeBron, which team had the single best acquisition?
 
nolafan33: As long as his head is correctly on his shoulders, I will say it has to be Lance Stephenson.  He is only 23 years old, and he's already a very good player.  As long as he doesn't go into hero mode, I think this will be a great acquisition.
 
elcheato: I'll say Lance Stephenson in Charlotte. I'm a huge believer in Stephenson, and think that with an expanded role he'll be even better. He's got the confidence you want in a star/franchise player, and an incredible amount of ability. You're going to see a monster year out of him, and elevate the Hornets into a top 4 seed. 
 
BwareDWare94: The Mavericks. Chandler Parsons, while not the same level of player as, say, Pau Gasol, is a great fit for that roster and is only going to get better with a real head coach in Rick Carlisle. What's amazing is that Chandler continued to progress under the tutelage of the incredibly inept Kevin McHale. Other great acquisitions include the aforementioned Gasol to the Bulls, Lance Stephenson to the Hornets, and Luol Deng to the Heat. Under the radar signings that could be huge for their respective teams are Shaun Livingston to GSW, Vince Carter to Memphis, Mike Miller to Cleveland, and there's more, but I'm not going to look through the Trade Tracker, again.
 
GMF1991: Dallas Mavericks - Chandler Parsons: I looked at some other teams, but I couldn't find any one acquisition that had the type of impact that Parsons deal had. Now, by no means is this kid a star or anything, but after losing on both Melo & LeBron, I felt this was a huge blow to the Rockets. Dallas really needed to add someone like Parsons, but I like the acquisition more because it hurts Houston more than helps Dallas. 
 
bosoxlover12: Derrick Rose is coming back, and based on the Team USA games and practices, he looks at least 80% of his MVP talent, if not more than 80. Joakim Noah is the defending DPOY. They now have the Bucket Bros (Jimmy Buckets and Doug McBuckets) on the wings, with Tony Snell and Mirotic as well. Taj Gibson should have won the 6th Man Award last year, and is a killer 6th man rotation piece. But the best pickup, in my opinion, is Pau Gasol. Two words here: Floor. Spacing. Pau can post up, he can play on the mid range. He is a fantastic passer for a big, and the teammates he will have around with him will get a lot of open looks due to the spacing he creates. Will he be a 20ppg scorer? Probably not. But he can put up 15-16ppg, and be the main contributor offensively and defensively and help the Bulls compete for a title? Hell yes.
 
Mobruler: Isaiah Thomas to the Suns. I think he fits perfectly with the identity the Suns have, and if they run a Dragic/Bledsoe/Thomas three guard rotation, that is going to be incredible and so much fun to watch. I think they will rise from a team who battled for the 8th seed last season to a team I can see as 6, 5 or even 4.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

5) Which team had the most overrated offseason?
 
nolafan33: This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I will go with Dallas.  First off, you have to look at their additions.  Chandler Parons is obviously the main guy, but I feel his acquisition has kind of taken on a life of its own.  He's going to go from a team that played at a top five pace last season to a team that played below the league average, so he will not be getting the opportunities he had last season to impact the game, and it takes away some of his better skills like the transition three.  I also look at how his floor spacing will impact guys like Ellis and Dirk, as he is a downgrade from Vince Carter in that regard.  I also look at what he will bring defensively to Dallas, which isn't something you will be looking to brag about.  And Tyson Chandler, I keep hearing that they are bringing back that front line from their title winning team and I just don't think that's true.  They aren't getting that Tyson Chandler.  It's not a matter of if Tyson will miss games, but a matter of when.  And lastly their PG position.  Who will they rely on to be their lead guard this season?  Felton and Devin Harris?
 
elcheato: Chicago. Pau Gasol is a nice addition, but he's not that nice. I question if he can play PF effectively anymore, and I wouldn't want Noah sliding over to PF to accommodate Pau, either. Not sure how he fits in. I like Mirotic, think he has potential, but very unknown, and unlikely to contribute year one. I really don't see why people think they'll win the East, even with a healthy Rose. He's shown some quickness and athleticism in the Team USA stuff, but really haven't been all that impressive.
 
GMF1991: Chicago Bulls: Never stopped hearing about them, and I don't think the Pau Gasol signing was so great. He'll be good there, no doubt, but he's well past his prime. In the last year they've lost Deng and added Pau. I don't see that as much of an upgrade. The best part of their offseason was cutting Boozer loose. 

BwareDWare94: Every single playoff team that stood pat but didn't finish with a higher seed. Quite frankly, I don't know how teams like Memphis and Golden State expect to jump into real contention when their additions consist of Vince Carter and Shaun Livingston. While I like those individual additions to each squads, I don't see how either intends to compete with the firepower of teams like SAS, OKC, and LAC. Quite frankly, I wanted to see Memphis chase Stephenson, at least throw some kind of offer at him, even if they had to shake it up, a bit. Golden State was LUCKY to not get baited into trading too much for Kevin Love, but with the injury prone Bogut out of last year's playoffs and Ezeli missing all of last season, I felt like GS really needed to chase another rim protector.
 
bosoxlover12: Cleveland, that LeBron guys a scrub. In actuality, its the Rockets. They regressed, A LOT. And not enough people are realizing that. They overpaid for Trevor Ariza, and plan on him being the 3rd scoring option? Hes the classic playing for that new contract keep gettin them checks guy. They have no bench, at all. I dont love Terrence Jones as a starting PF in the league, but who is better on that roster? Motiejunas? Joey Dorsey? (HOW ARE YOU ALREADY 30, JOEY DORSEY?!?!). And who is backing up Ariza? None other than Alonzo Gee? Is there even an offensive PG on this roster? Or is that just James Harden at this point? Houston definitely gets the public image that theyll do worse, but damn, people still think they are a 6-8 seed. Unless Harden plays the Defensive Stopper role this year, Houstons missing the playoffs altogether.
 
