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Since the regular season tipped off, Hoops Rumors has been looking back at how every NBA team fared in the offseason, recapping all of their moves and providing analysis. We've now gone through all 30 teams, and if you missed your favorite, or want to look at the league as a whole, a link to each Offseason in Review is below.
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Atlantic Division
Central Division
Southeast Division
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
Trades and Claims
Draft Picks
Camp Invitees
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
The Grizzlies got a new owner over the summer, but despite the fast start Memphis has enjoyed this season, the team did little to help vault itself from the fringes of the title chase into serious contention. Former owner Michael Heisley's unwillingness to pay the luxury tax played a role in the team's unwillingness to bring back O.J. Mayo, which might have been a mistake given his early-season scoring output for the Mavericks. It had been obvious for a while, though, that Mayo was on the way out, and Heisley went above the tax line to retain other free agents before handing the team over to Robert Pera's new, celebrity-laden ownership group.
When Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors previewed the team's offseason, he predicted the Grizzlies would shop Rudy Gay over the summer, suggesting that a trade prior to the draft would be beneficial, since they could swap him for a high lottery pick without having to take back any salary. Such a move would have saved significant cap space that the team could have used to re-sign Mayo and seek out another free agent, since Gay is due more than $53.6MM through 2015. Memphis reportedly tried to move him, but Heisley denied that was the case, and the draft came and went. Still, many around the league maintained the belief that the Grizzlies wanted to get rid of Gay's salary, and GM Chris Wallace fielded lowball offers for him over the summer, rejecting them all. The team remains open to trading Gay, according to HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy, though that possibility appears more remote given the team's winning ways this season.
With Gay still in the fold once the draft was done, the Grizzlies declined to tender a qualifying offer to Mayo in advance of the June 30th deadline to do so, turning Mayo from a restricted free agent into an unrestricted one. That meant Memphis no longer had the right to match offers for Mayo, and while that may have seemed like a drastic move to take with someone who had been a critical piece on back-to-back playoff teams, it probably wound up saving the Grizzlies a lot of money for a player they didn't want. Mayo's qualifying offer was $7.39MM, which would have meant significantly more for him this season than the $4MM he gets as part of the two-year, $8.22MM deal he signed with Dallas. The Grizzlies almost traded Mayo to the Pacers on at least two occasions, and came close to a deal at the trade deadline last season that would have sent him to the Celtics for Ray Allen. Wallace and company seem to have decided long ago that Mayo wasn't a fit, so given that context, the non-tender isn't surprising. Mayo's strong start this year might make the move seem a little puzzling in hindsight, but it's likely the Grizzlies wouldn't have given him the opportunity to carry the offensive load he's taken on with the Mavs, so he would probably be doing less for more money if he were still in Memphis.
The Grizzlies turned to another would-be restricted free agent for Mayo's replacement as sixth man. Jerryd Bayless had initially been tendered a qualifying offer by the Raptors, but Toronto later withdrew it, making him an unrestricted free agent. Bayless posted career highs in minutes and points per game last season, and his 17.7 PER, also a career best, indicated he was markedly more efficient than the average player. The Grizzlies gave him the taxpayer mid-level exception, which means he'll make about $1MM less than what Mayo's earning this year. The deal might have been a springboard for Bayless, who has a player option for next season and can opt out for a more lucrative deal on the open market if he puts up numbers similar to last season. Yet the problem for Bayless and the Grizzlies is that he's so far been nowhere near the player he was in Toronto. Multiple injuries limited him to just 31 games last season, and that's not much of a sample size. It could be that last year's performance was an aberration, in which case the Grizzlies could once more find themselves tethered, for this season and next, to a backup guard they don't want.
The team did tender qualifying offers to its other restricted free agents, using almost precisely the amount of money that would have been tied up in Mayo's offer for the first-year salaries that backup big men Darrell Arthur and Marreese Speights will make in their new deals. Memphis also re-signed unrestricted free agent center Hamed Haddadi. It seems odd that they would hold on to all those inside players, since that's an area of strength for the team anyway, but coach Lionel Hollins likes to keep two bigs on the floor as often as possible, and significant injuries to Arthur and Zach Randolph last season challenged his ability to do so. Of the three, the deal for Arthur appears the most dubious, particularly since it's also the longest. He's missed more than half the team's games from 2009/10 through 2011/12. His valuable contributions in the middle season, the year the Grizzlies upended the Spurs in the playoffs thanks in part to Arthur's career year, obscure the much less encouraging story of his track record as a whole.
The Grizzlies divested themselves of one of their big men, shipping Dante Cunningham to the Wolves for Wayne Ellington in a rare one-for-one trade facilitated by their nearly identical salaries this season. Cunningham has a team option for 2013/14 and Ellington is set to hit restricted free agency, meaning both are essentially under team control for one more season. They were taken just five picks apart from each other in the 2009 draft, but their resumes since then do not match up nearly as well as their contracts. It's difficult to compare a power forward to a shooting guard, but one way to do so is using PER, a catch-all statistic that Grizzlies fans will no doubt become quite familiar with now that its inventor, John Hollinger, has joined the front office. Cunningham put up a career-best 14.9 PER in his single year in Memphis, and his career PER of 12.8 entering the season was significantly better than Ellington's 9.2. Ellington's skill set is a better fit than Cunningham's for a team seeking depth on the wing, but I don't think the Grizzlies had to sacrifice as much production as they did to address that need.
