The NBA offseason is just about wrapped, and the beginning of training camps later this month will quickly shift attention toward the upcoming campaign.

A lot has happened since July, and it can be easy to forget the roster-building successes and failures of the summer. That makes this the perfect time to revisit all the moves and non-moves, decisions and indecision that defined each team's offseason activity.

After all, if we're looking for a sense of where every team stands prior to 2024-25, we need to highlight the most consequential calls they made—for better or worse. Whether you're looking for hope or despair, we've got you covered.

Atlanta Hawks

Love: They acquired future-focused assets

We can't really credit the Atlanta Hawks for lucking into the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, which ultimately became Zaccharie Risacher. But the acquisition of a top talent, even in a weak draft, combines well with the trade that turned Dejounte Murray into Dyson Daniels and a pair of first-round picks.

Those assets give the Hawks optionality if Trae Young can't guide an otherwise unchanged core to more than last year's 36 wins.

Hate: The on-court product isn't any better

Risacher is unlikely to be a helpful player this season, and the subtraction of Murray means the Hawks don't have as much overall talent as they did a year ago. Because they don't control their own 2025 first-rounder, it's hard to see the Hawks tanking. So that means they're stuck gunning for the Play-In with reduced firepower.

It's possible Daniels will pop, and his defense-first skill set is admittedly intriguing next to Young. Atlanta could get organic growth from him, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson, thereby compensating for Murray's departure. But the product, on paper, isn't as good as it was a year ago.

Boston Celtics

Love: The whole gang's here!

As the Denver Nuggets clutched their purse strings instead of paying Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and past big spenders like the LA Clippers cowered at the thought of the second apron, the Boston Celtics treated the offseason like a champion should.

They spent what it took to keep the entire core of last season's team together.

Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and Sam Hauser all got extensions. Luke Kornet and Xavier Tillman, both now more important than ever with Kristaps Porziņģis set to miss a chunk of 2024-25, are back on one-year minimums. Neemias Queta inked a three-year deal to return as well.

The Celtics let Oshae Brissett walk, but they offset that loss by adding Lonnie Walker IV on a minimum deal. In short, Boston brought back everyone who mattered in last year's title run and should be the favorites to repeat.

Hate: It's expensive?

The extensions for Tatum, White and Hauser total nearly $500 million. On top of Jrue Holiday's in-season re-up and the max extension Finals MVP Jaylen Brown inked prior to last year, the Celtics are rocketing into spending tiers the league has never seen before.

At some point, this operation will become prohibitively costly.

That's a concern for the future. Boston is paying market rates for the best roster in the league, and we can't even pretend to hate it. Something had to fill this space, though.

Brooklyn Nets

Love: Tank mode enabled

All the losses the Brooklyn Nets were set to endure in 2024-25 wouldn't have amounted to anything positive if they hadn't gotten their 2025 first-round pick back from the Houston Rockets. Now that they've reacquired that pick along with control of their 2026 selection, the Nets can lose with purpose.

It cost Brooklyn four of the first-round assets it snagged from the Phoenix Suns in the Kevin Durant deal, but those two returning picks from the Rockets simply matter more to the Nets' grand rebuilding plans. Plus, the four first-rounders and swap they got from the New York Knicks for Mikal Bridges offset those losses.

Sans Bridges and sitting pretty in the pick equity department, Brooklyn has a great shot to land its next cornerstone as soon as the 2025 draft.

Hate: A dearth of playmakers

The Nets intend to be bad, but it's worth wondering whether their lack of a credible offensive facilitator will make their struggles worse than necessary.

Dorian Finney-Smith and Cam Johnson are both trade candidates, and their numbers were going to suffer due to the talent drain of Bridges' departure no matter what. But with Dennis Schroder and tunnel-visioned chucker Cam Thomas set to handle the ball a ton, those two forwards might struggle to score efficiently and—this is the part Brooklyn should care about—retain their trade value.

Charlotte Hornets

Love: New head coach Charles Lee

The Charlotte Hornets completed their organizational overhaul by hiring 39-year-old former Boston Celtics assistant Charles Lee, adding him to a reconstructed front office and medical staff. The new ownership group headed by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall effectively cleaned house over the last several months, and Lee's onboarding felt like the final step in a long-overdue process.

It'd be hasty to judge Lee without him having coached a game yet, but he's still a choice worth celebrating. At a base level, the Hornets could have done a lot worse than snaring the top assistant from the league's most recent champ, but more broadly, Lee's youth and pedigree (he was also on a title-winning staff in Milwaukee) align with a new culture.

