ESPN on NBA Power Rankings: Rockets become contenders with Durant; Nuggets are LEGIT with Johnson

ESPN on NBA Power Rankings: Rockets become contenders with Durant; Nuggets are LEGIT with Johnson

sports basketball analyst Sam Quinn. And Sam, we’re going to start the conversation at number 10 with the Suns, who of course set the tone in free agency, trading Kevin Durant to the Rockets. We’ll get to that in just a little bit, but uh we want to start the count here when Phoenix traded for Mark Williams during the draft. How did that move help set Phoenix up for success in 25 or did it? Yeah, I really like that move. Right. You look at the price that the Lakers paid to get Mark Williams at the deadline. It was a King’s ransom, right? An unprotected pick, unprotected swap, Daltton Connect. The Suns got him for like half of that price, maybe even less. It’s a 29 pick and a deeply protected future pick. When you’re a team that’s in as deep as the Suns are that have given up as as many assets, has as many tax problems, you have to take upside swings on riskier players like this. Mark Williams might just be too injuryprone to be a long-term starter. But they paid so little to get him in the grand scheme of things that the talent upside here is so considerable. I really like the move and worst case scenario if the injuries do prove to be too problematic. You also drafted common malaw watch at number 10. So you’re set at center either way. I just really like high upside high-risisk swings like this. If it works, that’s the sort of thing that can help dig out of the hole that it’s dug for itself. Yeah, looking at that starting five, it definitely is a little jarring because it looks so different than what it has in years past. But hey, the Suns were one of the worst teams in the NBA last year, just 36 and 46. So something clearly had to change. Let’s go over to the West, Sam, where the Cavs are trying to hold on to that top spot in the conference. They did a swap with the Bulls to acquire Isaac Aoro. They sent Lonzo Ball on his way. What do you think? Who won this trade in your opinion? I love this trade for Cleveland. Look, another case of a health risk, right? Lonzo Ball has not played much over the last several years. When healthy, he brings a dimension to the Cavs that they just didn’t really have, right? They didn’t really have a really good guard defender, a Cororo, more of a wing. He had proven so unplayable in the playoffs because nobody guarded him from deep, right? Aora would make his shots in the regular season and then disappear when the games counted. Lonzo Ball a very good shooter in his own right. I also love the playmaking element that he’s going to bring to Cleveland in transition. That’s a team that wasn’t great in transition last year. It’s a different look for them offensively. Introduce a little bit more ball movement to an offense that ranked 28th per game in passes. I just really like the fit and especially at the cost. I remember covering Isaac Aoro when he was playing college ball at Auburn and when he got drafted to Cleveland. Everyone was so excited about the potential there. Um so we’ll have to see how he fits. Um but either way, good trade there. Let’s go to number eight where we find the unicorn. Chris Porzingis part of a three-team trade that saw him landing in ATL. We know Porzingis is a proven winner, Sam, but does come with some injury concerns. That’s kind of been a theme we’ve seen to this point. But you got to think Trey Young is happy with how free agency has gone to this point. Yeah, absolutely right. I think the Hawks have found a formula around Trey Young where they surround him with these big athletic wings who can protect him defensively, but the downside to having so many players like that is that it gets harder to space the floor. So, what do you do when you need to space the floor? You bring in a high an elite shooting big man like Chris’s Porzingis who will fit really well with their existing center in Yaka Kongu. Two different looks that you could put in there. You throw in Nil Alexander Walker. They’ve really really improved over the last few weeks. Now, are they a championship contender? I mean, I think that’s going to take some time, right? But they’ve gotten the sort of players they’ve needed to around Trey Young. He’s extension eligible this off season. He’s out there actively recruiting free agents for them. You have to feel very good about his place on the team, how committed he is to them moving forward, and Porzinga should be a great fit. All right, we’ll talk more about the Hawks and what they’ve done this off seasonason in just a minute. that also came with a second round pick swap there or they get the second round pick