Greenwich Time

NBA free agency winners and losers

-

NBA free agency always tends to be frenetic, but this year’s delayed and condensed period was a fullfledge­d speed dating session. Over the weekend, most of this year’s top-tier targets committed to new deals, while rising stars Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell and De’Aaron Fox inked max contract extensions.

The moves will keep coming this week, but here’s an early look at the winners and losers from the first 72 hours of NBA free agency.

WINNERS: LOS ANGELES LAKERS

The defending champs raced out of the starting gates, executing a fairly significan­t rotation overhaul with remarkable precision. The Lakers wasted no time moving on from playoff underperfo­rmers like Danny Green and JaVale McGee, and they realized early that Rajon Rondo would be able to cash in on his strong bubble play.

Through trades and signings, they replaced Rondo with Dennis Schroder, Green with Wesley Matthews, and centers McGee and Dwight Howard with Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell. The Lakers also turned Green’s salary slot into a new contract for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, rewarding him for an excellent postseason. Once Anthony Davis is officially re-signed, the Lakers will be positioned as solid 2021 title favorites, something that wasn’t the case last year.

There are concerns: The 35-year-old Gasol lagged in the playoffs, Harrell played poorly in the bubble and Schroder lacks Rondo’s experience and basketball IQ. Even so, the new version of the Lakers is deeper and more athletic, with pieces that should fit cleanly around LeBron James and Davis. Swiping Harrell from the rival Los Angeles Clippers and Matthews from the Milwaukee Bucks, another top contender, amounted to icing on the cake.

LOSERS: MILWAUKEE BUCKS

There’s an alternate version of history — one that seemed so possible just a week ago — in which the Bucks emerged as huge winners. If they had turned Eric Bledsoe into Jrue Holiday, landed Bogdan Bogdanovic to complete a stellar starting lineup, filled out their bench with role players and convinced Giannis Antetokoun­mpo to re-sign on a supermax extension, it would have been cause for celebratio­n and adulation.

Unfortunat­ely for Milwaukee, the Bogdanovic pursuit fell through, leaving the Bucks to pursue a backup plan that involved role players like D.J. Augustin, Bobby Portis and Bryn Forbes. That series of events could have been worse, but it also could have been a lot better. The steep price to acquire Holiday - multiple players, three first-round picks and two pick swaps - was a lot easier to swallow if Bogdanovic was coming aboard. Now, it looks like an overpay with considerab­le downside if Antetokoun­mpo or Holiday chooses not to re-sign down the road.

WINNER: RICH PAUL

There was some backlash when Paul, LeBron James’s longtime friend and business partner, first launched Klutch Sports to represent NBA players, including public stare downs over Bledsoe and Tristan Thompson with the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers, respective­ly.

Fast forward to the present, and Paul wields power as effectivel­y as anyone in the basketball world. After successful­ly steering Davis through a trade request

saga to James’s Lakers in 2019, Paul secured a payday for Caldwell-Pope from the Lakers and helped Harrell move from the Clippers to the Lakers in a power-tilting move.

But Paul’s success wasn’t limited to solidifyin­g the Lakers as title favorites and setting up James for a possible fifth ring. His clients are winning too. Davis thrived in Los Angeles, winning a ring in his first season after never advancing past the second round in New Orleans. CaldwellPo­pe got a nice raise, in part because his shooting and defense is perfectly suited to playing alongside James. And Harrell, needing to rebuild his market value after a poor postseason, should feast in pick-androlls with James and Schroder before cashing in next summer.

Outside Los Angeles, Paul lined up a nice landing spot for Thompson, who got a 2-year, $19 million deal to plug a big hole in the Boston Celtics’ front line. Thompson languished on losing Cavaliers teams in recent years, and he will now have the chance to play major minutes on a title contender. And don’t forget: Anthony Edwards, another Klutch client, went No. 1 overall to the Minnesota Timberwolv­es in the draft. Paul’s sphere of influence continues to expand as he sharpens his eye for win-win deals.

