Denver Nuggets
Arguably, the biggest winners of the entire draft or free agency period, Denver really maximized their opportunity to improve along the margins. Flipping Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick into Cam Johnson is a major win. Make no mistake, Porter Jr. is a lethal shooter with legit size. Although Porter has made considerable strides since entering the league, Johnson is a better defender and a more intelligent, seamless offensive fit alongside Nikola Jokic, who costs roughly 15 million less per year. Tim Hardaway Jr. should replace 75-80% of what Kentavious Caldwell-Pope brought to their title team, especially on a veteran minimum. Bringing back Bruce Brown is another major win. He left Denver after having the best season in his career, got paid, and then came back on a minimum deal to restore his value. Lastly, turning Dario Saric into Jonas Valanciunas should allow the Nuggets to actually stay afloat when Jokic sits. Though older, Valanciunas is still a big, strong body who rebounds and scores out of the post. He will be a defensive liability, but that’s somewhat expected from their center position. This group is clearly repositioned to contend for a title.
Houston Rockets
In the biggest move of the summer, Houston trades Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks to acquire Kevin Durant. That deal alone likely vaulted them into legitimate title consideration, but the Rockets were far from finished. They extended Steven Adams, Fred VanVleet, and Jabari Smith Jr. on pretty favorable deals (Adams might’ve been a tad pricey) while bringing in Clint Capela and Dorian Finney-Smith as nice luxuries. Overall, it’s a win to secure the services of Durant—who probably isn’t discussed enough for his insane efficiency and consistency as he’s aged. However, this is certainly not a perfect roster. They have too many wings, forwards, and bigs without enough guard play. Theoretically, the Rockets are acquiring all these pieces to give themselves the flexibility to make a bigger move. Whether they make another move or not, Houston definitely has one of the best teams in the NBA.
New York Knicks
Although the Atlanta Hawks probably deserve this spot for how quickly they’ve turned into a quality team, New York earns praise for adding to their already strong roster. They lost no one and added two real assets in Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson. While it’s still unclear if a team featuring Karl-Anthony Towns as a top two piece can ever actually win the title (due to his positional issues), there’s no negative in running it back after making the conference finals. Yabusele is a physically imposing forward with strength and mismatch ability. Clarkson is still one of the league’s most prolific midrange and off-the-bench scorers, but has also made strides as a secondary playmaker. The hiring of Mike Brown is very shrug-worthy, so it’ll be interesting to see how things unfold next season.