Holy moly, so Kawhi Leonard is a Clipper. He cherry picked a player to play with and the Clippers traded every first round pick available by rule to the Thunder to acquire that player. That player is obviously Paul George, or as the PTI guys would say "Ya boy, Playoff P." George just last year signed a 4 year $137 million max deal to stay in OKC. He announced he was staying at a "summer hype" house party hosted by his MVP teammate Russell Westbrook. After another early playoff exit I don't blame Sam Presti, the GM of the Thunder, for moving on. Now he just needs to take the next step in the rebuild and trade Westbrook. I am not sure how that will go over with the fans since OKC has always been in playoff contention it seems like since they moved from Seattle with Kevin Durant on the roster. Some could argue that with the Warriors' dynasty over, maybe the Westbrook-George duo would have a better shot. But looking at their roster and the rosters of the other Western Conference contenders they wouldn't have fared much better this year either in my opinion. Speaking of those rosters, as it sits today let's rank the teams for next year by conference.
Western Conference:
1. Clippers
I know this may seem premature, but they had a playoff roster last year and added PG13, who had one of his best years of his career while finishing 3rd in the MVP voting, as well as Kawhi who won the Finals MVP. They still have Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell who finished first and third in the Sixth man award voting respectively. They are already going to be a bear of a defensive team with Beverly, George, and Kawhi; on top of having Doc Rivers as coach. I like Zubac when he played for the Lakers but I always saw him as a backup big man, so I believe they still need a starting center and Dwight Howard is out there, just saying. I am giving them the slight advantage over the Lakers because of their bench and their head coach.
2. Lakers
Full disclosure I am a Lakers fan so maybe this is a biased ranking, but man is Staples center going to be rocking next year. I can see the tweets from Darren Rovell already that courtside tickets for a Lakers-Clippers game are going for $7 Kachillion. There is no disappointment from the Lakers this offseason, even after they didn't sign Kawhi because they got AD. You could argue that LeBron and AD are the best duo in the NBA because they are more complementary than PG and Kawhi, who have very similar skill sets. But I think the Lakers pivoted quite nicely after missing out on Kawhi, they signed Danny Green, Quinn Cook, KCP, DeMarcus Cousins, Rondo, and JaVale McGee. There is some shooting, some defense, and some familiarity since KCP, Rondo, and JaVale were on the roster last year. I would like to see the Lakers sign Carmelo, he would be hungry for a championship and would not need a very large role on the team. I would also like to see them sign Kyle Korver after he gets bought out from the Suns. They are doing everything possible to appease AD so he stays long term. From LeBron reportedly giving him the number 23, as well as signing his frontcourt buddy in DMC. AD has said he prefers to play the 4, so the signings of McGee and DMC will allow that but their best lineup will probably be with AD at the 5 and Kuzma at the 4.
3. Jazz
Their biggest holes were at SF, since Gordon Hayward left, and PG, ever since Deron Williams was traded like 8 years ago. They signed Bojan Bogdanovic and acquired Mike Conley to go along with existing stars in Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. I think this team has the combination of defense and shooting as well has high impact acquisitions with continuity. It will be interesting to see how they fair with expectations.
4. Rockets
This feels low with them losing to the Warriors in the playoffs for 3 out of the last 4 years, but I am starting to buy into some of the reported dysfunction. There was a very public failed attempt to acquire Jimmy Butler, and this whole deal with Mike D'Antoni's contract extension or lack thereof. The coach has a history of not staying in one place for all that long and Chris Paul seems to have a history of teammates getting sick of playing with him as well. Chris Paul is getting older so this star duo is moving down the rankings. I understand how statistically great James Harden is but he is my least favorite superstar to watch in the NBA. It is him dribbling in isolation and either jacking up a three or going to the foul line. Until the rules penalize him for flopping I am afraid that this trend will continue. The Rockets are farther along with understanding what players work well around their stars, which teams like the Lakers and Clippers will figure out as the year goes on. I like Gordon, Tucker, and Capela but I am afraid the Rockets will get in their own way again.
5. Nuggets
Yes, this was the 2 seed last year that brought everybody back; but that is that nature of this crazy free agency and trade period. The NBA's offseason is way more exciting than the other professional sports. I was refreshing Twitter constantly because Bleacher Reports notifications just weren't fast enough. But to the Nuggets, I think they are a deep team and their best players (Jokic, Harris, and Murray) getting even better. I think that bringing back Millsap made sense since they weren't going to find a better replacement PF in free agency, and now they have a large expiring contract.
6. Warriors
Oh how the mighty have fallen. I don't feel sorry for them however, though I do for any team that underestimates them. If Klay doesn't also get hurt we might be talking about how the Warriors minus KD are still the best team in the NBA. I put them here though because I expect Klay to sit out most of the year and will need some time to get back to his old self when he does return. Steph is still a joy to watch and will have a huge statistical season next year. Let's hope he stays healthy! I liked the acquisition of D'Angelo Russell so that they at least got an asset for KD instead of nothing. He will slide in nice for Klay, since he is a bigger PG, and will be able to share the load with Steph. I think they trade him next offseason since the fit with Klay and Steph just doesn't really work. Losing Iguodala will hurt for this next year but they weren't going to be in contention anyway.
7. Trail Blazers
This good but not great Portland team will be back for another run. Dame and CJ McCollum will probably have good years again, and Kent Bazemore alongside Rodney Hood will keep them competitive on the wing. The injury to Nurkic hurts, but Hassan Whiteside and Zach Collins will be able to fill in until he gets back. Whiteside is on the last year of his deal so is not a long-term addition. They decided to give Lillard the super max extension so hopefully it works out better for the Blazers than the Wall contract has for the Wizards or how the Westbrook contract is looking for the Thunder.
