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Every NBA Team's Biggest Hole to Fill After Free Agency – Bleacher Report
While the 2023 iteration of NBA free agency isn’t fully complete, the annual reshaping of basketball’s landscape is largely finished.
There might be a tweak needed here or there, but for the most part, front offices have done what they can to improve their club’s championship chances—whether the aim is next season’s title or something way beyond.
Just because rosters have been mostly fleshed out, though, that doesn’t mean all holes have been filled. In fact, all 30 clubs still have something they need, and we’re here to spotlight each team’s biggest area to address.
For years, the Hawks have tried and failed to build a competent defense around Trae Young. While the prolific point guard almost guarantees Atlanta a top-10 offense on his own (seventh in efficiency this past season), he also often nudges the team toward the bottom 10 on the opposite end (22nd).
What happened this summer to make anyone expect anything different? Swapping out John Collins for Saddiq Bey in the starting lineup is a lateral move on defense. Finding more minutes for Onyeka Okongwu could help in theory, but Atlanta could miss Clint Capela’s rebounding and paint presence.
The Hawks need a lockdown wing defender who can silence opposing scorers of different sizes and play styles. De’Andre Hunter is solid on defense, but not special. Could AJ Griffin or Jalen Johnson be that missing stopper? The Hawks might hope they are, but optimism can’t cut it. Atlanta needs substantial improvement on defense if it hopes to ever crack the contending ranks.
Talent-wise, the Celtics have a stacked frontcourt trio with Al Horford, Robert Williams III and newcomer Kristaps Porziņģis. But how often can Boston expect to have all three available?
Horford turned 37 in July. Williams has only cleared the 40-game mark twice in his five-year career. Porziņģis made it through 65 games this past season—a contract year, for whatever that’s worth—but it was his first campaign with 60-plus appearances since 2016-17.
So, this frontcourt comes bundled with all kinds of aging and injury concerns. Also, without Grant Williams, who was signed-and-traded to the Dallas Mavericks, it’s a little lacking in defensive versatility. He had the strength to bang with bigs and enough lateral quickness to keep in front of guards. Boston could have trouble finding someone who can strike that balance, especially if Oshae Brissett can’t shoot consistently enough to hold down a regular rotation spot.
In the not-so-distant past, the Nets had an offensive collection that ranked favorably among the best the hoops world had ever seen. Having Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving in the same attack was like a video game cheat code come to life.
Well, Durant, Harden and Irving are all gone, and suddenly Brooklyn’s offense could be on shaky ground. While Mikal Bridges took an All-Star turn after his deadline arrival, the Nets ran light on shot-creators around him. From the deadline on, Brooklyn ranked just 25th in scoring, 23rd in efficiency and 21st in true shooting percentage.
Beyond Bridges, the Nets don’t have enough players who can consistently create their own scoring chances. Spencer Dinwiddie is fine, but nothing more (15.5 career player efficiency rating). Cam Thomas is a scorer, but he saw less floor time this past season (16.6 minutes) than he did as a rookie (17.6). First-round pick Dariq Whitehead flashed some shot-making in his past, but he largely functioned in a three-and-D role during his injury-impacted lone season at Duke.
The Hornets have a cornerstone talent in LaMelo Ball, whom they wisely locked up on a max extension this summer. Unfortunately, it’s entirely unclear what else they’ve put around their franchise face so far.
Brandon Miller, this summer’s No. 2 pick, looks like a capable co-star on paper, though some are already wondering if Charlotte should’ve snatched up Scoot Henderson instead. Mark Williams had some encouraging moments this past season, but he also logged just 828 minutes on a bad team with underwhelming players at his position. Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier would be logical trade candidates if the Hornets could find any takers.
There just isn’t a lot of…well, buzz in Buzz City. P.J. Washington remains unsigned, Miles Bridges signed his qualifying offer after not playing last season following a no-contest plea to felony domestic violence. Recent first-round picks James Bouknight and Kai Jones are already running out of time to find their footing. This roster is in rough shape.
Last summer, the Bulls identified rim protection as one of their primary needs. They’ve still yet to address it.