The other trade of the offseason looked like a straight salary dump, as they swapped Jeremy Pargo, who saw nearly 10 minutes per game as Mike Conley's backup, and his guaranteed $1MM salary to the Cavs for D.J. Kennedy, a veteran of all of two NBA games who had a non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal. The Grizzlies also gave up a second-round pick and cash in the deal, a tipoff that Memphis simply wanted to rid Pargo's salary from the books. Kennedy was waived in September, re-signed a week later, and let go again shortly after training camp began. The signing of Bayless, who can play point guard as well as shooting guard, apparently gave Wallace and company enough leverage to give up Pargo, though Pargo's strong showing for Cleveland early this season for Cleveland when Kyrie Irving was out, coupled with Bayless' lackluster play, makes this one hurt.
Pera officially took over the team the day the regular season opened for the Grizzlies, and quickly installed Jason Levien as CEO. Despite the team's cost-cutting moves, Heisley left the Grizzlies about $4MM above the tax line, and did so with the blessing of the new regime, Levien told Chris Herrington of the Memphis Flyer. Levien is wary of becoming a repeat taxpayer, which would trigger additional penalties under the new CBA, but he expressed a willingness to pay the tax this year if it's necessary to do so for the team to win. The salary figures used to compute the tax are the ones on the ledger at season's end, so Levien will have the opportunity to get the Grizzlies under the tax line if he wants to.
The decision on shedding salary or paying the tax may come down to whether or not Memphis can be considered a legitimate contender when the February 21st trade deadline hits. Regardless of where the team finds itself in the standings, I wouldn't be surprised if the Grizzlies try to save some money by swapping Haddadi, Arthur or Speights for a draft pick at the trade deadline if all their big men stay healthy this season. They may also shop Bayless, though getting rid of him would leave them thin at guard unless rookie Tony Wroten makes some strides in the next couple of months. In any case, we'll learn a lot this season about the Grizzlies, both on the court and in the executive suite. This might have been Wallace's last summer at the controls, as there are rumors he may be on his way out, and at the very least he appears to have less power under the new owners. If that's the case, he may regret an offseason filled with tinkering that left only mixed results, as well as the organization's misplaced disenchantment with Mayo.
Luke Adams contributed to this post.
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
Trades and Claims
Draft Picks
Camp Invitees
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
It didn't take long for the Mavericks offseason to become about Plan B. Dallas-area native Deron Williams announced his intention to re-sign with the Nets on the third day teams could negotiate with free agents, and that reshaped the entire summer. Regardless of owner Mark Cuban's contention that the team is better off without D-Will, or whether Cuban submarined his team's efforts to sign the point guard by skipping their meeting with Williams to tend to his reality show "Shark Tank," the Mavs had to move on.
The post-Williams strategy appears similar to what governed the team's moves before last season, when they dumped multiple parts from their 2011 championship team to clear enough cap space to go after Williams. The Mavs have a preponderance of expiring deals that set the team up to make a run at another star next summer. It's a risky move, considering Dirk Nowitzki is 34 and already showing signs of breaking down, having missed the first month and a half of the season following arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. And, as I outlined in August, it will be tough for the Mavs to make the numbers work if they want to go after Dwight Howard, the biggest name scheduled to hit free agency this summer. Chris Paul would be a little bit easier to swing, but there's no guarantee either of them are willing to turn back on their apparent satisfaction in L.A. A flurry of rookie-scale extensions at the October 31st deadline this year knocked many of the cheaper would-be restricted free agents out of the market, so the Mavs might just be better off sticking with the team they assembled this summer.
The key piece has turned out to be O.J. Mayo, who was signed for a relative pittance after the Suns, who appeared to be Dallas' primary competition, took a pass on him. It's not often you can acquire a former third overall pick just a few months shy of his 25th birthday, but that's what the Mavericks did, and he's become the team's leading scorer in Nowitzki's absence. Mayo had been relegated to a bench role by the Grizzlies, who went so far as to fail to tender him a qualifying offer this summer, eschewing their right to match other offers for him. While that may have been as much about cost-cutting as anything else, it reflected a down market for Mayo, despite the fact he posted career highs in PER (14.7) and win shares per 48 minutes (.094) last season. Cuban, a devotee of advanced metrics, no doubt took notice. While odds are slim that Mayo will exercise his player option for next season, the Mavs would at least have to be considered one of the frontrunners to re-sign him if they want to do so.
Dallas signed Chris Kaman to a one-year deal that gives him close to twice as much as Mayo is getting this season. That doesn't seem like an overpay, especially considering the more lucrative long-term deals that other teams handed out to JaVale McGee and Omer Asik, far less polished centers. Kaman is quietly off to a strong start, increasing his scoring average to 14.2 points per game, second on the team behind Mayo, and posting a career-high 17.9 PER. The true test for Kaman will come when Nowitzki returns and the two big men are forced to mesh, but the Mavs GM Donnie Nelson has expressed confidence about their fit.
The Mavs created the cap room necessary to sign Kaman when they amnestied Brendan Haywood. They also used the amnesty system to pick up Elton Brand from the Sixers. Between Kaman and Brand, the Mavs have plenty of size inside, just as they had when Haywood and Tyson Chandler teamed with Nowitzki for the title-winning squad in 2011. It's a little surprising that another team didn't put in a higher bid for Brand, who put up 11.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and an 18.0 PER as the starting power forward for the Sixers last season, and it's even more puzzling considering teams didn't have to commit to him for more than one year. He's one reason why the Mavs haven't completely fallen apart with Nowitzki out.
