Who is having the worst off-season so far

[doogie_hauser]

Don't like Brooklyn's off season moves, had a very weird and strange draft, plus they moved on Cam Johnson for Porter Jnr and his horrible contract.

Just seems to be rather wishy washy from The Nets, who could well be the worst team in the East next season

[Wingy]

Yeah, LeBron was still all NBA level player this year and DFS had the highest on/off.
They could have negotiated with LeBron, got him for additional 2 years at lower rate, kept DFS for 2 years, and signed Ayton and Laravia, that's better than no DFS and disgruntled LeBron.
Luka isn't 23 y/o waiting for a rebuild, he wants to compete, and you need veterans to help him compete.

You don’t think they asked? They are projected to have $131 million in cap space next offseason. They won’t have to wait long to add vet talent and have James still this year.

I speculate they didn't? They don't have 131M, Luka and Reaves cap holds are additional ~70M.

I thought Spotrac usually calculates those in, but must be something off…

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/los-angeles-lakers/cap/_/year/2026

In any case, they will have $65-70 million so they can add a max player, add other pieces and resign or try to flip Reaves.

In any case, I don’t think their offseason has been good at all, but I don’t think it’s the worst and moving on from James is a plus move for their future in my book.

[Chuck Everett]

Don't like Brooklyn's off season moves, had a very weird and strange draft, plus they moved on Cam Johnson for Porter Jnr and his horrible contract.

Just seems to be rather wishy washy from The Nets, who could well be the worst team in the East next season

Brooklyn doesn't want to be good next year though. They want a high lotto pick.

[Wolveswin]

Pacers.

Hali official torn Achilles diagnosis and surgery and confirmed out for season.

Lost Turner to Bucks of all places.

[brutalitops]

Nets, Should of gotten more for the MPJ trade,

Unable to bundle those picks into future picks and having to take 4 guys, prefer to bundle 2 and traded for a future pick as you have 3 young guards who kind of need the ball in their hands and a Big who likes to operate as a ball handler as well

Pelicans for that disgusting trade of an unprotected first for pick 13

[BigGargamel]

The Jazz lost Clarkson, Sexton, Collins for basically nothing. Getting a talent like Bailey at #5 was a good gamble, but he could easily flame out. Plus, they play in the West and are probably the only team in that conference with no hope. It's gonna be tough there.

[jezzerinho]

It's between Utah, Sacramento, GSW.

[WiggOuts]

The Jazz tanked hard and got screwed in the lottery. They kind of redeemed themselves getting Ace at 5 but that's also no guarantee. They also traded off vets for poor returns. They've been tanking for a while now and I swear I remember hearing they wanted to be competitive next year, doesn't look like thats happening

SAC looks soo bad and so far removed from what they were not long ago, I feel for Sabonis, he needs to he saved. The fact that they now have Demar, Lavine and Schroeder is so comically bad. But it fairness to them, they started this free fall well before this off-season.

After just making the finals the Pacers just lost one of their best players for nothing. People want to blame Myles but he's been underpaid there and looks like they lowballed him in such a way that he up and left without a 2nd word. That's on the FO, they were not self aware of the situation they created. Overall they'll still be good but not as good without Myles, he was integral

GS is sitting on their hands in a situation where their clock is ticking, not sure what they're thinking. MIA got real lucky with Norm, they also got real lucky stealing Jak at 20. Thats kind of the problem tho, they're getting lucky. I dont really like their team, I think they've grown very comfortable in the fact that players always want to go there and they're waiting to be lucky again

[druggas]

Utah.

[Djh7475]

While Boston pulled off what I considered a good value trade (Jrue for Simons) and ducked the 2nd apron in a gap year, losing 3 rotation bigs from a title team and an elite guard while only getting Simons, Niang, 2nds, and minimum contract vets back makes their offseason arguably the worst even though it was widely expected after Tatum went down. We went from a nonstop contender to a borderline playoff team.

I’ve got the Pacers in a similar boat after losing Turner on a contract I thought was good value while also having Haliburton out for the season. That’s another team that went to the conference finals and finals the last 2 seasons that will be a borderline playoff squad.

Utah and New Orleans have to be on the list too. New Orleans gave up a ton of value for 23 (Pacers 1st next year) and then put even more value on top for a guy that isn’t a great fit with Zion. They also swapped CJ expiring for Poole which made no sense.