Nikola Vučević, who inked a three-year, $60 million extension ahead of free agency, has averaged under a block per game over his 12-year career. His backup, Andre Drummond, just averaged the fewest blocks per 36 minutes of his career (1.1). The only other big on the roster is rookie Adama Sanogo, who inked a two-way contract after going undrafted.
Chicago once again appears vulnerable on the interior. The Bulls (improbably) found their way to a top-five defense this past season anyway, but given their personnel, that ranking was never the easiest to trust. Go back to 2021-22, when Chicago first assembled the Vučević-Zach LaVine-DeMar DeRozan trio, and the Bulls were just 23rd in defensive efficiency.
Entering this offseason, shooting loomed as the largest need for the Cavaliers. Credit the front office for sufficiently scratching that itch by adding Max Strus and Georges Niang in free agency.
There is a potential hiccup in this plan, though. While Cleveland had a general need for spacing, what it really had to find was a two-way wing. Strus and Niang don’t fit that bill. While each is a strong shooter, both can be vulnerable on the defensive end, particularly against the league’s quicker players.
So, who’s getting those assignments? Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell don’t have much size between them, and they aren’t getting minutes for their defense. The Evan Mobley-Jarrett Allen frontcourt combo can clean up some mistakes in the paint, but if this perimeter group leaks uncontrollably, the bigs can only plug things up for so long.
With Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving at the helm, the Mavericks figure to be explosive on offense and dreadful on defense. Having a rim-running center who can anchor the back line would be invaluable, both as a lob-finisher and a paint-protecting shot-blocker.
Dallas knows this already. That’s why it invested in JaVale McGee in 2022 free agency and then the No. 12 pick in this summer’s draft on Dereck Lively II.
Still, there’s a huge difference between diagnosing a problem and actually solving it. McGee clearly isn’t the answer—he was entrusted with only 355 minutes last season—and while Lively could eventually become one, he won’t necessarily help next season’s squad. Expectations should at least be tempered for a 19-year-old who averaged under 21 minutes this past season at Duke.
The immense pressure Denver felt heading into the 2023 postseason existed for a reason, and it wasn’t all because the franchise was in search of its first NBA title. Instead, it was because the Nuggets had seemingly cracked their championship code. As evidenced by their 53-29 record—44-19 entering March—they were reaping the rewards of having an expertly crafted roster.
Denver’s roster read like a fully completed puzzle. All of the pieces fit snugly alongside one another. That was until free agency pulled a few pieces away, most notably do-it-all swingman Bruce Brown. The 6’4″ Swiss Army knife played and defended at least three different positions, often in the same game.
His play wound up coaxing a Godfather offer out of the Indiana Pacers (two years, $45 million with a team option on the second season), leaving Denver scrambling to replace him with no obvious solutions. They have some internal candidates—Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Reggie Jackson will all help fill Brown’s void—but none has ever checked as many boxes as Brown did during the Nuggets’ championship run.
As is the case with a lot of young teams, the Pistons should be incredible to watch in the open court. That’s where their youth, athleticism and energy will shine brightest. They have multiple playmakers, bigs who want to run and play finishers at every spot.
When the Motor City’s finest can’t get fully revved, though, things could get tricky. Detroit, which ranked 28th in half-court efficiency this past season, could again be cramped for spacing. The Pistons have a few net-shredders in their rotation—Bojan Bogdanović, Joe Harris and Alec Burks chief among them—but most of their primary players are average or worse shooters from range.
ESPN projects the Pistons will start Bogdanović with Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson and James Wiseman. Look at that lineup long enough, and it’ll start to feel like the walls are closing in. Cunningham is a career 30.9 percent three-point shooter, Ivey shot a mediocre 34.3 percent as a rookie, Thompson needs tons of work with his jumper and Wiseman has 16 triples in 84 career contests.
Some will argue the Warriors suffer most from a lack of size—newcomer Dario Šarić is the team’s tallest player at just 6’10″—but they’ve worked some small-ball brilliance before. The issue is this team is older and more limited athletically than those championship teams of the past.
