NBA Power Rankings: Impact off-season move

Re-signing Draymond Green: When you make it to the top of the mountain and you can bring back a key reason for reaching the summit at a discount, it doesn’t matter if there are no new impact faces in town.

Signing LaMarcus Aldridge: The rich just get richer. The Spurs landed the biggest fish in free agency and look to have a clear succession plan to keep this train rolling when Tim Duncan decides to call it a career.

Re-signing Tristan Thompson: It took way too long (so much so that he wasn’t able to play for Team Canada this summer) but Thompson finally got the big payday everyone knew he was going to get after a strong post-season showing.

Re-signing Enes Kanter: The Thunder matched an offer sheet on Kanter that the Blazers put out on him and then signed him to a multi-year deal. His defensive deficiencies at this point are just something they’ll have to live with but there’s no question he gives OKC’s second unit a lot of extra offensive punch up front.

Re-signing DeAndre Jordan: There were a number of moves that could’ve filled this spot, such as the Paul Pierce-Doc Rivers reunion, but in the end, the bizarre second-thoughts-on-the-Mavericks, emoji-filled midnight hijacking of Jordan takes the cake.

Acquiring Ty Lawson: Lawson gives the Rockets the true offensive tone-setter they lacked with Patrick Beverley starting. The Rockets’ offensive gameplan of exclusively trying to look for triples and layups hasn’t changed and Lawson’s dynamic playmaking skills should make getting those looks that much easier.

Re-signing Marc Gasol: While there was little doubt he was going to return it’s still a big win for the Grizzlies to bring back their best player to a multi-year max deal and show the rest of the league that they aren’t afraid to spend big when it comes to taking care of their own.

Signing Gerald Green: After a productive two-season stint in Phoenix, Green comes to a dangerous-looking Heat team to resume the bench-gunner role he blossomed in while with the Suns.

Re-signing Jimmy Butler: Butler emerged last season as a real go-to scoring threat, stripping away the notion that he’s just a three-and-D role player. The Bulls had to ensure they didn’t lose him as an RFA and by taking care of that they now feature a fearsome roster with one of the game’s best two-way players.

Acquiring Tiago Splitter: While Splitter won’t be taking triples, he’ll still be able to contribute to the Hawks’ perimeter bombardment as he’s an excellent passer and is a good enough roll man that opposing defences won’t be able to outright ignore him when he’s diving towards the hoop.

Signing Greg Monroe: The Bucks made a big splash in free agency when they beat out the Lakers for the services of Monroe and signed him to a max deal. Monroe now fits in as the No. 1 offensive option on a remarkably long and potentially defensive juggernaut of a Bucks team that’s on the rise.

Signed Kendrick Perkins: This signing is significant for all the wrong reasons. You would think after a 12-season career with an average PER of 10.9 that teams would realize that Perkins does way more harm than any kind of good he could potentially bring.

Drafting Kelly Oubre: The Wizards didn’t do much in the way of impact signings but they did manage to nab Oubre at No. 15 in the draft. The Kansas product was projected to go in the top 10 in a lot of mock drafts because of his smooth shooting stroke and defensive potential.

Signing DeMarre Carroll: It’s strange to think that the Raptors’ biggest free-agent signing in franchise history is a player like Carroll, but regardless of what the contract looks like, he gives the Raptors their first true starting small forward since Vince Carter and fills the badly needed three-and-D role that the entire league covets.

Drafting Trey Lyles: The Jazz took a pretty big gamble taking Canadian power forward Trey Lyles 12th overall despite him playing the majority of his college career as a reserve. He has all the talent and physical tools to excel, but will he be able to put it all together?

Signing Monta Ellis: Ellis had it all playing alongside Dirk Nowitzki and under the strict gaze of Rick Carlisle. Will that remain the case now that he’s got the big payday and won’t be under the thumb of a team with as strong a leadership group as the Mavericks?

Signing Deron Williams: It feels like this is three years late, but Williams is finally a Maverick. He’s no longer the player who headlined free agency in the summer of 2012, but he can still shoot it, has a wicked handle and can command the pick-and-roll like few others in the game.

Acquiring David Lee: After a rash of injuries robbed him of last year and a five-season tenure that made him the butt of jokes for his defensive liabilities, Lee was traded to the Celtics where he should get plenty of opportunity and, if healthy, could remind people just how talented an offensive player he is.

Re-signing Reggie Jackson: After acquiring him at the trade deadline from the Thunder last season, the Pistons decided to go all-in on Jackson. Does this mean Detroit’s going to be shopping Brandon Jennings (and his attractive expiring deal) at the deadline this season?

Signing Tyson Chandler: At age 33 and with a ton of games logged (he was drafted out of high school, remember), it’s tough to say for sure how impactful Chandler will be, but optically it’s still a good signing and even at this advanced stage of his career he’s head and shoulders above the likes of Alex Len and Henry Sims.

Signing Rajon Rondo: It’s entirely possible that what Rondo put his body through with the Celtics just won’t allow him to ever reach that level again. Still, it was a pretty low-risk move on part of the Kings to bring him in and see if he’s still got it – granted he can get along with George Karl.

Acquiring Nicolas Batum: French jack-of-all-trades wing Batum should mesh well with the Hornets’ collection of playmaking defenders, but he still doesn’t solve their No. 1 problem of scoring outside of Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson.

Re-signing Tobias Harris: Harris is one of the most underrated players in the NBA and could conceivably reach all-star status at some point. A Shawn Marion-esque player, the Magic have to be ecstatic to keep him in the fold.

Drafting Karl-Anthony Towns: The Kentucky freshman is long, athletic and showed a lot of potential to be the kind of two-way killer that modern NBA big men are expected to be. It may take him some time, but combined with Andrew Wiggins, the Timberwolves appear to be building a strong foundation of young talent.

Signing Robin Lopez: Whereas Knicks fans have an irrational dislike for Kristaps Porzingis and may grow to like him, the MSG faithful will instantly fall in love with Lopez. An all-hustle, all-effort big man with strong defensive instincts, Lopez will be a revelation at centre for New York compared to the past two seasons with Andrea Bargnani.

Drafting Emmanuel Mudiay: Mudiay’s decision to forego going to college in order to play professionally for a season in China did nothing to help his draft stock as he fell to No. 7 after coming into the beginning of the 2014-15 college season as a lock for the top three. Good news for the Nuggets, as they can cleanly move on from the Lawson era with a young point guard full of potential.

Signing Lou Williams: While drafting D’Angelo Russell was the more impactful move for the future of the club, in the short term, seeing what will happen with potentially Kobe Bryant, Nick Young and Williams all on the floor at the same time is just way too fun not to think about.

Acquiring Noah Vonleh: It was a rough off-season for the Blazers with the departure of Aldridge, but luckily team management had the foresight to see it coming and acquired a player with a similar skill set in Vonleh. Whether he becomes as good as Aldridge is, however, is a completely different story.

Signing Andrea Bargnani: Like with the Pelicans this is only significant because it looks so bad. Seriously, when the Knicks can’t wait to get rid of a guy, just what are the Nets thinking picking up their scraps?

Drafting Jahlil Okafor: Originally projected to go first overall until he was over-analyzed to death and the likes of Towns and Russell emerged, the 76ers should be thanking their lucky stars they were able to land a talent like Okafor at No. 3.