The Hornets appear ready to operate deliberately and with patience, aiming at goals larger than the previous ownership group did.

Hate: Josh Green's contract

Hate is a strong word here, as Josh Green has plenty of intriguing qualities. He's an underrated passer on the move, plays with an excess of energy and shoots it from deep at a 37.5 clip for his career.

That said, Green's three-year, $41 million contract is, at best, of debatable value. He's not quite big enough to wrangle opposing wings, and his career minus-2.3 Box Plus/Minus is a good illustration of how little most advanced metrics care for his contributions.

We're talking about a salary that tops out at 9 percent of the Hornets' annual cap, though, so this is hardly a crippling acquisition.

Chicago Bulls

Love: At least they're trying

DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso, two veterans who would have been integral to another fruitless Play-In push, are gone. Their departures indicated the Chicago Bulls were ready to rebuild at last.

The team's efforts to trade Zach LaVine, which have so far been unsuccessful, are another positive sign that the Bulls are finally living in reality.

Hate: Wait, are they actually trying?

Josh Giddey was the sole return for Caruso. He's extension-eligible, an uncertain long-term fit and probably would have served the Bulls' needs better if he'd been a couple of first-round picks.

Patrick Williams' $90 million extension doesn't look so bad in a cap environment where many of his draft-class peers are already inked to contracts worth twice that much, but it's hard to understand where the market forces were that required Chicago to spend that much on such an unproven young player.

Finally, rather than take on Harrison Barnes' contract with the Sacramento Kings' unprotected 2031 first-round pick swap attached in the DeRozan sign-and-trade (which went to the San Antonio Spurs), all the Bulls walked away with was Chris Duarte and a couple of seconds.

All three of those decisions, in addition to the continuing presence of Nikola Vučević, suggest Chicago is either only halfway committed to a rebuild or almost incomprehensibly bad at it.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Love: Donovan Mitchell's extension

The Cleveland Cavaliers re-upped with Evan Mobley on a rookie-scale max and gave Jarrett Allen another three years and $90.7 million, but Donovan Mitchell's $150.3 million extension was among the most important offseason moves any team made.

It secures the future of Cleveland's core, locking Mitchell into service through at least the 2026-27 season. All three of Allen, Mobley and Darius Garland are also on the books for at least one more year after that.

The Mitchell deal quiets the noise of his potential exit, stabilizing the franchise and allowing the Cavs to function without concern of a breakup hanging over the whole operation.

Hate: Isaac Okoro's strange restricted free agency

Isaac Okoro remains in restricted-free-agency limbo, a threat to sign the qualifying offer that would bring him back to the Cavs for 2024-25 before allowing the No. 5 pick from the 2020 draft to hit unrestricted free agency.

The current situation suggests neither the Cavs nor any other team is all that interested in Okoro at current market rates, but it'd still be a tough look for Cleveland to eventually lose the defense-first wing for nothing.

Dallas Mavericks

Love: The Tim Hardaway Jr. salary dump

The Dallas Mavericks wouldn't have had the necessary flexibility to add Naji Marshall or Klay Thompson if they hadn't first sent Tim Hardaway Jr.'s $16.1 million salary to the Detroit Pistons with three second-rounders attached. That they managed to get Quentin Grimes back in the bargain only solidifies this otherwise mundane deal as the key to one of the league's most successful offseasons.

Marshall got a portion of the mid-level exception, which hard-capped the Mavs. But they managed to get under the first apron by dumping Hardaway, a move that allowed them to acquire Thompson via sign-and-trade.

Slick maneuvering like that illustrates why GM Nico Harrison got his own contract extension in June.

Hate: Derrick Jones Jr.'s departure in free agency

A casualty of Dallas' mild reorganization over the summer, Jones will be missed.

You'd still take Naji Marshall and Klay Thompson over Jones all day. The former is nearly as good as Jones on defense, and the latter is a far better shooter—one defenses won't get away with ignoring in the corner. Still, Dallas got a lot of mileage out of Jones' lob-catching, transition speed and rangy perimeter disruption.

Denver Nuggets

Love: Russell Westbrook might work for us

The player option for 2025-26 seemed like overkill for Westbrook at this itinerant stage of his career, but the Nuggets still did well to make a free-agent addition who could actually give them something they lack.

Westbrook, for all his faults as a shooter and team defender, can still bring the intensity off the bench. That'll add a chaotic dimension to Denver's attack and might even help make some of the minutes Nikola Jokić rests entertaining—if perhaps not ultimately successful.

