If yesterday evening you saw a deluge of NBA transfer news arriving from the States, know that it is no coincidence: the June 30thsimilarly to what happens in the world of football, is the set date for the expiration of the contractual agreementsresulting in a wave of leaks from players and agents eager to find a new home.
Hence the choice to launch a new column in which we will analyse, briefly and in our own way, all the market highlights that will arrive in the coming weeks.
Tourbillon Clippers
The franchise that inspired the column is undoubtedly the Los Angeles Clippers: officially eliminated Paul Georgepushed Russell Westbrook to pack their bags despite an affordable Player Option, they renewed James Harden for 2 years at 70 million. The only technical comment we feel like offering is: “What a mess!”
If it’s true that Steve Ballmer will want to do things in a big way for the inauguration of the colossal Intuit Dome, now a huge effort will be needed from the front office to fix a roster that has lost a point of reference like PG13, but still retains Kawhi Leonard and in Harden himself, two time bombs that do not promise anything good.
In all of this, the first response to painful farewells is the return to the NBA of Kevin Porter Jr: We feel like saying it wasn’t the best day to be a Clippers fan.
Time for goodbyes at Warriors
In just one evening, Golden State took the step that everyone expected: after 13 years, the golden adventure of Klay Thompson in the Bay, which has now become a foreign body to the entire Warriors universe in the last two seasons; everyone except our close friend Steph Curry, who, in all likelihood, would have expected an effort (on both sides) to find a way to continue together.
The farewell of number 11 also symbolically lowers the curtain on one of the most beautiful and successful dynasties the NBA has ever seen.
However, we are certain that you won’t regret the 30th at all Chris Paulwhich has proven almost detrimental to a team that would like to aim for the title, especially at the figures envisaged by his crazy contract. ‘The Point God’ will settle into a pressure-free retirement at Saint Anthony, to enrich a young context with his experience, but his adventure in San Francisco will constitute a significant stain on CP3’s legacy. But on the other hand, if you followed our analyzes last year, the disastrous season of him and his teammates certainly won’t have surprised you.
The absurd problem of the centers
In an NBA where centers are forced to be as talented as Jokic, Embiid and Wembanyama to find citizenship, we are experiencing a truly surreal scenario: the old-fashioned big men at Jonas Valančiūnas e Andre Drummondnames of a certain weight until a few years ago, have moved to the Wizards and the Sixers respectively (where the former Cavs and Bulls player will feed on the crumbs left by Embiid), while the number 5 spot of many big teams remains uncovered.
The Lakers, Magic, Warriors and even the new promising Pelicans were all left empty-handed: the famine of the centersbeyond the two former players mentioned above, who are unlikely to be useful for high-profile causes, risks being a hole in the rosters of many big names at the start of the season.
Also because the modern centers, beyond the aliens mentioned at the beginning, would also exist (Kristaps Porzingis, Myles Turner, Dereck Lively or even Jalen Duren …) but, as you will have understood, they are a luxury for a few.
In short, there is no shortage of news and, with every hour that passes, new and interesting scenarios open up, which we will talk about together very soon.
