We’re about a week into the start of the NBA’s free agency period, and while there’s still business that can (and should) be done, a number of big moves have already been sorted out. Those (like Paul George going to the Sixers) have gotten the lion’s share of the attention, but teams build out their rosters by making moves on the margins to shore up their weaknesses.
To one extent or another, teams have spent the first week of the new league calendar doing just that, and we wanted to highlight the lesser-heralded moves that deserve as much attention as the big swings we’ve seen. None of these players will (in all likelihood) turn into star additions, but it’s very easy to see how they positively impact winning.
Kyle Anderson (3 years, $27 million), Buddy Hield (2 years, $21 million), and De’Anthony Melton (1 year, $12.8 million) to the Warriors
Losing Klay Thompson obviously hurts the Warriors, but they did a solid job bringing in a trio of really nice players to round out their rotation. Hield’s shooting is a gigantic asset for a team that wants to let it fly from deep, Anderson is a steady hand off the bench whose passing should fit right into Steve Kerr’s system, and Melton is one of the best 3-and-D guards in the league, assuming he’s able to get past the back issues that plagued him last year. Golden State’s days of being a no-doubt championship contender are probably done, but between these moves, a presumed step forward for some of their promising young guys, Steph Curry being Steph Curry, and the hope that Draymond Green can stay on the court, the team has positioned itself nicely to be in the playoff hunt in the Western Conference next year.
Naji Marshall (3 years, $27 million) to the Mavs
The Mavericks bringing in Klay Thompson got a ton of attention, but losing Derrick Jones Jr. was gigantic, as the team did a great job turning him into their hyper-athletic wing stopper last year. Their bet is that Naji Marshall, who started his career as a member of the Pelicans, can fill that role while providing a bit more shooting than Jones did — Marshall has never been a super high-volume shooter, but he took a real leap in efficiency last year, shooting 38.7 percent from three on 2.3 attempts per game last year, and if he can continue to shoot them at that kind of clip on a bit higher volume, he’s going to be a steal at $9 million a year. Regardless, his ability to defend and rebound is going to get him on the floor, and should fit nicely alongside everyone else in Dallas.
Kelly Oubre (2 years, $16.3 million) to the Sixers
Oubre’s long had the reputation of being a volume scorer whose numbers didn’t match his impact on winning. And yet, last season in Philadelphia, he really blossomed into a useful member of Nick Nurse’s starting lineup. He really competed on defense, and while he wasn’t great from three, he gave the Sixers some rebounding and a willingness to attack the rim that fit well alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. With Paul George in town to replace Tobias Harris, the amount he’ll need to do will probably go down, but Philly entered this offseason needing to build out its roster, and Oubre on a relatively cheap deal is a good way of doing that.
Isaiah Joe (4 years, $48 million) and Aaron Wiggins (5 years, $47 million) to the Thunder
It wasn’t as splashy as trading for Alex Caruso or signing Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency, but Oklahoma City quietly took care of business with two of their better developmental stories. Joe is flat out one of the best shooters in the NBA, and made his way into the starting lineup over the recently-traded Josh Giddey in the final games of their playoff loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Wiggins has turned into a nice member of their army of switchy wings on the perimeter, and while he picks his spots offensively, when he tries to put the ball through the rim, it usually goes in. They might be the eighth and ninth guys in the rotation for the Thunder, but boy, having two rock solid NBA players that far down your rotation is one heck of a luxury.
Jonathan Isaac (5 years, $84 million) to the Magic
No matter how you slice it, Isaac is on the short list for the best defensive players on earth. When he is healthy and on the floor, Orlando’s defense goes from excellent to absolutely terrifying, while he had his best year from the field during the 2023-24 campaign — he shot 51 percent from the field and 59.8 percent on twos. Yes, his injury history is a gigantic concern, and he absolutely has to build on what he did offensively last season, but the Magic now have him under contract for the next five years at a nice AAV before they’re going to start paying their core dudes (Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs, Paolo Banchero). Again, so much of it comes down to staying healthy, but Orlando did a good job here.
Taurean Prince (1 year, $2.9 million) and Delon Wright (1 year, $3.3 million) to the Bucks
Milwaukee’s hands are tied due to their financial situation, but all things considered, they did a respectable job bringing in two guys who are good fits alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. Neither Wright nor Prince are the kinds of players who will immediately fix every single problem, but price can provide more size and shooting on the wing (which the Bucks desperately need), while Wright is a steady hand in the backcourt who should be able to come off the bench and keep things moving — and if he’s reinvigorated after his spells in Washington and Miami, this could end up being an incredible value signing. The Bucks really needed to build their rotation out a bit, and both of these players should help do that.
