NBA: Biggest winners and losers of 2019 offseason
By Tony Pesta
Winner: Philadelphia 76ers
A loaded Philadelphia 76ers team just reloaded for another run at the NBA Finals. Falling one miraculous shot from Kawhi Leonard short of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals last year, the 76ers are hungry for revenge.
Riding the back of the potentially all-time great center, Joel Embiid, the 76ers can compete with anyone. Combine this with the size and passing ability of Ben Simmons, the 3-point shooting of Tobias Harris and the versatility of Al Horford and this is one scary (and tall) team.
The acquisition of Horford is gigantic for a few reasons. For starters, Horford is a far superior shooter than Embiid, shooting six percent better from deep last season.
He is also a better passer, meaning he will be able to fill in at the top of the key and handle the perimeter on offense while Embiid does what he does best: post up. Embiid averaged 8.5 points per game in the post last year, falling behind only LaMarcus Aldridge at 9.0 points per game.
In addition to Horford, the 76ers picked up a two-way player in Josh Richardson via the Jimmy Butler trade.
Richardson isn’t as talented as Butler, but reducing the star power on this team in favor of depth will give the rest of the roster a more focused role and allow for more freedom on both ends of the floor for everyone.
Loser: Milwaukee Bucks
Last season, the Milwaukee Bucks shocked almost everyone. We all knew how talented Giannis Antetokounmpo was, but an MVP season in which he led the Bucks to 60 wins and the best record in the NBA was something we didn’t expect to happen so early in his career.
With the help of great role players and an All-Star teammate in Khris Middleton, the Bucks reached the ECF but lost in six games to the eventual NBA champions. This felt like a moral victory for Milwaukee, but it also may have been this team’s peak.
This roster may have not been talented enough to win a championship, to begin with. Now add in the loss of Malcolm Brogdon plus the fact that they are heavily overpaying players such as Middleton and George Hill and this has become a sticky situation in Milwaukee.
Similar to LeBron James’ first years in Cleveland, the Bucks will struggle to add any real star talent to their roster due to their location and minimum cap space moving forward. The team may not have gotten much worse, but they won’t be getting better any time soon and that is not good.