LOSERS: WASHINGTON WIZARDS

Give Tommy Sheppard credit for this much: The Wizards’ general manager repeatedly signaled that re-signing shooting specialist Davis Bertans was his top priority, and he didn’t come home empty-handed. Of course, there’s room to nitpick on the terms of Bertans’s five-year, $80 million contract. Only a select few free agents secured five-year deals this weekend, and all were players who have far more upside and hold far more important roles than Bertans. Overpays happen, especially for lottery teams seeking to secure proven talent. That’s not the end of the world.

But John Wall’s trade request landing shortly after free agency opened was a worst-case scenario from an optics standpoint. As the Wizards geared up for the new season with a long-anticipate­d free agency signing, the franchise’s longest-tenured player tried to hit the eject button. Sheppard and Bradley Beal have both done their parts to publicly support Wall during his extended rehabilita­tion from an Achilles’ injury, but the all-star point guard was apparently wounded by trade talks with the Houston Rockets involving Russell Westbrook. Instead of opening with a fresh start and some genuine excitement around Wall’s comeback, the Wizards launched on a familiar sour note.

WINNERS: FRED VANVLEET

Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet clearly expressed his intentions earlier this month on JJ Redick’s podcast: “I won a championsh­ip and it’s time to cash

out.” In addition to being a straight-talker, the undrafted VanVleet is entertaini­ng to watch, a gamer who scores in bunches and plays hard-nosed defense. Simply put, he is the type of lead guard that teams like the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls desperatel­y needed.

But watching VanVleet toil on an also-ran would have been a drag. He’s very good, but not quite good enough to carry a bad franchise to relevance. Indeed, he’s been a perfect fit in the Raptors’ collective culture. Players in VanVleet’s spot don’t always get to have their cake and eat it too, so it was nice for all parties to see Toronto reward him with a four-year, $85 million contract.

LOSERS: CHARLOTTE HORNETS

Michael Jordan can never seem to decide whether the Charlotte Hornets are coming or going. Last year, he opted not to pay Kemba Walker and negotiated a sign-and-trade that returned Terry Rozier on a brutal overpay. This year, he spent too much again to land Gordon Hayward on a four-year, $120 million contract just days after drafting LaMelo Ball, a high-upside lead playmaker, with the third pick in the draft.

How the 19-year-old Ball and the 30-year-old Hayward will mesh is anybody’s guess. And who knows why Jordan felt a lottery team full of intriguing young pieces needed to throw huge piles of money at a onetime all-star who hasn’t fully recaptured his form after a significan­t leg injury in 2017. Hayward can do more than he showed in Boston, but he’s not a franchise player and the Hornets are inexplicab­ly paying him like one.

WINNERS: PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

Portland has had good, bad and ugly offseasons trying to build around Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, a talented but ultraexpen­sive backcourt duo. This year counts as a good one, as the Blazers traded for Robert Covington and Enes Kanter, re-signed Carmelo Anthony and Rodney Hood and signed Derrick Jones Jr. away from the Miami Heat. Portland will return a rotation that is deeper and better balanced than last year, with Covington filling the roster’s largest hole as a versatile frontcourt defender.

LOSERS: NEW YORK KNICKS

The Knicks have reached “dog bites man” status with their free-agency strikeouts. Another year passed; another class of free agents elected to sign elsewhere. New York was one of the few teams with meaningful cap space this summer, but had no luck with headliners like VanVleet and Hayward. Instead, the Knicks’ new management team settled for Elfrid Payton, Austin Rivers and Nerlens Noel. New York’s best options now seem to include trading for Russell Westbrook or playing out another ugly losing season before taking their best shot at free agency next summer. Good luck.

 ?? Maddie Meyer / TNS ?? Gordon Hayward left the Boston Celtics to sign a 4-year, $120-milion deal with the Charlotte Hornets.
Maddie Meyer / TNS Gordon Hayward left the Boston Celtics to sign a 4-year, $120-milion deal with the Charlotte Hornets.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States