And if Russ establishes some chemistry with Jokić, it's even possible he'll become an efficient low-volume scorer who thrives on cuts and gets to the bucket in a well-spaced offensive environment.

Hate: Penny-pinching cost Denver Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

There's simply no justification for letting KCP get away in free agency.

A champ with both the Lakers and Nuggets, Caldwell-Pope was an ideal two-way wing who thrived in a low-usage role and couldn't be played off the floor on either end against the league's best opponents. The Orlando Magic got him for three years and $66 million, figures Denver easily could have matched.

Spare me the talk of Christian Braun being ready to take over as a starter. The Nuggets could have retained KCP and traded him for positive value if Braun ultimately earned the job. Letting him walk was inexcusable, particularly as Denver chases a championship with a three-time MVP in his prime.

Detroit Pistons

Love: Trajan Langdon takes over

General manager Troy Weaver's time in charge of the Detroit Pistons, which yielded just 74 wins across his four seasons, is over. Trajan Langdon took the helm in May and promptly set about trying to change the franchise's fate.

Head coach Monty Williams was first to go, despite the then-record contract he signed just last summer. After that, Langdon got Cade Cunningham his max rookie extension, hired J.B. Bickerstaff to replace Williams, drafted Ron Holland at No. 5 and added Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley and Paul Reed in free agency.

How any of this shakes out remains to be seen, but at least the Pistons are turning the page on one of the bleakest stretches in franchise history.

Hate: Giving up Grimes

The Pistons had their heads in the right place when they took on Tim Hardaway Jr.'s unwanted contract from the Dallas Mavericks with a trio of second-round picks attached as sweeteners. That's exactly the kind of asset-hoarding move a smart rebuilding team should pursue.

But Detroit should have been able to pull that off without including Grimes, a valuable shooter and defender at the guard spot who was a regular starter for the New York Knicks as recently as 2022-23.

Maybe Grimes was never going to feature prominently in Detroit, but he's more than a throw-in and could have been used to bring back assets in a separate trade.

Golden State Warriors

Love: One more year of Stephen Curry

If you approach the Golden State Warriors' offseason from a big-to-small point of view, nothing takes precedence over Stephen Curry, who got a one-year, $62.6 million extension. The most important player in franchise history is on the books through 2026-27, which will be his age-38 season.

Whether Curry will still be at an All-NBA level by then is uncertain, but the stability and clarity of purpose his presence brings matters immensely. The extension suggests the Warriors will continue to search for second stars to support him, whether via trade, which they did over the summer, or from within. And it also means they'll keep trying to compete and contend to whatever extent is feasible.

Curry is sort of Golden State's organizing force. If he's around, the Warriors have to operate a certain way, almost to honor him. Once he's finally gone, everything will change—probably for the worse.

Hate: Steph is on his own

Jonathan Kumigna or Brandin Podziemski could pop. Free agents De'Anthony Melton, Kyle Anderson and Buddy Hield will deepen the rotation.

But nowhere on the Warriors' roster is there a player you'd point to and say, "There. That's him. That's the second star."

Curry will see maximum defensive attention as he enters his age-36 season, and it's hard to be sure he can handle it alone.

Houston Rockets

Love: The Reed Sheppard pick

Sheppard is a hand-in-glove fit for a team that clearly signed Fred VanVleet to be a premium stopgap until its younger pieces were ready to take over control of the offense.

Amen Thompson and Jalen Green are both promising enough that Houston could have targeted someone else, but it only took a few minutes of summer-league action for Sheppard to solidify himself as the best prospect (so far) in his class.

An elite shooter with more playmaking and off-the-dribble chops than he showed at Kentucky, Sheppard could be a legitimate teammate talent-elevator in the vein of Tyrese Haliburton or (deep breath) Steve Nash—all while making a bigger defensive impact than either of those two.

There's a long, long way to go before Sheppard justifies the hype in the paragraph above. But the early signs suggest the Rockets nailed this pick.

Hate: Giving up the Nets' 2025 first-rounder

This is the closest we can come to anything worth hating for the Rockets.

When a team offers you four first-round assets for two, which Brooklyn did to get control of its 2025 and 2026 first-rounders back, you should probably say yes. And it's hardly the worst idea to short the mid- and long-term future of the capped-out and inflexible Phoenix Suns.

But what if that 2025 pick turns into Cooper Flagg?

