NBA Free Agent Winners and Losers

Like everyone else, I have many opinions of which teams won and lost in free agency The Los Angeles Lakers looked like the biggest winner last year with the signing of LeBron James. Due to injuries to James and much of his supporting cast, the team fizzled mid year and again did not make the. playoffs The nice part was they did not give up any of their young team other than D'Angelo Russell to trade for a pick and letting Julius Randell go in free agency.

This off season started with a bang as the Lakers wanted Anthony Davis the most and had the most young assets to deal. Unfortunately they gave up too much as not only did they trade 3 young talents in Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart, but they also gave up too many draft picks. The trade was salary cap suicide as they were forced to get rid of more players to clear cap space to sign more free agents. It might pay off if they are able to get Kawhi Leonard, but who will they play with?

Kawhi Leonard

I think everyone is offsides with their thoughts on Kawhi Leonard. He may join LeBron and Davis with the Lakers, but I think we are going to hear something that nobody is talking about. Leonard might sign with OKC Thunder to play with fellow Los Angeles neighbors Russell Westbrook and Paul George. He might "take his talents to South Beach" to play with Jimmy Butler. I am quite sure he is not going to Brooklyn or New York.

Brooklyn Net - Losers by Signing Winners?

Brooklyn lost D'Angelo Russell who was an All Star his first year with the team. But they signed Kyrie Irving who is a not savvy veteran. Come on! He couldn't win until LeBron came back to the Cavs, failed to help the Celtics and actually hurt the Celtics. But Brooklyn signed Kevin Durant... who suffered a torn Achilles heel. The only good news that came from Durant tearing his Achilles in the play offs is it didn't happen during the next regular season which would have been a huge let down for any team that would have signed the best player in the world. I understand that if Durant comes back this season, he can bring the butts to the seats. A championship is out of the question, especially with Kyrie leading the ship to the bottom of the East.

New Orleans Pelicans

Of course the Pelicans got better this off season. They have the best player coming

from the draft in 20 years with Zion Williamson. They traded a player who wanted to leave in Anthony Davis and received 3 strong young players in return. As long as Lonzo Ball can build on his improvements from the past season and stay healthy, Brandon Ingram is able to recover from his life threatening condition and Josh Hart can remain to play like Josh Hart, the Pelicans could go all the way!!! Well maybe, but why not? They also signed JJ Reddick who could fix Lonzo Ball's shot. That might be a stretch, but couldn't hurt. They also have draft picks from the Anthony Davis trade that should benefit them for years to come. I would say the Pelicans are the biggest winners in the off season.

Orlando Magic

The Magic made the playoffs for the first time since Dwight Howard left. That trade was similar to Anthony Davis in the way the Magic piled up players and picks for years. Unfortunately Nikola Vucevic is the only player that panned out from that trade, but unlike Dwight, he was happy to resign with the Magic as a free agent this year. The best 6 man of the year should have been Terrance Ross who immediately resigned with the Magic as a free agent. Michael Carter-Williams was a nice mid-season free agent addition who also resigned with the Magic. Aaron Gordan extended his contract last year and the Magic have some great pieces with MO Bamba and they just signed Portland's free agent Al-Farouq Aminu which will be a nice addition. Hopefully Markelle Foltz turns to provide solid play with the Magic this coming season. I might be partial, but I think the Orlando Magic had the 2nd best off season in the NBA this year because they retained the quality players that took them to the playoffs and added a couple of nice ones for the future.

New York Knicks

The Knicks drafted the 2nd best player in the draft in RJ Barrett. They also signed Julius Randell as a free agent. They made some moves during the past season that did not make sense, but they have not made sense for years ever since trading their team away for Carmelo Anthony. I would like to think they will do better this year, but just don't see it happening given what they traded away last season.

Dallas Mavericks

I figure if I was going to mention the losing Knicks trades, we might as well mention the winner from the Knicks trades and that is the Dallas Mavericks. They drafted well in the past seasons and traded for injured, young talent. I think Dallas will be a nice contender this coming season especially with the return of JJ Barres and Seth Curry free agent resigning.

Conclusion

The LA Lakers won and lost by getting Anthony Davis who wants to play with LeBron James, but lost by trading away too much talent. Losing Lonzo Ball might be a gain much like when the Dodgers traded Puig this past off season and removed that distraction. I didn't mention the Warriors or a number of other teams that didn't really make any substantial changes, but should be better with experience, but could be hurt with more injuries.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

If Kobe Was So Smart...

I found an interesting article that Kobe Bryant's opinion is that Anthony Davis is better than Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball combined.

Yahoo Sports: Kobe on Kuzma, Ingram, Ball: “Are the three of them better than Anthony Davis? No!”.
https://sports.yahoo.com/kobe-kuzma-ingram-ball-three-213158841.html

My problem is so many try to turn Kobe Bryant into a basketball god. Yes, he is a first ballot Hall of Famer. And yes, he led the Lakers to 5 championships with the help of Shaquel Oneil and Pau Gasol. I feel if he was that goood, he should have led the Lakers to 7 to 8 NBA Championships.

I count the 2 NBA Finals that the Lakers lost with Kobe. I felt the Lakers did have good enough teams to win championships, but there is a reason why Kobe has the all time record for missed shots in the NBA. He failed to pass when he was double and triple teamed. When Kobe was on, he would make everything, but when he was off, he would keep shooting until the Lakers could not come back.

This reminded me of playing pickup basketball at LA Fitness. Today this kid was playing on the same team as his father. They both could shoot well, but his kid would dribble the ballinto a double team and because he wasn't that big or strong, they would take the ball from him almost every time. I would expect him to learn or at least his father teach him to anticipate the double team and pass the ball ahead of the double team.

And on another instance playing at LA Fitness, I explained to this guy, who played semi-pro basketball in the past, that I get frustrated by him because he doesn't use the screens I set for him. I spoke with him about it one day and he told me, "What if they double team me?"

Ah, "Pass me the ball. I will either shoot it or pass it back if they double team me." This is basketball 101 type of stuff. I am not a professional basketball player, but I do play one on the XBox. But given these issues are simple and continue, I can understand a little more why Kobe didn't pass as much as he missed shots. It wasn't because he didn't have players that could hit shots. Clearly Kobe Bryant's basketball mentality is not one that I give a lot of credit although I am a diehard Lakers' Fan.

Kobe might have modeled his game after Micheal Jordan with his shot and dunks, but Jordan passed out of double teams to open players who shot the ball. Kobe thinks players that have the ability to take over a game are great, but he needs to open his eyes and watch the film of Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram this season. They have been able to take the ball to the hoop to score or pass the ball as the facilitator. I do agree that Anthony Davis has those same skills, but he is one player. If he gets injured, there is nobody to take his place.

This season Lonzo Ball missed a large number of games, Kyle Kuzma missed a number of games, LeBron James missed a lot of games and Brandon Ingram is lost for the remainder of the season. Injuries happen as New Orleans knows and why they have showcased Anthony Davis with limited minutes and no forth quarter minutes in the 2nd half of the season.

Nothing would be worse than to trade Ball, Kuzma and Ingram to get Anthony Davis and he get injured and miss the majority of the season. Meanwhile these players will have their greatest career season in the next 2 years become all stars and question why did the Lakers trade them like D'Angelo Russell for the Nets and Brooke Lopez for the Bucks this season. Julius Randle is another the Lakers let go as he enters his prime.

The Lakers have enough tallent they can deal without shipping out the best players for the Lakers future. Now if the Lakers could get Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis, ship them all out. lol