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More Team Offseason Recaps/Season Previews

Utah Jazz:
PG: Brandon Knight/Exum/Mack/Fender
SG: Hood/Devin Harris
SF: Gordan Hayward/Kelly Oubre/Joe Ingles
PF: Favors/Marvin Williams
C: Gobert/Ian Mahinmi/Withey/Pleiss

The Jazz started their offseason by trading Lyles to free up room in the front court in order to get Oubre and their supposed PG in Collison. Oubre will provide 3 and D backing up both forward spots. They got Mahinmi for 2 years 14 mil to back up Gobert. The Jazz then found a big chance to get a major player at PG. They traded Burks(they want Hood playing the 2 anyway) Collison and Burke(opens up minutes for Exum) in order to get a big time young PG in here in Knight. All of a sudden this Jazz team has a great core young starting five coming off a 48 win year with a big PG upgrade and good depth. The Jazz have quietly had a great rebuild and look like they could soar into the top half of the west.

Sacramento Kings:
PG: Rondo/Neto/Jose Calderon
SG: Lance Stephenson/Ben McLemore/Malcolm Brogdon
SF: Gay/Casspi/Butler
PF: Cousins/Amir Johnson/Luis Scola
C: Cauley Stein/Koufos

The Kings took a decent step forward in the West last year, but not enough to be a playoff team. They responded by giving Rondo a huge deal(4 years 85 mil) that they might very well regret. They made a savy trade getting Neto and the 25th pick(Brogdon) for a unhappy Collison. They made solid depth signings in Johnson and Scola. Calderon was bought in due to his reputation as a great locker room guy. They took a gamble on Stephenson for just 1 year 5 mil. They are hoping they can get him under control and have another piece to build around like Rondo. For a team like the Kings despite it being easy to make jokes it is a worth while risk, despite there solid look I still doubt they make the playoffs.

New York Knicks:
PG: Kyrie Irving/Mo Williams
SG: Marcus Smart/Garrett Temple/Sheldon Mccellan
SF: Evan Fournier/Lance Thomas/CJ Wilcox
PF: Porzingis/Mike Scott/Domantas Sabonis
C: Hassan Whiteside/Kyle O’Quinn

It was a disappointing year for the Knicks missing the playoffs again. Melo decided he wanted a title and when his best friend came calling in Lebron he decided to waive his NTC. The Knicks insisted on bringing Kyrie Irving home to New York. They finally had their PG they had been longing for years. Do to further facilitating the deal by also moving Lopez and Grant they were also able to get Marcus Smith to join Irving for a young dynamic backcourt. They also got Mike Scott in the deal who will back up KP and allow the new 4 out offense to work even with KP out of the game. With Lopez gone and the center open the Knick dove into their capspace and gave Whiteside a 4 year 90 million dollar contract. With him playing center next to KP the Knicks will have the best shot blocking in the league and the paint in New York will be tough to score in for the first time since the 90’s. With a hole at the three and in need of more scoring they were able to lure Fournier away from the Magic on a 4 year 48 million dollar contract the Magic elected not to match due to their backcourt logjam. All of a sudden the Knicks have a young core 5 with the oldest at 27 is Whiteside and they have all their future 1sts for the first time in forever. The turnaround is starting. They also bought back Thomas on a 2 year 10 million dollar deal to be a 3 and d guy off the bench. Mo Williams was bought in on a 1 year 5 million dollar deal to provide scoring and shot creation off the bench. Temple was bought in for depth. They traded two future seconds to get get into the second round to take 2 young guys to develop. With these new guys and KP looking ready to step into stardom the Knicks might go from joke to contender very quickly.

LA Lakers
PG: Russell/Will Bynum
SG: DeRozan/Lou Williams/Nick Young
SF: Ben Simmons/Hedo Turkoglu/Anthony Brown
PF: Pau Gasol/Julius Randle/Larry Nance JR
C: Al Horford/Damian Jones

With Kobe retiring the Lakers got a huge break in not only keeping their pick, but winning the lottery and getting Ben SImmons to be the heir apparent to the franchise. They used this to power a huge offseason. They lured DeRozan home to LA on a 4 year 108 million dollar contract. They got a new center in Al Horford for 3 years 60 million. They surprised everyone by bringing Pau Gasol back to LA on 1 year 15 million deal. Randle was disappointing last year, but now they hope he can play well getting big minutes off the bench. The Lakers had as good of an offseason than anyone could have dreamed off. They have a good mix of youth and veterans. DO the cap used on the big signings, the depth wasn’t able to be addressed as much. If this lineup can gel they could get back to the playoffs this year and if they add around it and Russell and Simmons develop they could be a contender much sooner than anyone could have dreamed.

Orlando Magic
PG: Elfrid Payton/Jamal Murray/CJ Watson/Napier
SG: Victor Oladipo/Mario Hezonja
SF: Loul Deng/John Salmons
PF: Aaron Gordon/Andrew Nicholson
C: Vucevic/Mozgov/Dedmon

The Magic went into the offseason with dreams of luring big free agents, but failed. They decided to hold onto their capspace and try again next year. They bought in Deng and Mozgov on 1 year deals to redeem their value and to join the rotation but were quiet other than that. Gordon took a big step forward last year and is ready to be the guy at the four. Things to watch are the young guys developing and first round pick Murray pushing Payton at the point. If they can move some young guys along, use others in a big trade and have a ton of cap next year, the Magic could become a threat, but they need to find someone willing to be the star until then their upside is limited.