Indiana Pacers

Love: The implications of Andrew Nembhard's extension

A postseason breakout raised Andrew Nembhard's profile with the Indiana Pacers to the point that his three-year, $58.7 million extension comes across as a bargain. What's more, the team's commitment to him suggests it recognizes his defense, playmaking and lower-usage game fits better next to Tyrese Haliburton than Bennedict Mathurin's.

It remains to be seen what Indy will do with Mathurin. Maybe he'll embrace the sixth-man role for which his game seems best suited. Or maybe the Pacers will start exploring trades involving him and their other recent lottery pick, Jarace Walker.

Indiana made the East finals last spring, has two max-salaried players and could justify shopping their young pieces—especially if it becomes increasingly clear neither is ticketed for a starting role any time soon.

Hate: The Obi Toppin contract

The best defense of Toppin's four-year, $58 million deal is that it gives the Pacers a mid-tier salary to trade. Other than that, it's hard to justify spending much more than the market seemed willing to pay an offense-only reserve forward.

Toppin is a tremendous transition threat who'll need to validate last year's 40.3 percent shooting from long range. He's not an impactful defender, doesn't rebound and now appears to be an impediment to Indiana learning anything about Walker, who plays the same position.

LA Clippers

Love: Kris Dunn's deal

Kris Dunn (three years, $16.3 million) stands out among several other solid signings by the LA Clippers.

Derrick Jones Jr. (three years, $30 million) will add bounce on the wing, Nicolas Batum (two years, $9.6 million) will defend and pass until he's 40, and Ivica Zubac's three-year, $58.6 million extension will keep one of the top rim-protectors in the game around for about 12 percent of the salary cap per year.

Dunn, though, brings a defensive dimension to a backcourt that needs one. His three-point shooting, long a hindrance to real playing time, ticked up over the last two years (47.2 percent in 2022-23 and 36.9 percent last season). If that makes him playable for longer stretches, he'll bring elite on-ball harassment and passing-lane disruption—ideal qualities to pair with the immobile, aging James Harden.

Hate: Paul George left over money

The moment the LA Clippers knew they weren't willing to pay whatever it took to keep Paul George was the moment they should have traded him. Maybe they weren't sure about that until July, but more realistically, they knew sometime after they inked Kawhi Leonard to a three-year, $150 million extension in January.

If they weren't going to make that same offer to PG, or if they weren't willing to spend the maximum of $212.5 million over four years to retain him in free agency, they should have acted.

Instead, they allowed a star to leave for nothing. At the very worst, LA should have given George whatever it took to keep him and then trade him down the line. Clearly there was a market for his services at a max-salary rate. The Warriors chased him, and the Sixers ultimately paid him the most they were allowed.

Compounding matters, the Clips also decided to pay James Harden, who had virtually no market outside LA, $70 million over two years.

Los Angeles Lakers

Love: LeBron's Discount

There were probably other ways for the Los Angeles Lakers to duck the second apron, and cynics could certainly cite it as a PR-motivated move, but LeBron James' decision to take $1.3 million less than he could have on the two-year extension he signed in July is nonetheless a big deal for L.A.

The Lakers can now aggregate salaries in a trade, a critical ability they wouldn't have had if James had signed for the full max. Flexibility is important for every team, but it especially matters for this one, because...

Hate: The Lakers didn't really do anything

Other than rookie Dalton Knecht, Los Angeles didn't add consequential talent to a roster that finished outside the West's top six a year ago. With 2024 lottery teams like the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies clearly on the upswing, the Lakers are in danger of falling out of the Play-In tier.

Odds are L.A. won't get 70-plus games from both James and Anthony Davis again, which means last year's 47 wins will be tough to match without a talent-boosting trade. The flexibility James' sub-max extension affords the Lakers won't matter if it doesn't lead to the addition of a ceiling-raising star.

Memphis Grizzlies

Love: Zach Edey's Arrival

Drafting for need is usually a mistake, but the Memphis Grizzlies understood they were missing the size, screening, rebounding and overt physicality Steven Adams brought them through the 2022-23 season. Two-time AP Player of the Year Zach Edey comes with limitations—no stretch on offense, questionable mobility in space on D—but he can provide much of what Adams used to in those other areas.

And if Edey's 14-point, 15-rebound, five-block summer-league effort is any indication, he might have been the best player available when Memphis picked at No. 9 anyway.

Hate: Paying to move on from Ziaire Williams

When he cracked the starting lineup regularly as a rookie in 2021-22, Ziaire Williams seemed like one of the key swing pieces in the league. If he could give the Grizzlies a rangy, three-and-D wing, they had enough established young talent throughout the rest of the roster to become a real title threat down the road.

