The Winners and Losers of 2023 NBA Free Agency – The Ringer

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While the basketball world waits on a pair of potential blockbusters, the dust is settling after a busy free agency period. Who came out on top, and who did not?
There are a few dominoes left to fall in this NBA offseason, including a few remaining free agents and two potential blockbuster trades. But after a busy opening to free agency in which many teams shuffled the deck, our staff got together to name the biggest winners and losers so far.
The Lakers accomplished two key tasks this summer in their attempt to build on last season’s surprise run to the Western Conference finals. First, they improved their depth around LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Gabe Vincent is a natural fit next to LeBron as a smart, non-ball-dominant shooter on a reasonable contract (three years, $33 million). Taurean Prince is a capable wing defender who’s made 38 percent of his 3-pointers over the past three seasons. And Rui Hachimura became pricey (three years, $51 million) after his postseason hot streak, but at least the Lakers know he can get buckets next to their stars. (Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes also signed with the team, but they offer much more theoretical upside than actual production at this point in their careers.)
Will Portland finally give in and trade Dame Lillard? We’re keeping a close watch on all of the biggest free agents, trade targets, retirement bluffers, and more in our new offseason tracker.
But the coup de grâce of the Lakers’ offseason was their new contract with Austin Reaves, whose four-year, $54 million deal will look like one of the league’s most team-friendly bargains as the salary cap rises and Reaves matures into his prime. Reaves was a restricted free agent, but no other team offered him a heftier contract that would have forced the Lakers to match; instead, Rob Pelinka and Co. inked a reliable two-way wing with supplementary creative skills and off-the-bounce juice who will only get better as he gains more NBA experience.
In past summers, the Lakers chased stars, even if the fit was questionable. (Hello, Russell Westbrook.) This time around, they took a measured, sensible approach and ended up reinforcing a roster that relies on the formula that won them the 2020 title: defense + shooting + Davis + LeBron. —Zach Kram
From the moment the Suns lined up their big, expensive swing for Bradley Beal, they committed themselves to a high-wire act. Phoenix had its cornerstones in Beal, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Deandre Ayton—and a whopping $163 million committed between them. Then came the work of assembling an actual roster around them from scratch in the frenzy of free agency. And thanks to the restrictions for big-spending teams in the new collective bargaining agreement, they would have to pull that off without so much as the taxpayer midlevel exception to work with.
All the Suns could functionally offer was the minimum salary. And with those minimums, Phoenix brought back Josh Okogie and Damion Lee; added Eric Gordon, a winning veteran who could have commanded more from his pick of title contenders; grabbed Drew Eubanks after the market on Jock Landale went through the roof (it’s been a weird summer); and filled out the frontcourt with if-you-know-you-know deep cuts Yuta Watanabe, Keita Bates-Diop, and Chimezie Metu. And, according to a report from Shams Charania, it may soon take a flier on Bol Bol. You can find flaws with any of those players individually, but they’re a pretty complete set, and the Suns did about as well with their bargain-bin dive as they could’ve possibly expected.
The context matters. Phoenix wasn’t getting Fred VanVleet but did good work with what it had. Gordon is the best player who signed a minimum deal this summer—and is a likely fit for crucial, closing lineups even if he largely comes in off the bench. Beyond that, the Suns have good length and switchability with this crew of role players, some solid shooters for their positions, and enough options to sustain them through a long regular season. Maybe the Suns could use one more viable point guard for safety, but do they really want a guy on the minimum taking the ball away from Booker, Durant, and Beal? If Jordan Goodwin (who came over with Beal in the trade with Washington) can give Phoenix solid minutes defending the point of attack, new head coach Frank Vogel could have everything he needs to build a workable infrastructure around this superteam core. —Rob Mahoney
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They could turn it all around with an 11th-hour Damian Lillard trade, or bring back a haul for Pascal Siakam, but here’s the Raptors’ current accounting: Fred VanVleet, a former All-Star whom they could have traded for value for the past 18 months, walked for nothing. Dennis Schröder and Jalen McDaniels are nice signings, but they’re not filling that hole. This comes two summers after the Raptors dragged their heels on dealing Kyle Lowry and gave him to the Heat for pennies. Memphis and Indiana, who reportedly offered three first-rounders for OG Anunoby at the trade deadline, have since shored up their wing depth elsewhere.
