It’s time for identity changers! My annual exercise breaking down new faces in new places who will change the way their team plays or how a unit functions.
But first, here’s what this is not:
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This is not a list or ranking of the best offseason moves. Some moves simply make teams better – like Jonas Valanciunas to the Nuggets or Nickel Alexander-Walker to the Hawks – but don’t change how the team functions.
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This is not a comprehensive list. Don’t get mad if someone on your team is left out, or assume that player won’t change something about the team. If your guy is left out, just take it as a hint that it just isn’t interesting enough to write about.
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This is not in any particular order.
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This is not only a written piece. It’s also available as a podcast, which you can listen to here.
With all of that said, let’s jump in.
• Norm Powell, Miami Heat
What was an offense ahead of its time while in the bubble in 2020 has fallen woefully behind the rest of the league. The Heat haven’t climbed out of the bottom 10 in ORTG since 2022. But things are changing. Jimmy Butler is gone, and with him, Miami’s slowed-down, isolation-heavy offense.
Talking to players and coaches at training camp, the emphasis is on playing fast. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Everybody says that this time of year. Fair. But the Heat have backed up the talk with action. Their first two preseason games were played at a pace of 107.0 and 109.5 – both marks would have led the league last season.
Norm Powell figures to be a big part of this. He averaged 5.8 transition points per game for the equally slow Clippers last season. That would have ranked first in Miami.
The Heat also lack players who can create off the dribble and put pressure on the basket. Tyler Herro is best used on the perimeter (although he’s developed an elite floater game and got to the line more last season), Bam Adebayo doesn’t score at the basket as much as you’d like, and Andrew Wiggins’ forays usually end in the mid-range. Powell took 28% of his shots at the rim last season, per Cleaning the Glass. That’s a higher rate than Adebayo (27%) and Herro (18%).
Powell is also an elite outside shooter, canning 42% of his 3s on high volume last season. Adding him to Herro (once Herro returns from offseason surgery) gives the Heat one of the better shooting backcourts in the league. Going from one to two has a potentially exponential benefit to Miami’s offense – floor spacers spacing the floor for floor spacers. If the Heat play faster and fire away more 3s, the post-Butler era can look dramatically different.
• Kristaps Porzingis, Atlanta Hawks
I’m fascinated to see how Porzingis can open up the floor for Trae Young and what it means for the Hawks' offense, which quietly ranked just 17th last season and has missed the top 10 in ORTG the previous two years.
Porzingis is the best floor-spacing big Young has played with since John Collins, and both Young and the Hawks have changed significantly since then. Young has embraced playing off the ball a tinge more, and Quin Snyder has taken over as coach.
Porzingis is also very different than Collins, who takes more than a third of his 3s from the corners. Porzingis, meanwhile, hoists them from above the break and from deep. Not only does that create more space, but it’s also functionally more dynamic. Collins receiving kickouts in the corner is a nice way to finish a play. But Porzingis in the middle of the floor is a trigger. He can set screens, pop for 3s and demand defenses to make decisions.
What does this mean for Young, who is entering a contract year? More space, more room to probe and use the floor. Young already has elite vision, and things just got clearer. It could mean a boost to the offense, more teamwide success and a chance for Young to revitalize his league-wide image.
• Al Horford, Golden State Warriors
Steve Kerr has been searching for a floor-spacing five since he took the Warriors job in 2014. He’s experimented with everyone from DeMarcus Cousins to Quinten Post (there was even a brief Dragan Bender cameo in there somewhere). Now, in Horford, he has one.
But where Cousins once seemed like a bonus, Horford feels essential. Horford allows the Warriors to play functional lineups that include their second and third-best players, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green.
Defensively, Horford is more of the same. He folds into Golden State’s switch-everything scheme and provides some backbone. He’s less of an identity changer on this end than the guy who shows up late to the party with more beer. It’s good to have him.