in 2026. Let’s talk about the Lakers. Sam, um unclear about what’s going on in LA right now. Everyone said we need a center. So, they go out and get DeAndre Eaton. It’s a two-year deal and he fills the hole. They also give Jackson Hayes the extension just to be safe. When we talked to Ashley Nicole Moss when this uh all went down, she said it still doesn’t make LA a contender. But what do you think? I have a lot of questions about everything else going on in Los Angeles. I just want to point out that they went into a playoff series last year basically without a center, right? JJ Reick doesn’t trust Jackson Hayes to play real minutes in the playoffs. For all of the questions people have about DeAndre Aton, and there are a lot of them, right? They got a 16-10 center for $8 million. That’s very, very good value. Now, are you going to run into a lot of the same issues that Portland did and Phoenix did with the effort, the commitment, the willingness to do the dirty work? Sure. I have I’m totally fine with the concept that DeAndre Eaton just might not be the player that the NBA hoped he would be. But for $8 million, I’m happy to get a look at that talent, bring him into a culture where we’re going to have great playmaking with Luca and let’s say hopefully LeBron. You know, there’s a lot of pressure on him. He’s in a contract here. Basically, if he wants to get another big contract, he’s going to have to recommmit to the things that he did when the Suns made the finals in 2021. I love the risk versus reward factor here. If it doesn’t work out, it’s $8 million. Whatever. If it does, you have a chance to get a ton of surplus value. Yeah, you mentioned LeBron James and his future. We have seen some reports this morning, and this makes me sick about him potentially being interested in going to Dallas, linking back up with Kyrie and AD. We have seen that Dallas is only interested if it’s a buyout situation. That would mean that James is a free agent. I’m good on it, Sam. We’re going to move on and leave it there because it is just reports, but certainly something to monitor as the season goes on. Let’s talk about number six. The Pacers of course dealt a tough hand when their star Tyresese Hallebertton tore his Achilles in the NBA finals. Then they lost Miles Turner. We talked about that at the top. Uh he is now a Buck. But there is some hope in Indie. They got their 2026 picks back pickback in this year’s draft. So kind of sets them up for success in the future, Sam, but I don’t know. What do you think about Indie right now? This was a very sneaky but very beneficial trade. It happened during the NBA finals when Tyrese Hallebertton had not torn his Achilles yet, but was playing through the calf injury. In Indie looked ahead and thought, “Let’s maybe hedge our bets here a little bit. Let’s prepare for the worst.” They swapped the number 23 overall pick in this year’s draft, which they didn’t have minutes for anyway, right? The Pacers are so deep, or at least were at the time, that they weren’t going to bring in a rookie and use him. So, they turned that pick into next year’s pick back, which they traded to get Pascal Stakum. And then after that, in the weeks that follow, you lose Tyrese Hallebertton to the Achilles, you lose Miles Turner in free agency. Suddenly, they look like geniuses, right? They get control of their pick back. If they’re bad next year, and look, there is a chance that they are given everything they’ve gone through since the end of the finals, they can at least benefit from that by getting their pick back. You know, look, we’ve seen over the last two years, teams who’ve won the lottery were in the playin tournament, right? You don’t have to be the worst team in the league to really benefit from having your own pick. The Pacers have set themselves up potentially to take advantage of this bad year that they’re going to have reload and come back with Hallebertton for the 2026 27 season in stronger shape. Yeah, we’ve really just seen the impact of the injury bug over in the East. You got Tyrese Hallebertton. We also saw Boston make some moves as well. They’ve offloaded a lot of their roster in order to manage the financial situation they’ve got with Jason Tatum who also uh tore his Achilles there. They have made some moves. We talked about Porzingis earlier. They also shipped Drew Holiday out to Portland in exchange for Anthony Simmons. How do you think that move set Boston up for success? I can’t believe the Celtics managed to get off of the last three years and 100 plus million dollars on Drew Holiday’s contract without giving up a first round pick. Right? We’re in the most costconcious era in NBA history. Teams are shedding money left and right. They’re terrified