![]() No front office genuinely interested in competing for championships would run it back with this team, but no sane observer would accuse the Bulls of having championship ambitions. Nikola Vucevic is 32 and DeMar DeRozan is about to turn 34. Lonzo Ball may never be healthy enough to play for them again. Otherwise? This offseason has shown a startling lack of self-awareness on Chicago's part. Carter is an underrated offensive player that can fill either guard spot and plays tough defense. The only thing saving the Bulls from an "F" was the quietly valuable signing of Jevon Carter for $20 million over three years. While many would have simply let him go entirely, the Hornets had signaled for months that they planned to have Bridges back in some form or another, so only committing to him for one year made more sense than giving him a long-term deal. Bringing back Miles Bridges on the one-year qualifying offer was probably the best realistic outcome for Charlotte. walk, as he had grown into an excellent defender and solid backup point guard. However, we have to knock the Hornets for letting Smith Jr. Washington will have a strong impact on their final grade. The Hornets are a borderline incomplete, as the fate of P.J. were nice cherries on top of a solid offseason. They are still a big move away from any meaningful postseason ambition, but these were important steps for Brooklyn as they pick up the pieces of the team that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving shattered. They will all likely start alongside Nic Claxton, and the Nets can move forward from there. They pawned Joe Harris off on Detroit to clear the money needed to retain Johnson below the cap line, and while their shooting surplus is now gone with Seth Curry in Dallas, the Nets have kept all of the most important players from last season's blockbusters: Johnson, Mikal Bridges, Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith. The Nets had two primary goals coming into free agency: duck the luxury tax and retain Cam Johnson. Boston needs to either retain Williams as insurance or turn him into value in some other way in a sign-and-trade. Boston's current front-court consists of Kristaps Porzingis and Robert Williams III, who are frequently injured, and Al Horford, who is 37 years old. We need to see how the Grant Williams situation resolves itself, as Boston's only other move of note was the signing of Oshae Brisset (a stealthily interesting possible replacement for Williams). Boston Celtics: Incompleteįor now, we can't properly grade the Celtics. They didn't drastically improve their team, but the Hawks made some smart moves on the margins that could pay major dividends. The Rockets were an unusually dysfunctional environment for young players, and now the Hawks should provide a more stable environment. If you liked those players before the draft, you should still like them now. On Saturday, the Hawks took on former Rockets first-round picks Usman Garuba and TyTy Washington in a cap dump. Not only does it save the Hawks money, but it opens up more playing time for the ascending Onyeka Okongwu. Getting off the ugly John Collins contract without taking on long-term money is a major win. Atlanta Hawks: B+Ītlanta has been relatively quiet on the free agent front, but they've made a few clever trades in the post-draft period. The standard is higher for those with max cap space than those that were working with only minimum salary slots. Also, keep in mind that we are grading based on what was realistically available to each team. For the sake of fairness, we are treating "free agency" as all moves made between Friday, June 23 and Sunday, July 2, as most post-draft moves complement a team's free agency ambitions. So with that in mind, let's grade all 30 NBA teams on how they've done so far in free agency. There are still rotation players available on the fringes, but we now have a general sense of how most of the NBA's 30 teams will look next season. Whether it's the result of tampering or the desperation that tends to arise out of limited supply meeting unlimited demand, the meaningful portion of free agency usually concludes within a few days. Oh, the league still has plenty of business left to conduct this offseason (we're looking at you, Damian Lillard), but in just three days, most of the league's major free agents have already inked new deals. NBA free agency is one of the most anticipated events on the league's calendar, yet in only a single weekend, it's all but concluded.
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