Injuries and inconsistency over the following two seasons led to Memphis giving up Dallas' 2030 second-rounder just to get off Williams' contract. It's never fun when a possible cornerstone becomes a salary dump.

Miami Heat

Love: Didn't cave on Jimmy Butler's extension

Jimmy Butler was eligible for a two-year, $113 million extension when the Miami Heat's offseason began, and team president Pat Riley resisted the urge to extend his oft-injured star. Call it playing hardball if you like, but Riley's explanation was satisfyingly practical.

Citing concerns about Butler's durability, he told reporters: "We have to look at making that kind of commitment and when do we do it. We don't have to do it until 2025, actually."

Predictably, Butler later said he'd play out the season (You can't fire me. I quit!) without an extension, opening up free agency after 2024-25 via his player option.

In tandem with the decision to extend 27-year-old Bam Adebayo through 2028-29, Riley and the Heat signaled a willingness to deal soberly with their best players.

Hate: Caleb Martin's exit

If it's true Miami made an offer worth roughly twice as much as the $30 million Caleb Martin got when he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, most of the blame for what happened between him and the Heat falls on his representation. It's hard to understand where the breakdown happened and how it could have been big enough for the veteran forward to leave that much cash on the table.

The loss of a key player to an in-conference rival for less money is a bad look—whether it is owed to poor relationship management or Martin's belief that the Sixers are so much closer to contention that it's worth walking away from $30 million.

Milwaukee Bucks

Love: Gary Trent Jr.'s loss is Milwaukee's gain

Desperately short on resources and hamstrung by the second apron, the Milwaukee Bucks managed to fill the void left by last year's minimum-salaried stroke of luck, Malik Beasley, with an even better version in Gary Trent Jr.

Trent was coming off a three-year, $52 million contract with the Toronto Raptors and had played well enough over the course of the deal to justify another one at least that large. Instead, he fell through the cracks and landed with the Bucks on one of the best dollar-for-production deals in years.

Heading into his age-26 season, Trent totes career averages of 13.7 points and 38.6 percent shooting from deep. He's a $15-20 million player making just $2.1 million.

Hate: Khris Middleton's dual ankle surgeries

Multiple ankle surgeries in the same offseason aren't ideal for any player, but they're especially troubling for one who's only logged 88 games across the last two years.

Khris Middleton proved last season that he could still contribute excellent per-minute production, but lower-body health issues have reduced his night-to-night impact. Hopefully these latest operations will get him back on the floor regularly, and he'll re-assume his previous All-Star status.

Pragmatically, it's hard to imagine a 33-year-old reversing such alarming downward trends on the health front.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Love: The fearlessness of the Rob Dillingham trade

Rather than run from the restrictions and costs of the second apron like many of the league's other big-spending operations, the Minnesota Timberwolves used one of the only talent-acquisition tools left available to make themselves even more expensive.

But the deal sending out a 2030 first-round pick swap (top-1 protected) and a 2031 first-round pick for the selection that became rookie Rob Dillingham could also make the Wolves better on the floor. And isn't that the point?

The outlay of two first-round assets suggests the Wolves believe Dillingham is ready to contribute immediately, probably as a second-unit scorer and backup point guard. You don't trade away what remaining (and very distant) draft capital you have left if you're planning for the future. This was a bold, win-now move from a team that should be trying to maximize its short-term window.

Hate: Fewer passers than ever

Dillingham had better be as ready as Minnesota seems to think he is.

Monte Morris didn't play much, and Kyle Anderson was effectively a fourth big, but those two were among the Wolves' best facilitators last year. Starting point guard Mike Conley is entering his age-37 season, and Anthony Edwards hasn't yet shown the vision to be a reliable creator. A Wolves team that finished 16th in offensive efficiency couldn't afford to lose a pair of the only setup men it had.

New Orleans Pelicans

Love: The Dejounte Murray trade

A 20-point scorer three years running and a player who has an All-Defensive nod on his career resumé, Dejounte Murray could quietly turn out to be one of the best acquisitions made by any team this offseason.

Freed from a backcourt pairing with Trae Young that never seemed to click, Murray is primed to thrive as a secondary creator and, hopefully, rejuvenated backcourt defender in New Orleans.

Hate: The lack of centers

Murray and a Pelicans corps of rangy defensive wings had better be up to the challenge of wrecking opposing offensive possessions on the perimeter because this team is going to have a hard time around the bucket. Starting center Jonas Valanciunas signed with the Washington Wizards, Larry Nance Jr. went to Atlanta in the Murray deal, and journeyman Daniel Theis is the closest thing to an established 5 on the roster.

