Does the first round of the NBA[1] playoffs, in all its predictable glory, got you down?
Then take a break by living it up with the Association's postseason couch potatoes (aka playoff exclusions).
Each of the 14 teams that missed out on the league's springtime jamboree has a busy offseason ahead. Some will be looking for a return to prominence. Others will be gunning for sudden leaps. Certain franchises are trying to take a baby step or two forward. A few organizations just want to go an entire summer without royally messing up.
Every single one, though, has a hypothetical breakdown of pressing priorities, whatever they may be, locked away in a hypothetical safe being guarded by hypothetical killer robots wielding hypothetical skin-searing ray guns. We have stolen these lists and are now delivering the top-most concern from each of them to you, the people.
Fair warning: Ongoing coaching searches did not top any of these lists, which makes perfect sense. If a team doesn't have a coach, it needs to get one. We know this. It's not a revelation.
Priorities are instead limited to the nitty-gritty: draft-day needs, free-agency wishes, trade suggestions and all that good stuff.
The NBA remains a point guard's league. The Brooklyn Nets do not have a point guard fit to pilot a real NBA offense.
This is a problem.
It's even more of a problem when you consider the Nets just plain may not have a point guard. The last year of Jarrett Jack's deal is non-guaranteed. Shane Larkin holds a player option for next season, and Donald Sloan will hit the free-agency minefield in July.
Newly installed general manager Sean Marks will have the cap space to scour the offseason market for a floor general—assuming such an offensive captain exists. You can actually make a list of the top 50 free agents, include fewer than five point guards within that ranking and be not only completely serious but totally justified.
Mike Conley, who also happens to be a top-10 free agent overall, looms as an interesting target. He might even be a realistic one. Sources told CBS Sports' Ken Berger the Memphis Grizzlies point man is expected to sign elsewhere. Just don't tell that to Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace.[2]
"We are undefeated in re-signing our core players, and we will remain so," he said, per Chris Vernon of 92.9 FM ESPN. "We are going to re-sign Mike Conley."[3]
Brooklyn can also try to coax Jordan Clarkson, a restricted free agent, out of Los Angeles. Mario Chalmers, Ty Lawson[4], Jeremy Lin and Ish Smith will all be free agents as well.
Underwhelming contingency plans? You bet. But the Nets don't control the rights to their own first-round pick until 2019. Their best bet at finding a competent offensive steward is cannonballing into this summer's shallow point guard pool.
Before the Chicago Bulls worry about building up their point guard depth, strengthening their wing rotation, deciding on the futures of Pau Gasol[5] and Joakim Noah[6] or scavenging the masses for spacey bigs, they must first get their middle school beefs in order.
Jimmy Butler's meteoric rise through the organizational ranks has caused some problems behind the scenes—specifically between Butler, Noah and Derrick Rose. Nick Friedell[7] of ESPN.com expanded upon this closed-door soap opera: "[8]Rose was 'the man' within the group, and Noah was the leader. Now Butler wants to be 'the man' and the leader. Which has led to tension. In Bu lls' case, Butler isn't wrong for wanting more. He earned contract and All-Star appearances, but that kind of respect is earned over time."
Things are so twisted that general manager Gar Forman won't even commit to Butler, the team's lone superstar, as a long-term building block, per Friedell[9].
Everyone involved must put on their big boy pants, to borrow a phrase[10] from the great philosopher Kobe Bryant[11]. Trade Butler and start over. Or don't. But pick a direction and own it. And then make sure your core players, at least for the time being, are on the same page.
Some good news on that front, per Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune: Butler and Rose plan on syncing up over the summer to hone their crafts. Hopefully, those workouts will include trust falls.[12]
If the Denver Nuggets aren't linked to every superstar who may be on the chopping block this summer, they're doing the NBA offseason wrong.
Indeed, there isn't any reason to rush this rebuild. Danilo Gallinari is Denver's oldest core player, and he will be just 28 years old when the 2016-17 season tips off. But the Nuggets have an epic frontcourt logjam that needs tending.
Wilson Chandler and Gallinari, both of whom should see time at the 4, will return from injury to a rotation that includes Kenneth Faried[13], Nikola Jokic, Joffrey Lauvergne and Jusuf Nurkic. JaKarr Sampson, at 6'8", should be also be a part of the power forward platoon at times.
