NBA Free Agency Winners & Losers From Day 1 Ft. Cam Johnson, Hawks, Nuggets & Rockets

NBA Free Agency Winners & Losers From Day 1 Ft. Cam Johnson, Hawks, Nuggets & Rockets

[Music] this is NBA now by chat sports harrison Graham Patrick Seatman with you day one of NBA free agency rolling along as we’re filming this about two two and a half hours in to free agency opening uh and after a bit of a slow start things have picked up so we have enough winners and losers to dissect here on today’s show uh perfect reminder by the way to subscribe to the channel and we’ll have you guys covered over the next uh several days and potentially weeks depending on what happens in the NBA world we also cover the NFL here at Chat Sports so do not miss out on any of it it is 100% free all right seeps i think the biggest winner and I think when you loop in the Kevin Durant trade it’s probably the biggest offseason winner so far that is the Houston Rockets um you get KD which we won’t spend a crazy amount of time on because that’s a bit of old news but obviously that’s huge uh cuz I didn’t think they gave up anything crazy for him and then you add Dorian Finny Smith who kind of surprisingly became available that’s a huge pickup yeah and plus uh you know the Rockets keep it simple here what is the number one thing they needed this off seasonason is an ISO score and you got one of the best ISO scorers of all time in Kevin Durant but you also were able to bring back Steven Adams on a threeyear $39 million deal maybe that’s like three or four million per more per year than I would have liked to give Adams but he was a key part for them this past season then also Van Fleet $50 million over two seasons i don’t think that’s a bad deal whatsoever considering also Harry he was awesome in the postseason for him
proven playoff performer as well he’s not the most efficient player of all time but um veteran player who knows what he’s doing out there took less uh opted out i think he had 40 million left on a player option opted out and basically cut his salary down 40% uh so I like that this is the one thing I I don’t dislike it Seeps but they now go three deep at center you get Click Capella i think the price tag is actually pretty reasonable 7 million per year there to return to Houston a place he spent most of his career but they had already paid Steven Adams three years and 39 million and they have Alperin Shangon so are they going to play Shangon at the four more and if they do what does that mean for positional uh lineups with Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith Jr who they already extended so this is the one it I’m not upset about it i’m just kind of surprised by it
i think from the Rocket side this probably just gives them lineup versatility where it’s like all right we can run double big lineups and be one of the biggest starting lineups in the league if you go you know Steven Adams or Capella Senon at the four Katie Aman Thompson Fred Van Fleet like you can run that starting lineup and plus we’ve seen an NBA postseason you got to be able to match up against a bunch of different styles of game and having that flexibility now with Capella but still like this is kind of just like a cherry on top move for him
yeah and I will say this a lot of injuries in recent years in the postseason so now you go three deep at center and one more thing maybe they do some load management in the regular season back to backs adams and Capella aren’t playing back to back so tonight Capella is playing as our backup center tomorrow night it’s going to be Adams so maybe they incorporate some of that but uh all in all I think the Rockets got to feel pretty good about where they’re at who is the biggest winner from day one of NBA free agency let us know what you guys think in the comments section of this video i like what the Rockets have done i like what the Nuggets have done yeah uh they make the first big post free agency opening trade uh seeps as the Denver Nuggets who we’ll get to next here
basically do a swap to save 17 million shipping out Michael Porter Jr bringing in um
Cam Johnson they also sent a 2032 first round pick to Brooklyn so I actually don’t mind that part of it for the Nets either if I’m being completely honest but this gave the Nuggets I think a more reliable role player high-end role player in Cam Johnson but also they were able to add Bruce Brown as well so it’s kind of a two for one that’s how I view it
yeah it’s kind of if you just you know plugged in Bruce Brown to this trade right here that’s necessarily what the Nuggets did and Cam Johnson he is one of the better shooters in the NBA has great size can guard multiple positions and you know we always talk about you know role players when they leave Denver their game kind of takes a hit well what about a role player heading to Denver like I think Cam Johnson we have not seen the best version of him just yet cuz playing next to Nicole Joic Jamal Murray in that Nugget system just being a 3 and D guy I am sure he is so excited to play next to both those guys and you know Cam Johnson he’s been kind of chilling in Brooklyn but he’s been putting up great numbers almost 19 a You know what I like about Cam Johnson too it would be easy for him when he got to Brooklyn a bad team for the efficiency to dip right that did not really happen despite being an increased volume guy almost 19 points per game this year still a 39% three-point guy 47% from the field so um you know like guys like Jordan P they go to Washington and their efficiency just plummets that is not the case here he knows who he is as a player 3 and D can create a little bit offensively uh I I like this for the Nuggets what they have had issues with since they won their title is not enough bodies so now you get two guys that will be in their playoff rotation in Cam Johnson and in uh Bruce Brown and you ship out one guy Michael Porter who’s been a good player for them but also costs a ton of money and uh is very inconsistent and has some injury concerns so I think this is a huge win for the Nuggets i think it’s a huge win for Cam Johnson to get back with a uh competitive basketball team and a real chance to win a championship and it’s also like this guy he it’s not like he doesn’t have playoff experience he was a key part of that Suns team that lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Finals so he’s already been there done that and I’m sure he probably got that call from his agent i’m sure he was running around his house or wherever he was celebrating his tail off so I love this for Cam Johnson i love it for the Denver Nuggets and I will say I do like this for the Brooklyn Nets you got a 2032 unprotected first round pick joic I can’t imagine he’s gonna be playing