Two of Netflix‘s shows are coming back… eventually.
Stranger Things season 5 is expected to premiere in 2025 (they’re halfway through filming!), while Squid Game could return later this year. That’s according to star Gong Yoo, who revealed that fans of the South Korean series might have a squid-y surprise waiting for them under the Christmas tree.
On a video posted to the YouTube channel for WWD KOREA, Gong was asked about his upcoming projects. “I had a lot of fun filming Squid Game,” he said, according to a YouTube translation. “You will probably be able to watch season 2 of Squid Game all over the world at the same time during Christmas this December. Please look forward to.”
What says Christmas more than an anti-capitalist allegory about the lengths people are willing to go to make money? Plus, Nosferatu!
In other Squid Game news, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk and stars Lee Jung-jae and Wi Ha-Joon will preview the new season at Italy’s Lucca Comics & Games. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Netflix is keeping mum about the event in Lucca on October 31. But given that Squid Game is the most popular series ever on the streamer, it stands to reason that interest will be high.” A late October preview would time out nicely for a December premiere. It’s also a good way to get one more use out of that Squid Game Halloween costume.
Future and Metro Boomin have been on a roll in 2024, dropping not just one, but two of the biggest hip-hop albums of the year. We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You are credited with kicking off the open battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, which pulled nearly everything rap-related into its orbit — and eclipsed plenty of other things going on in hip-hop, which may have backfired on Future and Metro.
After the release of the double album, Future & Metro announced their We Trust You Tour, but it looks like they may have fallen victim to the same obstacles that have interfered with plenty of their peers’ touring plans. The rapper-producer duo have nixed a handful of shows in August, including stops in Milwaukee (8/2), Nashville (8/6), Columbus (8/10), New Orleans (8/20), and Tulsa (8/25), according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Although they didn’t give reasons for the cancelations, it might be fair to attribute them to low ticket sales, as missed sales goals has been the culprit behind plenty of tour cancelations of late.
The We Trust You Tour was one of the most anticipated tours of 2024, so this is certainly a disappointment to those fans who had tickets. If low sales were the reason, let’s hope future tours (no pun intended) can adjust and avoid these pitfalls.
Haliey Welch: You may not know the name, but you know who she is. She’s become best known as the “Hawk Tuah Girl” lately, after the viral video in which she describes the steps she takes to ensure a male romantic partner is satisfied. “Hawk Tuah” has become an undeniable sensation, so much so that Welch just landed representation a few days ago.
Everybody wants a piece, and now rapper Plies has just claimed his by dropping a new song based on the meme, appropriately titled “Hawk Tuah.”
The track begins, “She just hit my line and said she wanna come through / I just hit her back and told her, ‘Pull up on me, boo’ / I been on that drank, it got me feeling rock, too / Told her when she come, make sure she bring the ‘hawk tuah.’” The two-minute songs proceeds pretty much how you’d expect from there.
Plies’ most recent album is 2010’s Goon Affiliated, but he has shared a regular stream of mixtapes since then. His latest is 2020’s The Real Testament II.
Meanwhile, Welch recently shared “three awesome things” that have happened since her life has changed, saying, “Number one: I got over my stage fright. I sang in front of 80,000 people with Zach Bryan the other night — and I cannot sing for sh*t. But I did it anyway. Number two: I quit my job at the spring factory, so I don’t have to eat Taco Bell all the time but I’m still going to do it anyways. [Number three:] I actually have to get ready more than one time out of the week now. I’m not allowed to look like Adam Sandler anymore.”
The Walking Dead might not seem like the best TV show to turn into a musical, but that’s what some said about Stranger Things and that seemed to turn out pretty well!
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live star Danai Gurira told SFX Magazine that she and TWD team were “actually chatting” about turning the popular franchise into a musical. Likely most good ideas, it began as a joke. “I was just joking around about having a Walking Dead musical on Broadway,” Gurira told SFX magazine. “Me and [Scott] Gimple are actually chatting about it, which is ridiculous.”
Ridiculous, yes, but considering that Gurira has some impressive stage credits, she might be the person to make a Walking Dead musical actually worthwhile. Perhaps called….The Dancing Dead? Let’s workshop the name and see what happens.
Gurira says that the musical idea might be a joke, but the showrunner really does want to look into getting stage rights, though it’s not that easy. “He’s just said we don’t have the rights to it. I’m like, ‘Well, let’s talk to [Robert] Kirkman, see what he says to that.’ I mean, we’re really largely just joking around. But stranger things have been done, and I do love the theatre… It’s about, how do you confine it to something? Because it’s just so much story. So it would really be, how do you confine it to a good two-or-three-hour play?”