Attaching Chandler and Gallinari as the third wheel to dual-big lineups isn't much of a solution. Small-ball combinations are gaining popularity, and Gallinari in particular won't be able to keep pace with tinier wings for protracted stretches.
Besides, the real issue is that Denver has too many players in general. If Darrell Arthur picks up his player option, there will be between 12 and 13 names under contract through next season—and that's before factoring in players the Nuggets add via the draft and free agency.
"Denver needs a star, and it should float plenty of different combinations to try acquiring one," Bleacher Report's Adam Fromal wrote. "It might be painful to part with some homegrown talents, but two-for-one deals have to be the priority in the Mile High City—both to increase the level of star power and to open up rotation slots for newer players with more upside."[14]
Bring on the summertime trade rumors. The Nuggets will welcome them.
Kobe Bryant is officially gone, allowing the Lakers to finally move on.
They just need another franchise cornerstone to usher in the post-Kobe era.
Three possibilities are already on the roster in Clarkson, Julius Randle and D'Angelo Russell. But the Lakers need more than just three prospective mysteries in their arsenal.
Another could-be cornerstone should come out of the draft. The Lakers have the Association's second-best lottery odds, so the top-three protected pick that's owed to the Philadelphia 76ers is projected to stay put. Snagging Brandon Ingram or Ben Simmons would be a boon for Los Angeles' reset.
Having two max contracts' worth of cap space affords the Lakers' additional avenues of exploration in their building-block search. Hollywood doesn't hold as much cache anymore, but general manager Mitch Kupchak can pitch two stars on joining forces.
ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, per HoopsHype[15], already has DeMar DeRozan (player option) leaving the Toronto Raptors for Los Angeles. He wouldn't be the ideal fit beside Clarkson and Russell—especially if the Lakers draft another wing. But there are plenty of other prospective targets out there, and DeRozan could be a way of reopening the superstar pipeline in La La Land.
Greg Monroe's first season with the Milwaukee Bucks could end up being his last. And that's how it should be.
Milwaukee is expected to shop Monroe, who can become a free agent in 2017, according to Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal-Times. Dealing him so soon is a tacit admission that the front office screwed up last summer, when it hoped he would prop up the unimpressive offensive status of a 41-win team from 2014-15, so the optics aren't great. But the Bucks don't have time for aesthetic tact.[16]
Adding Monroe fundamentally killed what was a top-two defense. His lack of rim protection forced head coach Jason Kidd to deviate from the ball-swarming attack that turned Milwaukee into a turnover-wresting powerhouse. That defensive drop-off wasn't nearly worth Monroe's offensive punch.[17]
Pretty much all of the Bucks' most successful offensive combinations, in fact, included John Henson or Miles Plumlee jumping center, with Monroe riding pine. And in most cases, Henson and Plumlee improved the defense, even when they were slotted alongside Jabari Parker.[18]
Getting rid of Monroe opens the floor for everyone. Point Giannis Antetokounmpo can run wild, as he explodes through clearer driving lanes, finishes at the rim or tosses kick-outs to Khris Middleton. And both Henson and Plumlee are more viable pick-and-roll threats than Monroe, which adds an unexplored layer to Milwaukee's offense while affording Parker more room to operate inside the elbows.
Trading Monroe, as cruel as it sounds, is addition by subtraction. The Bucks need to collect some extra shooters and another point guard who isn't named Michael Carter-Williams, but cutting ties with this failed experiment stands to be the most valuable move they make.
Although the Minnesota Timberwolves took steps forward on the offensive end this year, finishing just outside the top 10 in points scored per 100 possessions, they need to inject some more spacing into their game plan.[19]
Only the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs chucked more mid-range jumpers. With the exception of San Antonio and the Los Angeles Clippers, the top 12 of mid-range volume is littered with cruddy offenses.[20]
But Minnesota didn't have much of a choice. While former interim head coach Sam Mitchell could have stuck Karl-Anthony Towns, a 50 percent shooter on long twos, behind the three-point line more, the Timberwolves lack proficient shooting elsewhere.[21]
Zach LaVine is the only rotation guard or wing with an above-average three-point touch. The Timberwolves ranked in the bottom six of deep-ball efficiency overall and were in the bottom eight of accuracy on wide-open treys.[22][23]
And they weren't much better on the other side of the floor. They hovered around the middle of three-point defense but allowed more wide-open looks from long range than 75 percent of the NBA, according to B/R Insights.[24]
Installing Tom Thibodeau as head coach and president, a move first reported by The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski, immediately solidifies the defense. But the Timberwolves need to draft and/or sign effective perimeter gunners to reach their full potential.[25]
Buddy Hield and Jamal Murray are possible drafty-day solutions. So too are Ingram and Simmons if pingpong balls bounce in Minnesota's favor. Kent Bazemore or Evan Fournier (restricted), meanwhile, would be a stellar free-agent acquisition.
