The NBA offseason excitement was packed into a chaotic week that will have long ranging effects on the 2024-2025 season.
The draft itself didn’t have many marquee names, but there were plenty of interesting decisions, trades and some role players who landed in spots where they can be key bench contributors in their first season.
As soon as the draft ended, GM’s and players alike had until Saturday evening to exercise or decline their team/player options before free agency officially kicked off on Sunday evening. Free agency started off with a slow trickle as teams with cap space awaited Paul George’s decision before things really got moving on day two of free agency.
With so much going on over the past week, and every NBA fan apparently needing to take some quick legal courses to understand the new rules and ramifications of the second apron, it was hard to digest all the moves and their implications since the draft kicked off.
Let’s run through who improved their team the most early in the offseason, and what teams (or moves) missed the mark.
Biggest Winners – Oklahoma City Thunder
OKC GM Sam Presti has been hoarding resources for what seems like a decade now while also building a powerhouse team on the court. Presti has shown patience unlike any other GM, and has built the infrastructure and support system to develop his young players into stars.
While the Thunder have an excellent roster, there was still some refining that needed to be done in order to reach their ceiling. Presti got things started by shipping out Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso a week before the draft. Giddey is an excellent passer off the dribble, but has struggled with his shot and was unplayable in the playoffs. Rumours that there were internal discussions of moving Giddey to the bench and leading the second unit where he would have possessed the ball more, while not taking it out of the hands of SGA and Chet Holmgren persisted. But the team and Giddey apparently didn’t see eye to eye on that.
While Caruso is already 31, he’s a lockdown defender and a much better shooter than Giddey. He also fits into the starting lineup much better than Giddey does at this point of his career and will help open things up on offence while vastly improving the team’s defence.
At the draft, it was expected that the Thunder would address their need of finding a big body – something they clearly lacked when playoffs came along. Instead, they drafted guards and an undersized forward, but still ended up as draft winners. Nikola Topic has the potential to be the best player in this entire draft, but most teams were leery of taking a rookie who will likely miss the entire season due to injury.
The Thunder are one of the few teams deep enough to be completely fine with Topic having a redshirt season. OKC traded away five second round picks to grab the 26th overall pick to select Dillon Jones, an athletic forward who can attack the rim. Both Topic and Jones haven’t shot the ball well from beyond the arc, but shoot over 80% from the free throw line. The Thunder also happen to employ one of the best shooting coaches in the NBA in Chip Engelland so look for some tangible improvement on their jumpers early on.
As I alluded to earlier, the Thunder’s biggest criticism last season was not making a trade deadline deal to bring in another center to do the dirty work. Signing Isaiah Hartenstein to a three year, $87 million deal solves a lot of those problems. It’s a lot of money for the 26 year old center, but the contract will be expiring when the Thunder really have to be concerned about extending the rest of their stars, so Hartenstein fits in with this team both on and off the court. He doesn’t need to play massive minutes – he’s good for 25-30 minutes a game, so OKC can still utilize their 5-out offensive system. Hartenstein is a solid rim protector, can switch on screens, and can hit just enough 3’s (31% on 87 attempts over his career) that he can do more on offence beyond just clogging up the paint.
This is another fantastic offseason for Sam Presti, and the Thunder have to be favourites entering next year.
Also watch: Why The New York Knicks Are This Year’s NBA Draft Winners
Losers – The Golden State Warriors Dynasty
The departure of Klay Thompson was inevitable, but it’s also the first sure sign that the Warriors are done with the roster construction that made them so successful over the past decade.
Golden State didn’t seem overly interested in pretending that they were working with Klay to get a new deal done, as this divorce was written in stone since the end of the season. Instead, they tried to get involved in the Paul George sweepstakes, first through a sign and trade with the Clippers, and then attempting to sign him when free agency began.
Chris Paul was subsequently waived, and Thompson was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in a three team deal. Steph Curry and Draymond Green still hold down the fort (for now), but Curry is 36 years old and Green is 34 (and is always one overreaction away from yet another major suspension). Golden State can still deal their 2025 and 2027 first round picks, plus four other first round swaps, so it’s not like their cupboard is completely bare. However it’s hard to imagine that haul will get them the type of impact player they need.
