https://theathletic.com/1120091/2019/08 ... dailyemail
Aldridge: How much better is your team since its season ended? Here’s how I rank them
The conceit is simple: rank how all 30 teams have done since the end of their respective seasons, looking at everything, from how they drafted to what trades they made, to significant free-agent signings and to whether they participated in free agency much at all. I looked at coaching changes, new GMs, new buildings that could generate significantly more revenue going forward, or practice facilities that are now online. I then decided which ones I liked the most.
There are, however, ground rules. Here’s what these rankings ARE NOT:
• A predicted order of finish for next season.
I do not expect the Grizzlies, for example, to have a better record than the Bucks, just because I thought they had a better offseason. Milwaukee has a better team than Memphis, and thus didn’t have as much to do to improve it as the Grizzlies had to do. These are not “power rankings” as you have come to understand those; I do not believe the Pelicans, right now, are better than the Celtics. This is just one person’s opinion about offseason moves — offseason moves only. Accordingly:
• If your team is ranked in the top 10 here, it doesn’t mean I love your team.
• If your team is ranked in the bottom 10 here, it doesn’t mean I hate your team.
It’s an opinion that seeks to answer a question: Is the team better now than at the end of last season? The ranking reflects the belief on whether, and how much, that is so. (I liked certain guys who were in the draft more than others, so if your team took them, I probably weighed it more positively. Doesn’t mean I’m right.)
What plays into the rankings
• This isn’t science. It’s an educated guess, weighing the impact both of the draft and free agency, but also assessing whether teams got value in their free-agent signings. Overpaying the right player is as much a sin as signing the wrong player. A good new coach can coax some more wins out of a roster. But if a team’s players don’t fit the system their team uses, the best Xs and Os on earth don’t matter.
• Teams that are rebuilding obviously have different priorities than teams making a championship push. That’s factored in. So Utah, for example, gets credit not only for adding a free agent like Bojan Bogdanovic, but also for the fit Bogdanovic will have with its existing players.
A rebuilding team with a lot of cap space, like Phoenix, can make a lot of moves, but do they make sense in service to the team’s star player, Devin Booker? And a contending team that shows it’s willing to go deep into the luxury tax —which most teams try to avoid — to keep winning has to be commended, and its rankings reflect that commendation.
• Continuity matters here as well. The most successful teams usually not only identify a core group of players, but also keep it together for a while, finding that sweet spot: everyone doesn’t get a max contract, but most get paid well enough to keep the train moving down the tracks.
Meanwhile, it may make sense for other teams to keep their powder dry for another day. That reflects both good roster construction and good financial management — and, again, is rewarded. Everyone has to spend, but you still have to manage your money wisely.
So, here we go.
Salary numbers, with a couple of exceptions, come from Spotrac, which stays on top of this stuff as well as anyone east of Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Draft pick details from both Spotrac and Real GM.
24. PHOENIX SUNS
2018-19 RECORD: 19-63; did not make playoffs.
ADDED: Head Coach Monty Williams; G Ricky Rubio (three years, $51M); F Frank Kaminsky (two years, $9.7M); F Cheick Diallo (one year, $1.67M); C Aron Baynes (acquired from Boston); F Dario Saric (acquired from Minnesota); G Jevon Carter (acquired from Memphis); F Cam Johnson (first round, 11th pick overall); G Ty Jerome (first round, 24th pick overall); G Jalen Lecque (undrafted free agent); F Tariq Owens (undrafted free agent); 2020 second-round pick (from either Golden State or Houston); 2020 second-round pick (acquired from Utah); 2023 second-round pick (more favorable of Dallas/Miami).
LOST: Former coach Igor Kokoskov: F T.J. Warren (traded to Indiana); F Josh Jackson (traded to Memphis); F Troy Daniels (signed with Lakers); F Dragan Bender (rights renounced); G Kyle Korver (waived); 2020 second-round pick (traded to Memphis); 2021 second-round pick (to Memphis or Brooklyn).
RETAINED: F Kelly Oubre, Jr. (two years, $30M).
THE KEY MAN: Rubio. It’s unfair to ask the 28-year-old to come in and completely fix the Suns’ prolific shooting woes — dead last in the league last season in three-point shooting (.329), 28th in made threes per game (9.6) and Offensive Efficiency (103.6) and 24th in Effective Field Goal percentage (.514).
The problem is that Rubio hasn’t been a great shooter himself from deep throughout his career — his .311 percentage behind the arc last season was a significant drop off from his career-high .352 the season before. But he has always been a willing passer. He’ll have to be incredible for Phoenix to significantly improve on those dismal numbers going forward.
THE SKINNY: There were bleeding scalps around the Association, such was the head scratching that went on in assessing what Phoenix did this offseason. But the bottom line was this: no one’s coming to the Valley of the Sun in free agency right now, so it made no sense to keep rolling over cap room and calling that progress, given the franchise’s notable first-round whiffs of late.
Jackson and Bender followed Marquise Chriss out of town, leaving the Suns at square one. But instead of staying at No. 6 in the first round, Phoenix moved back and took another chance, this one on Johnson, who can shoot it but whose multiple surgeries the last few years red-flagged him to multiple teams in the draft. You can both understand yet not be excited about what the Suns are doing, though, and as they’re in the West, and still can’t get free agents interested, it’s hard to see this improving any time soon, even under Williams, who got a raw deal the last time he was a head coach, in New Orleans.