The New Orleans Pelicans' list of priorities is simple: get a versatile wing or risk seeing your defense, and playoff hopes, implode once more.
Small forward proved to be a sore spot for the injury-ravaged Pelicans all season. Their 3s ranked in the bottom three of both offensive and defensive efficiency, per HoopsStats.com[26]. New Orleans' shooting guards weren't much better; they failed to crack the top half of either category[27].
A healthy Tyreke Evans helps solve some of these woes. But a healthy Evans, who is recovering from right knee surgery, isn't guaranteed, and he can be wildly overvalued on the defensive end.
Opponents shot 43.6 percent against Evans from behind the three-point line, which coincides with the Pelicans' crummy outside prevention. They ended up in the bottom six[29] of three-point defense and relinquished the eighth-most uncontested triples, per B/R Insights.[2 8]
Armed with top-six lottery odds, the Pelicans could look to the draft for three-and-D talent. But some of the most tantalizing prospects—Ingram, Hield, Murray, etc.—could be gone by the time they're on the clock.
Anthony Davis' megastar standing also demands the Pelicans try to win games now, and the best way for them to get game-ready talent is through free agency.
Carving out max cap space will be difficult with Omer Asik's deal clogging up the financial ducts, but New Orleans should have enough coin to pursue Bazemore, Allen Crabbe (restricted), Fournier, Evan Turner, et al.
Ditching the triangle isn't on the Knicks' offseason to-do list. Should it be? No comment. (Yes.) But so long as Phil Jackson is the team's president, the triangle is a reality.
In lieu of reinventing the offense, New York needs to bolster its perimeter corps.
Strong defensive showings can transcend any triangle growing pains the team experiences. The Knicks have a solid duo in Kristaps Porzingis and Robin Lopez up front, and they boasted a top-seven three-point defense. Their guards, however, were absolutely torched on the less glamorous end.[30]
Just five backcourts were worse defensively than New York's pairings, according to HoopsStats.com. There isn't a lot of wiggle room at point guard, with Jose Calderon, Langston Galloway (restricted free agent) and Jerian Grant all expected back. But Jackson will have gobs of cap space should Arron Afflalo and Derrick Williams decline their player options, as anticipated.[31]
Retaining Lance Thomas, who missed the last 18 games with a left knee injury, will be a priority. Nicolas Batum, Bazemore, Crabbe and Fournier are all three-and-D types who could find their way onto New York's free-agent wish list.
Any versatile wing with a jump shot (sorry, Evan Turner) will do. The Knicks have no choice but to improve their defense and outside shot-making, because the triangle is inherently slow and limits their own scoring opportunities.
To wit: The average team used 95.8 possessions per 48 minutes in 2015-16. During the 20 years Jackson spent as a head coach, plus two full seasons helming the Knicks from above, his teams matched or exceeded that pace once—all the way back in 1989-90.[32][33]
Like the Nuggets, the Orlando Magic find themselves with a smattering of young talent but a dearth of star power. And like the Nuggets, they're looking for that to change
"We feel like we need to add experience to the team and that's something that I've said throughout the season,'' general manager Rob Hennigan said, per NBA.com's John Denton[34]. "It's something as the season played out we've been able to pinpoint that we do need some of that experience to stabilize us."
The Magic will have plenty of cap space to play with thanks to the Tobias Harris trade and the impending salary-cap boom. But it will be difficult, nigh impossible, for them to attract a star via free agency.
This summer's available superstar ranks are thin to begin with, and Orlando hasn't been a hot player destination for years. It's unlikely an All-NBA talent, in his prime, will latch onto a nucleus that won just 60 games over the last two seasons. (Dwight Howard[35] doesn't count.)
Dangling some combination of Mario Hezonja, Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton and Nikola Vucevic, along with this year's late lottery pick, will be the Magic's quickest path to a star acquisition. Aaron Gordon should really be the only untouchable player. Everyone else can be considered fair game.