Utah got zero value out of the guys they’ve been holding the last few years. Plus they drafted 5 rookies and didn’t take advantage of cap space to acquire any meaningful assets. Getting Ace Bailey at 5 offsets some of the poor asset management, but Ainge hasn’t been a great fit in Utah.

[Liam_Gallagher]

Portland traded for a 35-year old making $100M in three years. They also cut their best player.

Utah traded Collins for Kyle Anderson and a 2nd. They also traded Sexton for Nurkic. Added Caughington. Awful.

[LightTheBeam]

Top 5
Pelicans. Traded for Poole, gave up a future 1st to move up 10 spots.

Kings - It's not really Perrys fault. There are no takers for LaVine/DeRozan. The owner/Sabonis forced him to sign a pg, leading to Schroder who was probably the best available but doesn't really change anything. Hopefully the start to a tank. Draft was okay, but that's about it.

Bulls - I like the draft pick. But they have so much expiring money. Not sure what the plan is. Talks about giving Giddey 30 a year which would be a disaster.

Pistons - Didn't like losing the shooters. Overpaid to get Robinson. LeVert wasn't a guy I had as a target to replace Beasley.

Warriors - Have done nothing. Kuminga situation sucks, and they are going to end up resigning a guy they don't want (sunk cost).

[Invictus88]

Pistons - Didn't like losing the shooters. Overpaid to get Robinson. LeVert wasn't a guy I had as a target to replace Beasley.

Losing Beasley is not ideal BUT:

- Robinson is the guy who should be looked at as replacing Beasley in terms of flat out outside shooting; neither played much of any defense. Robinson is actually a better shooter by the numbers. No, I don't expect Robinson to replicate Beasley's 300+ 3's from last year. But I didn't really expect Beasley to either.

- Ivey (who missed the back half of the season last year) was a much better shooter than THJ from range. He's also younger. Neither played much defense besides THJ's charges he took.

I'm not a big fan of LeVert but at least he plays defense and can handle the ball a little as a facilitator (good AST to TO ratios).

Mostly a Meh offseason. I think if the Beasley news didn't come they'd probably have resigned him and Schroder and let THJ walk.

The potential off-season excitement going forward is whether you believe their young guys will continue to develop (Cade, Ausar, Duren, Ivey and Holland)

[WargamesX]

Indiana. It’s really insane and unfortunate what is happening to them though I expect they rebound the season after next

[DusterBuster]

Portland traded for a 35-year old making $100M in three years. They also cut their best player.

Utah traded Collins for Kyle Anderson and a 2nd. They also traded Sexton for Nurkic. Added Caughington. Awful.

LMAO calling Ayton their "best player". He wasn't even in their Top 3 of best players last season (Deni, Camara and Simons were all clearly better, argument made that Sharpe was better as well).

[AdamSSSlither]

sadly, my guy russell westbrook

[pepe1991]

Top 5
Pelicans. Traded for Poole, gave up a future 1st to move up 10 spots.

Kings - It's not really Perrys fault. There are no takers for LaVine/DeRozan. The owner/Sabonis forced him to sign a pg, leading to Schroder who was probably the best available but doesn't really change anything. Hopefully the start to a tank. Draft was okay, but that's about it.

Bulls - I like the draft pick. But they have so much expiring money. Not sure what the plan is. Talks about giving Giddey 30 a year which would be a disaster.

Pistons - Didn't like losing the shooters. Overpaid to get Robinson. LeVert wasn't a guy I had as a target to replace Beasley.

Warriors - Have done nothing. Kuminga situation sucks, and they are going to end up resigning a guy they don't want (sunk cost).

How is this any worst than Hornets?

In same sesaon, on team where starting PG is Lamelo, starting SG/SF is MIller, they:
-drafted Kon who probably can't play nothing but SG
- traded for Sexton who is PG/SG
- signed Dinwiddie who is PG/SG
- traded for Josh Green last year (SG)
- kept Josh Okogie (SG)
- still have Nick Smith who can't play nothing but PG
- traded for Tre Mann last year (PG)

In same time, SF,PF and C position is undersized, crappy, raw or over a hill. Might as well return Taj Gipson.

They are without playoffs for 9 years, they had 1 solid season, back in 2022, they are entering 4th year of tanking and sucking without any purpose. They don't even have much assets. Just team that allows Lamelo Ball to play streetball for 30 games a year, after that he gets hurt, and Miller takes over his clownshow.