The Pels could lean into small-ball looks with Zion Williamson as an interior anchor, but those units will get obliterated on the glass and struggle to deter shots at the rim. A back line this thin puts enormous pressure on New Orleans to dominate defensively at the point of attack.

New York Knicks

Love: Jalen Brunson's cut-rate extension

We can check the talent-acquisition (Mikal Bridges) and talent-retention (OG Anunoby) boxes for the New York Knicks' offseason, but neither of those moves mattered as much as Jalen Brunson's willingness to sign a four-year, $156.5 million extension. Had New York's best player waited until the summer of 2025, he could have inked (and would have deserved) a five-year, $269.1 million deal.

It's so rare to see a player of Brunson's caliber take even the smallest discounts, let alone leave nine figures on the table. In addition to the financial savings the Knicks will incur, it's difficult to put a price on the positive vibes Brunson's selflessness imparts to the team.

Hate: The center spot is paper-thin

It would have been easy enough to specifically cite the loss of Isaiah Hartenstein here, but the Knicks simply couldn't pay him what the Oklahoma City Thunder could. New York is not at fault for failing to keep him.

That said, the Knicks could have tinkered a little more over the summer to add some reliable depth behind oft-injured starter Mitchell Robinson. He's currently the only rotation-worthy conventional center on the team.

Silver lining: Maybe this means the Knicks will test out small-ball units with Anunoby and Julius Randle up front more often, potentially unlocking some exciting offensive combinations. Considering they just paid Anunoby $212.5 million, they can certainly justify asking him to check centers once in a while.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Love: Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso

Both Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein were banner acquisitions. Each will spend time in starting and closing units, and their combined impact could be the reason the Oklahoma City Thunder improve on a win total that netted the West's top seed last year.

To get Hartenstein, all the Thunder had to do was spend cash—perhaps in an amount slightly above market value. That was an easy enough move. Landing Caruso for the ill-fitting, extension-eligible Giddey was a flat-out heist.

OKC didn't even have to dip into its overflowing war chest of future picks to land perhaps the best perimeter defender in the game.

Hate: The Sixers are good

It would have been a hilarious show of gamesmanship if the Thunder had messed with the Philadelphia 76ers' offseason plans. OKC gets Philly's 2025 first-round pick unless it falls within the top six, so there would have been some real upside to courting Paul George or otherwise throwing assets around to prevent the Sixers from completing a highly successful summertime overhaul.

That was never a realistic plan, of course, but there's really nothing to hate about the Thunder's offseason. So we'll lament the fact that the 2025 first coming from Philadelphia will probably land in the 20s.

Orlando Magic

Love: The Kentavious Caldwell-Pope signing

The Orlando Magic clearly needed shooting after last year's No. 22 finish in offensive efficiency, and they got some at a good rate in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who came over in free agency on a three-year, $66 million deal.

Added bonus, Orlando owns the Denver Nuggets' 2025 first-round pick (top-five-protected). Removing KCP, a quality starter, from that rotation could make the selection more valuable.

Caldwell-Pope has hit over 39.0 percent of his treys in each of the last four years, still defends at a high level and, not coincidentally, tends to show up on championship rosters. He's a great, mid-tier get for a Magic team that had cash to spend.

Hate: No new offensive organizers acquired

The only thing the Magic needed more than wing shooting was offensive orchestration, and they didn't use their financial resources to acquire any.

Unless Anthony Black takes a major step forward or Jalen Suggs makes a leap in facilitation as large as the one he made in shooting accuracy last season, Orlando will enter 2024-25 short on playmakers at the guard spots.

Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner are among the best offense-initiating forward duos in the league, but they're overtaxed as primary shot-creators for others. Even with KCP in the fold, Orlando will struggle to generate consistently good scoring opportunities in the half-court.

Philadelphia 76ers

Love: Signing Paul George

Paul George was the lynchpin of one of the most complete roster rebuilds in memory, the $212.5 million superstar signing that capped off an A-plus offseason.

Everything else the Sixers did well, from convincing Tyrese Maxey to wait until this summer to ink his extension to the litany of other value signings they made, ties back to their successful pursuit of George. Without him, retaining Maxey and adding a list of free agents including Andre Drummond, Caleb Martin, Eric Gordon and Reggie Jackson wouldn't have looked quite as good.