mid late 30s by then
yeah like I think that could potentially be a top 10 pick so I like that for Cam Johnson and the Denver Nuggets
yeah if you’re Brooklyn just unload any asset like get as many draft picks as possible that would be my advice uh Jiren Jackson Jr as well uh to get a 5-year $240 million contract i mean that’s a good day uh uh for anybody uh that’s the biggest extension deal whatever you want to call it so uh huge win for him um to get that deal we can kind of just add Memphis into this conversation as a whole seems cuz they’ve been pretty active but uh I do think this is a clear signal that they’re not moving John Mar i I think they’re going to build around Jiren Jackson and John Morant you’ve seen that by committing to Santi Alama long term they go get um
uh who’s the role ty Jerome as well thank you very much a guy who can shoot the ball from the perimeter they obviously lost some of their shooting when Desmond Bane got traded uh so uh good payday for Jackson and uh interesting what they’re going to do uh in Memphis uh so far uh by the way Cole Anthony is not going to be there it sounds like they are going to reroute him somewhere so keep an eye on that cole Anthony will be playing for a different team but I like what Memphis is doing and also they’ve been sneakily one of the best drafting teams in NBA over the last couple of years like guys like Aldama that we were just talking about um even like a Scottie Pippen Jr finding him and now you have all these picks for the Orlando Magic you can either just continuously build out the bottom of your roster or you could potentially go get a massive um you know trade for a massive player and we have the Minnesota Timberwolves here as our last winner but I’m going to also throw another winner in there that just ended up happening the Atlanta Hawks they just landed Nquille Alexander Walker on a four-year $62 million deal so
yeah let’s talk about that then we’ll circle back to Minnesota it ties in with Minnesota with Nick Alexander Walker exiting uh but we will get back to the T-Wolves but for Atlanta to pull this off I think they’re in the mix in the East i really do i don’t think they’re as good as New York i don’t think they’re as good as Cleveland but after that it’s wide open it’s wide open three through eight once the playoffs are here are going to be up for grabs and why not the Hawks if Chris Porzingis is healthy uh him and Trey Jones that is a pretty lethal pick and pop game alexander Walker who’s become a good knockdown shooter they need good perimeter defense around Trey Young alexander Walker provides that i I think the Hawks are feeling pretty good about themselves think about the wings they have around Trey Young now they just took Risha number one overall last year dyson Daniels Jaylen Johnson now Nquille Alexander Walker still got Neca Kongu Christoph Pzingis
that’s a solid team now we’ll come down to Trey Young can he still be that first option on a team that can go on a deep playoff run
jake Fischer says this could be a sign and trade by the way so we’ll see if something goes back to Minnesota but in terms of Atlanta’s roster construction if Trey Young can just be a little bit more efficient a little bit more consistent and if Porzingis is healthy this team could win 50 games i mean I think that’s absolutely on the table for the Atlanta Hawks so uh I like that move quite a bit we’ll circle back to Minnesota in a second but uh draft hats they’re available chatsports.com/2025draft hats uh the beauty of these by the way they’re not like draft ccentric where there’s a draft logo and you can only wear them around the draft you can wear these all year these are sick hats for all your favorite teams check them out link is in the comments and in the description chatports.com/2025draft hats pick yourself up a new lid today so let’s just get back to Minnesota obviously they lose Alexander Walker but that was expected to still be able to keep Nas Reed and Julius Randle seeps i think that’s a net win for Minnesota
and it all connects back to the Carl Anthony Towns trade this past offseason they had to move off his contract because they knew guys like Nas were coming down the line they were going to get paid now I’m sure they I don’t know if when they traded for Randall they viewed him as a long-term piece but at around 55 million combined per year for these guys I would take that over Carl Anthony Towns i think it’s a rare win-win trade in the NBA i mean Randall was pretty damn good for Minnesota actually kind of shook off those playoff you know demons that he had so that was good obviously had a couple bad games against the Thunder but I think you needed to keep both these guys and they did just that
yeah he he kind of became a guy that they would run the offense through uh at times in the playoffs to a take pressure off Ant and B An A in a lot of those games started slow so Randall would kind of be the guy to carry the load in the first half and Ant would close in the second half but to keep these two guys I think it’s huge nas Reed I still view him as an ascending player uh you know Randall probably is what he is but you know if he’s an 18 to 22 point scorer consistently for the next couple years and could be a secondary scorer and creator next to Ant that’s really all you need you’re banking on Edwards to continue to ascend like that’s how the T-Wolves get over the hump cuz people are always like “Well what’s the move they make to get over the Well the move is their superstar gets better.” Like that’s sure they could have tried to trade for Durant sounds like he didn’t want to go there like there’s always moves you can try to make but
