After missing out on big-name free agents during the last handful of seasons, the likes of New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are falling behind the rest of the NBA
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There was once a time when simply being a team in New York or Los Angeles was enough to draw big-name free agents. But, as we saw during this past free agency period, that no longer is the case.
The NBA is transitioning into a smarter league. That translates to smarter decisions in free agency — mostly on the part of the players. And they’re deciding they’d rather play for successful front offices, rather than play in the bright lights of New York, Los Angeles or Philadelphia.
Sure, you could say “well those teams haven’t exactly tried to land big-name free agents” — and you would be wrong.
Philadelphia aside, the Lakers and Knicks have all whiffed on big-name free agents during the last handful of years. The Lakers missed DeAndre Jordan, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Monroe this summer, on LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony last summer and lost Dwight Howard two summers ago.
The Knicks, who have been tied up with bad contracts for what feels like the last decade, were forced to overpay for Amar’e Stoudemire in 2010, when no other NBA team wanted to give him a max contract. In fairness, they did trade for Anthony, who then decided to take max money to re-sign in New York last summer.
But a couple of weeks ago, lost out on DeAndre Jordan, didn’t even get a sit-down with LaMarcus Aldridge and whiffed on Greg Monroe, who chose to ink with Milwaukee.
Philadelphia, who are currently in this rebuild (tanking) road to the top of the NBA, have trouble enough retaining the players they currently have on their team.
"[via Grantland]Philly needs to nail the draft, because big-time free agents don’t appear willing to consider the Sixers until they start winning a respectable number of games. Some agents have even called around to other teams, trying to ignite trade talks that would get their players out of Philadelphia, according to several league sources."
As for teams like New York or the Lakers, who learned of this harsh new NBA reality just a few weeks ago, know what they must do in order to return as ideal landing spots for big-name free agents again.
Win. Just win — or at least be competitive.
"[via ESPN]Team president Phil Jackson believes the New York Knicks must prove they can be a winning franchise before they can be considered a destination for the NBA’s premier free agents.“We need to win, be a competitive team,” Jackson said Monday at the Las Vegas Summer League in his first public comments since the Knicks signed center Robin Lopez, shooting guard Arron Afflalo, and forwards Derrick Williams and Kyle O’Quinn in free agency. “I think we showed agents and players around the league a serious nature of what we’re trying to accomplish. People who know basketball will recognize that, and we’ll have people who want to come here.” …“We made a defensive attempt in free agency to really kind of solidify our team and give ourselves a basis from which we can work from,” Jackson said. “I think everything went according to how we thought it would go. There were some long shots out there that we took, but the reality was, we wanted what we got."
With all that said, I’m not sure if any one team (between Philly, LA or NY) is in a better spot than its peers. Even after all the tanking that has taken place in Philadelphia, are they really any closer than the Lakers or Knicks at becoming a logical landing spot for big-name free agents in the future?
Because that’s always been Sam Hinkie’s plan, right? Collect assets in order to get a big fish?
If anything, I’d say they’re further away.
After acquiring all those draft assets, all the Sixers legitimately have to show for it right now is Jahlil Okafor, who we still kind of don’t know who or what he’s going to be in the NBA, and Nerlens Noel, who is a nice player but definitely not a future star in the NBA.
Oh, yea. And Joel Embiid, who unfortunately will have been in the NBA for two full seasons with zero games played.
The NBA has changed — and the Sixers, Lakers and Knicks are still far behind. Perhaps it’s not about tanking into the lottery, hoping to get the next LeBron James or Michael Jordan. Maybe the key is to hover around mediocrity for a few seasons, hoping to land a big-name free agent fish, rather than stripping down for simply a chance to roll the dice in the draft.
Either way, despite what these three franchises are doing, the NBA has changed — both on and off the court.
And the Lakers, Knicks and Sixers are all suffering because of it.