The 6 NBA Teams That Improved Most This Offseason – Bleacher Report

The NBA offseason is a time for many things: self-reflection, recalibration, home run swings, frenzied overhauls, measured tweaks, trade demands, repetitive rumors, existential dread, unchecked optimism and so on.
In the aggregate, though, the Association’s summertime hiatus is a chance to get better. It doesn’t matter whether your team just won the title, lost 60-plus games or did something in between. Improvement is the entire point of the offseason.
Many squads opt out of this in favor of wholesale resets. Others focus on marginal tinkerings. A handful of organizations flat-out fail, sometimes spectacularly.
Certain squads, however, take substantial steps forward. This exercise aims to identify which teams have made the most progress, positioning themselves to significantly outstrip last year’s performance, perhaps ascending by leaps and bounds.
This isn’t about predicting which teams will increase their win totals the most. It’s about spotlighting the franchises that have done the best job of beefing up their rosters compared to last season relative to both their needs and the tools at their disposal.

The Cleveland Cavaliers entered the summer with two primary objectives: upgrade their shooting on the wings without torpedoing the defense, and deepen the front-line rotation behind Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
Mission accomplished.
Some have scoffed at the additions of Max Strus (four years, $62.3 million) and Georges Niang (three years, $25 million). They shouldn’t. Both price points are fine. Strus is making a hair above the non-taxpayer mid-level exception while Niang costs barely more than the mini MLE. Their outside volume is worth the cost of admission.
Niang just knocked down over 40 percent of his threes on more than nine attempts per 36 minutes. Strus hit 35 percent of his triples on near-identical volume and promises the added benefit of draining ultra-difficult attempts in motion or off the (quick) bounce.
Ideally, Cleveland would have nabbed a shooter like Strus with Isaac Okoro’s defense. That was never happening. Strus competes enough on that end to hold up in the playoffs.
The secondary big rotation is a larger concern. Niang isn’t gigantic, and the Cavs didn’t add any other major difference-makers. Emoni Bates is a nice flier. Ditto for Damian Jones. Neither will have huge roles. Summer League Final MVP Isaiah Mobley’s development could loom large here, but he’ll need to improve his defense and off-ball offense.
Still, overall, the Cavs addressed their two biggest question marks—capably enough to be an even greater force in the East.

Undercurrents of disappointment were directed toward the Motor City this offseason. The Detroit Pistons had oodles of cap space, and many wanted them to make bigger, glitzier splashes.
Go ahead and identify what flashier moves were available. I’ll wait. But not too long. Because they don’t exist. The Brooklyn Nets were clearly never letting Cam Johnson leave, and punting on the Grant Williams and P.J. Washington sweepstakes shouldn’t incite angsty remorse.
Turning cap space into a pair of expiring contracts and rolling over this summer’s flexibility was a shrewd move. Especially when those expiring contracts can play.
Monte Morris remains an under-control game manager who can snake his way into pull-up middies and space the floor away from the ball. Joe Harris’ health has devolved into a question mark, but at his best, he can fly around the perimeter and attack closeouts.
Bagging Ausar Thompson at No. 5 is huge. The on-ball acceleration is scary and will be put to good use around the additional shooting. His defensive energy is bottomless. Believe in his jumper.
Clumpy redundancy persists on this roster. The dual-big model is underwhelming, and the Pistons have an on-ball surplus after adding Thompson and, less critically, Marcus Sasser.
Detroit nevertheless found ways to open the floor for its most important kiddies while upping its NBA-talent quota. The depth chart is now more coherent, and the Pistons are going to be waaaaaay better.

Did the Houston Rockets dramatically improve? Or was the status quo so discouragingly confusing that the acquisition of any actual NBA talent would seduce us into optimism?
It’s a little of both. But mostly the former.
Fred VanVleet’s arrival arms the Rockets with a much-needed organizer who won’t cannibalize touches from developmental projects and will work his butt off on defense. Don’t fret the money. A two-season max with a club option on Year 3 is more team-friendly than not.
Feel free to lament Dillon Brooks’ money. Guaranteeing him $86 million is an overpay. But he just made an All-Defensive team, and his offensive inklings won’t be as damaging if Houston restricts his on-ball usage.
Amen Thompson has IT. His jumper is a concern, but the Rockets have juuuust enough spacing to let him bust loose downhill. He will be an on-ball defensive irritant right away.
Stumbling into Cam Whitmore at No. 20 is big-time. What he lacks in feel he makes up for with a visceral, visual intensity. Jock Landale adds drips and drabs of front-line switchabilty, rim protection, screening and even spacing. Jeff Green will leave his mark on the locker room.
This says nothing of internal development from Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperen Şengün and others. It still feels like Houston’s roster has too many moving parts, but there’s more of a rhyme and reason to its build and depth. That’ll go a long way.