Some star somewhere will hit the rumor mill eventually. And whether it's Jimmy Butler, Blake Griffin[36] or another high-profile name who can complement Gordon, the Magic cannot be afraid to empty their asset chest.
Sam Hinkie, author of the Philadelphia Sixers' now-notorious Process, is out.
A large portion of their frontcourt rotation should follow suit.
Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor and Dario Saric could all realistically be stateside and healthy enough to play next season. And that's not going to work.
Philly already tried playing Okafor, whose rookie year was cut short by a slight tear in his right meniscus, and Noel together. It was a disaster. It won't get better by swapping out one of them for Embiid and using Saric as a small forward. That will be a disaster too.
Embiid, Noel and Okafor are NBA centers; Saric should play power forward. End of story. And there is no alternate ending.
Strike that, there actually is: The Sixers win the draft lottery, select Simmons (a should-be power forward) and build upon their frontcourt pileup.
Standing pat to start the offseason, until they know where Simmons will actually land, is fine. But if the Sixers begin 2016-17 without trading one, preferably two, of Embiid, Noel and Okafor, they'll have failed.
Zero.
That's the number of power forwards the Phoenix Suns have under contract for next season. This, of course, assumes you don't count Alex Len as a 4 (you shouldn't) or T.J. Warren as a small-ball power forward (debatable).
Jon Leuer and Mirza Teletovic are both free agents and will probably price themselves out of Phoenix. Cory Jefferson and Alan Williams (non-guaranteed) can come back, but neither of them projects as more than a low-end flier.
Using Warren, who is recovering from right foot surgery, at the 4 spot is fine. It's necessary if the Suns plan on keeping both Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight. Devin Booker would slide to the 3 by default, leaving Warren to soak up time at either forward slot.
But that doesn't solve much, if anything.
Less than 25 percent[37] of Warren's minutes came at the 4 last season, and it's not yet clear if he can space the floor enough to mimic the NBA's prevailing frontcourt themes. He shot 40 percent from deep during his sophomore crusade, but that came on only 70 attempts, and his percentages[38] just inside the three-point line were shaky.
Expect the Suns to burn what should be a top-five pick on another frontcourt prospect. Ingram or Simmons would be a great fit if the lottery plays out in their favor; otherwise, they'll have to consider guys such as Dragan Bender, Jaylen Brown, Marquese Chriss, Henry Ellenson and Ivan Rabb.
Tapping into the free-agency well will be equally important. The Suns have a ton of cap space, are trying to complete an abbreviated rebuild and hung onto a head coach in Earl Watson who specializes in offseason recruiting, per The Undefeated's Marc J. Spears.[39]
DeMarcus Cousins[40] will, in all likelihood, start next season in a Sacramento Kings jersey.
Rajon Rondo most definitely shouldn't.
Yes, Rondo shot a career-best 36.5 percent from three-point range with respectable volume (170 attempts). And sure, Sacramento scored like a top-10 offense[41] when he shared the floor with Cousins, pumping in nearly 105 points per 100 possessions.
But the Kings offense overall averaged more[42] points per 100 possessions without Rondo. Their defense was better with him on the bench as well. They cannot afford to reinvest in a point guard who doesn't make them better.
Darren Collison and Seth Curry (player option) are better complements to Sacramento's personnel anyway. They are more established off-ball scorers, a non-negotiable trait of any point guard who must coexist within a Cousins-centric offense over the long haul.
Rather than hand Rondo a multiyear pact that pays him more per year than the $9.5 million he earned last season, the Kings should look to surround Cousins (and Rudy Gay) with more catch-and-shoot weapons as Collison and, hopefully, Curry anchor a point-guard-by-committee approach.
Most of us tend to laud the Utah Jazz's rebuilding procedures, myself included. They have pieced together a nice nucleus, one that should only grow with time.
Rudy Gobert can be the foundation of a league-best defense. Rodney Hood is a low-usage stud. Trey Lyles gives them floor spacing at the 4. Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward are fringe stars. Shelvin Mack makes the team less desperate for a starting point guard, and the return of Dante Exum next season drums up their intrigue factor on both sides of the court.
All of that makes this a tough question to ask: Can Favors and Hayward be two of the three best players on a genuine championship contender?
Favors in particular is starting to look out of place. His best position in today's NBA, as a big who doesn't score efficiently outside 10 feet[43] of the hoop, is center. But the Jazz are married to the extension-eligible Gobert.