Trading Lamar Odom to the Clippers also represented a fortunate turn for Dallas, since the team would have been on the hook for his partial guarantee of $2.4MM if they couldn't find a trading partner. Considering Odom, who spent his lost year in Dallas pining for a return to L.A., probably wasn't amenable to the vast majority of NBA cities, Nelson and company wisely negotiated with one of the L.A. teams.
The Mavs thought they had found a starting point guard in the trade with the Pacers that netted Darren Collison, but he's already been replaced in the starting lineup by Derek Fisher. It's early yet, and most of Collison's numbers are up over last season, so it might be premature to say this didn't work out for Dallas. It seemed to make sense to go with a 25-year-old over incumbent Jason Kidd, who's 39. Kidd probably wouldn't have minded a role as Collison's backup, but the Mavs clearly had no interest in matching the three-year deal for more than $9MM he got from the Knicks. Kidd's surprisingly effective play in New York this season isn't helping matters, but even if Collison doesn't work out, the move was low-risk. Collison will be a restricted free agent this summer, and Dahntay Jones, the other player the Mavs got in that deal, can also come off the books in unrestricted free agency, even if he's somewhat overpaid at $2.9MM this season. Acquiring both Collison and Jones was preferable to the four-year, $16MM deal the Pacers gave Ian Mahinmi as part of that trade.
While the team's parting with Kidd was somewhat acrimonius, Cuban said recently that he would have liked to have kept Jason Terry around but "couldn't make the numbers work." He's likely referring to the number of years, which was three, that Terry got from the Celtics as opposed to his annual salary, which averages $5.225MM over the life of that deal. If the Mavs had convinced Terry to take a one-year deal, however, they probably wouldn't have signed Mayo, so parting ways with Terry was probably for the best as far as Dallas is concerned.
The Mavs probably aren't going to win the title this season, and they'll have difficulty upgrading the roster next summer. Before the season, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle likened his team's chances to those of a wild-card team in baseball and football that counts on a strong playoff run to overcome an up-and-down regular season. Those teams don't emerge nearly as often in the NBA, but the 2011 Mavericks are probably the closest example of that kind of team the league has had in recent years. Nowitzki, Mayo and Kaman give the team plenty of offensive firepower, and they have the size that's traditionally been necessary to win in the postseason. That may have changed when the small-ball Heat broke through last season, but the Mavs are hoping the 2013 playoffs have more in common with 2011 than 2012.
Luke Adams contributed to this post.
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
Trades and Claims
Draft Picks
Camp Invitees
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
Before the 2012 offseason was even officially underway, it looked as if it would be a successful summer for the Hornets. Having lucked into the No. 1 overall pick through the draft lottery, New Orleans was positioned to land Kentucky's Anthony Davis, a prospect considered by scouts to be even more intriguing than 2009 first overall pick Blake Griffin, who has already started an All-Star Game. Even Deron Williams, the top free agent on the market wasn't viewed by executives and scouts to be the kind of franchise cornerstone that Davis could be.
With success virtually assured before the team even made a move, the Hornets were free to get creative over the course of the summer. While many teams often have a singular focus in the offseason, whether that means adding veterans through free agency, cutting costs to create cap flexibility, or stocking up on draft picks, the Hornets were willing to explore a plethora of options if it meant improving the team's long-term outlook.
In dealing Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza to Washington for Rashard Lewis' monstrosity of a contract and a draft pick, the Hornets cleared some cap room for next summer. In acquiring Brad Miller from the Timberwolves, New Orleans added a couple draft picks in exchange for taking on an unwanted contract. In shipping out Jarrett Jack and Darryl Watkins, the Hornets moved out a couple unwanted salaries of their own.
Amidst all of this maneuvering, the Hornets made a few big splashes. Eric Gordon's offer sheet with the Suns was matched by New Orleans, which was always a certainty, in spite of Gordon's health woes. Gordon had been the centerpiece of last year's controversial Chris Paul trade, so to let him walk after one season wasn't a real option unless they were fairly compensated, and Phoenix really didn't have the necessary pieces for a sign-and-trade. Gordon's long-term injury risk and his desire to be in New Orleans may still be issues the Hornets need to address, but the team did well to lock up a player with his talent, even if the price tag was a little high.
While the Hornets decided not to sign-and-trade Gordon to Phoenix, New Orleans did take advantage of the sign-and-trade to acquire a couple players of their own. Ryan Anderson was the big name coming to town, traded for Gustavo Ayon and locked up to a four-year, $34MM deal. I wasn't in love with the move at the time, concerned that Anderson's 2011/12 success may have been a product of playing with Dwight Howard in Orlando. But based on his performance so far in 2012/13, it looks like Anderson is the real deal, and having a player of his caliber on the books for $8.5MM annually for his age 24-27 seasons could be a coup for New Orleans.
The Hornets also added Robin Lopez from the Suns via sign-and-trade, at a lesser cost in both trade chips and salary. Lopez isn't in the same class as his brother Brook, but he had recorded a 14.9 career PER for the Suns, and like Anderson, was just 24 years old, presumably with his best seasons ahead of him. With the second and third years of Lopez's deal not fully guaranteed, the Hornets were able to avoid overpaying to take a chance on the big man taking a step forward -- and so far he's done just that, posting career-highs in a number of categories, including PER (19.7), early on in 2012/13.