How would you confine a bunch of zombies to a play? Maybe they should focus on all those spinoffs instead of adding another project to the docket. How about we check in with Daryl all the way over in France?! Remember him?!?!
(WARNING: Spoilers for this week’s Power Book II: Ghost episode will be found in the recap below.)
The moment we knew would come finally arrived for Tariq in Power Book II: Ghostseason four, episode five titled “Ego Death.” Actually, it was two moments. The first is Noma finally caught on to Tariq and Brayden’s underground drug operation through college parties. She discovered it after finding a bag of coke in her daughter Anya’s bag after the same bag of coke was brought to her and said to have come from Stansfield. Noma walks into the next college party with Cane to see the operation live in action, and though their plan is to kill Tariq, they’re forced to put a stop to it after Tariq uses Anya as a distraction.
The second moment is Tariq finally accepting that he is no different from his father. After a string of events that knocked him off his path, Tariq realizes that he needs to use his dad’s qualities to become an “apex predator” to stand at the top of the drug game and ensure the safety of himself and loved ones like Brayden and his mother Tasha. It foreshadows what appears to be an epic second half to season four which begins later this year on September 6.
Elsewhere, Monet and Dru discover that Detective Carter is a dirty cop after his task force catches them in the middle of a drug heist. To avoid getting arrested, Monet and Dru’s crew — minus Ice who was killed by Carter — must give him 35% of their profits and avoid killing civilians or risk jail time or death. Diana makes the decision to keep her baby, and though Tariq was initially combative about it, an acid trip helps him embrace the idea of bringing a child into the world. First, he and Diana will have to get on the same page, as the two do not agree about Tariq’s participation in the drug game while also being a father. Cane and Noma’s romance continues, while Brayden’s own becomes the subject of a big argument between him and Tariq.
Let’s dive into a recap of the fifth episode in Ghostseason four with a few takeaways we have after watching “Ego Death.”
The More Tariq Tries To Be Different, The More He Proves That He’s Just Like Ghost
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‘Power Book II: Ghost’ 405 ‘Ego Death’ w/ Michael Rainey Jr. as Tariq St. Patrick
It took three and half seasons of Ghost, but Tariq finally admitted that he’s just like his dad. It all changed during a conversation with Brayden, where Tariq finally acknowledge and accepted the similarities between him and Ghost. Despite this realization, Tariq still doesn’t fully see how similar he is to Ghost. Just like his father, Tariq is quite inconsiderate to the needs of loved ones around him, and he can’t seem to prioritize their issues as he does his own.
When Brayden voices his issues during an argument with Tariq, they get brushed aside as Tariq tells him to “take this sh*t on the chin like I do every day.” Later on, Tariq expects Diana to be okay with him being deep in the drug game as they raise their child, as opposed to pretending to be out of it like Ghost did. In each case, Tariq put his needs and desires above Brayden’s and Diana’s without considering how they really feel or how their current respective situations are effecting them. Classic Ghost if you ask me.
Monet Is Taking The Easy Route Toward Rebuilding Her Family
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‘Power Book II: Ghost’ 405 ‘Ego Death’ w/ Mary J. Blige as Monet Tejada
Monet nearly lost two more children in episode four of Ghost as both Cane and Tariq were in pursuit of Dru and Diana, respectively, in retaliation for trying to kill Monet and set up Tasha for a death of her own. When Monet learned of Diana’s pregnancy, she immediately called off Cane moments before he would’ve killed Dru and she also convinced Tariq not to do the same to Diana. Now, it’s time to put the family back together, but Monet wants to do it the easy way. The drug game is what tore her family apart, but now, Monet is hoping that it can bring her family back together. Realistically, that is the easy route towards rebuilding the family. All Monet knows is the game, and she’s leaning on that to fix her past mistakes and right her wrongs with the family, but the drug game isn’t a place for nurturing a family. If Monet wants things to be different, she has to take another approach.
Diana Can’t Put Herself First And Make Things Work With Tariq
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‘Power Book II: Ghost’ 405 ‘Ego Death’ w/ LaToya Tonodeo as Diana Tejada
Just when it seemed like Diana and Tariq could work things out with their child on the way, Tariq dropped a bomb on Diana but telling her his plans to remain in the game as they raise their child. Diana, traumatized by how her experience with parents’ in the drug game, is set on her keeping her first child as far away from the game as possible. So, she makes it clear to Tariq that his plans won’t work for her and their child. Just like Dru, Diana is set on putting herself first and prioritizing her wants and needs. This means putting herself (and her future child) above the needs of her family for once. In order to do that, Diana can’t compromise for the sake of Tariq. If Tariq can’t make the necessary sacrifices in order to create a safe life for their child, then there’s no point in Diana trying to make things work. We saw how things ended with Ghost as well as with Lorenzo and Dante/Mecca, Diana doesn’t have to be the next to experience it.