Mobruler: Bulls. Bringing in Pau Gasol was nice, and I keep hearing about how improved Derrick Rose is from injury, but the speculation is too much. So tired of hearing about a CHI/CLE ECF. I have a lot of respect for some Bulls players, Joakim Noah is probably my favorite non-Piston in the league, but I need to see it to believe it.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

6) Top unrestricted free agent still available?
 
nolafan33: I'll say Andray Blatche.  I think he's a different player than he used to be, and I really like what he brings to the table.  He can go into the post, he can hit jump shots, and I think he's a decent enough defender and rebounder.  Plus he can play the four and the five.  I don't know why he's not signed yet, maybe he's waiting to see if he can get a better offer after his World Cup performance.
 
elcheato: I'll say Emeka Okafor. I thought about going with Blatche, but he's still a bit of a wild card, and you don't always know what you're going to get out of him. Could be disastrous, or could be similar to this year, where he was a vital piece to the Nets. Okafor will provide solid defense in the middle. 
 
GMF1991: Ray Allen: He can bring something to just about any team. He's still lethal beyond the arc and has a crapload of experience. He's certainly dropped off quite a bit, but coming off the bench he'll be a major addition to whoever signs him, though I get the feeling it's going to be either Cleveland or Retirement. 
 
BwareDWare94: Dante Cunningham. While he's not a great player, he's a fantastic bench piece with a great jump shot and the kind of tenacity that's needed coming off the bench.  
 
bosoxlover12:  All the remaining FAs kinda suck, so I'm going to go with Ray Allen, because 1. I'm a Celtics fan, and 2. I got to talk to him at the Jim Calhoun Celebrity Classic and he's a real nice guy. Plus he's the only talented one left available.
 
Mobruler: Leandrinho, I guess? In the right system, he could be a valuable 18 mpg drainder.

 

[bosoxlover12]

My runner up for most overrated was also Dallas. Interesting how split the panel was on that.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

Pelicans get an A for the offseason? Dang must be an easy grader then nola

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Pelicans get an A for the offseason? Dang must be an easy grader then nola

 
I personally grade offseasons differently than others.

 

[Mobruler]

I thought I sent my answers.  I damn well know I typed them out.  Maybe I was drunk and hit cancel instead of send.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Shit you did bruh, my bad I overlooked them.  I'll edit them in after dinner

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Now updated with [member='Mobruler'] responses.

 

[Pugz]

overall nice read, again.

 

[Mobruler]

Surprised nobody agreed with my opinion of the Warriors having a great off season by not giving in to temptation and keeping a great thing growing.  Also surprised I'm the only who love the Suns acquiring Thomas.

 

[bosoxlover12]

Isaiah isn't even a starter...

 

[Mobruler]

No shit, did you read what I typed even?

 

[bosoxlover12]

No shit, did you read what I typed even?

Your analysis is silly though.
 
How does adding a backup PG help them? Goran averaged 35mpg, and Bledsoe 33mpg. They can't play all 3 at once.
 
 
I like IT22, but how in the world does adding him to a team that doesn't need him make them a 4 seed?? They wont be better than OKC, San An, Clipps, or Dubs. I'll take the Blazers over the Suns almost every time as well. So now they are at best a 6 seed, as they compete with houston, memphis, dallas, denver and the pels anthony davis. I doubt they make the playoffs personally, with them probably finishing worse than last year (not that they got worse, but Dallas/Denver/Pels got better)

 

[BwareDWare94]

Oh my dear God, I'm just rolling with laughter at bosox's comment about Houston missing the playoffs. Not gonna happen unless Dwight Howard goes down.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Your analysis is silly though.
 
How does adding a backup PG help them? Goran averaged 35mpg, and Bledsoe 33mpg. They can't play all 3 at once.
 
 
I like IT22, but how in the world does adding him to a team that doesn't need him make them a 4 seed?? They wont be better than OKC, San An, Clipps, or Dubs. I'll take the Blazers over the Suns almost every time as well. So now they are at best a 6 seed, as they compete with houston, memphis, dallas, denver and the pels anthony davis. I doubt they make the playoffs personally, with them probably finishing worse than last year (not that they got worse, but Dallas/Denver/Pels got better)

 
You scratch out Pels like Anthony Davis is the only good player we have...
 
Considering we have AD we're deeper than some of the teams you listed above.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

 
I personally grade offseasons differently than others.

 
And to answer what I mean by this, I think when grading offseasons it is unfair to act as if every team was acting under the same set of capabilities.  Not every team had the capability to go out and spend $30M or something like that.  The Pels for example had less than $6M to spend, and if you look at what we as Pelican fans were looking at adding, the fact that Dell went out and got a player of Asik's caliber that we needed so badly, that's a major win.  So I don't know if other people would give the Pels an A, but to me, with what they had to work with, I find it hard that you can give them any other grade.