Biggest WINNERS And LOSERS From Day 1 Of NBA Free Agency…

Biggest WINNERS And LOSERS From Day 1 Of NBA Free Agency…

the opening day of free agency every summer is typically one of the craziest and most active days of the entire off season with the floodgates opening for players to strike deals either to return to their teams or to find new homes elsewhere This summer if we’re being completely honest with ourselves there won’t really be as much craziness on the open market because most of the big names have signed extensions with their teams already and there also just aren’t very many teams with a lot of money to spend But that doesn’t mean big moves can’t still be made Some teams find a way to make things happen while others sit on their hands and watch as the league passes them by And that brings us to today’s video where we’ll be discussing the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the opening day of NBA free agency this year Before we start though it turns out a good amount of you watching right now aren’t even subscribe to the channel So if you enjoy the content consider hitting the subscribe button as not only does it help out a ton but it also very much appreciated Now with that being said let’s begin Starting with our first big winner of the opening day of free agency we have the Denver Nuggets The Nuggets are a team that seemed stuck in place and with their payroll having been maxed out while also having zero draft picks to select players with in this year’s draft they were running low on options when it came to improving the roster Michael Porter Jr signed a Max contract a few years ago and ever since he signed it that deal has been holding them back because on the court he was never able to return Max Caliber production while simultaneously preventing them from signing depth in free agency Trading him away to free up space on the books was their only way forward which was never going to be easy because finding a team that would want to take him in a trade was never going to be easy either But luckily for them the Brooklyn Nets are in a time where they’re willingly taking on bad salary if it means they can get assets along with it So when the Nuggets and Nets made a trade swapping Michael Porter Jr and a firstround pick in exchange for Cam Johnson both teams came away happy Cam Johnson is a much smarter player on the wing who also defends hard and isn’t nearly as much of a ball stopper as Michael Porter Jr Plus he easily replaces the shooting that Porter Jr leaves behind while also being on a much more team-friendly contract making $15 million less than MPJ in each of the next two seasons Then as if that wasn’t good enough for them they reunited with Bruce Brown who was their hero off the bench during their championship run back in 2023 And even though Brown hasn’t been quite as good over the last two seasons as he was the last time he was in Denver there is still good reason to believe that he can pick back up where he left off with them after developing amazing chemistry with Nicola Joic and Jamal Murray Now over to the first loser of the day that we’ll be discussing we have the Detroit Pistons The Pistons came into the period hoping to continue progressing their breakout along as a hungry young squad that showed promise in their first playoff appearance in six years against the Knicks But unfortunately everything that could go wrong has been going wrong for them Malik Beasley was a perfect fit in Detroit this year spacing the floor at an elite level confidently launching a high volume of threes and knocking them down at a 42% clip giving the Pistons an element that they were missing in prior years and resigning him was their top priority But then it got reported that Beasley is under investigation over illegal gambling allegations And all of a sudden those plans no longer seem to be in play We’re still waiting to see what happens from this investigation So he’s not necessarily guilty yet but there’s a chance he may not even be playing at all this season and the Pistons have needed to reorganize quickly It also hurt when they watched Dennis Schroeder sign with the Kings almost immediately after being a big part of their playoff success this year And while they did manage to sign Caris Levert to a 2-year $29 million deal he’s been one of the streakiest bench scorers in the league throughout his career And I struggle to see him having the same effect that Schroeder and Beasley combined made for them this past season Now over to our next big winner of the opening day of free agency We have the Houston Rockets The Rockets are honestly just getting greedy at this point with the signings that they’re making And in all seriousness I highly respect the aggression they’re coming with to ensure that they keep their momentum going After having traded for Kevin Durant about a week ago they still had more work to do and they’ve been checking every box on their to-do list They started by extending veteran point guard Fred Van Vleet for two more years on a reasonable 25 million per year deal And then they were some of the biggest splashers in free agency They stole Dorian Finny Smith away from the Lakers on a 4-year $53 million deal bolstering their already strong front court even further as he is a strong 3 and D guy that just hit 41% of his threes last season They also extended Jabari Smith Jr for 5 years and $122 million which is very reasonable for someone who I think is due for a big breakout year on the horizon And they signed Clint Capella to back up Alper and Shangun So they have no shortage of options at pretty much every position Now if you’re going to make a trade for someone like Kevin Durant you can’t have one foot in and one foot out when it comes to being serious about contending and they’re showing that they are allin Now over to the