Cane Is Mixing Love And Power — A Bad Recipe
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‘Power Book II: Ghost’ 405 ‘Ego Death’ w/ Caroline Chikezie as Noma & Woody McClain as Cane Tejada
This season of Ghost has provided a new and interesting love story between Cane and Noma. After the death of Obi, Cane stepped up to fill his role as Noma’s right-hand man as they both developed feelings for each other. For Cane, there are certainly pros and cons to their relationship, as it’s allowed him to gain Noma’s trust and have a more prominent role in her drug operation. On the flip side, mixing love and power has never been a good recipe in the Power Universe. Noma is as ruthless as they get, so not only does Cane have to worry about her possible retaliation if something goes wrong in their operation, but he also has to worry about it as a result of something going wrong in their romance. As the saying goes, don’t sh*t where you eat and it seems like Cane will have to learn this the hard way.
New episodes in ‘Power Book II: Ghost’ season 4 are available on the STARZ app on Fridays at 12:00 am EST and on the STARZ TV channel at 8:00 pm EST. Season 1-3 of ‘Ghost’ are now streaming on the STARZ app and website.
It’s said that everyone dies twice. The first is your physical death, the second is the last time anyone utters your name.
Sybil Marie Hicks, from Baysville, Ontario, died on February 2, at the age of 81, but it’ll be a long time before her name is forgotten. Her children have turned her into a posthumous celebrity after writing a hilarious first-person obituary for her that was published in The Hamilton Spectator on February 5, 2019.
According to her daughter, it was fitting tribute.
“Mom was never boring,” Hicks’ daughter, Barb Drummond, told Yahoo Lifestyle. “Mom lived large. She would do anything for anyone. It was rare for Mom not to have a smile on her face. Mom was always ready for a laugh.”
The last word. Obit in todayu2019s @TheSpec u201cI finally have the smoking hot body I have always wanted…having been cremated.u201dpic.twitter.com/YQFOjRJjL8
The obituary begins with a shot at her husband, Ron. “It hurts me to admit it, but I, Mrs. Ron Hicks from Baysville, have passed away,” they wrote. “I leave behind my loving husband, Ron Hicks, whom I often affectionately referred to as a ‘Horse’s Ass.'”
She then goes on to roast her own children.
“I also left behind my children whom I tolerated over the years; Bob (with Carol) my oldest son and also my favourite. Brian (with Ginette) who was the Oreo cookie favourite, Brenda AKA ‘Hazel’ who would run to clean the bathrooms when she heard company was coming,” they continued. “Barbara (with Gordon) the ever Miss Perfect and finally Baby Bruce who wouldn’t eat homemade turkey soup because he didn’t want to be alert looking for bones while he ate.”
The piece ends with a great zinger and a bit of a mystery: “I finally have the smoking hot body I have always wanted… having been cremated. Please come say goodbye and celebrate my wonderful life with my husband and his special friend Dorothy who is now lovingly taking care of my horse’s ass.”
Did her husband have a side piece or are they talking about the dog?
The viral obituary has done more than just spread a few much needed laughs across the world, it’s helped the family heal after Hicks’ long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. The disorder may have stolen Hicks’ quick wit sharp tongue; but, in a way, the obituary, has given voice to a woman who was long silenced.
“We wanted to do something that kind of celebrated who she was and to give us an opportunity to basically have one last conversation with her, and have some laughs at the same time,” he said.
The Hicks family hopes that those who are moved by their mother’s story will consider donating to their local Alzheimer’s charity.
Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey had only been with the Food and Drug Administration for about a month when she was tasked with reviewing a drug named thalidomide for distribution in America.
Marketed as a sedative for pregnant women, thalidomide was already available in Canada, Germany, and several African countries.
It could have been a very simple approval. But for Kelsey, something didn’t sit right. There were no tests showing thalidomide was safe for human use, particularly during pregnancy.
When Chemie Grünenthal released thalidomide in West Germany years earlier, they called it a “wonder drug” for pregnant women. They promised it would treat anxiety, insomnia, tension, and morning sickness and help pregnant women sleep.
What they didn’t advertise were its side effects.