There were times this past postseason (especially in the opening round against the Sacramento Kings) in which the Warriors appeared like they were stuck in the mud. They were often a step (or more) behind the offense, and they lacked the vertical lift and explosiveness needed to correct those mistakes.
Adding Šarić and Chris Paul does nothing to address that deficiency. Spending the No. 19 pick on Brandin Podziemski probably didn’t either. While they all have the IQ to fit this system, they’ll still be at a physical disadvantage more often than not. Now would be a great time for the Jonathan Kuminga leap to happen.
The Rockets busted open their piggy banks this offseason in an apparent attempt to snap a three-year playoff drought. Their moves were calculated and targeted toward adding offensive organization, defense and general veteran savvy to the mix. Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks were the headline additions, but Jeff Green and Jock Landale were part of the transformation, too.
Tack on the hiring of head coach Ime Udoka, and Houston seemingly has a much clearer direction. But what happens if this path doesn’t produce any shot-making?
VanVleet is a career 40.2 percent field-goal shooter, Brooks is an erratic and ambitious shooter (a dreadful combination) and both Green and Landale are niche role players. That leaves Houston still depending heavily on a slew of incumbents who contributed to Houston finishing 27th in offensive efficiency and 29th in true shooting percentage this past season.
The Rockets could really use leap years from both Jalen Green (career 42 percent shooter) and Jabari Smith Jr. (40.8/30.7/78.6 slash line as a rookie).
The Pacers entered this offseason with a glaring hole at power forward, and they’ve taken two cracks at filling it. First, they spent the No. 8 pick on Jarace Walker. Then, they took a low-cost flier on Obi Toppin, the No. 8 pick in 2020.
They still aren’t convinced they’ve fixed the problem. In fact, they’ve emerged as a “legitimate trade contender” for Pascal Siakam, per NBA insider Marc Stein. Despite Indy’s previous investments at the position, it could make sense to pay a premium for Siakam.
This roster looks strong everywhere but the 4 spot, and if this team is ready to rise right now—Bruce Brown may not be around long with a $23 million team option for 2024-25—it might seek more certainty than Walker and Toppin can provide. Siakam, a logical trade candidate on an expiring contract, is a two-time All-NBA honoree who just put forth one of his most productive seasons to date (24.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists).
While the Clippers need a clean bill of health more than anything, that’s not something they can find without stumbling upon a wish-granting basketball genie. In terms of areas they could actually strengthen, this roster would look plenty more imposing if it added a starting-caliber forward to the mix.
Marcus Morris Sr. seemingly ran out of gas last season and could have trouble fueling up for his age-34 campaign. Nicolas Batum, who turns 35 in December, seems unlikely to log many (if any) more minutes than the 21.9 he averaged. Newcomer Kenyon Martin Jr. could squeeze the spacing for a club that already has non-shooting threats at point guard (Russell Westbrook) and center (Ivica Zubac).
Maybe L.A. can patch things together with the aforementioned forwards, Robert Covington and, when healthy, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, but do any of those options seem super reliable? In a word: nah.
The Lakers have kept plenty busy this offseason and checked off an impressive number of boxes already. They re-signed the players they needed to (namely, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura) and went outside the organization to add two-way play at point guard (Gabe Vincent), shooting (Taurean Prince) and athleticism (Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes).
This roster is almost complete, but the frontcourt could use some beefing up, especially if L.A. plans on dialing up any two-big lineups next season.
“We are actively in the market to add another big,” Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka told reporters.
The Lakers should be able to fit another center into a minimum slot. If they want scoring from the spot, Christian Wood is an obvious target. If they’re looking for strength and shot-blocking, then Bismack Biyombo should be on the radar.
Remember when the Grizzlies were hot on the heels of some of the top two-way wings around? Well, they took a novel approach to plugging that gap: trading for Marcus Smart, a 6’3″ guard who has almost exclusively run point the past two seasons.
Now, Memphis obviously won’t ask Smart to man the 3 spot often—not on the offensive end, at least—but who will get that gig? Do they see 6’5″ Desmond Bane (and his 6’4″ wingspan) filling that spot? Or do they know something the rest of us don’t about the readiness of Ziaire Williams or John Konchar to start seeing major minutes?