Should i remind you that team that starts 40 years old Taj Gipson and now will start ashes of Plumlee few years ago drafted Jalen Duren- 13# pick but traded pick for 4 second round picks and Nuggets 2023 pick that turned into Nick Smith - 27# pick

It's a such a clownshow. Every team that drafted Lamelo Ball, Brandon MIller and takes Kon after that should be banned from drafting. Collection of 3 perimeter players who can't guard chair on same team, drafted within top 5 picks. Might as well hire AI to run a team.

I still can't see single logical reason why team with 5000 combo guards didn't trade down to get Khaman Maluach or Noa Essengue, or Queen or Sober... or literally any other player/position that isn't shooting guard or point guard.
OR why they didn't do any make up trade. No. They are entering season with 5 point guards and 4 shooting guards, about 0 SFs, 2 undersized PFs and 0 -nba level- 2025/26- centers.

Just ...epic.

[TheGeneral99]

Golden State is already an aging team, and the situation with Kuminga still hasn’t been resolved.

Adding another old veteran like Horford doesn’t seem like an exciting move.

They made their big splash for Jimmy.

Everyone knows this is probably their last year (maybe 2 years) to compete and the team will collapse, but ownership owes it to Curry to go for it at least.

They will almost definitely trade Kuminga at some point.

[tamaraw08]

Don't like Brooklyn's off season moves, had a very weird and strange draft, plus they moved on Cam Johnson for Porter Jnr and his horrible contract.

Just seems to be rather wishy washy from The Nets, who could well be the worst team in the East next season

I'm thinking they agreed to absorb MPJ's huge contract because they still need to meet the salary floor and at the same time get a future FRP from Denver which is more than 6 years from now (past Jokic prime)?

[BuddyBuckets]

Top 5
Pelicans. Traded for Poole, gave up a future 1st to move up 10 spots.

Kings - It's not really Perrys fault. There are no takers for LaVine/DeRozan. The owner/Sabonis forced him to sign a pg, leading to Schroder who was probably the best available but doesn't really change anything. Hopefully the start to a tank. Draft was okay, but that's about it.

Bulls - I like the draft pick. But they have so much expiring money. Not sure what the plan is. Talks about giving Giddey 30 a year which would be a disaster.

Pistons - Didn't like losing the shooters. Overpaid to get Robinson. LeVert wasn't a guy I had as a target to replace Beasley.

Warriors - Have done nothing. Kuminga situation sucks, and they are going to end up resigning a guy they don't want (sunk cost).

How is this any worst than Hornets?

In same sesaon, on team where starting PG is Lamelo, starting SG/SF is MIller, they:
-drafted Kon who probably can't play nothing but SG
- traded for Sexton who is PG/SG
- signed Dinwiddie who is PG/SG
- traded for Josh Green last year (SG)
- kept Josh Okogie (SG)
- still have Nick Smith who can't play nothing but PG
- traded for Tre Mann last year (PG)

In same time, SF,PF and C position is undersized, crappy, raw or over a hill. Might as well return Taj Gipson.

They are without playoffs for 9 years, they had 1 solid season, back in 2022, they are entering 4th year of tanking and sucking without any purpose. They don't even have much assets. Just team that allows Lamelo Ball to play streetball for 30 games a year, after that he gets hurt, and Miller takes over his clownshow.

Should i remind you that team that starts 40 years old Taj Gipson and now will start ashes of Plumlee few years ago drafted Jalen Duren- 13# pick but traded pick for 4 second round picks and Nuggets 2023 pick that turned into Nick Smith - 27# pick

It's a such a clownshow. Every team that drafted Lamelo Ball, Brandon MIller and takes Kon after that should be banned from drafting. Collection of 3 perimeter players who can't guard chair on same team, drafted within top 5 picks. Might as well hire AI to run a team.

I still can't see single logical reason why team with 5000 combo guards didn't trade down to get Khaman Maluach or Noa Essengue, or Queen or Sober... or literally any other player/position that isn't shooting guard or point guard.
OR why they didn't do any make up trade. No. They are entering season with 5 point guards and 4 shooting guards, about 0 SFs, 2 undersized PFs and 0 -nba level- 2025/26- centers.

Just ...epic.

Yea Hornets make no sense. No-one to really root for on that roster. Kinda like the Pels right now. It's hard having to learn that Jordan Poole is your 2nd option and you expect to make the playoffs.