of long-term deals. And Boston moves a 35year-old on the decline. Not only do they not have to give up picks to get rid of that contract, they bring in Freddy Simons who’s like a good player, right? Is he a star? No. He’s a very good offensive player who’s going to give them a different look. He’s a little bit better at getting to the paint, you know, operating off the dribble than most of their guards had been in the past. It’s going to be a new look for them on offense. Now, this is a bit of a gap year for Boston, right? Jason Tatum presumably is going to miss the season. They’re probably not contending for the championship, and that’s fine. They’re going to get the year to look at Simon C. Can he be a long-term piece for us? If so, great. We’ve turned a 30 a 35year-old into a 27y old. If not, he’s a free agent. You let him walk. You saved all that money on the contract. Great bit of business for Boston in either direction. No surprise the Celtics went out and got a three-point shooter to add to their game plan that we’ve seen out of Boston for so many years now. All right, let’s go to the Magic, Sam, because the number one complaint about Orlando last year was that they couldn’t shoot. So, they went out, they got Desmond Bane, who is a proven three-point shooter. He also is a proven scorer. Where do you see the Magic competing next year with Bane in the mix? Yeah, I think they’re one of the best teams in the East, right behind New York and Cleveland. So, this was a very tricky trade for Orlando to make, and they certainly paid a heavy price to get Desmond Bane. But if you looked at all the players they had been linked to, Simons had been a name that was linked to them for a long time, Darius Garland as well. The problem with those guys was that they really would have compromised the defensive culture that Orlando’s built. You know, they were a top three defense the last two years. The Magic really wanted to improve their offense, improve their scoring without sacrificing that on defense. The number of guys who could have done that for them. It’s a very, very short list, right? How many really highscoring guards are there that aren’t also traffic cones on defense? It’s a short list. They get one of the few guys out there that fit what they were doing. He fits their balance sheet as well. That team’s about to get expensive. Paulo Bancerero is going to get a max contract. Fron Vagner starts his max contract this year. So, they’ve jumped in a way where they’re not only going to be maybe the third best team in the Eastern Conference. They’ve done it in a way that’s probably sustainable that they should have several bites at the apple here with a relatively young roster. I think there’s a very good chance that Orlando makes the finals at some point in the next several years. And if they do so, this trade is going to be one of the catalysts. All right, music to our Jaclyn Diagino’s ears. We also saw they resign Mo Vagner on a one-year deal worth 5 million. So the the Magic trying to stay in contention out in the East. Let’s go over to Denver where we saw a swap for Michael Porter Jr. He’s now a Net. Cam Johnson, you are now a Nugget. I’m just curious though, Sam, with what Denver has going on and what we saw from them a year ago. Is that enough to help the Joker get another title? I think the Nuggets did very very well this off seasonason, right? Purely as a basketball proposition, I think Cam Johnson is a better player than Michael Porter Jr. He’s better off the dribble. They’re similar shooters. He’s a better defender. But the other benefit of this trade is that they shed around $18 million in the deal. That not only gets them below the luxury tax, gives them some more room to maneuver. You know, they’ve added a lot of good players this offseason, right? Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., we’re still waiting for the Jonas Valenuna situation to, you know, figure itself out. Either he comes and they have a very good backup center or he doesn’t and you have almost the full mid-level exception to work with to bring in more talent. The starting lineup had never been a problem in Denver, right? No matter who you put around Nicola Joic, he’s going to be fine. They’re going to win those minutes. They needed to revamp the supporting cast and the bench so they could survive if he sat four or five minutes in the first or second half. They’ve done that. They’ve really improved the bench and they’ve done it in a way without compromising their starters. I’m very bullish on what the Nuggets have done this off seasonason. They are always a contender when number 15 is in the mix. Let’s go to number two. We go back to Atlanta as I mentioned earlier, Sam. So, they secured