Curry has always felt like one of those players who wants to play his whole career for one team, and as long as he’s there, the Warriors front office would have a hard time trading away his best friend in Draymond. But, if he’s looking to make one more run in the Bay Area, players like Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody would need to take a massive leap in 2025.
Winners – Dallas Mavericks rotation
After a somewhat surprising run to the NBA finals in 2024, the Mavericks weren’t content to rest on their laurels.
They lost Derrick Jones Jr. in free agency, which does sting, but they turned him into two more valuable pieces that will help the team even more this coming season.
Klay Thompson’s three year $50 million deal is a bit much, and I’m not expecting him to miraculously return to the Klay Thompson of old who can drop 15 points in the blink of an eye, but defences still need to chase him all over the floor. He averaged 17.9 points on 38.7% shooting from three, and with defenders having to worry about Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic, Thompson will be able to find plenty of open looks. He’s a mastermind at slithering into the open areas the second his defender takes his eyes off of him and Irving and Doncic are amongst the best passers in the league.
Adding Naji Marshall to the rotation allows the Mavs to limit Thompson’s minutes and increase his efficiency. Marshall is a nice player in his own right. Jones Jr. is a more athletic defender, but Marshall’s 7’1” wingspan helps him create chaos on defence. Marshall is also a much better shooter – hitting nearly 39% from 3 last season, including 42% from the corner. If you watched any of Dallas’s playoff games last year, you know how often Doncic is able to create those open looks for his teammates.
The Mavericks didn’t need to make sweeping changes, but surrounding their core with viable shooters without sacrificing much on defence is a great way to spend free agency.
Losers – Los Angeles Clippers
You can’t cover the Clippers offseason without mentioning the second apron. While I won’t be confused for a “capologist” expert, essentially in the last round of CBA negotiations, the owners voted to institute a harsher set of rules for the billionaire owners who pay the luxury tax every season without batting an eye. (Side note – Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is far and away the richest owner in the league, so he was definitely a major reason for these new rules coming into place). So now, for the first time, the Clippers have to be cognizant of the massive contracts that they throw around, making them squeamish about offering Paul George anything more than a 3 year deal.
The writing was seemingly on the wall that the two parties were set to part ways with George having a player option that he could decline, meaning the Clippers didn’t have much leverage in the situation. The 76ers were always interested in George, but with so much cap space and only four players on the roster, they had to play the long game and wait to sign George in free agency. The rumoured trades that the Clippers were offered weren’t overly special, but getting some combination of picks and players from the Warriors would have been better than nothing (although that would have likely included activating Chris Paul’s $30 mil option putting LA up against the second apron anyway).
So, the Clippers are left trying to pick up the pieces from a massive trade that didn’t result in much success. Granted, if the Clippers don’t make this trade, they were unlikely to get Kawhi Leonard, and George likely goes to the Lakers, so there’s an argument to be made that the Clippers were making the right move to make a serious run at a title. Unfortunately Leonard and George were never really healthy at the same time during the playoffs, resulting in multiple early exits.
The trade to get George was eye-popping at the time, and that was before anyone really knew how good Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would become. There were also five first round picks involved in the deal, including two picks (and one swap) that are still coming.
So far, LA has signed Derrick Jones Jr. to a reasonable three year $30 million contract, and extended James Harden for 2 years at $70 million. They still have Leonard who’s one of the top players in the league when healthy, which is rare. They could also try and get into the DeMar DeRozan talks before Lebron’s Lakers trade for him out of Chicago. But even that probably won’t be enough to make the Clippers a serious contender.
The Clippers went to the casino and put it all on red. Now they’re being escorted out empty handed.
Winners – Philadelphia 76ers
Philadelphia had a strategy for the offseason for years, and they were able to execute it to perfection. While this year’s free agency class wasn’t star studded, their plan was Paul George all along. And he immediately gives their starting five a massive upgrade without costing them any assets. I’m sure there were many storylines regarding George that got 76ers GM Daryl Morey’s heart pumping, including reports that former 76er James Harden was advocating against Morey. But in the end, the pieces all fell into place for Philadelphia.