Smart will help this team in myriad ways—through his experience, intensity, defensive versatility and ability to initiate offense in place of Ja Morant—but he can’t scratch the one itch this club has had for years. Is this the year that the idea of what Williams could be becomes his reality? Color us skeptical on that one.
As soon as Damian Lillard hit the trade market—and focused firmly on South Beach—the Heat essentially paused their offseason. As they should. Never mind that team president Pat Riley gets spidey sense-style tingles any time a distressed star hits the market, but this distressed star in particular is perfect for what they need.
Miami has deftly crafted a combination of strong defense, tireless energy, masterful coaching and, of course, its trademark #culture and turned it into one of the league’s most potent winning recipes. The Heat have as many playoff series wins as anyone the past five seasons, and they’ve played in three of the last four conference finals, twice reaching the championship round.
Despite this success, though, their offense has held them back from a championship breakthrough. They desperately need a consistent shot-creator with deep range. Lillard fits that description as well as anyone. The 32-year-old just posed personal-bests of 32.2 points and 4.2 three-pointers while ranking 13th overall with 7.3 assists.
Miami needs Lillard, and he badly wants to go there. The Heat have to wait this out, even if this situation drags on for months.
The Bucks took care of their most pressing issues this summer, namely re-signing both Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez. What they haven’t done, though, is found a playmaker to put behind Jrue Holiday and in place of Jevon Carter, who bounced to the Bulls in free agency. In fact, they haven’t even committed to ever filling that spot.
“We’re at peace with where we’re at right now,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst told The Athletic’s Eric Nehm. “We’ll see. You never know how it works out and we’ll have avenues to change, if we need to change. But we have a lot of secondary ball-handlers.”
Horst cited two-way contract players Lindell Wigginton and Omari Moore as candidates for the job, while also highlighting the playmaking ability of many of Milwaukee’s non-point guards. That feels like an incomplete plan for one of the league’s top title contenders. The Bucks need someone who can pilot the second unit and lighten the load on Holiday. Saying there are several potential choices for the gig is just a different way of saying there isn’t an obvious one.
You may not know it from last season’s 42-40 record, but the Timberwolves are in win-now mode. That’s why they paid a comical amount to get Rudy Gobert last summer, immediately creating one of the most…uh…unique lineups in the league.
In that sense, Minnesota is temporarily fine having Mike Conley, who turns 36 in October, at the lead guard spot. He is a clever veteran, and those smarts come in handy when trying to make sense of this super-sized lineup.
Still, he’s also clearly playing out the twilight of his career, so what is the succession plan behind him? As badly as the Wolves want to win immediately, their outlook will be brightest once 21-year-old Anthony Edwards and 22-year-old Jalen McDaniels enter their primes. It would make sense, then, to identify and develop Conley’s long-term replacement, but unless Jordan McLaughlin and Shake Milton have some secret skills we’ve never seen, that player isn’t on the roster right now.
Despite some rumblings of potential major changes, the Pelicans haven’t messed with the franchise’s formula yet. That means, New Orleans will continue following the lead of Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson for the foreseeable future, which in turn means this team has to maximize the spacing around its stars.
The Pelicans, who averaged the eighth-fewest threes this past season, clearly prioritized the perimeter when spending the No. 14 pick on Jordan Hawkins. That’s a decent start—he may have been the draft’s top shooter—but New Orleans needs to find more marksmen.
Ingram hasn’t taken a ton of threes lately (3.9 per game the past two seasons), and Williamson has never launched many (0.6 attempts per game for his career), so the floor is already a little cramped. Things only get more congested when players like Herbert Jones (career 33.6 percent), Dyson Daniels (31.4) and Jonas Valančiūnas (0.5 makes per outing last season) hit the hardwood.
On paper, the Knicks don’t have any glaring weaknesses. Backup power forward is a bit of a mystery with Obi Toppin out of town, but that’s about it. Otherwise, this roster looks solid or better at every spot.
But where is it special? Sure, Julius Randle is an All-Star, and Jalen Brunson just put up All-Star-caliber numbers, but who is the high-end needle-mover who forces the Knicks into the championship conversation? They don’t have one. In The Ringer’s NBA player rankings, Brunson landed 26th overall while Randle was 43rd. No other Knicks cracked the top 80.
