The NBA free agent period kicked off this week with a flurry of news. Below are highlights of some of the league’s biggest moves and how they may impact the upcoming season.
Winners: The 76ers and Paul George
Philadelphia is a big winner here, having added Paul George to the franchise’s mainstays, Joel Embiid at center and Tyrese Maxey at guard. George, who signed a contract Four-year, $212 million contract After waiving a player option, he’ll be a valuable wing piece for the 76ers. He comes from the Los Angeles Clippers, where he didn’t live up to the lofty expectations in his tandem with Kawhi Leonard and, later, James Harden. But it wasn’t all George’s fault; he and the Clippers weren’t always healthy, and not every star tandem has great chemistry or supporting casts.
The mix in Philadelphia, though, is potent. George is 34 but still one of the NBA’s best two-way athletes, and the Sixers are hoping he can be a more stable (and less ball-dominant) part of their core than Harden was during his tumultuous stint in Philadelphia a few years ago. He should at least be a veteran asset to the team. Newly extended Maxey, the fifth-year point guard who was a revelation last season and made his first All-Star Game. The 76ers will revolve around Embiid, and landing George may not be enough. But with an extra star, they should be an Eastern Conference contender.
Losers: Klay Thompson and the Splash Brothers fans
Thompson is a bit of an underdog here, as his legendary career with the Golden State Warriors has come to the opposite of a fairytale ending. The Warriors were drastically downsized and faced an eternity in salary-cap hell, and Thompson, one of the greatest shooters of all time, had seemed for weeks the most likely man out of the picture. So it ends in the Bay Area for a four-time NBA champion and five-time All-Star who teamed up with Stephen Curry to form the “Splash Brothers” team. The most entertaining backcourt To make matters worse, in Dallas, Thompson will no longer be able to travel to the sand on your boatHe’ll also make roughly a third of what he made with Golden State last year, though $15.9 million next season before state income tax is hardly going to leave Thompson in a financial bind.
For the Mavericks, Thompson is an optimal addition to play alongside Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. Dallas ranked 13th in three-point shooting percentage last season and thus had to struggle to achieve the ninth-best offensive efficiency in the league (117.6 points per 100 possessions). They lacked the firepower to seriously compete with the Boston Celtics, who had the best offense in the league, in the NBA Finals. Thompson’s accuracy from deep could be a crucial addition.
Winner: Jayson Tatum
Tatum is having one of the greatest moments in basketball history. A few weeks ago, he hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy as a champion for the first time, dispelling any doubts that a team could win it all with Tatum as the headliner. Now he’s agreed to the richest contract in league history, a five-year supermax deal worth $314 million. Tatum is a winner, and the Celtics are simply paying the cost of doing championship-level business.
That cost is high, though, and the Celtics’ rapidly rising payroll is surely one of the reasons the team’s ownership group… announced this week A plan to unload the franchise by 2028. The Celtics should fetch a record price, perhaps around $7 billion, and the new controlling owners will be responsible for the large salaries owed to Tatum and his running mate Jaylen Brown. The Celtics will soon be on the cusp of spending $10 billion on the franchise. More than 300 million dollars a year In salaries and luxury taxes, but let’s not cry for the Celtics’ owners. The current owners bought the team for $360 million in 2002, an investment that will soon pay for itself many times over. Whoever ends up with the team will inherit a gold mine, and it’s players like Tatum and Brown who secure the Celtics’ place in the NBA hierarchy.
Winners: Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder’s slow rebuild finally paid off with a 57-25 record and a trip to the second round of the playoffs last season. OKC has one of the NBA’s best players in guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a talented, young supporting cast. SGA will be 26 next season, center prodigy Chet Holmgren will be 22 and forward Jalen Williams will be 23. These are exciting times for a franchise that may finally be on to something for the first time since the distant days of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. But the Thunder had an Achilles’ heel: rebounding. Their 21% offensive rebounding rate was 27th out of 30 teams. In a six-game playoff series loss to the Mavericks, Dallas dominated the rebounding margin, grabbing 28% of their offensive rebounding opportunities to just 22% for OKC.
Enter Isaiah Hartenstein, on a three-year, $87 million deal, who will move from the New York Knicks to Oklahoma City. The 26-year-old averaged a career-high 8.3 rebounds last season, including 3.2 rebounds. offensive rebounds, exactly twice as many offensive rebounds as any Oklahoma City player grabbed (Holmgren led the way with 1.6 per game). The Thunder have some fantastic offensive players, and the addition of Hartenstein means they’ll have a few more opportunities per game to put the ball in the basket. That’s why OKC is a big winner.
Losers: People who want to see Chris Paul win a ring
The Spurs signed the future Hall of Fame point guard to a one-year, $11 million contract. The big winner of the deal is Victor Wembanyama, who will play alongside a living legend and absorb some CP3 knowledge. Paul, who turns 40 in May, will make a little more money as his career nears its end, and perhaps absorb some youthful energy from Wembanyama and the still-developing Spurs. But the Spurs aren’t a contender yet. And so, those hoping Paul ends his career with a ring will be banking on the idea that Paul could increase his trade value midseason. If he plays well enough, he could find himself traded to a contender late in the season, giving him one last serious chance to win the Finals.
To be decided: LeBron James
James opted out of the final year of his contract with the Lakers, but that’s not as ominous for LA as it seems. The Lakers just hired their podcast partner to be the team’s head coach and spent a Second-round draft pick for LeBron’s eldest son – all to keep the King happy. No one seems to think LeBron is about to leave Southern California. Rather, he could return to the Lakers on a lower salary. His agent saysto help the franchise fill out its roster. Let’s wait and see if James actually does that and if the move has the desired impact of improving the Lakers’ depth.