Because it crosses the placental barrier between fetus and mother, thalidomide causes devastating — often fatal — physical defects. During the five years it was on the market, an estimated 10,000 babies globally were born with thalidomide-caused defects. Only about 60% lived past their first birthday.
In 1961, the health effects of thalidomide weren’t well-known. Only a few studies in the U.K. and Germany were starting to connect the dots between babies born with physical defects and the medication their mothers had taken while pregnant.
At the outset, that wasn’t what concerned Kelsey. She’d looked at the testimonials in the submission and found them “too glowing for the support in the way of clinical back up.” She pressed the American manufacturer, Cincinnati’s William S. Merrell Company, to share research on how their drug affected human patients. They refused. Instead, they complained to her superiors for holding up the approval. Still, she refused to back down.
A sample pack of thalidomide sent to doctors in the U.K. While more than 10,000 babies worldwide were born with thalidomide-related birth defects, FDA historian John Swann credits Dr. Kelsey with limiting the number of American babies affected to just 17.
Over the next year, the manufacturer would resubmit its application to sell thalidomide six times. Each time, Kelsey asked for more research. Each time, they refused.
By 1961, thousands of mothers were giving birth to babies with shocking and heartbreaking birth defects. Taking thalidomide early in their pregnancy was the one thing connecting them. The drug was quickly pulled from shelves, vanishing mostly by 1962.
Through dogged persistence, Kelsey and her team had prevented a national tragedy.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy honored Kelsey with the Federal Civilian Service Medal. He thanked her for her exceptional judgment and for preventing a major tragedy of birth deformities in the United States:
“I know that we are all most indebted to Dr. Kelsey. The relationship and the hopes that all of us have for our children, I think, indicate to Dr. Kelsey, I am sure, how important her work is and those who labor with her to protect our families. So, Doctor, I know you know how much the country appreciates what you have done.”
But, she wasn’t done yet. Later that year, the FDA approved new, tougher regulations for companies seeking drug approval, inspired in large part by Kelsey’s work on thalidomide.
Reached via email, FDA historian John Swann said this about Kelsey’s legacy: “[Her] actions also made abundantly clear to the nation the important public health role that drug regulation and FDA itself play in public health. The revelation of the global experience with that drug and America’s close call indeed provided impetus to secure passage of a comprehensive drug regulation bill that had been more or less floundering during the time FDA was considering the application.”
Kelsey continued to work for the FDA until 2005. She died in 2015, aged 101, just days after receiving the Order of Canada for her work on thalidomide.
Bureaucratic approval work is rarely thrilling and not often celebrated. That’s a shame because it’s so critical.
People like Kelsey, who place public health and safety above all else — including their career — deserve every ounce of our collective respect and admiration.
Whether on his It Is What It Is podcast with friend and co-host Mase or on wax, Cam’ron is known to ruffle a few feathers. Yesterday (July 4), the “What You Did” showed way.
In a video uploaded to his personal Instagram page, to celebrate Independence Day, Cam’ron decided to dress up as the late O.J. Simpson.
“OJ was here,” he wrote. “Happy Independence Day! This ain’t really our holiday… But it feels good not to have to answer to nobody!”
To the outside looking in, it may seem odd, but the pair have a relationship well before Simpson’s passing. For weeks before his death, Simpson would appear on his podcast to share his thoughts on trending sports topics, so during a taping, Cam’ron passed respect to the former football player.
“I used to go f*ck with O.J. off the show, when there wasn’t no show,” he said. “I’d go to the bar and meet him, we’d go to lunch. And people where we stay at loved O. They really, really loved O.J.. I just want to say it was great working with O.J., he’ll truly be missed. And I love him like a real, real uncle, man. So I’m really sorry this happened. But at the end of the day, I’m glad that we did get to spend the last few months with him, at least one day out the week for me, minimum.”
Cam’ron and Mase react to O.J. Simpson’s death, and Cam’ron says he loved O.J. Simpson like a real uncle.
We are just about a week into the start of the 2024-25 NBA season, and we have already seen most of the big expected moves of the summer take place. Most of the big contract extensions have been agreed to, the top free agents have signed, and a handful of impactful trades have shaken up the NBA landscape.
There are still some potential trades lingering that could shuffle the pecking order and some free agents still waiting to find a home, but for the most part we have an idea of how teams rosters will look next fall. Here, we wanted to take stock of who has had the best and worst starts to the new league year, with the understanding that there’s still time for some of the teams in the Losers category to turn their fortunes around — for example, the Warriors were in that category in an early draft before a flurry of moves brought in Kyle Anderson and Buddy Hield to help fill the void left by Klay Thompson.
