NBA: 10 biggest Free Agency losers (pre-Kevin Durant trade edition)
By Dan Knitzer
The 10 biggest losers of NBA Free Agency, before Kevin Durant gets traded edition.
As established in this article’s companion piece outlining free agency winners, which can be found here, if the Brooklyn Nets trade Kevin Durant, it will massively change the configuration of the league, and possibly redefine how we view the offseason of numerous teams aside.
Without knowing the future, these teams appear to have bungled their roster moves since the NBA Draft.
10. Indiana Pacers
You live by restricted free agency, you die by restricted free agency. Their gamble on Deandre Ayton required them to waive and stretch a few borderline NBA players, meaning they’ll be paying those guys a nominal amount of money into the 2024-2025 season. There are far worse fates, just like there are worse fates than only getting a Celtics 2023 pick for Malcolm Brogdon. Two C grades make a team a C-.
9. New York Knicks
Even if this Jalen Brunson saga ends without a league-issued penalty for tampering, the Knicks salary dumped a key role player in Alec Burks to get him. As my friends at Pod Don’t Lie point out, Brunson’s drive and kick game require shooting, and Burks shot 41% from 3 for New York over the past two seasons.
Like the Pacers’ situation, this was in and of itself, a slight negative, compounded by giving up a few second-round picks and turning a good first into weaker future ones. The Mitchell Robinson contract makes three negative, non-catastrophic moves. Still, losing Burks to back up the brinks truck for Brunson wasn’t a total dud.