2018 NBA free agency: Biggest winners and losers
Winner: New Orleans Pelicans
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That seemed to be the New Orleans Pelicans‘ credo, as they quickly swooped in on Julius Randle the moment the Lakers renounced him to make him an unrestricted free agent. They also added Elfrid Payton on a one-year flier, just in case Rajon Rondo left.
That wound up being exactly what happened, but the Pelicans can just move Jrue Holiday back to the 1 if Payton is incapable of filling in as the starting point guard. Keeping Ian Clark is a solid, low-cost depth move, but the real benefit might be avoiding overpaying to keep DeMarcus Cousins in town after his Achilles tear.
The Pelicans looked like a different team with Anthony Davis filling his true calling at the 5, especially next to a stretch-4 like Nikola Mirotic. Randle is capable of playing the 4 off the bench next to AD, or even filling some minutes as a small-ball 5. At the mere price of two years and $18 million, that’s one heck of a buy-low addition for a young core on the rise.
Loser: Philadelphia 76ers
It’s hard to call the Philadelphia 76ers outright “losers” considering they managed to re-sign J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson, trade for more wing depth in Wilson Chandler and maintain flexibility for next season with all three being on one-year deals. Another year of improvement for Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Dario Saric and Markelle Fultz certainly won’t hurt either.
However, the Sixers missed their golden opportunity to either sign LeBron James or trade for Kawhi Leonard this summer, either of which would’ve pushed them to the top of the Eastern totem pole. Now, the reigning 1-seed in the conference added Kawhi, while the Celtics look like the team to beat in the East.
The case could be made for Boston to occupy this spot after missing out on an opportunity to sign LeBron or trade for Kawhi as well. But even without the Celtics putting all those stockpiled assets to use, they re-signed Marcus Smart and Aron Baynes to solid deals, and more importantly, will get a healthy Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward back next year.
Next: 2018 NBA free agency tracker: Grades for every deal so far
The Sixers are just relying on internal improvement and the addition of Chandler to get them over the hump, which certainly isn’t the end of the world considering this team’s emerging star talent. Still, after all that poising to add a star piece to push them over the top, failing to trade for Leonard — and letting an Eastern rival get him — has to sting a bit.