The Raptors also reportedly tried to trade into the top four of the draft, a position they could have found themselves in if they’d made a clearer assessment of their roster and, like the Blazers, who are now preparing to build their future around Scoot Henderson, tanked the last quarter of the season. Toronto has been straddling two paths for two years, and playing uninspiring .500 ball as a result.
Now, according to Marc Stein, Siakam, an expiring All-NBA-level talent who has yet to be offered an extension, could be on the chopping block. This comes on the heels of a Michael Grange column suggesting Siakam’s absence from summer league could be symbolic of his relationship with the team.
Assuming Jaylen Brown signs an extension with the Celtics, Siakam is pegged to be the best available free agent in 2024. The Pacers, Hawks, and Magic reportedly have interest. Plenty more, like the Nets, could line up. Toronto doesn’t necessarily have to make a move right away if it decides Siakam isn’t part of the team’s long-term future, but the Raptors will have to understand the difference between patience and paralysis. —Seerat Sohi
I wouldn’t have gotten into the Kyrie Irving business to begin with, let alone guaranteed him $120 million over three years. But beggars can’t be choosers. Dallas had to do this and was able to loop in some helpful incentives, which is nice. Irving is supremely talented and, when he decides to play basketball, can enhance this team’s offense when Luka Doncic isn’t on the floor.
But the decision to retain Irving isn’t why I think the Mavs should be considered a winner. What really tilts their offseason toward that end of the spectrum is how they built out the rest of their roster. Their move to acquire Grant Williams in a three-team sign-and-trade and then lock him into a fair four-year deal was key. Few role players make more sense next to Luka and Irving. (Grant has appeared in 61 playoff games in his career, compared to Luka’s 28 and Irving’s 74—only 22 of which came after 2017.)
Few defenders in the NBA better combine versatility with toughness and physicality. Williams can guard up a position with ease (he’ll happily bang on the block against any center) and gets better on non-corner 3s every year. Even though Dallas isn’t built for Williams to play the 5, Jason Kidd can experiment with those lineups if he wants to. A Williams–Maxi Kleber frontcourt could be lethal on both ends.
The Mavs also landed two intriguing lottery talents in Dereck Lively II and Olivier-Maxence Prosper, signed Seth Curry at the biannual exception, and took a cheap flier on Dante Exum. All in all, it could be worse—even if they’re still at the mercy of another Irving injury and/or sabbatical. —Michael Pina
It was thought of as a weak class and, with the protracted time frame due to pandemic-related NBA scheduling, one unworthy of the extra time most draft analysts had to think about it. Still, three years later, the 2020 NBA draft class has produced four rookie max extensions, worth 25 percent of the league’s salary cap—$828 million collectively in committed money between Anthony Edwards (no. 1 overall), LaMelo Ball (no. 3), Tyrese Haliburton (no. 12), and Desmond Bane (no. 30). All four recipients represent, quite literally, the changing of the guard.
Edwards looks like the most classical player of the lot: The swaggering, shotmaking überathlete is an archetype that will forever linger in the collective memory. Ball and Haliburton have emerged as tall, off-kilter lead playmakers who have also developed into excellent off-ball 3-point shooters. Bane might just be the ultimate shooter’s success story—one of the best marksmen in the world, whose gravity gave him space to develop his ballhandling ability and take full advantage of his passing vision.
