As effectively managed as some NBA teams have been in recent years, all 30 clubs have made at least a few moves they regret, according to Zach Kram of ESPN.com, who runs through some of the biggest missteps of the 2020s and names the most glaring mistake each team has made this decade.
Kram’s list begins with “small-scale problems,” like the Cavaliers not giving Isaiah Hartenstein a qualifying offer in 2021 and the Knicks signing Evan Fournier to a $73MM contract in 2021, before advancing to “draft disasters” – such as the Celtics trading the draft rights to No. 30 pick Desmond Bane – and miscellaneous midtier mistakes,” including the Pistons giving Monty Williams the largest head coaching contract in league history.
Kram’s final two categories are “too high a cost for too little reward” and “franchise-altering terrible trades.” The top two mistakes on his list are the Mavericks moving Luka Doncic and the Suns giving up the assets they did to land Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- John Hollinger of The Athletic shares his biggest takeaways from this month’s Summer League games, including identifying Tolu Smith of the Pistons, Nae’Qwan Tomlin of the Cavaliers, and Drew Timme of the Nets as players to watch going forward. Hollinger also mentions Jazz big man Kyle Filipowski, Timberwolves guard Terrence Shannon Jr., Pistons forward Ron Holland, Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell, and Cavaliers wing Jaylon Tyson as the players who showed they were “too good for summer league.”
- While Summer League success doesn’t always carry over to the subsequent regular season, scouts around the NBA find July’s games “extremely valuable” for evaluating players, as Tobias Bass of The Athletic writes. “Before the draft, no matter what your opinion is about a player or how analytics project him to be, it’s always interesting to see how competitive they are once they get to summer league,” one Western Conference scout told Bass. “How quickly they pick up terminology, are they culture fits and can they keep the main thing the main thing? Can they be attentive, on time and professional, especially with all the distractions in Vegas?”
- Keith Smith of Spotrac empties out his notebook after traveling to Las Vegas for Summer League, sharing quotes from coaches, scouts, and executives about each of the NBA’s Eastern Conference and Western Conference teams.
Drafting Tyson for this season’s fantasy basketball
Biggest mistakes of 2020: Embiid Extension, Simmons for Harden trade, PG8 max contract, I’d say not resigning Jimmy Butler I Philly for the 2019-2020 season counts….. I think all of those are ahead of the Suns blunder… the Luka one, idk they got Flagg and AD basically for Luka.
I like how the Celtics get busted on for trading Bane, but the 29 other teams before him who didn’t pick him get a pass.
Cry about it.
These lists are always funny.
It’s like saying, “How did Jokic fall into the 2nd round when he was the best player in one of the toughest leagues in Europe?” Yeah, but he had that year already after getting drafted and stashed. He hadn’t yet shown that quality at the time of the draft.
Not surprised ESPN published it. Proclaiming not making a pick in the 20-s or 30-s or trading it away a ‘disaster’ is laughable.
Anyway, if I’m Boston and the worst thing the ‘journalist’ (using that word freely here) could say about me is the trade of a No.30 pick that was used to draft a 22 y.0. who panned out, I’m feeling rather good about how the club is run.
Fultz and Ball going 1 2 over Tatum. Emphasis Ball.
ESPN article is idiotic, even by their standards.
I-Hart played 16 games for CLE, having been acquired as filler to get a couple of SRPs for Javale McGee. He didn’t break out as a player until he was with the NYK. If CLE had given him a Q/O and he signed it, he would left the next year as a FA. If any teams made a mistake with I-Hart they were DEN (where he might have actually had a path to minuets as Jokic’s backup) and LAC (not giving him MLE and opting for Wall instead).
BOS didn’t draft and then trade Bane to MEM. They traded the last pick in the first round for a couple of SRPs and some salary relief. Nothing unusual about it, and certainly not a draft disaster. NBA trade rules just meant that BOS had the pick for MEM.
The Fournier signing was the worst move made by NYK’s current FO until firing Thibs. Both were unforced errors, which rarely end well.
Haven’t read the Espn article nor plan to but those Kieth Smith pieces are just absolute bangers filled with soooooo much cool info