WINNERS
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder have had a terrific summer so far, as they’ve kept almost their entire main rotation from last year’s 1-seed intact while upgrading their biggest player weakness (trading Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso) and addressing their biggest need (signing Isaiah Hartenstein). The Thunder are clearly still looking to take their time with a young roster, but after failing to make any real upgrades at last year’s trade deadline (Gordon Hayward ended up being a non-factor), they went out and got two veterans that fill important needs and fit their overall identity.
With Giddey getting played off the floor, they had to upgrade that spot with someone that can be a 16-game player, and seem to have done that with Caruso, who also adds another elite perimeter defender to the rotation. Inside, they were desperate to land a big time center who could help them on the glass, but needed to find a guy who could run the floor, play defense at a high level, and play in space when absolutely needed. Hartenstein fits the bill, and coupled with what the Thunder hope will be continued strides from their young key contributors, Oklahoma City looks like a formidable squad in the West once again. On top of their own work, they also have seen most of the West’s top teams from a year ago stagnate or get a little worse, which doesn’t help their cause.
New York Knicks
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I had a feeling the Knicks would try to take a swing this summer, but wasn’t expecting them to successfully land Mikal Bridges considering it had been 40 years since the Knicks and Nets made a trade. However, five first round picks will get you pretty far in any negotiation, and they bring in a tremendous wing upgrade to bolster their hopes of challenging Boston next year. On top of acquiring Bridges, they were able to re-sign OG Anunoby to a big contract and now have one of the best wing rotations in the NBA. The only thing that kept this from being a perfect summer for New York was seeing Hartenstein leave for OKC, as they still need to get a backup for Mitchell Robinson. With Robinson’s injury history, they probably don’t want to roll with just Jericho Sims and small-ball lineups as their options beyond him, and that’s certainly the biggest area of concern in New York going into the season. Still, with the top-end talent on the roster, this should be the best Knicks team since the 90s, and they may be a legit threat in the East.
Orlando Magic
Some thought Orlando would take some really big swings this summer, but I actually think their approach has been smart. They went out and addressed their biggest need by signing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, adding the kind of veteran presence and three-point shooting threat the desperately needed, without sacrificing on the defensive end. Beyond that, they’ve brought the band back together from last season, but have done so without overpaying anyone (as often happens to teams that make a surprising leap). Their frontcourt is once again very crowded after re-signing Goga Bitadze and Moe Wagner, while inking Jonathan Isaac to a 5-year, $84 million extension, and they even brought back Gary Harris for backcourt depth.
However, the key is they are now all on extremely movable deals. Bitadze, Wagner, and Harris make $7.5-$11 million each annually on two or three year deals, while Isaac’s extension could prove extremely valuable if he stays healthy (a huge if) and plays defense like he did at the end of last season. None of those moves stop the Magic from making another swing later, if they want to, and if anything they make it easier to make moves next summer. What Orlando has done is fill their biggest need and give themselves a chance to evaluate their young core for one more season to see how their internal development plan goes, while providing a ton of flexibility for combining contracts to trade for a player at any price point (without losing all their depth). The Thunder and Timberwolves showed how patience can pay off in a big way last year, and the Magic managed to follow that kind of plan without having to overpay anyone to stick around. That’s good work, and now they can get a true sense of where they fall in the East’s pecking order this season and make long-term plans from there.
Philadelphia 76ers
The Sixers came into the summer with a ton of cap space and all of two guys signed when the league year began (Joel Embiid and Paul Reed). With all that space, Philly had to get a third star between Embiid and Tyrese Maxey (who will sign his max extension as soon as the Sixers fill out the rest of the roster) and did just that by landing the biggest free agent on the market in Paul George. On paper, it looks like a tremendous fit, but as we’ve seen plenty of times it’s never quite as simple as it seems to make three stars work together. Still, if they didn’t land George things could’ve gotten dicey quickly, with a fairly shallow group of free agent wings and not many clear fits on the trade market. Getting George was their best path to being a contender, and while there’s still work to do to fill out their depth, they’ve got a solid start there with the return of Kelly Oubre Jr. (who was sneaky good last year) and the signings of Andre Drummond and Eric Gordon.
I’m not sold on the Sixers being the clear-cut No. 2 team in the East by simply landing George, but they are in the conversation, the alternatives were much worse, and I like to reward those that execute on Plan A.
