[BlueLacesParticipant]

Can any ESPN insider post a link to John Hollinger’s offseason losers?

I’m interested as to what he has to say about the Wolves.

Much appreciated to whoever posts this article.

[llperez]

Some of it is free. I know he has the lakers as the second biggest loser right after the cavs. Saying that with what went down in miami, the lakers are now at best co-favorites and thus the lakers had a bad summer.

[Demarcus OnealParticipant]

I would say that the Lakers are offseason winners since they kept the biggest free agent of the summer in Phil Jackson and kept Deerek Fisher as well

[llperez]

yeah, i have no complaints about the lakers summer. Just allowing kobe and pau to rest instead of playing international ball as well as bynum getting the surgery finally will help. And i think the miami situation will motivate them to be better then ever. ANd thats all before you add blake, barnes and ratliff as well as 2 potential second round steals.

[BasterdInABasketParticipant]

In the NBA offseason, for every winner there must also be a loser.

I wrote Monday about the six teams that improved themselves the most so far this summer, but now it’s time to look at the seamy underside: the teams that find themselves in a tougher position. In several cases, this isn’t necessarily of their own doing, but rather from circumstances that were either somewhat or entirely out of their control.

Nonetheless, they’re worse off for it, starting with our biggest loser from the summer:

Cleveland Cavaliers

Does anyone else want to hug a Cleveland fan “Good Will Hunting” style and remind them that it’s not their fault? LeBron James’ impossibly painful exit was made worse by the Cavs’ inability to give anyone their money. Houston matched a generous offer sheet to Kyle Lowry, Matt Barnes took half the money to play for the Lakers, and they can’t even find a workable sign-and-trade for Shaquille O’Neal.

The only major change so far has been a swap of Delonte West for Ramon Sessions, which means the Cavs are basically the same team that won 61 games a year ago … albeit with one glaring omission. Cleveland still has a huge trade exception and may be able to get something done before opening day, but at best this looks like a borderline playoff team.

Los Angeles Lakers

What, you ask, did the Lakers do wrong? Nothing — in fact, they shored up the point guard spot with Steve Blake and got a tough gamer for peanuts in Matt Barnes. And, of course, they coaxed Phil Jackson to stay on the bench for one more season.

All that would have made the Lakers overwhelming favorites to repeat as champions next season, except for a little thing that went down in Miami. With the Heat looking like a super team, the Lakers find themselves downgraded to co-favorites at best, through no fault of their own.

Had James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh aligned themselves in any other combination with any other team, that wouldn’t be the case. Thus, L.A. lost ground this summer, even though, in narrower terms, it won with the additions of Barnes and Blake.

Los Angeles Clippers

Not a great summer for basketball teams in SoCal. While the Lakers’ misfortunes were entirely external, in the case of the Clippers, the offseason has been a full-on disaster. L.A. created enough salary-cap room to sign a big-fish free agent to a maximum contract, and walked away with Ryan Gomes and Randy Foye.

Yeesh. While I appreciate the Clippers’ efforts to reconstruct the 2008 Minnesota Timberwolves (they also re-signed Craig Smith; can Greg Buckner and Mark Madsen be far behind?), those two additions do little or nothing to improve their prospects for this season.

L.A. added to its woes with a puzzling coaching hire, selecting the barely adequate Vinny Del Negro over the vastly more qualified Dwane Casey. The Clips have some talent, and if Blake Griffin delivers, they might contend for a playoff spot anyway, but they missed out on a glorious opportunity to rise among the elite in the Western Conference.

Toronto Raptors

Losing Bosh was bad enough, but that wasn’t the only thing in Toronto that left us scratching our heads. The whole Matt Barnes saga was jaw-dropping: It appears both Barnes’ agent and the Raptors’ front office leaked to the media that Barnes would sign a two-year, $9 million deal with the Raptors in a sign-and-trade — in fact, every major outlet reported it.

Only one problem: The deal wasn’t even remotely legal under the salary-cap rules, revealing a shocking ignorance of a very important piece of the business on the part of NBA professionals.