In Davis, Anderson, Gordon, Lopez, and Austin Rivers, the Hornets have loaded up on young talent in the last 12 months, and figure to have found at least three or four long-term core players within that group. Interestingly enough, it was last year's Paul trade that created the domino effect allowing the Hornets to land most of those players. Gordon and Rivers were obviously acquired directly in the trade (Rivers was selected with the Timberwolves' draft pick sent by the Clippers). Additionally, the decision to load up on young players and picks in the Clippers' package rather than the veteran players the club would have landed from the Lakers and Rockets resulted in a less effective team on the court, putting the Hornets in position to win that draft lottery.
The Hornets caught a break when they landed the first overall pick in last June's draft, but that was only one piece of the puzzle (albeit a corner piece). Besides making the no-brainer call to draft Davis, the Hornets have made a few decisions that were significantly more challenging, rolling the dice on young talent. So far, the early returns have been great in some cases (Anderson, Lopez) and less inspiring in others (Gordon). But given where the franchise was just a year ago, shopping its superstar and searching for a buyer, the future certainly looks brighter for the Hornets - or rather, the Pelicans - going forward.
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
Extensions
Trades and Claims
Draft Picks
Camp Invitees
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
A day after we examined the Spurs' offseason, which consisted primarily of standing pat and bringing back last year's roster, we're looking at the Rockets, the NBA's most active team this offseason. Only four players that were Rockets last year are back in Houston this season -- Marcus Morris, Patrick Patterson, Chandler Parsons, and Greg Smith. As opposed to the Spurs, who didn't consummate a single trade over the summer, the Rockets completed an NBA-high seven swaps.
Both R.C. Buford of the Spurs and Daryl Morey of the Rockets are viewed as forward-thinking executives willing to explore creative methods of roster-building. So the difference between their summers is more a result of where their respective teams stand, rather than a huge divide in philosophy. While the Spurs were a few games from a championship in 2012, the Rockets haven't played in a postseason game since 2009. Houston not only lacked a star, but also didn't have many guys in place that could even be considered core pieces.
However, one thing the Rockets did have coming into the summer was "assets" such as cap space, expiring contracts, future draft picks, and young players. Morey set out to gather those assets and turn them into stars or core players with the same aggressiveness that I make moves in NBA2K13, finalizing two trades before draft night and another series of deals during July's free agency period. By the time the dust settled, many of last year's Houston starters, such as Kyle Lowry or Samuel Dalembert, were gone, but the Rockets had the pieces to put together a very attractive package for a difference-making player.
Many pundits, myself included, considered the Rockets to be the best bet to land Dwight Howard from the Magic this offseason, since Houston was the only suitor that could offer Orlando a combination of cap relief, young players, and future picks. However, the team's ability to take on the Magic's bad contracts was compromised a little when the Rockets unexpectedly landed a pair of restricted free agents: Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin.
Asik was probably the least surprising of the two signings. There was no guarantee that Chicago wouldn't match Houston's offer sheet for the big man, but the Bulls appeared more interested in retaining Taj Gibson long-term and were willing to let Asik walk. Lin's offer sheet, on the other hand, was thought of as a lock to be matched, but when the Knicks shocked the world and passed on it, the Rockets had suddenly committed nearly $17MM in cap space to two players who had 27 NBA starts between them.
Whether or not the Asik and Lin signings affected the Rockets' ability to land Howard, they certainly affected the team's flexibility, and led to the club amnestying a fairly productive veteran player in Luis Scola. Heading into training camp, the Rockets' roster was a little confounding, with its myriad power forwards and its lack of virtually any veteran besides Kevin Martin.
Morey wasn't done yet though. The GM finally landed his star mere days before the regular season began, trading Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and three draft picks to the Thunder for a package that included James Harden. The move vindicated Morey's asset-gathering, considering all three of the picks were acquired in trades (two earlier in the offseason), as was the pick that was used to draft Lamb in June. And even after the Rockets locked up Harden to a pricey five-year extension, the team still has the assets and the cap flexibility to pursue a maximum-salary player at the trade deadline or in free agency.
The Rockets are a young team, and aren't about to challenge for a title right away, but they do appear to be ahead of where they were last year. The 2011/12 team wasn't quite good enough to earn a playoff spot and didn't have many long-term pieces in place. This year's roster, however, features a handful of potential core players (Harden, Asik, Lin, Parsons), has room for growth, and retained enough pieces to make additional moves when the opportunity arises.
While Morey's rebuild may not have gone exactly according to plan, the emergence of players like Harden, Asik, and Parsons early in 2012/13 suggests that it was unfair of critics to pile on over the summer when Morey failed to land Howard. Even with the necessary pieces, a team can't land every one of its trade targets, but gathering those draft picks, young players, and expiring contracts ensures a club will be in good position when a star player becomes available. That was the case with Harden, and there's no doubt Morey continues to work aggressively toward similar deals in the future.
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
Trades and Claims
Draft Picks
Camp Invitees
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
When the NBA returned from its lockout a year ago, much was made of the fact that teams would miss out on the usual training camps. With only a couple weeks between the free agent period and the beginning of the regular season, clubs that were undergoing major overhauls would barely have any time to develop chemistry before the season was underway. As such, teams that stayed relatively intact were considered to be ahead of the game, with the lengthy layoff and abridged preseason viewed as less of a handicap for players who had a history together.