Good luck digging up a previous NBA champion that didn’t have a top-20 (or really, top-10) talent on the roster. New York will have trouble lifting its second-round ceiling until that level of difference-maker is added. The silver lining is that when the right player becomes available, the ‘Bockers might have the picks and prospects needed to bring him to the Big Apple.
In terms of both quality and quantity, the Thunder have amassed an impressive collection of young talent. And, if they can clear up enough roster spots, they somehow also have a seemingly endless path to more.
At some point soon, though, this front office will shift from simply adding talent to worrying about how all of the puzzle pieces fit. Once that transition happens, OKC might need to find some heft.
The Thunder’s two 7-footers, Chet Holmgren and Aleksej Pokusevski, are listed as weighing a combined 385 pounds. Only three players on the roster weigh more than 225 pounds: 6’9″ Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, 6’10” Jaylin Williams and 6’5″ Keyontae Johnson, a two-way contract recipient. Whenever Oklahoma City plans to rise, it will need more big bodies to bang with some of the super-sized frontcourts of contending teams, like the Nuggets, Lakers, 76ers and Bucks.
In 2022-23, the Magic had a masterful developmental season. They loaded their rotation with 25-and-under talents, then watched their youth recover from a 5-20 start to play .500 ball the rest of the way (29-28).
What Orlando didn’t have, though, was a great shooting season. Not by any stretch. The Magic were a bottom-third shooting team from the field (47 percent, 21st) and from three (34.6, 24th) and a bottom-half shooting team at the line (78.4, 16th).
Who is going to dramatically improve those percentages? Lottery pick Jett Howard could help if he finds meaningful minutes, but shooting is far from the strongest skill possessed by the team’s top pick, Anthony Black. No one on the roster shoots at a high volume from three (Franz Wagner and Gary Harris led the team with 4.5 attempts apiece), and only a few post strong percentages from range.
It’s tricky to accurately assess the Sixers’ situation without knowing whether they’ll have to fill a James Harden-sized hole at some point. He wants to be traded, but Philly is in no hurry to grant that wish and is holding out hope he could change his mind.
If the 76ers keep this core intact, then they need more two-way forwards. Tobias Harris and P.J. Tucker come closest to filling those roles, but Harris has always been better on offense than defense and the opposite is true of Tucker. Danuel House Jr. has played that role in the past, but he struggled to hold down a regular role while failing to find his jumper last season.
With Harden (or perhaps another offensive-minded replacement, like Damian Lillard?) and Tyrese Maxey in the backcourt, the Sixers need all the defensive help they can get from the wings. But to properly support MVP Joel Embiid, they also need wing shooters who can prevent teams from crowding the big fella. Getting both skills from the same players has been an ongoing challenge for this front office.
Considering the Suns were confined to the clearance section from the start of free agency, they’ve had quite the run of adding talent. Yuta Watanabe, Keita Bates-Diop, Drew Eubanks, Eric Gordon and Chimezie Metu are all potential rotation players, and all were added for minimal money.
Phoenix could actually have functional depth this season, which is incredible to have behind a loaded quartet of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Deandre Ayton.
The Suns might already have what they need to win a title—assuming good health, of course—but if they wanted to add to this group, a stretch big could be a useful addition. Ayton is an accomplished mid-range shooter, and both Eubanks and Metu will fire from three every now and then, but none is a true space-creating 5.
The Blazers are in a tricky spot with Damian Lillard not only wanting out, but also having already made his preferred destination known (Miami). Still, Portland isn’t necessarily backed into a corner here. The All-Star guard has four years (and an absurd amount of money) left on his contract, so the Trail Blazers have no reason to rush into a trade if they don’t like the offers they’re receiving.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported “there’s been no progress at all” on trade talks with the Heat. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne shared speculation of this becoming “another Ben Simmons situation.” For those who don’t remember, Simmons requested a trade out of Philly in the summer of 2021 and wasn’t shipped out until the 2022 trade deadline.