Porzingis, but they also traded their 13th overall pick in this year’s draft to New Orleans in exchange for an unprotected 26 firstrounder. What does this tell you about what the Hawks are trying to do going forward? This was like one of the most stunning draft night trades I remember in a long time, right? They moved down 10 spots and okay, Derek Queen probably a better draft prospect than Ace Newell was, but this pick that they got from New Orleans, I think that’s one of the most valuable first round picks that’s ever been traded, right? It’s an unprotected pick in the next season from the team that just had the fourth worst record in the NBA. And if that wasn’t enough, it comes attached to swap rights from the Milwaukee Bucks. Now, the Bucks did just add Miles Turner, sure, but there’s a lot of downside risk there, right? If Giannis ever gets hurt, if he decides to ask for a trade, the Bucks could be a disaster. So, this pick is among the most valuable picks I ever remember getting traded, especially during the draft. If this goes south for either New Orleans or Milwaukee, Atlanta has not only added all of these valuable players this offseason between Porzingis and Alexander Walker and Luke Canard, they’ve set themselves up to maybe get a star next off season. And look, I know the talk around Atlanta this offseason has been, “Oh, that’s very cute. You know, they’re going to be a four or five seed. Good work. They need another star around Trey Young if they’re going to really leap into championship contention.” This pick could be their path to getting that star. So, this was one of my favorite moves of the entire off seasonason. The Hawks got better now, but they also got a lot better later. All right, so we’re giving the Hawks an A for their offseason moves to this point. But listen, Sam, we all knew what the number one play so far through the offseason has been. It is that KD trade. Kevin Durant going to the Rockets. He leaks up with a young core. Um, but they went toe-to-toe with the Warriors squad that’s battle tested a year ago. Now, you insert Kevin Durant into that mix. How much better do you think the Rockets got with this move? Yeah, the Rockets were good at basically everything last year, right? Number one in rebounding, number five in defense, number seven in fast break points. The one thing they really needed was that halfcourt scorer, somebody who could get them tough buckets late in games. Well, they got the guy for that, right? That’s Kevin Durant. You’re not even getting, you know, the Demar D Roza knockoff or something. You’re getting the absolute best possible player for the need that you had. And you look at what they gave up, right? Kevin Durant is essentially replacing Jaylen Green who had one good game against Golden State and did very little else in that series. You give up Dylan Brooks. Okay, let’s just go sign Dorian Finny Smith to replace him. So, his loss isn’t really going to be felt. You give up the number 10 pick. They didn’t have minutes for that player anyway, right? Last year they took Reed Shepard number three and he barely played. So, I was pretty dubious they were going to keep the number 10 pick anyway and they just casually turned it into Kevin Durant. So look, right now I think Houston is probably the second, if not the third best team in the Western Conference. They have a very real chance to win the championship this season with Kevin Durant. But even if they don’t, they didn’t give up any of their premium assets to get him, right? They didn’t give up those future Phoenix picks that look so valuable. They didn’t give up Alpin Shenon or Amen Thompson. If they wanted to make another significant trade in the somewhat near future, say for that Greek guy who lives in Milwaukee, I think that’s still on the table for them. I can’t even imagine KD and Giannis on the same team in Houston. Being a Dallas girly, it’s too much to think about, so we’re not going to. Sam Quinn breaking down the latest in free agency. Everyone chasing the Thunder, but uh Houston might have a good chance there. Taking a look at the upcoming dates in the NBA schedule. Of course, all eyes on the summer league set to kick off on the West Coast later this summer. Actually, tomorrow, July 5th, is when that gets started. And you got the free agent signing periods opening up on the 6th. And then that summer league in Vegas, July 10th through the 20th. Uh, sauerkraut hot dog. They brought us these. Okay, you know what? Yesterday, I was giving Chris a lot of flack for like not eating a hot dog on air. They do look kind of gross, though. Wow.

ESPN on NBA Power Rankings: Rockets become strong contenders with Kevin Durant; Nuggets are best team in West with Cameron Johnson