Fansided

NBA Power Rankings: Offseason’s good, bad and ugly

By Seth Partnow

Mar 18, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) reacts after a 100-96 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 18, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) reacts after a 100-96 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 7
Next
Apr 13, 2014; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins (15) reacts after being called for a technical foul during the fourth quarter of the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Sleep Train Arena. The Sacramento Kings defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 106-103. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 13, 2014; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins (15) reacts after being called for a technical foul during the fourth quarter of the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Sleep Train Arena. The Sacramento Kings defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 106-103. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports /

THE UGLY

29. Sacramento Kings – Drafted Nik Stauskas after a mildly embarrassing “crowd-sourced” analytics project. Extremely early returns are mixed at best. But the real ugliness was signing Darren Collison and letting the far superior Isaiah Thomas walk over a difference of just over $1 million per season. Plus they are rumored to be chasing a deal for Josh Smith to complete the island of front court mismatched toys with DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay. Is there a real plan in place at all yet?

28. Brooklyn Nets – Off the floor dysfunction? Check. Fraying, over-priced roster? Check. Lost two key cogs in Paul Pierce and Shaun Livingston and added…Jarrett Jack in return? Check and check. Combined with the rumblings that Mikhail Prokhorov is no longer interested in writing blank checks, things could get pretty ugly pretty quickly at the Barclays center, with a number of years of lean drafts still to come with all the picks mortgaged in the acquisitions of Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Joe Johnson.

27. Miami Heat – Losing LeBron James was terrible. Bad. No good. Awful. But the Heat rebounded decently well. Luol Deng is of course no replacement, but can soak up some minutes effectively. Josh McRoberts has developed into a versatile play-making and perimeter shooting power forward And of course they re-signed Chris Bosh from the clutches of the Rockets. Bosh returning to the production he showed in Toronto will go some way towards filling the gaping hole in the lineup. Still, this was an old team that re-upped some older players for multiple years and big money. While they might remain superficially competitive next year, breaking up the team and taking a run at some higher end free agents might have been the smarter play.

26. Indiana Pacers – Lance Stephenson for C.J. Miles and Rodney Stuckey. Frank Vogel enters the new season squarely on the hot seat.

25. Detroit Pistons – The best thing by far Detroit did this offseason was hire Stan Van Gundy to coach the team. Unfortunately, Stan Van Gundy the GM is not doing SVG the coach many favors with multi-year signings of D.J. Augustin, Caron Butler and Jodie Meeks. This was a team that needed shooting, certainly, but not at the prices paid to or limitations of those players acquired to fill that role. Additionally, Greg Monroe’s situation as a restricted free agent remains in limbo, with the specter of Monroe being the first high profile 5th year player to choose to play for a single year qualifying offer in order to become an unrestricted free agent next offseason.  Still, between Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s strong showing in Orlando summer league and the likelihood that Van Gundy will be able to better mesh the team’s collection of oddly shaped talent, they will be improved even if it could have been so much better.

Home/NBA