ESPN 5-on-5: Free-agency winners and losers

[spursparker9]

1. Who has been the winner in free agency?


J.A. Adande, ESPN.com: The San Antonio Spurs. They got the big dog, LaMarcus Aldridge, and they locked up Kawhi Leonard for five years. And in this era of ever-increasing reliance on 3-pointers, they kept Danny Green (top 10 in made 3s last season) at roughly the same rate as the Cleveland Cavaliers' deal with Iman Shumpert. They sacrificed depth and Tiago Splitter's defense to get there, but the important thing is that they have a long-term foundation.


Kevin Arnovitz, ESPN.com: San Antonio. The Spurs have been a fixture in May and June, but it's been a long while since they competed in July. Turns out they run the same surgical, pick-you-apart offense in the room that they do on the court. Not only did they reel in free agency's big fish, but they somehow sold Danny Green on the virtues of leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table in exchange for the privilege of playing in San Antonio.


Marc Stein, ESPN.com: Something tells me that I will not be unique in nominating San Antonio. There are frankly lots of winners so far -- New Orleans striking a near-instantaneous deal with Anthony Davis is but one example -- but the Spurs were the Week 1 darlings of free agency ‎by winning the LaMarcus Aldridge sweepstakes, getting another season out of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, keeping Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, barging into the David West race, serving up saucy Gregg Popovich photos, etc.


Brian Windhorst, ESPN.com: The Warriors, Spurs and Thunder. I've seen two West playoff teams take major hits in Portland and the Clippers. Score one for stability in my book. As for San Antonio, Aldridge is an awesome addition, but the Spurs have to work on depth, and I'm sure they will.


Royce Young, ESPN.com: The Spurs. Normally dormant and enjoying the frenzied madness from afar over a glass of wine, the Spurs stepped into the middle of it this summer. They kept Danny Green with a sensible deal and then landed LaMarcus Aldridge, propping open their title window with a steel beam. There will be no rebuilding for the Spurs, just a transitioning to new eras.





Read the rest on http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13207089/free-agency-winners-losers

[Spurtacular]

Fat Horse just couldn't give it up for the Spurs...

[YGWHI]

Brian Windhorst, ESPN.com: The Warriors, Spurs and Thunder. I've seen two West playoff teams take major hits in Portland and the Clippers. Score one for stability in my book. As for San Antonio, Aldridge is an awesome addition, but the Spurs have to work on depth, and I'm sure they will.

The Warriors locked up Draymond Green but what else did they do?

[Fireball]

The Warriors locked up Draymond Green but what else did they do? they did not lose him and are the Champs .. that makes them winners!!!

[Nathan89]

The Warriors locked up Draymond Green but what else did they do?

Got Barbosa back too.

[YGWHI]

they did not lose him and are the Champs .. that makes them winners!!!


Got Barbosa back too.

Get Barbosa is a good thing after all? I mean, I'm newbie and most of the time I have trouble detecting sarcasm here but appreciate your answers.
This shit is awesome!! Boris!!!! :bobo

[Supreme_Being]

Barbosa? Imagine a poor man's TP in decline. He's not as good as he was during his Suns days and he wasn't very good then.

[Fireball]

I think Barbosa played solid enough for the Warriors to bring him back ... the same way the Spurs brought everybody back after the last championship. Most "experts" called that Spurs offseason successful as well ...

[AFBlue]

Why does Spurs fan feel slighted by one guy, who incidentally still lists the Spurs among his winners? Honestly, y'all should be happy, because the Spurs have had their second best offseason in franchise history...#1 being the summer they nabbed Duncan of course.

Throttle back and just enjoy.

[will_spurs]

Funny that this was written BEFORE David West agreed to sign for the vet minimum...

[AFBlue]

Funny that this was written BEFORE David West agreed to sign for the vet minimum...

Yeah I thought the article was premature. I guess the big fish have been caught, but there's a lot of roster filling to do that will have an impact on several teams.

[RD2191]

Fat Horse just couldn't give it up for the Spurs...

[spursparker9]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/your-winners-and-losers-from-the-nba-s-2015-free-agent-turn-225441763.html

Lakers are winner too.


Los Angeles Lakers

You heard me.

Lakers fans took a hit on Wednesday. The team was mocked endlessly after Aldridge dismissed the team’s interaction with him, with Kobe Bryant, the front office, or the team’s recent repellent history being blamed for the lack of interest on LaMarcus’ part. A second meeting, pitched on Thursday, didn’t seem to change the narrative.

As it stands, for the third season in a row, the Lakers will have lost out in their attempts to convince a superstar free agent to join Bryant and company. The Lakers will still have salary cap space in order to trade for helpers – Roy Hibbert is already in place and they could glom onto a series of midlevel types – but they will once again enter a season hoping Kobe doesn’t decide to shoot 25 times at 37 percent while also hoping he’ll finish what could be his last season in active uniform. Bryant’s last three campaigns were ended by major season-ending injuries.

Lakers fans. Listen to me. This is what you want.

Where did you think you were going with a 30-year-old LaMarcus Aldridge, Kobe on no legs and one arm, and a 19-year-old point guard? Why would you think this would be anything more than a 30-win team in the West? Why in the hell would Kevin Durant leave Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka behind to join 31-year-old LaMarcus Aldridge, 20-year-old D’Angelo Russell, and a power forward in Julius Randle who plays the same position as LaMarcus?

On top of that, if the Lakers fall out of the top three in the lottery next season, the team’s first-round draft pick goes to Philadelphia. Wouldn’t the whole point of signing an Aldridge basically gift Philly that draft pick?

This is the West. The Thunder had Russell Westbrook playing at an MVP level for a heavy chunk of the season, it had Kevin Durant for long enough and Ibaka for even longer and it still missed the playoffs with 45 wins. Did you really think adding Aldridge, Russell and 37-year-old Kobe was going to make the difference between 21 and 46 wins? With Byron Scott coaching? Come on.

This offseason did you a favor, Lakers fans.

You’re going to have to be terrible again in 2015-16. You’re going to have to put up with Time Warner Cable and whatever Carlos Boozer-types the team hires for a single year. It’s going to be awful to watch Kobe go out this way, but this is what YouTube is for.

(And, seriously: Last year you signed Carlos Boozer. This year you traded absolutely nothing for Roy Hibbert. I’d say things are looking up.)

You’ll then get to enter the 2016 offseason with Randle, with Russell, with another high-end draft pick should the lottery go your way, and possibly more cap space than any other team. And all that, “Los Angeles-as-a-draw-doesn’t-matter-anymore” nonsense that was batted around in the summer of 2015 will be stomped to pieces in the summer of 2016. Los Angeles will always be a draw, and there’s a reason why Aldridge gave your crappy 21-win team two visits before deciding on San Antonio.

Just hope that your ownership group and front office takes this summer as a lesson.