State of the Union
The Detroit Pistons are coming off of a 20-46 COVID shortened season, good for 13th in the Eastern Conference. The Pistons had the 20th best offensive rating, 108.8, and 22nd best defensive rating, 112.3, good for a net rating of -3.5, 23rd best in the league. The Pistons find themselves at the start of a true rebuild, kicked off by the trading of Andre Drummond to Cleveland at the deadline this past season. The team still has 2 years, $76 million committed to Blake Griffin, who has struggled to stay healthy, playing 58, 75, and 18 games respectfully in the past three seasons. Other than Griffin, Detroit’s cap books are relatively clean. The team only has one player currently under contract past the 2021/2022 season, and that player is promising young forward Sekou Doumbouya. This summer, the team should be in asset accumulation mode. With close to $25 million in cap space projected, pending confirmed salary cap numbers set, the team could look to take advantage of the current economic crisis within the league. Detroit could be a bad contract dumping ground of sorts, where teams looking to shed salary could dump their undesirables. Detroit could ask for picks or young players in compensation for taking these bad contracts. As far as free agency, the team has really one of their own free agents that they should focus on bringing back and that is Christian Wood. Wood impressed this past season, especially with the departure of Drummond. The trade of Drummond led to Wood being given a much bigger role, as he averaged 35 minutes a game and 16 shots a game, compared to 19 minutes and 7 shots a game before the trade. Most impressively, his shooting efficiency actually got better with the uptick in production. After the All-Star break, Wood put up 24 points and 10 rebounds on a nightly basis on great efficiency, putting up shooting splits of 57/39/76, and Wood showed that he could score from all three levels, imperative for a big man in the modern era. The Pistons have been chasing the 8th seed in the East for the last 4-5 years and haven’t had a winning record since the 2007-2008 season. It appears the team has finally committed to a full on rebuild with the trade of Andre Drummond. Detroit should acquire as many picks and young players as possible, and try to hit the hard reset button through the draft. It is time to truly embrace the tank in Detroit.
0 Comments
State of the Union
The Denver Nuggets are coming off of a 49-23 season in which they fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals in 5 games. The Nuggets were 5th in the league in offensive rating, posting a 112.6, and 16th in the league in defensive rating, posting a 110.4, giving them a net rating of 2.2, good for 11th in the league. The Nuggets are coming off one of the craziest and impressive non-title playoff performances in recent memory, after coming back from 3-1 down against both the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers. Nikola Jokic looked like a superstar, but the real story of the postseason was the arrival of Jamal Murray as a star. Murray put together a stretch of games against the Jazz that bordered on lunacy. From game 5 on, Murray averaged 36/5/6 on 57/54/87 shooting, averaging 14 points on 70/78/100 shooting in the fourth quarter alone. He hit some absolute dagger threes that helped pull the Nuggets through to the second round. If this is the Murray that comes into next season, there is no question he deserves the 5-year max extension that kicks in at the beginning of the season. The Nuggets also have to be encouraged with the play of Michael Porter Jr in the restart, as he was one of the biggest surprise performances in The Bubble. He provided the team with some much-needed scoring when both Murray and Jokic were taking a breather. He left a lot to be desired on the defensive end of the floor, but with his athletic profile there’s no reason to think Porter Jr can’t improve on that side of the ball. The team looks to be in great shape with Jokic, Murray and Porter Jr all under contract for the foreseeable future, but enters the offseason with some key rotation pieces in limbo, with Paul Millsap and Mason Plumlee hitting unrestricted free agency, Torrey Craig restricted free agency, and newly acquired Jerami Grant mulling a player option. The team doesn’t project to have any cap space, and so making smart decisions with their own free agents and exceptions will be key for Denver. State of the Union
The Dallas Mavericks are coming off of a 43-32 season in which they had a playoff berth in the Bubble. The Mavs had an historic offensive season, posting a 115.9 offensive rating, which is the best by any NBA team ever. However, the team was 18th in defensive rating, posting a 111.2, giving them the 6th best net rating in the league of 4.8. The team was led by the meteoric rise of Luka Doncic, who was All NBA First Team this past year. Doncic absolutely dominated in his sophomore season, putting up 29/9/9 a game and just being totally in control of the offense at all times. Doncic was accompanied by Kristaps Porzingis, who also had a solid season despite a shaky start. With Doncic and Porzingis under contract for the long haul, Dallas main objective moving forward has to be surrounding them with talented role players that complement those two styles of play. Players like Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber, and Seth Curry are already under contract and fit well around the two stars, but Dallas should always be in roster improvement mode. It would seem that the Mavs have a title window for the foreseeable future, but windows can shut quickly as we’ve seen before. This offseason, the Mavs do not project to have much cap space unless Tim Hardaway opts out of his player option, which is unlikely. However, the team should be able to sign a key player this offseason with the mid-level exception, as there isn’t a lot of money available throughout the league. State of the Union
The Cleveland Cavaliers are coming off a 19-46 record, good for last in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs were 26th in the league in offensive rating and dead last in defensive rating, good for a net rating of -7.9, 29th in the league. Cleveland has an odd mix of young talent and old veterans on the roster that haven’t exactly meshed well enough to consistently win, or even play defense. The Cavs took a gamble in signing John Beilein last summer as their head coach and it did not pay off, as he did not make it through the year with the team. The 67-year-old former college coach never seemed to mesh well with his team and adapt to the rigor of an NBA schedule. They are now helmed by JB Bickerstaff. On the roster, Cleveland seems to have a glut at the two lead guard spots. Between Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Kevin Porter Jr. and Dante Exum, the team has a bevy of young, talented guards to choose from. The team is high on Garland after having taken him 5th overall in last year’s draft. However, Kevin Porter Jr. really had some bright spots last season and flashed a lot of potential. Figuring out their backcourt of the future and hitting on the 5th pick in the upcoming draft is the only thing that should matter to Cleveland moving forward. State of the Union
The Chicago Bulls are coming off of a 22-43 season, which was good for 11th in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls were 29th in the league in offensive rating and 9th in defensive rating, giving them the 22nd best net rating of -3.1. The team was led by a strong year from combo guard Zach Lavine, who had averages of 25.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game. The Bulls have a young core of Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter, and Coby White. While the Bulls were surprisingly good on the defensive end this past season, the Bulls were not able to generate a lot of consistent offense outside of Lavine. The sharpshooting Markkanen did not shoot well from the floor and struggled under the tutelage of former coach Jim Boylen. Carter has shown promise on both ends of the court so far through his career, but has struggled to stay on the court due to injuries. White flashed as a microwave scorer for the team but doesn’t project to be much more than a spark plug bench scorer who doesn’t provide much on the defensive end. New head coach Billy Donovan will have to make some evaluations of his roster and his current core. With Lauri Markkanen and wing Otto Porter entering a contract year, does the team see these two as pivotal to future success, or will they go in another direction? How will the team solidify the point guard position? With neither Tomas Satoransky nor Kris Dunn having proven the answer at the lead guard, finding a franchise point guard must be the most important task for newly hired Arturas Karnikovas. The Bulls must be tempted to trade up in the draft to secure the talents of Lamelo Ball, the consensus top talent in the draft. He would provide the Bulls with a franchise point guard that can create at an elite level on offense. |
AuthorNick Thoreson is a young professional working in finance who is passionate about the NBA and especially all things salary cap related. |