While the 2011/12 season may not have followed precisely that template across the league, the rule certainly seemed true in the case of the Spurs, led as always by Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker. San Antonio, having been written off as too old by more than one pundit entering the season, cruised to the best record in the Western Conference for a second straight season. Were it not for a torrid stretch of shooting by the Thunder in the West Finals, it's not out of the question that LeBron James and Miami's Big Three could still be searching for their first title together.
Although the Spurs fell short of a championship last season, the team seemed to approach the offseason with the same attitude that prevailed following the lockout -- the fewer changes, the better. The Spurs were the only team in the NBA that didn't add a player via trade or waiver claim, and the majority of their moves in free agency simply involved re-signing their own players.
San Antonio had the least roster turnover of any of the Association's 30 teams, with Nando De Colo representing the club's lone addition, while only Derrick Byars and James Anderson were missing from last year's roster. Not only that, but a few weeks into the season, Anderson was already back in the fold, having been signed to a non-guaranteed deal to provide depth with Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Jackson out of action.
Even the NBA's elite teams are always looking for ways to improve, with the defending champion Heat adding outside shooters like Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis over the summer. So what are we to make of the Spurs' relative stasis? Well, for one, players like Boris Diaw and Patty Mills were mid-season additions last year. With more time under their belts in San Antonio, they figure to only gain a better understanding of their respective roles with the Spurs.
Additionally, for all the talk about how "old" the Spurs are, the team has a pair of intriguing young players in Leonard and Danny Green. With Leonard only in the second year of his rookie deal and Green re-signed to an affordable three-year contract, San Antonio should expect improvements and increased contributions from both players, particularly on defense, where Green has exhibited the ability to be a lockdown defender on wing scorers.
Of course, without Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker, the Spurs wouldn't be in position to virtually stand pat with the current roster and still hope to contend for a title. Duncan took a significant pay cut this summer, and will earn $10MM annually over the life of his new deal, rather than the $21MM+ salary he was making in 2011/12. Such a cut makes sense for a player approaching the end of his career, but the Spurs clearly believe that the future Hall of Famer has plenty left in him, committing to a three-year contract. At 36 and 35 respectively, Duncan and Ginobili are probably a few years removed from their primes, but given how many players we've seen be effective into their late-30s, the Spurs' title window certainly remains open for now.
It's not easy to enthusiastically praise an offseason that consists of so few moves. But at the same time, it's hard to argue that the Spurs made any mistakes in essentially retaining the same team that was on a 20-game winning streak and two games from the NBA Finals when the Thunder's shooters caught fire last year. By bringing back the same players that took them deep into the playoffs last year, the Spurs are betting on the power of continuity, and hoping a few more bounces go their way when they return to the postseason in 2013.
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
Trades and Claims
Draft Picks
Camp Invitees
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
This offseason, like the season before it and everything in the foreseeable future for the Magic, was defined by Dwight Howard's exit. Orlando awoke from its "Dwightmare" on August 10th a fundamentally changed team with an uncertain road ahead. The philosophy of new GM Rob Hennigan is to rebuild using cap space and draft picks, but those assets are really only valuable if they're used wisely. In any case, there's no quick fix for the Magic, who figure to be down for a while before they regain the annual shot at a title that having Howard around always gave them.
The changes had begun even before the trade. The team fired coach Stan Van Gundy and parted ways with GM Otis Smith on the same day shortly after a first-round playoff exit. The moves seemed tied directly to Howard, especially the dismissal of Van Gundy, who told reporters in April that Howard sought to have him fired. His firing seems unnecessary now that Howard is gone, and with D12 seemingly destined to leave Orlando sooner or later, the falling ax appeared a desperate move of appeasement even as it happened. Van Gundy's style grates on veterans like Howard, but he's capable of connecting with young talent, as he did with an overachieving Heat team in 2003/04. He might have been just the man to guide the Magic through their post-Howard rebirth.
Smith's role in the front office reportedly had been shrinking, and he had begun talking retirement as he anticipated being fired by the club before he stepped down. Hennigan, the man who replaced him, along with new coach Jacque Vaughn, are disciples of the Spurs system, a tree of coaches and executives that always seems to sprout new branches. Yet Hennigan wasn't well-regarded by the Spurs, accoriding to Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News, who noted that Hennigan was never Thunder GM Sam Presti's right hand man in Oklahoma City, either. Vaughn wasn't among the top three assistant coaches with the Spurs. Regardless of their resumes, experience doesn't appear to be an asset either can lean on, as Hennigan, who's 30, and Vaughn, at 37, are the league's youngest GM and coach, respectively.
Vaughn is working with a team that's not devoid of talent, as the Magic's win last week over Howard and the Lakers showed, but Hennigan has much more to do. The Howard trade brought in Arron Afflalo, whose contract is not necessarily overpriced, at $7.75MM a year for this season and the next two, followed by a $7.938MM player option in 2015/16. It's still a lengthy commitment for someone who, at 27, appears destined to be no more than the third- or fourth-best starter on a playoff team, and his skills might not be the right fit for the team that will be built alongside him.
Al Harrington is another veteran on a middle-grade contract whom the Magic netted in the Howard swap. He's on Orlando's books for $6.687MM this season, and has two more seasons totaling $14.758MM. Those final two seasons are only 50% guaranteed, however, and though injury has prevented Harrington from making his Magic debut, his shooting ability as a stretch four is an asset the Nuggets miss this year. Still, Harrington isn't the kind of player you can build around, and his contract figures to be nettlesome for Orlando going forward, particularly when put together with Afflalo's deal, as well as that of Glen Davis, who's due $19.4MM between now and the summer of 2015.