Look, this is pretty basic stuff. I’ve seen stories suggesting this was some inscrutable piece of salary-cap arcana, and it’s just not true. For starters, a sign-and-trade deal has to be at least three years. Has to. That’s not a difficult rule to understand. I’m pretty sure all of you got it immediately. That’s why every single sign-and-trade deal that any of these guys has ever done has been for at least three years. You’d think they’d at least know from experience. But right there, much energy was spent negotiating a deal that couldn’t happen.

Second, Orlando couldn’t sign-and-trade Barnes under those terms. He had no Bird rights because he had played only one year on his current contract; the most he could be offered by the Magic this season was about $1.9 million. Again, this isn’t some obscure footnote; it comes up every single year because so much of the league’s rank and file are on one-year deals.

Finally, Orlando could have re-signed Barnes using its midlevel exception, except that (A) the Magic had already used it, and (B) you can’t do a sign-and-trade using the midlevel exception. Toronto couldn’t use its midlevel on Barnes either, since it had already been bestowed on Linas Kleiza.

In a nutshell, the deal had to be a sign-and-trade for at least three years, starting at no more than $1.9 million a year, or it couldn’t happen. This was obvious to anyone with any knowledge of the salary-cap rules. That it wasn’t to the two parties involved is disturbing.

When the Raptors weren’t trying to use imaginary exceptions to sign players they couldn’t get, they were giving Amir Johnson a five-year, $34 million deal that’s among the summer’s most questionable. They used their midlevel exception on Kleiza, adding another bad defender to the league’s worst defensive team.

Toronto did salvage a Hedo Turkoglu-Leandro Barbosa trade that dumps last year’s big mistake, albeit for another guy who can’t guard anybody. Unfortunately, an offseason-saving steal of a deal with Charlotte fell through, and they’re left with a star-less team that still is the worst defensive squad in basketball.

New Jersey Nets

The Nets had all that cap space, and the new Russian oligarch owner, and they were coming to Brooklyn to make a big splash. Everybody was talking about them. Two months later, they have Billy King as their GM, Travis Outlaw as their big free-agent score and a lot of questions about whether new coach Avery Johnson is really the one calling the shots.

Outgoing GM Rod Thorn called it quits and almost immediately hinted he wouldn’t mind working someplace else, a sure sign that Mikhail Prokhorov’s regime isn’t engendering great morale. It’s equally puzzling why Prokhorov didn’t push for a change; instead, he allowed the architect of a 12-win team to execute the Nets’ draft and free-agent strategy before heading out.

New Jersey did one thing right: All its free-agent dollars went on players age 25 or younger, an admirable piece of restraint from a franchise that realistically is a couple of years away from doing anything noteworthy. In one case in particular (sharpshooter Anthony Morrow), the Nets got unbelievable value. Unfortunately, the deals for Outlaw ($35 million for five years) and Johan Petro (three years, $10 million) are ridiculous.

As a result, there will be no quick fix in New Jersey. The Nets have a decent foundation with Devin Harris, Brook Lopez and rookie Derrick Favors, and they’ll at least double their win total, but Prokhorov’s arrival as a power player appears to have been wildly overstated.

Minnesota Timberwolves

KAAHHHHNNNN!!! OK, had to get that one out. No, nobody is quite sure what the strategy is under Timberwolves general manager David Kahn.

I’d say they’re rebuilding, but their big free-agent pickup was a 30-year-old point guard, and they traded their first-round pick for Martell Webster.

I’d say they’re focusing on value contracts, but they just gave Darko Milicic a four-year, $20 million deal.

I’d say they’re trying to corner the market on point guards, but the league has about 70 of them and the Wolves can hoard only 15 at any one time.

I’d say they’re acquiring players who can thrive in coach Kurt Rambis’ triangle system, except they’re not — they keep acquiring small pick-and-roll point guards with iffy outside shots.

I’d say they’re building around character and discipline, but they traded for Michael Beasley and Milicic.