even a guy like Jaden McDaniels taking another step like that could be big
they they a lot of their core is under 25 years old so if they can get a couple of these guys to to ascend then uh they’re going to continue to be a force in the Western Conference
also I know the Thunder they added in Hartinstein and Caruso but what’s the biggest reason why they got over the hump it’s because SGA Jaylen Williams and Cadet Homegrren they all took steps in their NBA career so I’m sure the T- Wolves are hoping you know the same there
they need Ant to get to SGA’s level i mean SJ’s one of if not the best player in the world Ant’s like the eighth best player in the world so like that’s the difference right i mean it really does come down to just little things like that okay let’s get to some losers the Lakers now I do think this could even out i I think they’re going to get DeAndre Aton brook Lopez signed with the Clippers that was a center they were linked to i think Aon emerging on the market which he can’t officially sign until Wednesday because he has to clear waiverss first if they get him i don’t know if that makes him an overall winner but I think they’re feeling better about where they’re at to lose Dorian Finny Smith though man like that that’s that’s a guy Luca Donic trust he he’s a good archetype fit with Luca with his ability to defend one through fours and be a catch and shoot three-point shooter um I would have given him this deal if I was the Lakers they could have given him this deal if they wanted to they did not um they did sign Jake Loravia who will help replace Dodo’s role offensively but will not defensively so I think right now they are in the losing side uh of the discussion here
and especially with Denver picking up Cam Johnson we know everything the Houston Rockets have done this off season like the Lakers are falling down the power rankings in the Western Conference and Luca I mean he might have to go out there and average 3410 and 10 in the regular season for them to win 50 games like I like the Jake Laravia pickup but is he going to fill the void that Dorian Finny Smith left i don’t think so maybe a little bit offensively but defensively the Lakers really have zero guys that you would consider like plus defenders so I think they’re a loser from day one now obviously the eight and pickup could change things but the biggest loser of the entire NBA offseason the New Orleans Pelicans i don’t know how Joe Dumar continues to get jobs in the NBA but today they went out and signed Cavon Looney for a two-year $16 million deal
it’s totally unnecessary
unnecessary you trade up for Derek Queen you give up a 2026 unprotected first round pick
to do so that could be a top five pick either i would be shocked if it’s not a top seven pick you drafted Eaves Mei the year before and then it’s kind of just a whatever deal here you go Cavan Looney you need somebody to get a headline let’s bring in Jordan Pool
let’s bring in Jordan Pool
sadique Bay who uh fell off a cliff 3 years ago
welcome to town buddy
zion Derek Queen play very similar jordan Pool Jeremiah Fierce play very similar
looney is like 34 and all he does is rebound
i just don’t know what they’re doing i don’t know what direction they’re heading in they are going to be uh they’re going to be regretting that Derrick Queen trade even if he ends up being a star like even if he comes out his rookie year average is 15 and 10 that pick’s probably going to be in the top 10 so I think the biggest losers of the offseason is you know no doubt the New Orleans
by the way just reciring back one more time to that Alexander Walker deal if that is a signing trade Atlanta would still preserve their 14.1 million non uh tax mid-level so they could sign another player of pretty good value i mean the Hawks are uh
East is wide open the Hawks could be cooking uh our last loser and who knows maybe this is who they would go get jonathan Kaminga why because reports leading into NBA free agency were that Jonathan Kaminga wants $30 million per year well a new report has come in that the Warriors feel fairly confident he’s going to resign why because that money is not out there see so does he just have to sign like one year 10 12 million bucks somewhere and just try to reestablish hopefully cap there’s more space for teams next year he just finds a bad team i’ll go average 25 a game maybe get a big deal next off season but I don’t know i This is also just a product of the new CBA where you have a guy like Kaminga no team has cap space to sign him to the deal he wants even if they wanted Kaminga nobody’s available to give him that$ 30 plus million dollar deal i think he’s definitely a loser here if you had to call it Harry where is he playing basketball next year
you saying back stays with Golden State or he goes to uh Brooklyn
brooklyn brooklyn leans into it uh to tie a bow on the Hawks T-Wolves deal um 2027 second round pick and cash to Minnesota so
okay um we’ll see what that means for the u for the Hawks in terms of still having their full mid level but keep an eye on that but yeah Jonathan Kaminga look I I think he’s just a classic he and his camp think he’s better than he is right and when you you get yourself into trouble doing that i didn’t he have weren’t Wasn’t there chatter last off season he could have signed a deal for like $25 million a year i mean he should have done that he absolutely should have done that so he is our last loser at this point in time as we put a bow on early day one winners and losers of 2025 NBA free agency we will continue to have you guys covered here at Chat Sports uh so appreciate uh everybody for tuning in but let us know who’s your favorite team and grade their moves so far and if they haven’t made a move just say uh insert team no moves uh in the comment section below but appreciate you guys for tuning in seeps and I will continue to have you covered don’t forget to subscribe to the channel uh we may or may not be live if you’re depending on when you’re watching this if we are come hang out and if not we’ll be live soon take care [Music]