Could Utah get away with using Lyles as its primary 4 next season? Favors was statistically better[44] than him alongside Gobert and Hayward, but might the Jazz be able to extract a top-five pick or star-level wing from trade suitors by assembling a package around the final two years of his bargain-bin deal?
These are necessary questions to ask amid a four-season playoff drought. Even if the Jazz ultimately decide to soldier on with this exact core, they owe it to their rebuild to poke around Favors' trade market.
Winning free agency is no longer an ancillary prize for a Washington Wizards squad on the rise—mostly because these Wizards are no longer on the rise.
Washington should be entering this offseason on the heels of a deep playoff push, equipped with max-level flexibility, having established itself as an Eastern Conference powerhouse. Instead, it's watching the postseason unfold from home, sans the consolation prize of a lottery pick, which will be sent to Phoenix as part of the Markieff Morris trade.
Free agency is now even more integral to the Wizards' future. They delayed Bradley Beal's extension to increase wiggle room and, with the exception of that Morris deal, haven't made many wholesale changes in the past few years, knowing full well they were presumptive front-runners for Kevin Durant[45].
That pipe dream took a hit once the Wizards missed the playoffs, but it received new life when, according to Wojnarowski[46], they hired Scott Brooks as their next head coach. He spent seven years guiding Durant in Oklahoma City and will assuredly be a crucial part of Washington's sales pitch.
Except this isn't just about the 2013-14 MVP anymore.
The Wizards' entire frontcourt ranked in the bottom seven of both offensive and defensive efficiency, per HoopsStats.com[47]. If they can't land Durant, they need to bring in someone else, like Batum, Fournier or Chandler Parsons (player option), who helps thrust them back into the East's playoff discussion.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com. Salary information via Basketball Insiders.
[48][49][50]
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @danfavale[51].
References
- ^ NBA (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ Ken Berger (www.cbssports.com)
- ^ Chris Vernon (twitter.com)
- ^ Ty Lawson (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ Pau Gasol (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ Joakim Noah (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ Nick Friedell (twitter.com)
- ^ of ESPN.com (twitter.com)
- ^ per Friedell (twitter.com)
- ^ borrow a phrase (espn.go.com)
- ^ Kobe Bryant (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ Teddy Greenstein (www.chicagotribune.com)
- ^ Kenneth Faried (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ Adam Fromal (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ per HoopsHype (hoopshype.com)
- ^ Gery Woelfel (journaltimes.com)
- ^ top-two defense (stats.nba.com)
- ^ most successful offensive combinations (stats.nba.com)
- ^ top 10 (stats.nba.com)
- ^ more mid-range jumpers (stats.nba.com)
- ^ 50 percent shooter (www.basketball-reference.com)
- ^ bottom six (stats.nba.com)
- ^ bottom eight (stats.nba.com)
- ^ around the middle (stats.nba.com)
- ^ Adrian Wojnarowski (sports.yahoo.com)
- ^ per HoopsStats.com (www.hoopsstats.com)
- ^ top half of either category (www.hoop sstats.com)
- ^ shot 43.6 percent (stats.nba.com)
- ^ bottom six (stats.nba.com)
- ^ top-seven three-point defense (stats.nba.com)
- ^ according to HoopsStats.com (www.hoopsstats.com)
- ^ average team used 95.8 possessions (www.basketball-reference.com)
- ^ matched or exceeded (docs.google.com)
- ^ John Denton (www.nba.com)
- ^ Dwight Howard (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ Blake Griffin (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ 25 percent (www.basketball-reference.com)
- ^ his percentages (www.basketball-reference.com)
- ^ Marc J. Spears (twitter.com)
- ^ DeMarcus Cousins (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ top-10 offense (stats.nba.com)
- ^ averaged more (stats.nba.com)
- ^ outside 10 feet (www.basketball-reference.com)
- ^ statistically better (stats.nba.com)
- ^ Kevin Durant (bleacherreport.com)
- ^ according to Wojnarowski (sports.yahoo.com)
- ^ per HoopsStats.com (www.hoopsstats.com)
- ^ Basketball-Reference.com (www.basketball-reference.com)
- ^ NBA.com (stats.nba.com)
- ^ Basketball Insiders (www.basketballinsiders.com)
- ^ @danfavale (twitter.com)
Source & rarr; Top Offseason Priority for Each NBA Team That Missed 2016 Playoffs
