Top 5 offseason Losers..and winners

[LilRip]

Let's review: we kept Crowder. Got decent rooks in Rozier/Hunter, and we picked up Amir/Lee who can help next year. Was it a spectacular offseason? Nope, but that doesn't mean it was a bad one either. Just a middle-of-the-road one.

Off the top, I'd say guys with the worst offseasons were Portland and Dallas, while the ones with the best offseasons were Spurs and Clips. I didn't read through the thread so I'm sure I missed a bunch.

[PhoSita]

It didn't happen but objectively the Celtics got better, if only slightly, and didn't have a bottom 5 offseason simply because Danny couldn't accomplish what I wanted fast enough.

Eventually I have confidence that Ainge will land that star and that this season of marginal movement forward will be worth it. Just gotta have patience.

I don't think you're necessarily wrong to rate other teams' off-seasons as worse.  I just disagree, but I think the ranking is subjective.  Like I said earlier, I could have put a handful of other teams in that #5 spot, but I care more about the Celtics, so I find their off-season more disappointing.

Like I said earlier in the thread, I only think a couple of teams really got screwed this off-season.  So, that means if you're making a top 5, you've got to include at least a couple teams that had merely disappointing off-seasons, rather than disastrous ones.

From my perspective, the marginal improvement that the Celtics managed doesn't really mean much (if anything it's a minor negative, since I don't view Lee or Amir as future pieces and I don't much care about winning 45 games). 

The other aspect of it for me is that I think the first few years of a rebuild are very important for setting up what comes later.  In that sense, a lack of substantial progress forward is itself a set-back.

[Rondo9]

It didn't happen but objectively the Celtics got better, if only slightly, and didn't have a bottom 5 offseason simply because Danny couldn't accomplish what I wanted fast enough.

Eventually I have confidence that Ainge will land that star and that this season of marginal movement forward will be worth it. Just gotta have patience.

I don't think you're necessarily wrong to rate other teams' off-seasons as worse.  I just disagree, but I think the ranking is subjective.  Like I said earlier, I could have put a handful of other teams in that #5 spot, but I care more about the Celtics, so I find their off-season more disappointing.

Like I said earlier in the thread, I only think a couple of teams really got screwed this off-season.  So, that means if you're making a top 5, you've got to include at least a couple teams that had merely disappointing off-seasons, rather than disastrous ones.

From my perspective, the marginal improvement that the Celtics managed doesn't really mean much (if anything it's a minor negative, since I don't view Lee or Amir as future pieces and I don't much care about winning 45 games). 

The other aspect of it for me is that I think the first few years of a rebuild are very important for setting up what comes later.  In that sense, a lack of substantial progress forward is itself a set-back.

But the Celtics didn't take a step back, if anything they took a small step forward this offseason.

[D.o.s.]

A step forward towards what, though? Another 40ish win season and a first round out?

[Rondo9]

They still kept the team that made the playoffs last year, added more picks and young players and have more short term contracts. They also addressed some needs. How good the Celtics can be depends on how the young players develop.

[Birdman]

Winners:
1. Spurs (won enough to probably go 1-5, that team is scary)
2. Bucks
3. Clippers
4. Rockets
5. Cleveland

Losers:
1. Portland
2. Lakers
3. Dallas
4. Charlotte (the god awfulness of their offseason is way undersold)
5. Kings

I agree with them all except Kings at 5th worst...I think they did good in the draft, signing Rondo, Butler, Bellinelli, and not trading Cousins or Gay

[PhoSita]

A step forward towards what, though? Another 40ish win season and a first round out?

Right.

Ask yourself, will the Celtics be in a substantially different position on draft day next year than they were this year?  Will they be in a substantially different position heading into free agency, or chasing trade targets, next year?

I think the answer rests pretty much entirely on what happens with the Nets and Mavs picks. 

Which means (a) progress forward has very little to do with what Danny did this summer and (b) we have to rely on other teams to screw up / run into bad luck. 

I don't like either aspect of that.

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

Winners:
1. Spurs (won enough to probably go 1-5, that team is scary)
2. Bucks
3. Clippers
4. Rockets
5. Cleveland

Losers:
1. Portland
2. Lakers
3. Dallas
4. Charlotte (the god awfulness of their offseason is way undersold)
5. Kings

I agree with them all except Kings at 5th worst...I think they did good in the draft, signing Rondo, Butler, Bellinelli, and not trading Cousins or Gay

They made a terrible trade to free up the cap space to sign a bad PG(Rondo) and a host of average players. Not to mention the hilarious nature of the front office dysfunction.

[LilRip]

Winners:
1. Spurs (won enough to probably go 1-5, that team is scary)
2. Bucks
3. Clippers
4. Rockets
5. Cleveland

Losers:
1. Portland
2. Lakers
3. Dallas
4. Charlotte (the god awfulness of their offseason is way undersold)
5. Kings

I agree with them all except Kings at 5th worst...I think they did good in the draft, signing Rondo, Butler, Bellinelli, and not trading Cousins or Gay

They made a terrible trade to free up the cap space to sign a bad PG(Rondo) and a host of average players. Not to mention the hilarious nature of the front office dysfunction.