But the max is such a loaded concept, even in a league that will soon see another windfall of broadcasting rights money. All four players possess some of the most valuable attributes in the NBA, but will any of them drive winning on a contending level? In terms of the extensions themselves, it’s almost an irrelevant question. Andrew Wiggins and Devin Booker signed rookie max extensions as stars on disappointing franchises; the former won a championship as a role player, and the latter has become a lead star on a perennial contender. The max extensions don’t tell you much about a player’s ultimate trajectory, just that there is enough talent to bet big on. Still, that’s the line of questioning that comes from overlaying expectations on what is more or less a purely financial transaction. —Danny Chau
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The NBA moves fast. In the time it took to dry their champagne-soaked clothes, the Nuggets went from confident champions to swaying preservationists. Their best player off the bench, Bruce Brown, is gone. So is Jeff Green, a savvy veteran whose box score stats don’t properly explain how meaningful and timely his postseason contributions were.
A pessimist will note that the Nuggets would not have won it all without those two players and will say this team is worse now than it was last year. Denver re-signed Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Jordan, but neither was in Michael Malone’s playoff rotation. (Denver’s decision to bring Jackson back with its taxpayer midlevel is particularly interesting given that, say, Eric Gordon went to the Suns on a veteran’s minimum contract.)
An optimist trusts Denver’s rock-solid infrastructure, traced by a transcendent, court-rearranging two-time MVP who makes everyone around him better. So long as Nikola Jokic is there (preferably with a healthy Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope), it will be extraordinarily difficult to beat the Nuggets four times in seven tries.
Denver’s reality likely falls somewhere between those two viewpoints. The Nuggets are betting on in-house development from Christian Braun, Zeke Nnaji, Peyton Watson, and their incoming rookie class, along with whatever 34-year-old Justin Holiday can give. Jokic is the best player alive—incandescent, unguardable, and someone who should not be wagered against for the foreseeable future. But the Nuggets were unable to roll over last year’s roster in a way they would have liked. Winning back-to-back titles is extremely difficult. Their path in 2024 is far from impossible, but it will be a bit more arduous than it was in 2023. —Pina
Nikola Jokic led the NBA in passes made last season. Second place, just two passes per game behind the Joker, was Tyrese Haliburton. That’s not to compare their playmaking prowess, but rather to say that anyone who was worried about Bruce Brown’s production sans the Joker can exhale. He’s joining another budding generational passer who will reward his cuts in the space created by Myles Turner’s 37 percent accuracy from beyond the arc.
It took $45 million over two years to pry Brown, a power guard/point forward who can play and guard five positions, from the Nuggets. But his addition is a triumph of fit and flexibility. Indiana was the worst defensive rebounding team in the NBA last season. That’ll change with the addition of Brown and rookie Jarace Walker, a bruising 6-foot-7 playmaker out of Houston.
Indiana also stole Obi Toppin for two second-rounders from a Knicks team that didn’t seem to care that the 25-year-old averaged 21.8 points on 58/44/90 shooting splits in the five games Tom Thibodeau let him start last season. The Pacers then replenished those picks by sending Chris Duarte to the Kings, opening up more playing time for Bennedict Mathurin and Buddy Hield.
The Pacers now boast lineup versatility in the frontcourt that ranges from fearsome to funky. They’ll probably start Toppin next to Turner, but they could play Walker at either slot. They could also go super small with Brown at the 4 and Toppin at the 5, and allow Haliburton to make decisions in even more space.
The Pacers will be young, fun, and resplendent with options—interchangeable shooters, cutters, playmakers, and creators. And the most important piece of their future, Haliburton, just agreed to a rookie max extension that locks him in until the end of the 2028-29 season. —Sohi
Once upon a time, cap space was king in the NBA offseason. Anticipating that superstars would reach free agency, teams spent years carefully organizing their cap sheets to create room for max contracts—plural—and a summer spending spree. But now, as essentially no stars reach free agency anymore, cap space can no longer change a team’s outlook overnight.
In other words, congratulations to the Rockets, who opened up a ton of cap space for this summer and used it to vault from the West’s 14th place all the way to … somewhere around no. 12. In summers past, the Rockets might have used all that room to sign genuine difference makers; this year, they had to settle for Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, Jock Landale, and Jeff Green. None of the other teams with ample cap room made big strides either: Detroit used its cap space to trade for Joe Harris’s bloated contract; San Antonio inserted itself into a couple of three-team trades to pick up wings Cedi Osman, Lamar Stevens, and Reggie Bullock; Orlando signed Joe Ingles; and Indiana added Bruce Brown.