I’d say they’re focused on opportunistic trades, except that they unloaded their best player for 50 cents on the dollar and repeated the exercise with Ramon Sessions.

The only thing I can confidently say is that they’ll be terrible again this year, and probably for several years afterward. The Wolves have a rising star in Kevin Love and a couple of other interesting pieces (keep an eye on Euro import Nikola Pekovic), but it’s not clear whether they’re coming or going right now. I’m not sure they know, either.

[NashyMingParticipant]

This article is pretty much garbage.

I have never found any Hollinger’s article to impress me.

I think more than 10 people on this board has more knowledge than him regarding basketball and the NBA. Probably quite a few people here can write better articles.

[Toronto16Participant]

Hollinger is a terrible “expert”

Lakers are still better than the Heat right now.

[Mr.Knick 32Participant]

Lakers are still better than the Heat right now.

True, but I’m interesting to see the matchups if they make the Finals next season.

It’s tough writing articles. I cannot call someone a idiot because he has different views. Other then the Lakers ( which he argued well), all those teams he listed were losers in Free Agency.

[RafterParticipant]

I disagree with Hollinger’s analysis on the Lakers but on the Clippers, Nets and T’Wolves he’s dead on sadly.

[ghettosermonParticipant]

I wouldn’t call the Clippers losers. They have their promising core of Baron, Gordon, Blake, and Kaman. They drafted Aminu and a potential good backup guard in Eric Bledsoe. Lets be real here everyone knew LeBron would not even consider them. Beyond that they did exactly what they should do, they didn’t overspend. Their only need is possibly SF but who was there. Rudy Gay resigned right away. I’ve heard people that said they should have given an offer to Mike Miller that he couldn’t refuse. Would you really want to offer Miller 40+ mil. I don’t. I actually think they did well by not rushing in and over paying even though they had cap room. It’s better they didn’t go give a massive contract to a Tyrus Thomas or Travis Outlaw and handicap their financial future. They are better off just seeing what they have in Blake Griffin and staying pat. If it doesn’t work in two years they are in position to rebuild. BTW I do believe Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes were great value as role players.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

Articles like this are why I canceled my insider account the other day.

I’m not sure how you can put the Lakers on the loser list or declare them the co-favorites.

In my opinion, the Lakers have upgraded their roster without losing any significant pieces. I keep hearing they could still bring Shannon Brown back as well.

[OhCanada-Participant]

We have all had many heated debates on this site, but at least we can all agree that John Hollinger is an overrated expert.

The Lakers had an amazing off season considering their position.
-Making sure the best Coach in the NBA Phil Jackson returns
-Reacquiring Derek Fisher despite the Heat making offers
-Signing Steve Blake
-Signing Matt Barnes
-Drafting 2 undisputable steals in Derick Caracter and Devin Ebanks

L.A. is the team to beat and anybody who thinks otherwise is dreaming.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

The Theo Ratliff signing wasn’t bad either. He’s old, but he’s still a solid defensive big with some length given 5-10 minutes here and there.

[OhCanada-Participant]

TEZO

Especially with Bynum’s injury woes, that could allow Gasol to play more minutes at the 4 position.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

Blake, Brown (potentially), Barnes, Odom and Ratliff…

That’s a pretty decent bench, definitely better than last season. Then add in Caracter/Ebanks, who could provide them with that young energy during the season when/if called upon.

[Demarcus OnealParticipant]

Espn where keeping together a championship team makes you a loser

[TRC1991Participant]

John Hollinger is f.ucking retarded.

1) Minnesota has only 3 PG’s on their current roster…idk why hollinger still thinks they are collecting lead guards…that ended last year (kahn’s new infatuation is the wing forward)

2) Cleveland a borderline playoff team?! NOT A CHANCE! The East got SOOO much stronger this off-season dear god

3) The Lakers on the losing list? He should fire himself

4) He obviously doesn’t understand that Al Jefferson was the wrong player for Minnesota’s offense and that shipping him out was actually Minnesota”s best option

[Author]

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