NBA free agency winners and losers: Rockets, Hawks ready to take flight; Lakers, Celtics coming up empty

Well, we have the first night of the NBA free agency period in 2025 (on the east coast, at least) and there was a fairly decent activity, although it took a little more time than usual for the ball to take place.

If you have not followed all the action, you can scroll our blog that works all day or consult our free agent trackerwhich has so far has all the offers, updated with the conditions reported.

With this, let’s move on to winners and losers so far in the first stadiums of the NBA 2025 free agency.

In one blow, the Rockets weakened an opponent (Lakers) and strengthened their own team by signing Finney-Smith for a $ 53 million contract over four years. Great victory. Finney -Smith corresponds to any team, in particular the Rockets and their bidirectional identity – adding to what will remain an elite defense and an offensive attack which is now led by Kevin Durant.

Houston has also added Capela to a $ 21 million over three years contract, offering an elite center depth behind Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams. These are three big, entirely different men-Capela the Rim-Rolling Rim Protector, Adams the Goliath Rebounner and Sangun the Scring All-Star.

This gives them a versatility of the Premium range with ranges of two Bigs, a big and even without Big with the Super Long Danner group, Finney-Smith, Smith Jr. (which they re-signed on an agreement of $ 122 million over five years), Tari Eason and Amen Thompson.

To summarize, the Rockets essentially replaced green by Durant and Brooks with Finney-Smith, then added Capela on it. It was already seeded n ° 2 in the west and they have improved considerably. The rockets are ready for takeoff.

The Hawks are working this summer. They started by exchanging against Porziņģis, giving Trae Young a stretch center with which it can do major damage in the additional space that the type of combo creates.

Then, the Hawks defrauded the Pélicans on the evening of the recovery, exchanging from the 13th choice at the No. 23 where they took Asa Newell (another in a sudden impressive stable of long athletic defenders).

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In addition to that, they picked up the first round in the first round in 2026 of the Pélicans – which could be extremely precious because it is actually the best choice of Bucks (which could really be able) and Pélicans – for their problems.

And now, they have succeeded in a sign and an exchange for one of the real free agent prices in this certainly slim class of Alexander-Walker, who was rightly coveted by many teams as a defender of the AS perimeter and 3-point shooter who broke out for a team of Timberwolves who appeared consecutive conferences.

Add to this Kennard, a shooter of 43% at 3 points which will considerably space the ground next to Young and Porzingis. Take a look around and the Hawks have equipped their list in a fairly perfect support for Young, providing him with the defense of the perimeter he needs to isolate his shortcomings for this purpose.

With Dyson Daniels, the overall choice n ° 1 last year Zaccharie Risacher, Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson on the perimeter, Atlanta can seriously defend around Young, and all these guys are also capable secondary game leaders, which will also be a great dynamic of the gravitational traction of Young.

Atlanta looked at what the Pacers had just done at the Eastern Conference and said: Why not? And what do you know, why not the Hawks? This is suddenly a fucking good team, and they are probably not even finished because they have executed all of this while remaining under the tax line and still have access to almost $ 10 million in an exception of negotiated players from the Dente Murray agreement. Seriously, the Hawks fly high.

Loser: Los Angeles Lakers

• Key additions: Jake Laravia
• Key losses: Dorian Finney-Smith

Listen, I like Laravia. He is a solid player and comes to a fraction of the Finney-Smith prize, but when LeBron James’ agent says that his client wants a “realistic” chance to win a championship and that all you have done is to exchange Laravia, of which many occasional NBA fans have probably never heard, for Finney-Smith, you did not do Jack.

In addition, Lakers still have no center. So what, we are all seated here while waiting for the signature of the great signature of Deandre Ayton? Stop traffic for that. You can talk about everything you want Ayton, but the guy enters his eighth season. He will not become a jewel. Whoever the Lakers get in the center, they implore an NBA scrap (unless it is Al Horford, in which case it is a real Get and we can reassess).

Now, the Lakers clearly favor flexibility in the future. They cling to their draft choices and will have a ton of ceiling space next summer if LeBron is gone, which seems more and more likely – that he retires or plays for another team. But the guy they would have the most visibly targeted with this 2026 ceiling space, Jaren Jackson Jr., has just signed an extension of $ 240 million over five years with the grizzlymen.