Now, does Portland want to spend the next seven-odd months with a disgruntled Dame? Probably not. However, playing an uncomfortable half-season is far preferred over trading away the best player in franchise history for anything less than top dollar. The Blazers must remain as patient as possible, because the organization’s future hinges on handling Lillard’s exit correctly.
This past season, Sacramento set the league’s all-time mark for offensive efficiency. It also landed just eighth overall in net efficiency at plus-2.6 points per 100 possessions.
Shouldn’t a historic attack produce a bigger net bump than that? In theory, sure, but that theory falls apart when that offensive eruption comes from a club that also landed just 24th in defensive efficiency (worst among all postseason participants—play-in tournament teams included).
The Kings are set to run back the same roster next season with the additions of Sasha Vezenkov (a EuroLeague import), Colby Jones (a rookie second-rounder) and Chris Duarte (a solid defender who averaged fewer than 20 minutes for the Pacers this past season). In other words, it’s unclear where this defensive improvement will come from, but it obviously needs to happen.
Every move the Spurs make for (hopefully) the next decade-plus should be viewed through the prism of its impact on super-prospect Victor Wembanyama. For next season (and beyond), nothing would help him more than a top-shelf shot-creator who consistently puts him in the right position.
Despite being a sound decision-maker (6.6 assists against 1.6 turnovers this past season), Tre Jones falls short of that mark. Defenses don’t have reasons to fear him as a scorer or respect him as a shooter. He doesn’t take many threes (career 2.3 attempts per 36 minutes) and doesn’t make them at nearly a high enough clip (career 27.1 percent).
That could be the reason San Antonio has been mentioned in the Damian Lillard sweepstakes, though he’d be a strange fit given the huge gap in timelines between himself and Wembanyama. Having said that, someone with a rough approximation of Lillard’s shooting, scoring and table-setting blend would be an ideal match for Wemby.
The Raptors appear as a team in transition. Fred VanVleet exited in free agency, and Pascal Siakam could be next to leave. Regardless if Siakam stays or goes, though, this team has to find more shooting.
Toronto wasn’t a good shooting team from any level this past season. It landed 28th in effective field-goal percentage and 27th in true shooting percentage.
As anemic as those numbers are, it could be even rougher next season. Adding Gradey Dick in the draft might help, but not enough to offset the shooting downgrade of replacing VanVleet (a career 37.3 percent three-point shooter) with Dennis Schröder (33.7). The frontcourt looks particularly punchless as Jakob Poeltl doesn’t shoot threes and Scottie Barnes rarely makes them (29).
The Jazz were surprisingly competitive this past season, but repeating that feat could be tricky. Utah got a little disorganized down the stretch after dealing floor general Mike Conley at the deadline, and it’s unclear who can (or is even supposed to) get things organized now.
Jordan Clarkson is a scorer above all else. The same seems true for Collin Sexton, whom the Jazz were shopping at the draft, per Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer. Talen Horton-Tucker can’t find consistency with his outside shot and is less polished than most players with four NBA seasons under their belt. Kris Dunn’s track record is wholly underwhelming. Rookie Keyonte George can create for himself, but not so much for his teammates.
The Jazz have talent, but do they have someone who can tie it all together? We’re not seeing it.
The Wizards finally accepted what had become inevitable years before and are leaning into an overdue rebuild. Because they wasted so much time clinging to false hopes and chasing one-round playoff cameos, it isn’t hugely surprising to see this team be so severely lacking in high-end upside.
That’s why throwing a dart at Bilal Coulibaly made some sense on draft night, even if the No. 7 pick felt a pinch too high. He might be a blank canvas, but he’s toolsy as heck and still only 18 years old. It’s possible this pick never pans out, but there’s a universe in which he becomes a two-way wrecking ball.
Washington needs more of that type of potential. Much, much more. The Wizards are starting to invest some of their roster spots into high-upside youth (keep an eye on Patrick Baldwin Jr.), but that should be their full focus until a young nucleus takes shape.
Statistics courtesy of Basketball Reference, Cleaning the Glass and NBA.com.
Zach Buckley covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @ZachBuckleyNBA.