2025 NBA Free Agency Day 1 is underway with the biggest NBA Free Agency news being broken down on today’s show. Who are the biggest winners & losers after today’s NBA Free Agency Tracker:

Jaren Jackson Jr. – Signing Extension with Grizzlies – 5-year, $240 MM deal
Santi Aldama – Re-Signing with Memphis Grizzlies – 3-year, $52.5 MM deal
Dorian Finney-Smith – Signing with Houston Rockets – 4-year, $53 MM deal
Paul Reed – Re-Signing with Detroit Pistons – 2-year, $11 MM deal
Cam Spencer – Re-Signing with Memphis Grizzlies – 2-year, $4.5 MM deal
Jake LaRavia – Signing with Los Angeles Lakers – 2-year, $12 MM deal (Fully GTD)
Tre Jones – Re-Signing with Chicago Bulls – 3-year, $24 MM deal
D’Angelo Russell – Signing with Dallas Mavericks – 2-year, $13 MM deal
Michael Porter Jr. – Traded to Brooklyn Nets – Cam Johnson (F) to DEN
Cameron Johnson – Traded to Denver Nuggets – M. Porter Jr. (F), 2032 1st Rd. Pick to BKN
Ty Jerome – Signing with Memphis Grizzlies – 3-year, $28 MM deal
Kevin Porter Jr. – Re-Signing with Milwaukee Bucks – 2-year, $11 MM deal
Bruce Brown – Signing with Denver Nuggets – 1-year deal, full details TBA
Kevon Looney – Signing with New Orleans Pelicans – 2-year, $16 MM deal
Luke Kornet – Signing with San Antonio Spurs – 4-year, $41 MM deal
Clint Capela – Signing with Houston Rockets – 3-year, $21.5 MM deal (Fully GTD)
Caris LeVert – Signing with Detroit Pistons – 2-year, $29 MM deal
Brook Lopez – Signing with Los Angeles Clippers – 2-year, $18 MM deal
Luka Garza – Signing with Boston Celtics – 2-year, $5.5 MM deal
Nickeil Alexander-Walker – Signing with Atlanta Hawks – 4-year, $62 MM deal
Tyus Jones – Signing with Orlando Magic – 1-year, $7 MM deal

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Harrison Graham & Patrick Siepman break down the Day 1 winners & losers:

NBA Free Agency Winners so far:
– Houston Rockets
– Denver Nuggets
– Cameron Johnson
– Jaren Jackson Jr.
– Atlanta Hawks
– Minnesota Timberwolves

NBA Free Agency Losers so far:
– Los Angeles Lakers
– New Orleans Pelicans
– Jonathan Kuminga

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– 🚨BREAKING 🚨 Bulls Re-Sign Tre Jones To New 3-Year Deal | Instant Reaction from @bullsreport: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUH4p2Qpju8
– D’Angelo Russell Signs With Mavericks In 2025 NBA Free Agency | Full Details & Reaction from @MavsTV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE8qqRm8J_k
– Lakers Sign Jake LaRavia And Lose Dorian Finney-Smith On Day 1 Of NBA Free Agency from @LakersTV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9S0Cl-qd-o

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