So now, Rob Pelinka saves 2027 when he has no idea who, if someone important, will even be available when he has Luka and LeBron at the moment? Of ESPN:

Although Finney-Smith was a popular cloakroom figure and helped Lakers to a record of 14-6 in the 20 games he started in the regular season, exercised it a discipline in his negotiations to preserve the ceiling space for 2027, when the team expects the space to sign a Max-Salary free agent.

In the end, it is only the first day of the free agency for Lakers. This can improve. They can seek to exchange, for example, Herb Jones, which would go very far. In fact, if they get Jones, they could actually run in a winner. But for the moment, it’s Loserville for Lakers.

We have always headed for a little Boston to eliminate this offseason, but it strikes different when it happens. By counting Jayson Tatum, which probably is missing all next season while he recovers a torn Achilles, Boston will enter the 2025-26 season down three -fifths of his championship departure formation (Porziņģis does not start in the final – it was Horford – but you get the point).

Add to that Kornet (who signed with San Antonio) and perhaps the aforementioned horford (which is quite linked to the Warriors) and things seem pretty thin in Beantown. Boston could always try to return Simons because they continue to cut the salary.

This could be a pretty little sabbatical year for the Celtics, which have been in three of the last four finals of the conference and two of the last four finals, and relative rest could pay dividends throughout the organization at the bottom of the road. But the main thing is that they have lost major players, could lose another in Horford, and so far, the replacements are not exactly inspiring. At any minute, Neemias Queta could be their departure center.

Winner: Memphis Grizzlies

The biggest news of the day may have been that Jackson Jr. stayed with Memphis on an extension of $ 240 million over five years. It was not a guarantee. Grizzlies were limited in how much they could offer to Jackson, but managed to put themselves in a ceiling position to offer him the maximum, avoiding the nightmare scenario of his becoming a free agent next summer when the Lakers could be armed with maximum space. Massive victory.

We thought that one of the possible victims of creating the ceiling space to extend Jackson was Aldama, who was a target for many teams, but they also bring it back. Another great victory.

Finally, the Grizzlies may add the best backing leader of the League to Jérôme, the poacher of the Cavs. Jerome is rather great. He will do more than spell Ja more. He could be a legitimate player in times of crisis.

Losing Bane hurts, but Caldwell-Pope is a reasonable replacement and the grizzly guys have obtained four first-round choices on this agreement. This means a cheap depth to move forward, or hell of a package for another job – or transactions. I love what the grizzles have done.

The Nuggets finally found a way to withdraw the contract to wear Jr., sending it to nets with the choice of first round of Denver in 2032 for Johnson, which is an addition of monsters in the Nikola Jokić ecosystem. And they also find Brown on a minimum veterinary case?

Brown’s departure was the start of the clearing of the Denver bench after the 2023 championship, and although it has not really played significant basketball in the last two seasons, which it has distributed in three teams, we know that it is thriving in the configuration of Denver as a cutter, creator, physical finisher and energy defender.

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Johnson, on the other hand, is the dream of each team. He is one of the best movement shooters in the league, leaving the screens and moving with a great spatial sense, reaching 39% of his 3s last season on more than seven match attempts. With the way Jokić feels the ground and distributes accordingly, it will play a lot of time. Troop Involve nuggets.

I had great hopes for the pistons, who would be at stake for Nickeil Alexander-Walker and / or Santi Aldama. They had none of these guys and had to be satisfied with Lever, who is fine, but whatever. We will see what the pistons do here. We are talking about Schroder’s agreement transforming into a sign and exchange for Malik Monk, which is really worth watching. Jaden Ivey returns is essentially an addition of last year’s team.

But with regard to real additions? Detroit was not able to mark the guys they would have watched, and in addition to that could lose Malik Beasley, who is currently in Center for a game survey. Not great so far for Detroit.

• Key additions: Desmond Bane, Tyus Jones
• Key losses: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony

Just as I like the side of Memphis of the scourge agreement, I also think that magic was justified to pay such a high price for a non-star player. Bane is exactly what magic needs offensively. It can pull the lights and create in different ways. It’s just a hard to manage. Orlando has an elite defense and had to add a legitimate punch to have a chance in a wide eastern conference.

But Bane is not a leader. He can do things as a leader, but for magic, that Jones, who started for Phoenix, but who will probably leave the bench to Orlando, solidifies many of these minutes with a standardized presence of playmaker. Jalen Suggs will be back in the initial training and the figures of the defense of Orlando are again mean, only this time with an offense to go with.