Free agency is often a time of tumult and chaos, as players fly around the league to new homes and teams look vastly different than they did a few weeks earlier. It’s Extreme Makeover: NBA Edition. While this summer featured one blockbuster trade for Rudy Gobert, and the prospect of other trades still hangs overhead, it has otherwise been rather muted in reshaping the league.
There have certainly been meaningful moves. Dejounte Murray is now with the Atlanta Hawks, Malcolm Brogdon with the Boston Celtics, Jalen Brunson with the New York Knicks. But the face of the league didn’t change in free agency, and if Danny Ainge and Sean Marks continue to stare down the rest of the league, it could be some time before any more seismic deals take place.
That leaves plenty of deals in the “interesting” realm to break down, even if they don’t shake the foundations of the league. Those kinds of deals can absolutely have an impact; the Golden State Warriors might not win the title without signing Otto Porter Jr. and Gary Payton II to minimum deals last season. Deals for starters and rotation players matter too.
NBA Free Agency & Trade Season are complete—here are the grades.
With six weeks of free agency under our belts, and the transactions slowed to a crawl, it’s the right time to dig in and evaluate how each team performed. Taking into account signings, trades and contract extensions, what grade should each NBA team receive for their work in free agency?
A few notes on the process. The majority of a team’s moves will be listed, but players signed to training camp deals may be omitted. These grades will factor in transactions primarily with relatively little weight given to player departures. Finally, think of “C+” as an average grade; getting a B- is above average, not some sort of failure. Let’s start in the Peach State!