Dallas Mavericks
The Mavs didn’t seem to have a lot of avenues to upgrade their roster this summer, but managed to bring in two impact rotation players for the price of 1.5, which is solid maneuvering for a team that’s obviously in the title contender realm. Dallas pivoted off of their plan to run it back and re-sign Derrick Jones Jr. into the mid-level, and instead brought in Naji Marshall from New Orleans as his replacement before making a splash with Klay Thompson’s arrival in a sign-and-trade. The Finals showed Dallas that they needed to upgrade their playoff rotation to compete with the absolute best, and I think they’ve done that to a degree.
Marshall is a different kind of wing than Jones Jr., and they will lose some defensive versatility in the move, as Jones was extremely valuable in his ability to defend opposing guards. However, they’ll get more out of Marshall as a rebounder and he’s a more stout defender at the forward spot, and if his three-point shooting leap last year (38.7 percent) is real, he’ll provide some more spacing as well as being a good connective player. We’ll have to see if that is a real upgrade, but Thompson, even at this point in his career, should be a fairly clear step forward from Tim Hardaway Jr. and Josh Green. You lose a touch of regular season depth (which, they could still add another player in the rest of the mid-level), but you gain someone you can trust to hit shots in the playoffs.
That’s something the Mavs were desperately lacking in the Finals, and we saw how incredible they could be when they had that because PJ Washington shot out of his mind for the first two series. Thompson is not the two-way monster he once was and isn’t even the shooter he was at his peak, but even in this current form, he’ll be the best floor spacer around Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic that the Mavs have had. That’s meaningful, and while it is far from a guarantee they’ll be back in the Finals, it was a good summer by Dallas to recognize needs even in a Finals run and try to address them.
Boston Celtics
Speaking of the Finals participants from this year, Boston won a title and proceeded to re-sign everyone. Derrick White and Jayson Tatum got big extensions, Luke Kornet re-signed for another year, and Xavier Tillman is coming back for two more as well. When you were as dominant as Boston was this past year, you don’t need any splash outside signings, but you do need to keep as much continuity as you can. As we have seen this summer, keeping a contender together is harder to do than ever before, and as the Nuggets showed a year ago, losing even a sixth-man is enough to put a serious crack in your championship foundation. The Celtics will avoid that fate for at least one more year, and are the deserving favorites to go back-to-back as a result.
San Antonio Spurs
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The Spurs may not be done dealing, but I want to note that they had one very clear need, even understanding their desire to build slowly, and they went out and addressed it. Anyone that watched the Spurs last year was driven insane by the team’s guard play and their inability to get Victor Wembanyama the ball when he got great positioning or had a lob opportunity (which is, like, always when you are 7’5). There is no one in the world better at doing that exact thing than Chris Paul, and paying him $11 million to come throw Wemby passes for a year and teach him some of the finer points of basketball is a terrific move.
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavs got Donovan Mitchell to re-sign and at least prolonged their ability to stay in the conversation near the top of the East. That makes them a mild winner in my book, as they now at least have some time to figure out what their best combination of talent is and then can look to make a trade to consolidate — with Darius Garland or Jarrett Allen both figuring to fetch a strong return should they move either. The clock is still ticking, with Mitchell only locked in for two more years, but buying themselves a bit more time to figure things out and leaving themselves in a position of power from a negotiating standpoint on any of their guys was vital.
LOSERS
Denver Nuggets
For the second straight summer, the Nuggets saw a key player walk for nothing. After Bruce Brown got paid by Indiana a year ago (with Denver literally not being allowed to match), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope took 3-year, $66 million deal in Orlando. The difference this year is the Nuggets could have tried matching that offer to keep KCP, but weren’t willing to dip into the second apron to do so. As such, the plan is to make Christian Braun the starter and continue hoping for some internal development from their youngsters. When you have the best player in the league on your roster, and thus a legitimate shot at a title every year because of it, taking a step back for financial purposes is never going to sit well with folks. There are reasonable arguments to be made for ducking the second apron because of what it does to your ability to make moves, but it’s a hard sell to fans when you willingly take a step back out of fear of a potential step back later. Beyond that, Denver’s missed out on some of the top veteran minimum free agents so far, and options are getting low to bolster their rotation for next year.
Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers have missed out on every single player they’ve been connected to so far in free agency and saw an important role player in Taurean Prince walk and take a vet minimum deal in Milwaukee. That’s not ideal, and for all the chatter about LeBron taking a smaller deal to bring in some real help on the mid-level, that never came to fruition and he’s back on a max deal. Perhaps they can find a sign-and-trade opportunity for someone, but without any exceptions to slide contracts into, they’ll have to send someone out to bring someone in. As much as I liked them landing Dalton Knecht in the Draft, it’s hard to see him as the upgrade needed to boost their standing in the West, and you’d have to be really optimistic to think they’ll be able to avoid another trip to the Play-In next year.
