The championship confetti has been swept away and the draft has come and gone, leaving free agency as the latest checkpoint in the NBA's calendar.
And while the season of wining and dining may not be what it once was (no one has been quasi-kidnapped yet), there will always be drama.
It's called the "Never Boring Association" for a reason. With superstar swaps, picks passed around and actual signings (you know, the point of free agency), the landscape of the NBA has shifted yet again.
Which leaves basketball fans just days before Summer League begins to learn how to navigate the new terrain. Now that the dust has seemingly settled, with deals made official on Monday, it's time to figure out which teams came out looking picture perfect, and which are still trying to put the pieces together.
Here are the biggest winners and losers from NBA free agency.
WINNERS
When you can swap a 36-year-old at the tail-end of his career, on one of the worst contracts in the NBA, for a player that's seven years younger, squarely in his prime and coming off his best season, it's already a win.
Acquiring Jaylen Brown at the cost of Paul George and modest draft compensation immediately propelled the 76ers up the Eastern Conference contention ladder. For all his analytical warts, Brown is a durable and productive wing who was firmly in the MVP conversation last season, and should pair well with the core of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Joel Embiid.
That wasn't the only move new Sixers GM Mike Gansey made, however, as he also overcame the losses of Quentin Grimes (Los Angeles Lakers) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (Indiana Pacers), by signing Anfernee Simons, Dean Wade and Ariel Hukporti. Simons was third in bench-scoring last season (min. 42 games), and he'll now provide his services to Philadelphia on a top-value deal. Meanwhile, Wade projects to be the fifth starter alongside the 76ers' core quartet after proving he can bother all-star-calibre wings throughout the post-season.
Toronto Raptors (and Kawhi Leonard)
Bobby Webster and his front office could've banked on internal development and continuity coming off a scrappy seven-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. And no one would've been all that surprised.
Instead, the Raptors' top decision-maker decided to be "opportunistic" and brought back the star who helped the franchise shine at its brightest. At the cost of two first-round picks, two seconds, Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick, Toronto acquired Leonard on the heels of an all-NBA season, and maybe more importantly, one of his healthiest.
Not an insignificant price, but one that seems more than fair considering a healthy Leonard is an upgrade on Ingram in just about every area, and he's revered as one of the NBA's greatest playoff risers. So while the Raptors may have lost an innings-eater throughout the regular-season, they swapped him out for a true ace that raises the ceiling come playoff time, all while keeping the rest of the core intact. For his troubles, Leonard will presumably get a lucrative extension and be adored by fans north of the border yet again until he calls it quits and probably after that too.
While the Raptors didn't have much financial flexibility to add pieces around the core of Leonard, Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles (hence Sandro Mamukelashvili is now a Laker), they could've done much worse than re-signing Alijah Martin and bringing in Kyle Anderson. Martin broke out in the G League as a two-way terror and could find himself stepping onto an NBA court much more often this season. As for Anderson, his Swiss-Army-knife skill set fits right into Darko Rajakovic's system, and he brings familiarity with Leonard from their four seasons together on the San Antonio Spurs.
The team that signs LeBron James
Regardless of where the ageless wonder plays next, he gets another feather in his cap simply for being one of the NBA's most coveted free agents at age 41.
For the first time, maybe ever, it seems as though James is genuinely open to multiple landing spots. His agent Rich Paul has stated the future Hall of Famer won't prioritize money in choosing a new (his last?) team, opening up the possibilities for markets that previously couldn't have even imagined adding the NBA's all-time leading scorer.
Although Paul and James have seemingly whittled down the list, there are still plenty of different avenues for the star to take, and an abundance of suitors.
Could he join forces with long-time rival Stephen Curry for a Last Dance-esque run together? What about going back to Cleveland, helping his hometown Cavaliers get over the hump one more time? Does he want to take a team to the promised land that's never been there before, like the Minnesota Timberwolves? Maybe one that hasn't been there in decades, like the Philadelphia 76ers? Or does he want to pair with another superstar like Giannis Antetokounmpo on the Miami Heat?
It's a testament to James' sustained greatness that all those destinations (and more) make plenty of basketball sense. Until he decides, fans and teams around the NBA will be eagerly waiting.
LOSERS
Detroit Pistons (and Jalen Duren)
While teams around the East load up for what's shaping up to be an all-time arms race, last year's No. 1 seed doesn't look poised to reclaim the top spot. After trading away Isaiah Stewart and letting Tobias Harris walk in free agency in hopes of using that cap space to upgrade the roster around Cade Cunningham, the Pistons have very little to show for it.
Trading for Isaiah Joe and signing John Collins were lateral moves at best. While Joe addresses some of Detroit's shooting woes, and Collins could approximate Harris' production on the wing, the team still needs more ball-handling and secondary creation to alleviate the immense burden placed on Cunningham.
All the while, the Pistons can't seem to lock in a new deal with their second all-NBA player. Duren entered the summer as a bit of an enigma after breaking out during the regular-season but disappearing in the playoffs — even getting benched at times.
The 22-year-old's disappointing post-season has reportedly led to a "sizeable distance" between him and the Pistons during negotiations, to the point that Duren has looked into orchestrating sign-and-trade deals with the Lakers and Sacramento Kings. Unluckily for him, the Pistons seemingly have no interest in trading him and they control the situation as Duren is a restricted free agent.
He'll end up getting paid one way or another, presumably by the Pistons, who can't really afford to lose him, but it may end up being for a much lower number than Duren expected a couple of months ago.
To say it's been a rough couple of weeks in Beantown would be an understatement. A failed pursuit for Antetokounmpo reportedly ended up devolving the team's relationship with its second-best player in Brown so rapidly that he was traded for pennies on the dollar, and to a division rival no less.
And while some could argue that George may fit head coach Joe Mazzulla's scheme better than Brown did, and it might equal similar, if not greater, regular-season results, I won't be making that argument. But it's there for whoever wants to try.
Ultimately, the TL;DR of the Brown-George trade is that the Celtics have a worse roster than they did before the deal was made. That's even after poaching Mitchell Robinson, who comes with his own baggage, away from the champion New York Knicks.
How Boston puts together another title-worthy roster around Jayson Tatum without the 2024 Finals MVP is unclear at this time, and may stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Los Angeles Lakers
Anytime an all-time great player decides he's not sticking around, it feels like a loss. Even at 41, James averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.1 assists and was at worst a top-25 player. The presumed loss of Rui Hachimura in free agency doesn't go unnoticed either, as the forward broke out for Los Angeles in the playoffs.
And although GM Rob Pelinka deserves credit for trying to replicate that level of production in the aggregate, maybe he's tried too hard.
Handing over the last bit of available draft capital to the Utah Jazz for Walker Kessler, and then signing the injury-riddled big man to a four-year, $130 million contract — the largest deal of free agency thus far — felt like an overzealous attempt to meet one of Luka Doncic's biggest wants ahead of his solo reign over the Lakers.
Not to mention four-year deals for Grimes and Mamukelashvili, both of whom seem to have gotten max dollar-value out of the Lakers.
None of the aforementioned are bad players, but each have their own warts and run the risk of turning into negative-value contracts for L.A. that would be difficult to move in the future, considering the long-term commitments and lack of attachable draft capital to try and get off those deals, should it come to that.
Doncic-led teams are judged in the playoffs, and this roster looks primed to win plenty of regular-season games but ultimately fizzle out down the stretch.
