2024-25 NBA Off-Season Winners and Losers
2024-25 NBA Off-Season Winners and Losers
Last week, Philadelphia signed French forward Guerschon Yabusele after an outstanding performance in the Olympics. Yabusele (6-7, 270) had previously played for the Celtics in 2019. He signed for a modest one-year, 2.1 million dollar deal according to ESPN. Yabusele, who is 28, averaged 14.0 points, and 3.3 rebounds and shot 52% from the field in the Olympics. That makes it a very strong off-season for the Sixers. Who did well and didn’t do well in the NBA off-season as of August 20?
Winners
*Philadelphia needed to make a serious move to get closer to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Yabusele was a nice piece, but the key was adding Paul George for four years and $212 million. George isn’t the player he once was, but at 34, is still a productive player. He doesn’t need to be great with Joel Embiid attracting a lot of attention. He shot 41.3% from beyond the arc last season, while averaging 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists with the LA Clippers. An underrated move was adding Caleb Martin, along with Eric Gordon and Andre Drummond to improve their depth. They also drafted a very good shooter in Jared McCain in the first round, who might play some this season.
*The key for the New York Knicks was to keep their nucleus together. That’s what they did when they got OG Anunoby to re-sign and star guard Jalen Brunson taking a discount to re-sign. After that, they continued their Villanova pipeline with the addition of Mikal Bridges for five first-round picks. Their only loss was Isaiah Hartenstein signing with Oklahoma City and they just couldn’t afford him. If Mitchell Robinson gets injured again, they may have to find another rim-protecting big man.
*Speaking of the Thunder, they got a big rebounder and energy guy next to Chet Holmgren. Hartenstein will allow Holmgren to play more on the perimeter. OKC also added a defensive stalwart in Alex Caruso and gave up on guard Josh Giddey, who was losing playing time in the postseason. This will be a tremendous defensive team with Carus, Lu Dort, Holmgren and Cason Wallace on the perimeter.
*Dallas brought in Klay Thompson along with Naji Marshall to help their perimeter game. Thomspon can still be productive as a third option behind Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. As good as Irving is, Thompson is a better perimeter shooter who should help eliminate some double teams between him and Irving. Marshall is a very long 6-7 defender who shot nearly 39% from the three-point line last season.
*New Orleans kept Brandon Ingram (for now) and made a huge deal, picking up guard Dejounte Murray from Atlanta for Larry Nance Jr., Dyson Daniels and two first-round picks. That also allows guard C.J. McCollum to play shooting guard when you consider a much-slimmer Zion Williamson is still in the mix, this is a team that could compete in the West.
Losers
*The Los Angeles Lakers were rumored to be bringing in everyone from Donovan Mitchell to Lauri Markkanen but didn’t land anyone of substance. At least they drafted Dalton Knecht, who should be able to help right away as a scorer.
*Denver lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to Orlando who provided solid defense and over 40% from three-point range. That’s a huge loss for a team that had little depth last season. Dario Saric was a 37.6% 3-point shooter with Golden State last year and averaged 8 points and 4.4 rebounds. Christian Braun will have to start now, and he didn’t show he was ready last season.
*The LA Clippers lost Paul Geroge for nothing and could have had a sign-and-trade deal. The Kawhi Leonard situation due to knee injuries puts this team in jeopardy of not making the playoffs heading into the season in a new $2 billion arena.
