David Aldridge of The Athletic recently ranked all 30 NBA teams by the moves they have made in the offseason. The 2024 offseason rankings came out over a three-day period from Tuesday to Thursday, with Aldridge revealing 10 teams each day. His top 10 team offseasons were released by The Athletic on Thursday. He mentions how his list is nothing close to being power rankings, they are just how much he liked each team’s offseason.
Here are Aldridge’s top-five NBA offseasons. (Teams from 6-10 are the Sacramento Kings, Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, and Dallas Mavericks.)
David Aldridge Of The Athletic Reveals His Best NBA Offseasons
5. Boston Celtics
While the Celtics haven’t done much with player additions, did they really have to? As Aldridge states in his article,
The last defending NBA champion to not lose a key part of its rotation the following season was the 2017-18 Warriors (all due respect to JaVale McGee, who bounced after the Dubs’ third title, and to David West, who retired). Thus Boston gets very high marks.
Anyone who played meaningful minutes for Boston in the postseason remains on the team in their quest to repeat. Extensions for Jayson Tatum and Derrick White have helped ensure that their core remains for the long run.
4. New York Knicks
Some believe that the Knicks gave up too much draft capital to the Nets in order to acquire Mikal Bridges. He wasn’t just added to keep the ‘Nova Knicks’ narrative going. Aldridge writes,
…the Knicks locked in and locked up Bridges and Anunoby on the wings, and that’s where you have to improve to beat the Bostons and Milwaukees of the East. I’m not saying Bridges and Anunoby will handle Tatum and Brown, but how could New York do better?
Getting star point guard Jalen Brunson to sign the dotted line on an extension one year before he could have extended for substantially more surely made the offseason an even bigger success.
3. Orlando Magic
The Magic proved to be one of the league’s truly ascending teams after falling just one win shy of advancing past the Cavaliers in the opening round of the 2024 playoffs. They upgraded their starting lineup this offseason by signing shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Aldridges writes,
Caldwell-Pope brings championship experience and consistent 3-point shooting (five straight seasons at 39 percent or better since 2019-20). He’s the ideal low-maintenance vet who can still hoop.
Extending Franz Wagner for the maximum five years, $224 million may seem like a crazy amount, but he’ll be just 23 years old when the season begins. Orlando hopes his 2023-24 inaccuracies from beyond the arc was just an outlier year for him, and he gets back to being around league-average on three-point tries.
2. Philadelphia 76ers
The 76ers landed the best free agent to change addresses this offseason in Paul George. Even though Aldridge clearly loves their offseason placing them this high, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have questions.
So, is this built to last — especially with both Embiid’s and the 34-year-old George’s injury histories?
It’s a legitimate question to ask, but if it pans out, Philadelphia will be a title contender at least for the next couple seasons. They also added to their depth by signing Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon, and Reggie Jackson.
1. Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder made an impressive leap last season earning the top seed in the Western Conference. This was despite being a very young team. Trading for Alex Caruso gives the Thunder one of the best backcourt defenders and an above-average three-point shooter. Aldridge loves that Oklahoma City was able to acquire him.
Sam Presti will hate this kind of attention! He will hate that both he and his front office are being singled out for, yet again, doing exemplary work in roster building and retention in surrounding their MVP candidate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, by making deals like the one that brings Caruso from Chicago to again sic on wings throughout the West — and somehow doing it without having to give up a single one of OKC’s 1,207,385 future draft picks.
Their biggest weakness last season was rebounding. Signing Isaiah Hartenstein will help considerably in allowing that to no longer be a concern.