8. Spurs
Greg Popovich has to make the playoffs every year right? Isn't it in his contract or the NBA's collective bargaining agreement or something? But they will have their veteran core back (Aldrige, Derozan, Gay, Mills, Belinelli) as well as the addition of DeMarre Carroll. They will expect growth and hopefully healthy seasons from their younger players (Dejounte Murray, Jakob Poeltl, Lonnie Walker). I wonder how this dynasty will end, since they all do. It will be interesting to see if this organization will have another run in them with Popovich at the helm.
Eastern Conference:
1. Bucks
I know that Kawhi just won the championship and Finals MVP, but Giannis might be the best player in the NBA right now. If not then he is the number one contender, with KD hurt and LeBron on the back nine of his career. If Giannis can develop a semi-reliable jumpshot, like LeBron did as his career progressed, then he will be truly unstoppable. It is already hard to defend him because if you sag off of him you just give him momentum towards the basket and one huge eurostep away from a dunk in your face. So then you decide to just clog the paint with bodies, and then Brook Lopez, Khris Middleton, and George Hill have uncontested three's. I like that they mostly brought back the same crew, since they were the best regular season team in the NBA last year. It sucks that small market Milwaukee was unable to keep Brogdon, but that is just the way it is.
2. 76ers
I am not sure how the combination of Al Horford with Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Tobias Harris is going to work in today's NBA. They are a huge lineup, but I am a little worried about their spacing. Simmons looks inept at jump shooting, and Embiid is a force down low and understandably gets frustrated if he is asked to just stand at the top of the key and shoot three's. Horford made about one three a game last year on 36% shooting, so he is serviceable but not exactly a replacement for JJ Redick. I am assuming they will run the offense through Embiid late in games since they won't have Jimmy Butler anymore, which will be the next step in Embiid's stardom. A full year with Harris will help, hopefully he is worth the 5 year $180 million contract. Side note, Harris bet on himself by not taking an $80 million extension from the Clippers last offseason and his bet paid off to the tune of a cool extra $100 million. Good for him.
3. Pacers
This is a really deep team, that I think with a healthy Oladipo no one is going to have fun playing against. I liked the acquisitions of TJ Warren, Jeremy Lamb, and Malcolm Brogdon. I think they will be long and they will be able to have a diverse offense. The fit with Sabonis next to Turner is still in question but if it works they will be a really dangerous team, otherwise they will have to stagger minutes between the two of them or match up based on size but I think they are still deep enough to be able to do that effectively. Like the Jazz in the Western Conference it will be interesting to see how they handle expectations.
4. Celtics
This is not where the Celtics thought they were going to be going into last offseason. They had Hayward and Irving coming back to a team that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. However their team leadership imploded, Kyrie and Horford bolted, and their young guys didn't develop the way they thought. However, with Kemba replacing Kyrie I think they will be able to play more like they did when they had Isiah Thomas at PG. I think they will play with more heart, and Stevens is still a good coach. Hopefully another year will have Hayward back closer to where he was before his horrific leg injury and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum will flourish with expanded roles. Replacing Horford with Kanter won't do them any favors defensively though.
5. Nets
This ranking comes with a big asterisk because KD probably won't play at all next year due to his Achilles injury. With KD this team becomes an immediate championship contender. They were however the 6th seed last year and they were able to replace Russell with Kyrie. They have some depth at the guards with LeVert, Joe Harris, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Garrett Temple. They have DeAndre Jordan and the younger version of himself with Jarrett Allen so they should always have rim protection and someone to throw a lob to in the pick and roll on the floor.
6. Raptors
Well they still won the championship. Trading for Kawhi was the best one year rental in NBA history and no one will be able to take that away from them. They didn't have a lot of flexibility to be able to replace Danny Green and Kawhi in their starting lineup, so they are not near as good of a team without their best player and a key role player. OG Anunoby will have to get healthy and produce and Powell and VanVleet will have bigger roles after producing off the bench in the playoffs. Pascal Siakam will need to take the next step into an expanded role and keep his efficiency. They still have Ibaka and Gasol so they will be solid at the center position. Kyle Lowry will need to pick up more of the scoring slack now as well.
7. Heat
At this point the 7/8/9 positions between the Heat, Pistons, and Magic is kind of a crap shoot. It also won't really matter in the bigger picture as whoever makes it will probably lose quite lopsidedly in the first round anyways. I am taking the Heat here because I think they will embrace Jimmy Butler and he will excel at being the alpha dog. They have depth in the frontcourt and will need Dragic and Waiters to have good years so that Butler doesn't have to do all of the scoring. Also I think that Spoelstra is a solid coach so I will give Miami the edge.
8. Pistons
They still have Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond. I think that even though they may not fit together that well, it still more talent than the Magic have with Vucevic and Gordon. Vucevic had a really good year last year but is Mo Bamba the future in Orlando? Also with the signing of Aminu they clogged Gordon's best spot which is the 4. I think that Dwayne Casey is a good coach and maybe Derrick Rose has another good year. Or one of Ish Smith, Reggie Jackson, or Rose stabilizes the PG position for Detroit. Which is better than the PG situation in Orlando, which is insane hope for Markelle Fultz that he remembers how to play basketball or running out D.J. Augustin when he should have been a backup for the past few years already. The Pistons don't have any great SG/SF options with Tony Snell, Langston Galloway, Luke Kennard, Khryi Thomas, or Svi, but we are talking about the 8th seed in the east so the bar is not set that high.
