As the NBA season tips off tonight, here’s a look back at the league’s most impressive offseasons, with a team-by-team breakdown.
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder may have won the NBA’s offseason, making big moves in attempt to dethrone the Warriors in an ultra-competitive Western Conference.
It started with the acquisition of All-Star forward Paul George in a trade with Indiana, where they gave up almost nothing to get him. All OKC lost in the deal was Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, an extremely small price to pay for the one of the league’s best players to pair with last season’s MVP, Russell Westbrook.
The Thunder also might have added the steal of free agency, signing forward Patrick Patterson to a surprising 3-year, $16.4 million contract. Patterson, who was a solid contributor on a Raptors playoff team was expected to make $10-15 million per season, but OKC was able to strike a deal with the seven-year vet that was well below his market value.
As the offseason continued, Oklahoma City continued to make headlines, this time acquiring all-star forward Carmelo Anthony, and somehow yet again not giving up much to get him (all due respect to Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott). This gave the Thunder a new big three, following in the footsteps of the Westbrook-Durant-Harden combination.
And as if the offseason couldn’t get any better for the Thunder and their fans, the icing on the cake was MVP Russell Westbrook signing a massive five-year, $205 million contract to stay with OKC and committing to the long term, something we know his old teammate Kevin Durant did not do.
If all goes to plan, the Thunder look like the team that can challenge Golden State at the top of the West this season.
Boston Celtics
Signing All-Star forward Gordon Hayward was already one of the best moves of the offseason, and things got even better for Boston when Kyrie Irving demanded a trade away from the Cavaliers.
The Celtics swooped in and acquired the All-Star point guard from Cleveland, and looking back it’s clear they’ve already won the trade.
The key piece in the trade, Isiah Thomas, is likely out until January with the hip injury that occurred during the Eastern Conference Finals last season. So, in other words, the Celtics unloaded an injured player with an uncertain future for an all-star in his prime. Not a bad move at all.
Drafting Jayson Tatum was also a solid move for the Celtics, selecting him third overall in June. Tatum is a solid offensive player and was one of the top performers in the Summer League, and will be a really good player that the Celtics can develop for now as well as the future.
With a solid offseason behind them, the Celtics will look to break through this season and punch their ticket to the NBA Finals.
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavs lost All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving after he publicly demanded a trade, but still got solid pieces in return. Jae Crowder is a solid two-way role player who can contribute in multiple ways for Cleveland. They brought in Isiah Thomas who, despite injury should be ready to go for the stretch run and playoffs for the Cavs.
However, maybe the biggest prize of the trade was acquiring the prized Brooklyn Nets pick from Boston. If the Cavs lose LeBron in the offseason like many are projecting, the Nets pick (likely top five), will give them a solid lottery selection to start building for the future.
The Cavs also signed former MVP Derrick Rose after a solid season in New York, and did it for the veterans minimum salary of $2.1 million. Rose was brought in to primarily be a backup point guard, but will now start for Cleveland in place of the injured Thomas.
To cap off the offseason, the Cavs brought in Dwyane Wade, who despite his age, still puts up solid numbers (18.3 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.8 APG, 43.4 FG%) and will be the starting shooting guard for Cleveland. Plus he gets to play with LeBron again, which is a plus if you think the Cavs can keep LeBron if they keep Wade.
Despite losing Irving, the Cavs are still considered the favorite in the East. Only time will tell if LeBron can carry them through and appear in his eighth consecutive NBA Finals.
Golden State Warriors
The biggest move of the Warriors’ offseason was re-signing of Kevin Durant, who agreed to a two-year, $53 million contract, taking less than the max, which allowed Golden State to keep their roster largely intact.
The Warriors were able to re-sign key veterans from last year’s championship run, mainly due to Durant taking a pay cut. The team re-signed Andre Iguodala, JaVale McGee, Shaun Livingston, Zaza Pachulia, and David West, keeping the core of last season intact.
The Warriors also locked up two-time MVP Steph Curry to a max contract extension – five years, $201 million – insuring that the Warriors will be in the hunt for titles for years to come.
With the core of the team staying together, the Warriors come into the 2017-18 season again favorites to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy again in June.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Guess what? The Timberwolves might finally end the NBA’s longest playoff drought this year.
The T-Wolves made headlines when they traded Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the 7th pick of the draft (Lauri Markaenen) to Chicago for all-star Jimmy Butler, and quite honestly, I still don’t know how the Bulls agreed to such a one-sided deal.
All Minnesota had to give up was a second-year point guard whose potential we know nothing about, a 7th overall pick, and a young scorer in Zach LaVine, who is coming off an ACL tear, so who knows what we’ll see from him either. Bulls fans must still be upset over that one.
Pair Jimmy Butler with Andrew Wiggins and young stud big man Karl Anthony-Towns, and the T-Wolves look like a playoff team.
Signing veteran defensive presence and Tom Thibodeau favorite Taj Gibson doesn’t hurt their chances either. Nor does the signing of three-time Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford to bring scoring punch off the bench for the T-Wolves second unit. Also, despite the loss of Ricky Rubio in a trade to Utah, Minnesota was able to find a valuable replacement in former all-star Jeff Teague, one of the league’s best scoring point guards.
It seems highly likely that playoff basketball could be returning to the Target Center for the first time since the first Kevin Garnett era, way back in 2004.