The Magic tried in vain to include Hedo Turkoglu in a Howard trade, but the 33-year-old remains with the team at a cost of $11.8MM this year and $12MM in 2013/14. After this year, Turkoglu's deal is only 50% guaranteed, just as with Harrington, but I'm not sure the Magic have the stomach to eat half their deals just to make them disappear from the roster. They waived Quentin Richardson and the final two years and $5.436MM of his deal on the eve of the season to make room for rookie DeQuan Jones, so they're already on the hook for a lot of money to someone who won't give them anything on the court.
The team added another deal in the high seven figures this summer, re-signing point guard Jameer Nelson for $8.6MM each of the next two seasons, and $8MM in in 2014/15. The final season is partially guaranteed for $2MM, perhaps as a check against a continued decline in play for the one-time All-Star, who put up career lows in points per game and shooting percentage last year. The early returns are mixed, as his 40.8% shooting would set yet another career low while his 6.5 assists per game would be a career high, though it seems some correction is in order given the small 12-game sample size. Nelson turned down the 2012/13 option on his old contract despite his poor showing last year because he sought stability, and he got it from the Magic. The signing happened before the Howard trade, and you have to wonder whether Orlando would have inked the deal after they got rid of Howard, since stability is clearly not the plan for the Magic. Nelson could provide some veteran leadership, but Orlando is already yoked to other veterans for as long as Nelson is around, so this contract doesn't really fit.
For just a little more money per season than they're paying Nelson, they could have instead retained Ryan Anderson, the 6'10" three-point gunner who's putting up even better numbers this season with the Hornets than he did for Orlando last year, when he won the league's Most Improved Player award. Anderson signed for an average of $8.5MM per year for four seasons with the Hornets in a sign-and-trade that brought Gustavo Ayon on board for a total of $3MM over the next two years.
Ayon was beaten out for the starting center job by Nikola Vucevic, one of the young assets the Magic got in the Howard trade. Vucevic, the 16th overall pick by the Sixers in 2011, might turn out to be the best player Orlando got in the deal. He's averaging a modest 9.6 points on 9.4 shots per game, but collects 8.9 rebounds a night on 29.4 minutes of playing time. The 22-year-old USC product opened eyes with a 17-point, 12-rebound effort against Howard and the Lakers last week. Rookie Maurice Harkless, the other Sixers first-rounder acquired in the trade, got a slow start because of injury and is seeing only 18.2 minutes per game, but the Magic clearly have high hopes for him, too.
Vucevic and Harkless represent the first wave of what appears to be an influx of youth headed for Orlando. Thanks to the Howard deal, the team has eight first-round picks over the next five seasons, and their own 2013 pick is destined to land in the lottery this spring. There could be more extra picks coming over the next few seasons if the team can convince other teams to take on some of their veterans via trade. Still, the Magic's only significant expiring contract this season is J.J. Redick's, and it seems they may prefer to keep him around because he fits the team culture.
Regardless of how much leadership veterans like Nelson and Redick contribute, Orlando's primary course of action appears to be to invest as much as possible in the future. If they waive Turkoglu and Harrington, absorbing their partial guarantees, and renounce their free agents, they could probably sign a player to a maximum-salary deal next summer, but that might be premature. NBA teams need more than one star to win, and the Magic might be best advised to wait for one of their youngsters to develop or for more of their contracts to expire before splurging on someone this summer. As Mark Cuban and the Mavs could tell you, it's not always easy to find another star to pair with the one you have, even if you have warm weather and no state tax. It wouldn't really be in keeping with the understated San Antonio model, either. As Hennigan moves forward from the Howard trade, it's likely the construction noise of the rebuilding project won't be too loud.
Luke Adams contributed to this post.
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
Trades and Claims
Draft Picks
Camp Invitees
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
The first and most important move the Hawks made this offseason was hiring Danny Ferry as the team's new president and general manager back in June. Ferry, who previously served as the Cavaliers' GM, had taken his talents to San Antonio and joined the Spurs front office about the same time LeBron James took his talents to South Beach. In Cleveland, Ferry had been tasked with continually trying to add talent to an over-the-cap roster to help out LeBron, but in Atlanta, his first few moves suggested an altogether different approach to roster building.
When Ferry took over the Hawks, the team had about $62MM committed to six players for 2012/13, with another $42MM+ on the books for just three players in 2013/14. Much of that money was earmarked for Joe Johnson, who remained productive, but massively overpaid, with nearly $90MM remaining over the last four years of his deal.
Although it's probably unfair to say that Ferry "took advantage" of the Nets when the two sides agreed to a swap that sent Johnson to Brooklyn, the Nets undoubtedly needed to make a big splash to ensure Deron Williams stuck around, and they were willing to take on a bad contract to do so. The Hawks were the beneficiaries, taking back five players who were owed no guaranteed money beyond '12/13.
Ferry's next cap-clearing move involved trading Marvin Williams straight-up to the Jazz for Devin Harris. Utah, having just acquired Mo Williams to man the point, had more of a need for a forward like Marvin, but it's hard to argue that the Hawks weren't on the better end of this swap as well. Harris is on an expiring contract and will come off Atlanta's books next summer, while Williams will still be owed $7.5MM in '13/14.