Chicago Bulls
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The Bulls seem headed for a reset, which I think is needed, but they’re running into a problem where they’re not bringing in great assets and are apparently being asked to send out picks to move off of their big trade piece. That’s not what you want when you’re trying to shift your timeline forward, and I don’t have a lot of confidence in this Bulls front office to pull this off. Trading Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey was…we’ll call it bold to be nice, but by declining offers that would’ve netted them draft picks, they are in a position where they absolutely cannot afford to attach anything to Zach LaVine.
With LaVine’s value as low as it could be, the rest of the league clearly believes Chicago is desperate enough to just get rid of him that they’re refusing to even take him on in relatively fair offers and would rather just duck the tax/apron instead. So now the Bulls are left hoping someone gets desperate after this upcoming round of trade market musical chairs and is willing to take him on for something more than a salary dump. That’s very much TBD, and it seems just as likely that LaVine starts the season on the Bulls in an attempt to recoup some value. That isn’t a catastrophe, it’s just a process issue to continually make a guy very available on the trade market and fail continually to move him.
From there, DeMar DeRozan is likely to leave in a sign-and-trade that figures to, at best, net them a trade exception and a second rounder. Again, not a disaster, but asset management by the Bulls front office continues to be dreadful as they get the absolute least out of just about everyone that leaves because they can’t make up their minds on what they’re doing. The Bulls aren’t operating with the stakes of a contender, so their struggles this summer aren’t impacting their ability to reach some goal for next season. Instead, they are just continuing to operate without a coherent plan, and that’s just as frustrating to their fans.
Sacramento Kings
The Kings are running out of options to make an upgrade to their roster, and after running it back last year and getting passed by a handful of teams in the West, it seems like a distinct possibility that happens again. I really liked the deal they negotiated to keep Malik Monk, but it needed to be the precursor to another move. Instead, they’ve been apparently close on Lauri Markkanen and Brandon Ingram (and again kicked the tires on Kyle Kuzma), but to this point haven’t landed either and it’s not clear if they’ll get the chance to do so. If they don’t, they’ll be bringing back the same roster that has shown they aren’t at the level needed to make noise in the West playoffs.
Miami Heat
A year after missing out on Damian Lillard, the Heat are back again trying to figure out how to proceed, and while they’ve been linked to star pursuits again, the efforts seem half-hearted this time around. So far they’ve brought back Thomas Bryant and Kevin Love and their big outside signing is Alec Burks, which isn’t exactly moving the needle. From there, it’s not clear if they’ll be willing to meet Caleb Martin’s asking price to keep him, and if he walks, the Heat are in some real trouble. Looming in the background of all of this is Jimmy Butler’s future with the organization, as extension talks have apparently gone nowhere and it seems he may just play out the last year of his deal and see what free agency has for him next summer.
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Wolves were never going to make big moves this summer, but I think they’ve gotten marginally worse. Swapping in PJ Dozier and Joe Ingles for Monte Morris and Kyle Anderson feels like a small step back. In the Western Conference, that’s always dangerous because the margins are so slim at the top that losing rotation pieces can make a real difference (ask the Nuggets). They do get a three-point shooting boost in Ingles, which is needed, but Anderson provided some real defensive versatility off the bench and their point guard depth behind Mike Conley was an issue last year and gets worse losing Morris. There is going to be considerable pressure on Rob Dillingham to come in and help out immediately as a rookie, and we’ll see if the young man is up to the task.
Los Angeles Clippers
Do you know what the Clippers are doing? Because I sure as hell don’t. Losing Paul George hurts, but they had a clear line in the sand on what they’d offer and weren’t willing to budge. I think people are understandably remembering George’s inconsistencies in terms of his playoff impact, but he has been really important to keeping their regular season baseline pretty high. With that gone, a lot more pressure is on Kawhi Leonard to be available and James Harden to be consistently really good.
They have added Derrick Jones Jr., Nic Batum, and Kris Dunn, who I think are all legitimately helpful players to have in your rotation. However, adding Mo Bamba doesn’t exactly move me, and they brought in Kevin Porter Jr. who missed all of last season after being charged with misdemeanor assault and has had issues in locker rooms in both Cleveland and Houston.
This team is pretty obviously not as good as they were a year ago when they…weren’t all that great, and I just can’t figure out what the overall plan here is beyond “duck the apron, but don’t be terrible for the first season in the new arena.”
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