The Sixers planned boldly, cleared heaps of cap space and risked major disappointment if they'd missed out on the top free-agent prize available. They landed George and, in turn, had arguably the best summer of any team in the league.

Hate: Backup point guard seems iffy

This is an admitted picking of nits, but between Kyle Lowry and Reggie Jackson, the Sixers shouldn't feel all that great about their backup point guard spot.

Lowry is 38, and Jackson is, at best, debatably a rotation player at this phase of his career.

George can handle the ball, Maxey is a star and much of the offense will run through Joel Embiid anyway. But if we have to pick a reason the Sixers may struggle against the best of the best in the East, lack of depth at the point is a good way to go.

Phoenix Suns

Love: Tyus Jones for the minimum

Point guard was a clear need for the Phoenix Suns last season, as the team's trio of scoring stars often had to work a little too hard to generate their own offense. Trusting in Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal to get buckets is a solid strategy, but the Suns only finished ninth in offensive efficiency, perhaps because the litany of minimum-salaried rotation players they fielded weren't quite as adept at finding their own offense.

Enter Jones, a starting-caliber point guard whose pass-first game and low-mistake reputation fit perfectly next to Phoenix's Big Three.

A frequent owner of the league's best assist-to-turnover ratio, Jones will help not only his star teammates, but especially the Suns' more dependent scorers.

Hate: Lots of minutes for minimums

One of the lessons we should have learned from the Suns' 2023 offseason was that great bang-for-buck minimum signings often look a little worse once they're thrust into roles that exceed their capabilities.

Eric Gordon, Drew Eubanks, Keita Bates-Diop and Yuta Watanabe all seemed like steals last summer, but Gordon was the only one who played major minutes—and he was overstretched at 27.8 minutes per game during his age-35 season.

In addition to Jones, the Suns landed Mason Plumlee, Monte Morris and re-upped with Bol Bol for the minimum this time around. Jones is a special case, but the other three might be in for bigger roles than they'd have on most other teams.

Portland Trail Blazers

Love: The Deni Avdija trade

It took some time and consideration, but it ultimately seems like Portland Trail Blazers made the right call in sending No. 14, Malcolm Brogdon and a 2029 first-round pick (second-most favorable of their own, Boston or Milwaukee) to the Washington Wizards for Deni Avdija.

At first, it felt foolish for a rebuilder like Portland to give up an immediate first-round asset, a future one and a player in Brogdon who might have been flippable for a third. But Avdija is only 23, broke out as a shooter last year, brings excellent defense, excels as a connective passer and is on a declining deal that'll pay him just $55 million over the next four years.

He fits the team, the timeline and the budget perfectly.

Hate: The center glut

Time will tell whether Donovan Clingan was the right call at No. 7, but the Blazers need to figure out how to give the rookie center enough reps to prove himself. Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams III and Duop Reath are part of a logjam at the 5 that could prevent Clingan from seeing much time.

Williams is a clear trade candidate, and Portland should be willing to move Ayton for neutral value at its first opportunity. At the moment, though, the Blazers are overstuffed at center.

Sacramento Kings

Love: The DeMar DeRozan trade's upside

Harrison Barnes and an unprotected 2031 first-round swap were the principal assets heading out in the three-team sign-and-trade that netted the Sacramento Kings six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan.

That's a price you pay every day of the week and twice on Sunday for one of the last decade's most reliably consistent scoring threats. DeRozan is 34, but he led the league at 37.8 minutes per game last season and has played at least 74 games in each of the last three years. The last time he averaged fewer than 20.0 points per game was 2012-13.

Sacramento had the NBA's best offense in 2022-23, and DeRozan gives it a chance to reclaim that status.

Hate: The DeMar DeRozan trade's downside

What if DeRozan's game steeply declines in his age-35 season? What if the fit between him, De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis isn't clean? What if the addition of DeRozan costs the Kings more on defense than it gains them on offense?

These are all legitimate concerns that show how adding DeRozan, while a clear value play that could pay off handsomely, isn't without its risks. The Kings are more talented with DeRozan than without, but it's not certain the whole will equal the sum of the parts.

San Antonio Spurs

Love: Signing Chris Paul

The San Antonio Spurs should allow Victor Wembanyama to stretch his game as much as possible. Prospects like him, insofar as there have ever been any, shouldn't be confined or wedged into a role this early in the development process. But while the Spurs should be stress-testing the limits of what Wemby can do, they also need to provide him with a safety blanket.

That's signee Chris Paul, who'll make life easier on Wembanyama by generating a handful of spoon-fed buckets every night.