I don't think you can rate them negatively for their front office since that's technically not part of the offseason. They'll have to deal with that year in and year out until they change their front office.

And I think the Rondo signing is pretty good for them. He fits their need at PG and it's a 1 year deal at 10M. For perspective, we're paying Amir Johnson 2M more than Rondo this year.

If DA made a move like this, signing a former perennial all-star who fills a need on a risk-free 1year deal, we'd be pretty ecstatic.

[PhoSita]

Winners:
1. Spurs (won enough to probably go 1-5, that team is scary)
2. Bucks
3. Clippers
4. Rockets
5. Cleveland

Losers:
1. Portland
2. Lakers
3. Dallas
4. Charlotte (the god awfulness of their offseason is way undersold)
5. Kings

I agree with them all except Kings at 5th worst...I think they did good in the draft, signing Rondo, Butler, Bellinelli, and not trading Cousins or Gay

They made a terrible trade to free up the cap space to sign a bad PG(Rondo) and a host of average players. Not to mention the hilarious nature of the front office dysfunction.

Yeah, but they didn't really hurt their cap situation long term in signing the guys that they did.  The trade for cap space was a bad one, but on the other hand, that team never makes use of the picks it has, and a pick swap with Philly isn't that scary, really.

For the Kings, simply finishing with 35-40 wins and being solid but unremarkable all season without any major strife would be a huge accomplishment.  So spending a bunch of money to add competent, skilled veterans and provide some stability around Cousins is a nice move.

That's really the only chance the Kings have of keeping Cousins -- in the short term, showing him they can right the ship and put an actual team around him, and in the longer term, finding one or two high level players to put next to him.  I think they made a good step toward the short term goal this summer.

[D.o.s.]

Winners:
1. Spurs (won enough to probably go 1-5, that team is scary)
2. Bucks
3. Clippers
4. Rockets
5. Cleveland

Losers:
1. Portland
2. Lakers
3. Dallas
4. Charlotte (the god awfulness of their offseason is way undersold)
5. Kings

I agree with them all except Kings at 5th worst...I think they did good in the draft, signing Rondo, Butler, Bellinelli, and not trading Cousins or Gay

They made a terrible trade to free up the cap space to sign a bad PG(Rondo) and a host of average players. Not to mention the hilarious nature of the front office dysfunction.

I don't think you can rate them negatively for their front office since that's technically not part of the offseason.

Ok, so I know what you're saying, but this statement as written is absurd. One of the team's offseason priorities should be figuring out the disaster that is their front office (although it appears it's coming from ownership down, so that may not be possible).

[Who]

Winners:
1. Spurs (won enough to probably go 1-5, that team is scary)
2. Bucks
3. Clippers
4. Rockets
5. Cleveland

Losers:
1. Portland
2. Lakers
3. Dallas
4. Charlotte (the god awfulness of their offseason is way undersold)
5. Kings

I agree with them all except Kings at 5th worst...I think they did good in the draft, signing Rondo, Butler, Bellinelli, and not trading Cousins or Gay

They made a terrible trade to free up the cap space to sign a bad PG(Rondo) and a host of average players. Not to mention the hilarious nature of the front office dysfunction.

I don't think you can rate them negatively for their front office since that's technically not part of the offseason.

Ok, so I know what you're saying, but this statement as written is absurd. One of the team's offseason priorities should be figuring out the disaster that is their front office (although it appears it's coming from ownership down, so that may not be possible).

I think there are good signs about what Vlade Divac has been doing.



(1) A true basketball guy. Lifetime around the game.

(2) A leader. Someone who will take charge. Can work with others.

(3) Unites people. Brings people together. Had a great reputation for his role on that Yugoslavia and Serbian teams during and after the war. Trying to mend fences now with G.Karl and D.Cousins.

(4) Has a clear vision for how he wants to run the front office and is getting rid of people (that stat guy) who do not feature in that vision.

(5) Building a team with high levels of defensive & rebounding integrity.

(6) You can see how he values depth and how much he has improved Sacramento's bench immediately. Deepest team Sacramento have had since the Rick Adelman days.



A lot of work still to be done but I think there are good signals from Vlade Divac that he is taking charge there and trying to fix problems. Not wild about some of things Divac has actually done (draft pick, trade for cap space) but I think there is a ideology / process to what Vlade is doing that looks promising for Sacramento. That over time Divac could be the guy who can take control of that messy situation and sort it out.

[D.o.s.]

You forgot 7) Doesn't understand the CBA.

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

His vision is hiring his friends and ignoring every statistical advance in the past decade. He treats people like crap, and it's been treated like a miracle that he didn't completely botch the FA moves...

How that translates to a successful offseason I'll never know.

[Casperian]

A step forward towards what, though? Another 40ish win season and a first round out?

Yeah.

Not bad for the 5th youngest team in the league, huh?