Watching the Offseason Jockeying in Basketball

In this blog, I’m writing about basketball – the sport that they aren’t playing right now but it might be the most exciting one in the country. In my opinion, each offseason in every sport is an enjoyable time. I like seeing how rosters get shaken up and where the star players will end up. But as I get older, I also like seeing where the role players end up, because they might not be role players by the end of the season, like Jordan Poole showed us in the playoffs or how Draymond Green has been showing us his whole career.

There have already been a few trade bangers, such as the Timberwolves trading for Rudy Gobert. Now they have to pay a supermax to two big men. They also have to keep some money for Anthony Edwards and, you know, the other players on their roster. I believe 100% that the Jazz won this deal. Yeah, they traded away their DPOY center but look at the return they got: 5 players and 5 draft picks. Now, if they trade away Donovan Mitchell as well, they could have an even better future, but I’ll get to that later. The Hawks traded for Dejounte Murray and after that, some people were saying that the Hawks have no future. Saying that John Collins isn’t going to grow anymore and trading away all of the draft picks was a very futile move isn’t true at all. Even though the Hawks may not have such great draft capital now, they have Trae Young and Dejounte Murray in the backcourt. People underestimate how good this duo could become.

Now to the potential trades…

Donovan Mitchell loves New York. His dad is an executive for the Mets, and he loves them. He’s even hinted at going to New York in the past. Now, the opportunity presents itself. The Knicks are making a massive push to get Donovan Mitchell and they look like the clear front runners. The Jazz want draft picks, and that’s what the Knicks have. The Knicks want to keep RJ Barrett, and they insist on keeping him. From the proposed trades I have seen, it doesn’t look like the Jazz are adamant about getting RJ. If the Knicks could get Donovan Mitchell, then they would turn into an immediate threat in the East, although they won’t have much of a front court, they’ll have more than enough with Jalen Brunson, Mitchell and Barrett to at the least make a play-in spot.

I doubt a really big move like Kyrie Irving to the Lakers is going to happen. That’s just speculation. Even if the Nets were entertaining offers for Irving, what would the Lakers have to offer? Staying with the Nets, it’s obvious Kevin Durant will be traded to a big city, if he gets traded at all. Whether it be Philly, Miami, or somewhere in California, it doesn’t matter too much. Durant has a pretty big say in where he goes, I believe. Do you know who’s got a lot of tradeable assets? The Jazz. But Durant probably doesn’t want to play in Utah to end his career.

The Trailblazers need to shift their focus into win-now mode. No one knows how long Lillard is going to be playable as a superstar, so they need to try to win as many games as soon as possible. Another option for Kevin Durant that I didn’t list was Portland. He can team up with Damian Lillard, who Portland still expects to be really good. If he is good, this is his last year. The Blazers would need to sign Bradley Beal and use all of their young players to trade for KD. Then they would have Lillard and Bradley Beal in the backcourt and Kevin Durant as the PF. Then Jusuf Nurkic would be the center and they could acquire any above-average forward to be the last of the starting lineup.

According to this link, the first eight and nine out of the first ten free agents have re-signed (I don’t know about the situation regarding Miles Bridges and where he stands as a free agent, but I’ll assume the Charlotte Hornets would not care what happened or happens in Bridges’ personal life and would want to resign a player like him, but then again, the Hornets' PR Team might have something against that). The free agent class of 2022 is not exceptional, apart from the top, Bradley Beal and Jalen Brunson. Unfortunately, it was mostly filled with role players or aging players.

This is a great time to be a basketball fan, and even if someone is just starting out in basketball, the league is being owned by exciting young players, and more are coming in each year. 

Happy spectating, sports fans.