Who better to teach the finer points of pick-and-roll timing, general professionalism and untucked-shirt vigilance than the Point God?

Hate: Lack of shooting

As exciting as the Paul addition is, it could have looked even better if the Spurs had also spent some resources on shooting.

Devin Vassell can stripe it, but no one else who played at least 20.0 minutes per game on last year's roster shot better than Malaki Branham's 34.7 percent from long distance. Harrison Barnes will help a little, but the Spurs remain thin on the shooting front, a deficiency that could cramp spacing and make it harder to utilize Wembanyama's elite size and soft hands near the basket.

It's a small thing, but one or two more attention-demanding spacers could have supercharged the Paul-Wemby two-man attack.

Toronto Raptors

Love: Barnes and Quickley locked down

Scottie Barnes got the full five-year, $224.2 million max (with no player option on the fifth year), and Immanuel Quickley landed the five-year deal that seemed inevitable when the Raptors traded for him last season. He'll earn $162.5 million guaranteed with incentives potentially driving that number as high as $175 million.

In those two, Toronto has a new young core around which to build. Both come with questions to temper the excitement—Barnes' outside shooting reverted to its typical 30 percent range after the All-Star break, and Quickley might be a notch below true difference-making status as a full-time starter—but the Raptors effectively moved themselves into a new era fans should feel pretty good about.

Hate: Stuck in the middle

Without a time machine to go back and trade Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and Fred VanVleet before they could get away for reduced returns (or nothing at all in FVV's case), it's hard to figure out how the Raptors could have avoided their current middling status.

Nonetheless, it's discouraging to look at Toronto's spectrum of outcomes for the upcoming season without seeing high enough highs or low enough lows. The Raps aren't bad enough to finish in the bottom four, and they're also not good enough to be more than feisty Play-In entrants. That's a ho-hum fate most teams prefer to avoid.

At least they've got Barnes and Quickley to provide hope for the more distant future.

Utah Jazz

Love: The Markkanen deal

When suitable trade offers failed to emerge, the Utah Jazz went into asset-preservation mode on Lauri Markkanen. The renegotiate-and-extend agreement they reached will bump Markkanen's salary up to $42.2 million in 2024-25 and add four more years worth $195.9 million to his contract.

Though some might worry that Markkanen's presence will hurt Utah's attempts to tank for the third year in a row, the rest of the roster is probably inexperienced enough to ensure good lottery position. Plus, there's always the option to shut Markkanen down late in the season, something he'll probably be more willing to do with all that guaranteed cash coming his way.

If and when interest in Markkanen picks back up after this season, the Jazz can re-engage with suitors and maybe even get bigger offers than were on the table this summer.

Hate: Trade stasis

Some of the same "they can still trade him later" logic of the Markkanen deal applies to Utah's other veterans, but it's unclear whether Collin Sexton, John Collins, Jordan Clarkson and all the rest will retain value like their star teammate.

With three new rookies—Cody Williams, Isaiah Collier and Kyle Filipowski—joining the incumbent young core of Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks and Walker Kessler, the Jazz might have been better served moving off their more experienced players to clear minutes for the kids.

Washington Wizards

Love: Everything aligned with a rebuild

Reasonable minds could disagree on whether the Washington Wizards got the better of the Portland Trail Blazers in the deal that sent out 23-year-old Deni Avdija in exchange for Malcolm Brogdon, rookie Bub Carrington and a 2029 first-round pick (second-most favorable of Portland, Boston and Milwaukee).

Avdija enjoyed a mini breakout last year, is on a declining contract and is certainly young enough to be part of a rebuild.

But for a Wizards team that habitually prioritized short-term gains in the past, the long view this deal signals is refreshing. It aligns with all of Washington's other patient, future-focused moves. The Wizards are finally leaning all the way into a proper rebuild.

Hate: Didn't draft Reed Sheppard

Reed Sheppard looked spectacular in summer-league play, and Wizards rookie Alex Sarr didn't. While it's never a great idea to judge draft picks before a couple of years have passed, the earliest returns suggest Sheppard is, at the very least, going to be a more impactful contributor than Sarr for the next few seasons.

The most charitable way to frame the Sarr selection is to say it fits into the Wizards' approach we lauded above. Sarr is a project whose position is uncertain and whose skills on both ends remain raw. But maybe if he hits his ceiling as either a floor-stretching 5 or a forward-sized perimeter playmaker, he'll be more valuable than Sheppard in the long run.

If we stay coldly practical, it just looks like Washington missed on this one.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.