To be clear, there are some excellent players in that group. (Brown should mesh seamlessly with Haliburton; VanVleet will organize the Rockets’ turnover-prone offense, at the very least.) But none of them are the sorts of players that fans dream about landing when they hear their team will enter the summer with max room. As long as the sport’s brightest stars keep re-signing with their current teams and move only via trades, cap flexibility will no longer provide as much value as it used to. —Kram
Now that the dust has settled after days of speculation stemming from a brazen draft-day trade that cleared enough cap space to afford the Kings pretty much any free agent they had in mind, an otherwise restrained, pleasantly flat offseason deserves a golf clap. Yes, it’s typically frowned on to trade a first-round pick just to shed some salary and then not use the room that grants to bring in someone who can make you better. But ultimately, Sacramento did what a team that just made its first playoff appearance in 16 years should do.
Instead of bringing in a shiny new toy (like Draymond Green, Kyle Kuzma, or Dillon Brooks) and breaking up a starting lineup that logged 122 more minutes than any other five-man unit last season, Sacramento acted like an ascending 48-win team that’s been chasing stability for over a decade. It re-signed Harrison Barnes, renegotiated and extended Domantas Sabonis (an irreplaceable fulcrum of the NBA’s top offense), and gave Trey Lyles (who had huge moments in the Kings’ first-round battle against the Warriors) a new contract.
The Kings didn’t entirely stand pat, though. They traded for Pacers guard Chris Duarte and poached reigning EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov from Olympiacos. Both are range shooters who will fit well in Mike Brown’s system, which utilized spacing, movement, and speed to unguardable effect last season. No personnel decisions addressed Sacramento’s poor defense, but for now, that’s OK. The decision to double down on what worked last year makes sense. Continuity is a privilege, and the Kings were right to prioritize it. —Pina
Golden State’s offseason changes began a few days before free agency, when the team shipped Jordan Poole to the Wizards for a 38-year-old Chris Paul. In completing the deal, the Warriors hope to recreate the magic of their 2022 championship run, when a veteran-laden roster helped offset the growing pains of its young prospects. The move gives Poole a career reset after a year defined by a preseason punch to his face, courtesy of his former mentor and teammate Draymond Green. And the trade provides Golden State with a veteran point guard who can lead the second unit, even if Paul is already having reservations about doing so.
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Proponents of the transaction point to Paul’s contract, which is non-guaranteed after next season, and will thus be easier to trade if the arrangement doesn’t bear fruit by midseason. And team officials believe that Paul’s presence will round out a veteran roster more suitable to absorb Green’s occasional outbursts. But the questions about Paul’s fit may be too much to overcome. Aside from his age, Paul’s health has been an issue in recent years, particularly in the playoffs, where a groin injury against the Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals ended his season. Additionally, his preference for pick-and-roll play and his propensity to slow the game down don’t gel with Golden State’s run-and-gun philosophy.
The recent move comes during a time of transition for the Warriors. Bob Myers, the architect of their dynastic run, recently stepped down. With new general manager Mike Dunleavy, the Warriors have made solid moves aside from Paul, acquiring guard Cory Joseph and Dario Saric in free agency. But failing to get a better return for Poole could be the difference between a title run and another early playoff exit. —Logan Murdock
Maybe less an outright win and more a deep exhale of relief, but still. It could have been a lot worse for a Bucks team trying to wring another championship out of an aging core that will certainly be on its last legs in the coming years. (It’s easy to forget, after their early postseason flameout just a few months ago, that the Bucks had the best record in the league.) Milwaukee has escaped the early thrum of free agency with its main pieces fully intact. It brought back both Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez, despite early concerns that Houston’s obscene spending power would lure the latter.
