2018 NBA free agency: Biggest winners and losers

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Winner: Oklahoma City Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder didn’t make any moves that will boost them into the elite tier of Western Conference teams, but what else were they supposed to do? Let Paul George and Jerami Grant walk for nothing, realize they have no choice but trade Russell Westbrook, and completely blow it up?

Instead, general manager Sam Presti locked in the core four of Russ, PG-13, Grant and Steven Adams for the foreseeable future, upgraded the bench with Dennis Schroder and Nerlens Noel and managed to shred their luxury tax bill to pieces by jettisoning Carmelo Anthony without having to waive and stretch him.

Cutting Melo loose won’t solve all of OKC’s problems, but Paul George chose a small-market city over freaking Los Angeles — where he’s from — to play with Russ. That says a lot, and now the Thunder can continue to try and maneuver to put talent around its star core moving forward.

Loser: Chicago Bulls

While the Thunder expertly meandered through their offseason, splurging to retain the right free agents and making moves to ease their tax bill, the Chicago Bulls stumbled blindly through their ample amounts of cap space, wildly swinging in the dark at a pair of injury-prone prospects.

To be fair, the Bulls somewhat protected themselves in their deals for both Zach LaVine (injury clause) and Jabari Parker (team option for the second year). Both are still young players with star upside if they can stay healthy and build on what they showed before injuries zapped their public perception.

Unfortunately, they also bring back bad memories of Derrick Rose, and even if they’re healthy, neither has proven himself as a star-caliber player. Unfortunately, they’re being treated like stars, with LaVine (four years, $78 million) and Parker (two years, $40 million) being drastically overpaid. Having a young core with upside is great, but Parker has no place in this crowded frontcourt and has mostly been a bad player with two ACL tears, while LaVine has one to his name as well. Yikes.