Will Horford start? Will he close? That’s less important than the fact that he exists. Whenever Kerr feels like his Geen-Butler (Kuminga?) lineups aren’t working, he can sprinkle a little Horford on it.
• Cam Johnson, Denver Nuggets
Cam Johnson isn’t the shooter that Michael Porter Jr. is, but he’s better at pretty much everything else. Like I said, this isn’t a column about upgrades. But what Johnson can provide can add layers to the Nuggets' offense.
In Brooklyn, Johnson had the ball in his hands and was allowed to create off the dribble more than Porter did in Denver. Not only will there be opportunities for Johnson to run actions with Nikola Jokic, but he could potentially help anchor bench units that struggled to create offense when Jokic was on the bench.
Johnson is also a capable screen-setter. I’m using the word “capable” in the most literal sense, since Porter was not. Because of Porter’s history of back injuries, the Nuggets rarely had him screen in the offense. His job was to space the floor from the corner and occasionally make shots off the catch. With Johnson, Nuggets coach David Adelman will have a more functional cog in the offense.
Having Johnson pick-and-pop, for instance, would add a dynamic to Denver’s offense that it hasn’t had outside of Jokic. Johnson may even be able to recreate some of the two-man actions Jokic runs with Jamal Murray.
Of course, Adelman could just settle for having Johnson stand in the corner like Porter and the Nuggets offense will be mostly fine. Chalk the trade up to salary-cap management and move on. But Adelman doesn’t strike me as someone who wants to recycle Michael Malone’s playbook.
• Tyus Jones, Orlando Magic
They say point guards set the table on offense. Some point guards are the waiters who memorize the entire order for a six-top, substitutions and esoteric Cabernet Sauvignon included, and everything comes out right and on time. That’s Chris Paul in his prime. Then there are the fast-casual waiters who bring your food after you order at the counter and take a number to your table. If you’re nice, they’ll bring you a fork. They don’t go over the top, but they get the job done.
That’s Tyus Jones. I don’t mean that as a slight. Those players are useful! Especially when you haven’t had anyone close to it in so long that your food is cold and the kids are hangry.
Desmond Bane is the better addition, but he’s really just good Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with some off-the-dribble flare. Jones is fundamentally different than anything the Magic had last season (with apologies to Cory Joseph).
The Magic offense was stuck in mud too often last season, and a lot was asked of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, who performed admirably as initiators and scorers but failed to lift Orlando’s offense to even a league-average level.
I’ll hand it off to Michael Shearer, who joined me on this year’s Identity Changers podcast and also had Jones on his list.
“While people call both Wagner and Banchero point-forwards, the truth is that almost every superstar wants a point guard to handle the second-to-second drudgery of bringing the ball across halfcourt and setting up the offense. Having a game-manager like Jones means that Banchero and Wagner can work to get into advantageous positions before receiving the ball, a luxury they were rarely afforded last season.”
In other words, Jones will help Banchero and Wagner get better shots, and better shots tend to improve an offense.
I also wonder if Jones will help unlock small-ball lineups alongside Bane, Jalen Suggs, Wagner and Banchero. (Banchero played about 170 minutes at center last season, per Basketball Reference. Now, coach Jamahl Mosley has a credible option for that unit.)
Quick Hitters:
• VJ Edgecombe, Philadelphia 76ers: It might seem silly to put a rookie in here, which is why we’re doing this quickly in case it ends up not being true. But Edgecombe’s athleticism and willingness to play off the ball are elements this Sixers team hasn’t had in a while. Philadelphia ranked last in the league in cuts last season, per Synergy. Edgecombe is a high-level cutter who can use his athleticism to finish at the basket. We’ve already seen it in preseason.
• Dillon Brooks, Phoenix Suns: I don’t like to use this word often, but the Suns last season were soft. Say whatever you want about Dillon Brooks, but he is not. Brooks brings the snot factor. He’s physical, doesn’t back down from challenges and embraces the villain role. The Suns can use someone with that personality, and Brooks will make his presence felt in that locker room.