George is beginning to show decline, and has a lengthy injury history, which is a concern when paired with Joel Embiid. On the court, Embiid, George and Tyrese Maxey, who the 76ers locked up to a max contract this offseason, constitute as formidable a top three as any team in the NBA.
Philly still needs to shore up the rest of their rotation, but bringing in Andre Drummond (who’s still somehow only 31 years old) is a great insurance pick up for Embiid, and can help limit his minutes during the regular season to keep him fresh for the playoffs. I also really like the 76ers draft pick of Jared McCain, a smooth shooting guard who’s always one of the hardest workers in the gym.
In reality, until we can see George and Embiid stay healthy for an entire season, the 76ers shouldn’t be topping anyone’s list as contenders for this season, but adding that level of talent to two superstars (and losing Tobias Harris) is a big win for Philly.
Loser – Denver Nuggets
For the second straight offseason the Denver Nuggets ownership are pinching pennies causing them to lose the depth that earned them a title just two seasons ago.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is heading to Orlando on a three year, $66 million deal. He was a huge part of this team’s success on both offence and defence. He was their best point-of-attack defender, and was able to fire off 3’s or curl in for easy jumpers when his defender was forced to help on Nikola Jokic. Losing him this season, after losing key contributors last year in Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, really limits what this team can do with their perimeter defence.
For now, Christian Braun looks to be stepping into a starting role. Braun was a spark plug for the team during the Nuggets run to the title in 2023, but he’s by no means considered a threat as a shooter. I like a team giving a promising rookie additional minutes, but in reality Braun is probably best served as an off the bench energy infusion as opposed to being the fourth option in a starting lineup. Without Braun leading the second unit, the Nuggets will struggle on both sides of the ball when their big names are sitting.
I highly doubt bringing in Russell Westbrook, as Jokic has reportedly been asking the team to do, will solve the Nuggets rotational problems, especially considering the Nuggets are already at the bottom of the league in three point attempts.
Denver will still be a shoe-in for the playoffs, and can beat anyone in the NBA when they get there thanks to Jokic’s brilliance, but as we see season after season, losing the little pieces around your superstars make that run at a title that much more difficult.
Hold – San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs had an interesting few days, to say the least. They entered the draft with the 4th and 8th pick (thanks to a trade with the Raptors that received some lottery luck). Taking Stephon Castle with their fourth pick is an excellent choice. If Castle develops, he’ll become an excellent perimeter defender who, paired with Wembanyama, will dramatically cut down the Spurs points against.
They then “selected” Rob Dillingham, a hard nosed get to the basket offensive weapon, only for it then to be announced that the Spurs traded that pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for picks in 2030 and 2031. Stockpiling future picks isn’t a bad strategy – maybe in seven years the Wolves will be on the downswing and the Wemby led Spurs will be dominating the NBA, but it almost seems like they’re content to waste another season.
In free agency, San Antonio brought in the point god, Chris Paul, on a one year $11 million deal. Paul will be constantly finding Wemby above the rim and getting him in position to score. The upgrade from Jeremy Sochan to Chris Paul, even at his advanced age, as a point guard is huge. Paul is also a brilliant basketball mind, and is one of the best on court teachers of the game. He’ll immediately make everyone around him better.
SGA said his season spent with Paul in OKC was his best season from a development standpoint. I’m all about bringing in Paul to help advance the rookies, even knowing that he’ll likely only be suiting up for 50% of the team’s games. However, the player who would have really benefited from Paul’s tutelage in his rookie season is Rob Dillingham! Having Paul work with both Castle and Dillingham in their rookie years could have given them two shots to develop a legitimate backcourt player to grow with Wemby. It seems like the Spurs were unsure of their gameplan entering this offseason, and while I like the additions they made, I’m confused about their goals for this coming year.
-Devon Gallant
Twitter: @DevGallant
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.