The flexibility created by those two deals alone was impressive, but what made the Hawks' moves even more admirable was that the team was able to clear so much long-term money from its cap while avoiding taking a huge hit on-court hit. Players like Louis Williams, Anthony Morrow, and Kyle Korver won't necessarily replicate the production that Johnson and Williams provided, but they won't be as far off as you might think.
Williams, last year's Sixth Man of the Year runner-up, was a particularly inspired signing. Despite estimates that the former Sixer could land a deal in the neighborhood of Thaddeus Young's five-year, $43MM pact, the Hawks were able to bring Williams aboard for a mere $15.68MM over three years. For a player who posted a 20.2 PER last season and has been even more efficient so far this year, that's an incredible bargain.
And while Al Horford was already a part of the roster before Ferry came aboard, the former All-Star missed all but 11 games last season, so having him back on the court represents a huge upgrade over the collection of big men that received minutes for the Hawks in 2011/12. Throw in a contract below seven figures for Ivan Johnson and a minimum-salary flier on Anthony Tolliver, and it was a tremendous first summer for Ferry in Atlanta.
Perhaps most importantly, the offseason seemed to have an effect on Josh Smith's perception of the franchise. Smith had reportedly had a long-standing request to be traded, and made comments a month before Ferry's hiring that suggested he was disenchanted with the Hawks' direction. However, this September, Ferry indicated that Smith had done a 180, and was very open to the idea of remaining in Atlanta long-term.
Smith's change of heart certainly makes some sense. Had Johnson and Williams remained under contract for the Hawks, a new contract for Smith next summer would have taken Atlanta over the cap without having a chance to add any other impact players. The Hawks were a solid team with their previous core in place, but it was clear to Smith and most NBA observers that the club as constructed wasn't a serious contender for the title.
With more cap flexibility going forward, the Hawks could now, in theory, afford to sign Smith to a long-term deal next summer and make a run at a maximum-salary free agent such as Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, or Andrew Bynum. The odds of landing one of those guys probably aren't high, but even so, Ferry has shown the ability to be creative when building a roster, and it sounds like Smith trusts him to make the best possible use of all that extra cap space. It may be hard for Ferry to top his first summer with the Hawks, but he's at least put himself in a great position to try.
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
Trades and Claims
Draft Picks
Camp Invitees
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
As far removed as they were from the 2012 playoffs, the Wizards seemed to have a reasonably clear direction heading into the offseason. Six of the team's players, including John Wall, were on rookie contracts, and while not all of them have lived up to expectations yet, they're still young, promising, and affordable enough that Washington picked up its 2013/14 options on all of them. Throw in the No. 3 overall pick and the trade-deadline acquisition that the team hopes will be a fixture for years to come (Nene) and it seemed the Wizards didn't need to make many major moves this summer.
The Wizards did need to make decisions on two overpaid, underperforming players, however, in Rashard Lewis and Andray Blatche. Lewis was under contract for one more year at $22.7MM, of which $13.7MM was guaranteed. Blatche, meanwhile, still had about $23.4MM remaining on his deal, though that amount was spread out over three years. Lewis and Blatche were coming off awful seasons and didn't appear to be part of the Wizards' plans, making both amnesty candidates.
Washington's eventual decision on the those players changed the team's outlook not only for this offseason, but for next offseason as well. Rather than amnestying Lewis to clear his entire $22.7MM from the cap, or simply releasing him and reducing his cap hit by $9MM, the Wizards found a team willing to trade for his contract. However, in exchange for the Hornets taking on Lewis, the Wizards gave up a second-round pick and took on two questionable contracts in their own right, in Emeka Okafor's (two years, $28MM) and Trevor Ariza's (two years, $15MM). Washington then used its amnesty clause to release Blatche.
The Wizards' thinking here is clear enough -- the team rightly believed that even if it cleared out some cap space by amnestying or releasing Lewis, free agents were unlikely to come to Washington, a team that hasn't won more than 26 games since 2007/08. So rather than overpaying players on the open market, the Wizards acquired a couple of overpaid, but potentially productive, players via trade.
While I understand the logic, I don't agree with it. Had the Wizards, for instance, amnestied Blatche and released Lewis, it may not have freed up enough room to make another move this past summer, but it would have meant a ton of money coming off the books next July. Even if the team was pessimistic about luring top free agents, there are always players simply seeking the highest offer. If the Wizards had overpaid to sign someone, could the price have been much worse than having Okafor for $14.5MM and Ariza for $7.7MM in 2013/14?
On top of that, having cap room next summer wouldn't even have meant the Wizards needed to use that space to sign free agents. As other teams have shown, cap room can also be a valuable asset for facilitating trades in which a club with space takes on a bad contract and gets a draft pick or a talented young player as well. Generally, when a club takes on bad multiyear contracts like Okafor's or Ariza's, it should be receiving assets for its trouble, like the Bobcats did when they received Ben Gordon's multiyear deal and a first-round pick from the Pistons for Corey Maggette's expiring contract. Unfortunately for Washington, the team seems to simply be stuck in a cycle of trading one bad contract for another, from Gilbert Arenas to Lewis to Okafor and Ariza.
The Wizards were still able to land a potential core piece in the draft in Bradley Beal, and with Wall and Nene healthy, there will certainly be some talent on the roster. But a trade like the Okafor/Ariza acquisition is the sort of move a team makes when it's on the verge of big things and believes that there's a one- or two-year window to contend. Perhaps the Wizards thought the deal would help ensure that Wall wants to stay in Washington when he hits free agency in 2014, but even that argument doesn't make much sense to me. After all, Wall will be a restricted free agent that summer -- even if he's not happy with the Wizards, there's no risk of the team losing him for nothing unless they choose to do so.