The acquisition of Malik Beasley’s services for a year at the veteran minimum is a high-upside, low-downside transaction for one of the most talented (if inconsistent) microwave bench scorers in the league. But it’s the Bucks’ younger reinforcements along the margins who might determine just how much of a success this offseason will be. Sophomore 3-and-D wing MarJon Beauchamp has comfortably been the best player on the Bucks’ summer league roster, looking noticeably stronger, and he has been one of the leading scorers in Vegas, showing off his on-ball development without compromising his efficiency. Andre Jackson Jr., one of Milwaukee’s second-round fliers back in June, is a delightfully quirky player—Michael Kidd-Gilchrist as a prospect, after mainlining a 5-Hour Energy: all-out hustle, obscene explosiveness, and legitimate playmaking vision. And on a team that took and made 3s at a far-above-average rate last season, Jackson’s poor shooting might not matter as much as the insistent, irrepressible explosiveness that the Bucks haven’t consistently had outside of Giannis Antetokounmpo. —Chau
Without many surprises in free agency this year, we’ve come across two superstar stalemates. Bradley Beal successfully forced his way to Phoenix last month, but he had a no-trade clause that gave him leverage, and the Wizards were overdue to reset anyway. Damian Lillard and James Harden haven’t been as fortunate—yet—with their star posturing, mainly because their teams aren’t in a rush to trade them. The Blazers aren’t impressed with the Heat’s rumored trade package and are hoping something better magically materializes before training camp, while the Sixers are hoping Harden eventually cools off and is down to return. In the NBA, superstars tend to get their way in these situations. But Harden and Lillard have been boxed into some pretty peculiar positions. Dame wants to be traded, but pretty much to only one team, even if others might give him a better shot at a title, while Harden apparently just wants to feel some love after not getting the extension he desired. Now we’re seeing agents go deep into their bags, with Lillard’s rep saying he would be “unhappy” if he were traded to a team other than the Heat. Heaven forbid. You’d have to wonder if things could get so dire he might … ask for another trade. The cycle repeats. —Matt Dollinger
The new CBA was supposed to be the record scratch at the party for the NBA’s biggest spenders. Any team that surpasses a second luxury tax apron (pegged at $182.8 million next season, or about $47 million over the cap) will have its midlevel exception stripped for this season, and if it’s still above it by next season, the Wemby-sized hammer drops: restricted trade mechanisms, frozen draft picks, one of your cap guy’s non-vital organs, and so on. And, as predicted, certain cash-rich clubs did indeed maneuver around the offseason more penny-wise than usual: The Warriors took on about $9 million more this season by swapping Jordan Poole for Chris Paul but also shed nearly $100 million over the next three seasons; rather than receive Reggie Bullock’s contract and a highly attractive 2030 Dallas pick swap in the Grant Williams sign-and-trade, the Celtics rerouted those goodies to San Antonio and settled for some seconds and staying out of the second apron; and the Clippers cut one of their 27 combo guards to save money—perhaps a first in the cap-bacchanalia Steve Ballmer era.
But while most around the league seem to agree that the new CBA’s draconian penalties are not to be taken lightly, it remains to be seen if there will be a bold few who are willing to pay even this extreme price to stack talent. The Suns blew through the second apron with the Bradley Beal trade before the CBA was even finalized; the Clippers and Warriors still have the highest budgets in the league, with the former openly flirting with the idea of trading for James Harden; and if/when the Heat land Damian Lillard, they’ll be committing $123 million next season to just Dame, Jimmy Butler, and Bam Adebayo. Maybe Phoenix and Miami will come to regret audacious bets on good old-fashioned Big Threes and ward off teams from doing the same. But what if they’re right, and aggregating stars is still a fast pass to the Finals and a locked late first-round pick is tantamount to a firm pinch, rather than a lethal blow, to a title contender? Will more teams adopt a devil-may-care attitude as a result? And if so, will we basically end up right back in a similar league environment?
There isn’t much left to figure out this offseason, but what’s still on the table will likely have a major impact, on both next season’s title race and the way the league functions for years to come. —Justin Verrier
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