next unfortunate loser from the opening day of free agency we have the Los Angeles Lakers The Rockets segment kind of ties into this because the Lakers are a team with pretty much one goal this off season and that is to find a quality starting center to shure up the middle of the court for them The Lakers trading for Luca Donuch last season alleviated a lot of the stress that they were dealing with regarding their long-term outlook after LeBron James retires But in the short term that trade depleted their front court and defensively that proved to be a mess in the playoffs when it mattered most The problem is that there aren’t that many available quality centers on the free agency market this year So they needed to act fast to snag one up And so far they’ve watched Clint Capella sign with the Rockets to be a backup and to rub salt on the wounds They also watched Brooke Lopez sign with the other Los Angeles team signing a two-year deal to be the backup to Ivita Zubach on the Clippers And both of those players were names that the Lakers were reportedly interested in Throw in the fact that Dorian Finny Smith left too and their front court is getting weaker and weaker by the hour They did sign Jake Laravia to replace Dorian Finny Smith who in a small sample size has started to emerge as a similar kind of 3 and D forward but we’re also not going to pretend that he makes up for everything that they have missed out on Now back over to the next big winner of the period we have the Orlando Magic The Magic may not have made a lot of moves but the one that they did make landed them on this list directly addressing a big need of theirs that I’ve been clamoring over for a while now and that is the fact that they finally found a point guard that plays selfless playmaking centric efficient basketball and they signed one to an incredibly team-friendly contract The Magic signed Taius Jones to a one-year deal worth just $7 million And while Jones may have fumbled the bag a bit after having passed on larger offers a few years ago the Magic got their man as a result of it Jones may not be a starter in Orlando with Desmond Bane and Jaylen Suggs likely being the starters but he is going to be a highminute sixth man who may be needed to close games down the stretch because of what he brings to the table The Magic had the worst ranked offense of the 16 teams to make the playoffs in each of the last two years And they were just the worst three-point shooting team in the entire NBA last season with a clear lack of playmaking from the point guard position and not enough quality floor spacers and the rotation being the biggest reasons why Taius Jones is not only a smart pass first point guard who knows his role and plays selflessly but he’s also a 41% shooter from three So when the looks do come his way he provides the level of shooting that the Magic were desperately looking for Now as for our final big loser of the opening day of free agency we have the Boston Celtics The Celtics have been sellers all summer so far but they’re not planning on rebuilding forever The premise of the moves that they’ve been making this summer have been that their payroll was way too high and they needed to free up some money to be able to make moves down the line when Tatum was back healthy But they seem to be losing a lot more than they probably hoped After trading away Chris Porzingis and Drew Holiday they just watched backup center and playoff standout Luke Cornet sign with the Spurs on this first day of free agency And now every report also seems to be indicating that longtime Celtics legend Al Horford is on his way out the door as well with the Golden State Warriors trying hard to sign him If they lose both of those players the only big men the Celtics will have for next year at the moment are Baylor Shyman Neimus Kada and Xavier Tilman Three players that weren’t even in the rotation last year And no matter how you try to frame it that’s way too big of a downgrade to stomach And finally the last big winner of the opening day of free agency that we’ll be discussing is the Atlanta Hawks The Hawks have been a team stuck in limbo for a few years trying to determine whether they should start over and rebuild or retool around Trey Young to try to get back to where they were in 2021 when they made the conference finals Well after a lot of pressure on them to just trade Trey Young away and go from there I’ve got to admit that they’ve actually managed to put together a pretty competitive roster around him at least on paper The Chris’s Porzingis trade happened last week so that’s not even being factored into this inclusion in the winner’s column but they’ve kept their foot on the gas and made even more nice additions They started by acquiring Mquille Alexander Walker in a signin trade deal coming in ready for more touches on offense after being in a crowded Timberwolves rotation The Hawks also signed Luke Canard to a one-year deal providing elite sharp shooting at the shooting guard position So now the back court around Trey Young has almost every type of skill set you could need when you factor in having already gotten all defense lockown defender Dyson Daniels there too The Hawks were also a team ranked in the bottom half of the league in three-point shooting So Alexander Walker and Canard playing alongside Trey Young’s playmaking will definitely help improve there too And with that being said that’s all I have for you today Make sure to like the video subscribe to the channel and comment down below what stood out the most to you on the first day of free agency Thanks for watching and I’ll see you all next time

In this video we identify and discuss the biggest winners and losers from the first day of NBA Free Agency 2025! Lakers, Nuggets and more discussed

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