A club in the Wizards' position should be exercising a little patience, waiting for its young players to develop and building toward contention by continuing to add core assets. While Washington did that by drafting Beal, the trade for Okafor and Ariza was the kind of move that could set the team's rebuilding process back a year or two by handicapping its flexibility going forward.
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
Trades and Claims
Draft Picks
Camp Invitees
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
The only glimmer of optimism for the Bobcats, as they finished off a season with the worst winning percentage in NBA history, was that it couldn't conceivably get any worse. Though the team failed to parlay a one-in-four chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick and the opportunity to select Anthony Davis in this year's draft, the Cats still wound up with the No. 2 pick, which they used on defensive ace Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. President of basketball operations Rod Higgins said around the trade deadline last year that he and GM Rich Cho weren't looking for any quick fixes, and it seems like, with expectations as low as they can be, owner Michael Jordan is content to let his front office build at a deliberate pace. That seems logical, given the daunting task of rebuilding ahead of them.
Charlotte's philosophy was reflected in its coaching search, which Higgins once referred to as moving at a "nice, slow pace." Cho said the team wanted a coach who saw the job as an opportunity rather than a burden, which may have been tough to find if many agreed with Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who called the opening "one of the least appealing coaching jobs in modern NBA history." The Bobcats made a surprising hire, going with Mike Dunlap, a relatively obscure college coach, over Nate McMillan, Brian Shaw and others. Dunlap has answered doubts as the team has shown competency early in the season, but even if the Bobcats had fallen flat, he'll be measured more by the development of the players than by wins and losses. The hiring came with risk, like any unconventional move, but he was an inexpensive choice, and the gamble could pay off if he's able to connect with the team's young talent.
Furthering their commitment to a slow-paced rebuild, the Bobcats traded Corey Maggette, who had one year at $10.9MM on his deal, for Ben Gordon, who'll get $12.4MM this season and will almost certainly exercise his $13.2MM player option for 2013/14. The payoff for taking on more money and more years is a protected first-round pick. The Pistons will keep the pick next June as long as they're in the lottery, which seems likely, but the selection is only top-eight protected in 2014 and top-one protected in 2015. If the Bobcats still haven't received the pick by then, it becomes unprotected for 2016. In any case, Charlotte seems destined for an extra lottery pick sooner or later, which seems to justify the use of cap space on Gordon that they probably wouldn't otherwise be using for a player who might put them over the top.
Other teams tried to convince the Bobcats to pull off one more trade, as the No. 2 pick in June's draft drew plenty of interest. They turned down an offer from the Wolves for 2011 second overall selection Derrick Williams, choosing to hold on to the pick and turn it into Kidd-Gilchrist, a lockdown perimeter defender who helps a Charlotte team that gave up 100.9 points last season, the fourth most in the NBA. Kidd-Gilchrist put up only 10.9 points per game in his only college season, but that's largely because he only averaged only 8.9 shots per contest for a loaded Kentucky team. The Cats also got Vanderbilt sharpshooter Jeff Taylor with the first pick in the second round, locking up a player who seemed targeted as a late first-rounder to a three-year deal at only slightly more than the minimum.
Higgins and Cho could have opened up more cap space by putting Tyrus Thomas on amnesty waivers, but there was no pressing need to do so. The team is looking to get rid of the final three years and $26.083MM of his contract via trades, though his left leg injury this season complicates that effort. The team used most of its available cap room to snatch up Ramon Sessions at an annual cost of $5MM for two years. Sessions declined his $4.55MM option with the Lakers for 2012/13 even though he said in May that he wanted to stay with the team, and when Steve Nash unexpectedly took his spot as the starting point guard in L.A., it short-circuited any plan Sessions might have had to re-sign with the Lakers. Sessions said last month that he opted out because he was looking for long-term stability, but he probably didn't envision going from a perennial contender to the worst team in the league on a two-year deal worth only slightly more money per season. He surely didn't imagine coming off the bench for the Bobcats, either, but he's served the team well in that capacity, as he's their second-leading scorer this season at 15.6 points per game. That's much more scoring than they got from D.J. Augustin, whom the team allowed to sign with the Pacers once Sessions was on board.
Charlotte used its cap space one more time to claim Brendan Haywood off amnesty waivers from the Mavs, winning his services with a bid worth slightly more than $2MM a year for three seasons. That's probably still too high a price for the 33-year-old big man, but for the Bobcats, the addition makes sense, since he's a legitimate center and 11-year vet who was a mainstay on a string of playoff teams with the Wizards. He's also a former teammate of Jordan's, which surely didn't hurt his chances of getting claimed by the Bobcats, even if the move does nothing to dispel Jordan's reputation for surrounding himself with cronies.
The Bobcats decided against an extension for Gerald Henderson, their 12th overall pick from 2009, an unsurprising decision that may signal the end of the swingman's time in Charlotte, particularly since the team drafted fellow wing players Kidd-Gilchrist and Taylor this year. Byron Mullens, who's exceeded expectations this season, will also hit restricted free agency next summer. Charlotte faces plenty of decisions on which of its young players to keep in the coming seasons, but offseasons like this past summer, in which the team isn't scrambling for a quick fix, will allow the Bobcats the flexibility to stay focused on youth and retain homegrown talent as they see fit.
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