Multiple truths can coexist. The Los Angeles Lakers are proof. Their offseason is at once overrated and absolutely going to make them a lot better.
Anybody clamoring for general manager Rob Pelinka to already win Executive of the Year needs to chill. The Lakers are not profoundly different when looking at the ins and outs of their offseason:
Keeping Austin Reaves on a four-year, $53.8 million contract was a caps-lock W. (Related: Shame on no fewer than three teams for not poison-pilling Reaves.) He can and will get better. So can Rui Hachimura, and the D’Angelo Russell contract (two years, $37 million) makes for a potentially nice trade chip.
Yet, most of the Lakers’ improvement is tied to internal development and more time together rather than a combination of additives. At the same time, going from Schröder to Vincent is a material offensive upgrade that doesn’t sacrifice any defensive juice, and Prince is a legit three-and-D complement who should have a chance to close games.
Coupled with the intrigue of Hood-Schifino’s on-ball wing defense; the prospect of Reaves (and Rui) getting better; and end-of-the-bench dice rolls on Hayes (flashes of defensive switchability) and Reddish (can he keep the ball moving and make threes?), the Lakers offseason feels like it’ll pay serious dividends during the season.

Feign outrage over the Phoenix Suns consolidating what few assets they had remaining into Bradley Beal if you’re feeling performative. They went from a 38-year-old Chris Paul, Landry Shamet and picks and players that wouldn’t contribute next season to a 30-year-old with an All-NBA ceiling.
You can’t lose that deal. At all. It doesn’t matter how you feel about Beal’s contract. Or the depth. The Suns added a genuine third star and are much more terrifying for it. And if you have a problem with their asset allocation, you’re really taking issue with how much they gave up for Kevin Durant. That’s a different discussion.
Phoenix has also mitigated some of the risk by absolutely dominating the minimum-contract game. Eric Gordon and Yuta Watanabe would be in every single other NBA rotation. The same goes for Josh Okogie on most nights.
Bol Bol (can he hold up on defense?) and Keita Bates-Diop (will his threes continue to fall?) have googly-eyed risk-reward profiles. Drew Eubanks and Chimezie Metu were available for a reason, but they bring versatility to the frontcourt. Damion Lee should have played more for the Suns last season.
Offloading Cameron Payne in a tax dump detracts from the ball-handling ranks. Phoenix will get by. Beal and Durant are top-tier secondary playmakers, and Devin Booker is closer to an alpha floor general than credited.
The Denver Nuggets remain, clear and away, the best team in the West. But the Suns are next up.

A single player can afford entry into this conversation. The San Antonio Spurs have one in Victor Wembanyama—who, as I wrote previously, looks like an instant all-timer:
“The ease with which he can get to his jumper, from anywhere, bodes well for his overall offensive creation. The passing is still more reactive than planned, but he doesn’t need to manipulate with Scoot Henderson-level foresight to elevate his teammates. His slight frame may cause issues versus certain defenders, but he moves so surgically off the ball and utilizes angles we didn’t know existed on face-ups and post touches that it shouldn’t ever matter.
“Wemby might also come in and just be one of the NBA’s most terrifying off-ball defenders from Day 1. His presence around the rim is ubiquitous, and he’s already shown a knack for shooting unimaginable gaps and erasing jumpers.”
This isn’t just about the arrival of Wembanyama, either. The Spurs used their cap space to take on real basketball players. Reggie Bullock is a legit three-and-D wing. Cameron Payne adds half-court wiggle and playmaking. Cedi Osman will space the floor.
Signing Julian “What If He’s a Higher-End Kenrich Williams?” Champagnie to a regular NBA contract will matter. The Spurs have Dominick Barlow, coming off a two-way, in restricted free agency. They aren’t immediately playoff-bound, but they’ve improved enough, in more ways than one, to ensure the West is devoid of pushovers.
Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference, Stathead or Cleaning the Glass. Salary information via Spotrac.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes.

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