Hardwood Knocks

Most NBA teams are thrust into a thorough rebuild after losing a top-20 player, but not the Utah Jazz. They have a superstar cornerstone in Rudy Gobert, which gives them license to chase playoff berths in the immediate aftermath of Gordon Hayward's free-agency exit. How high the Jazz can climb up the Western Conference ladder, though, ultimately depends on everyone else. Gobert will anchor a top-three defense, but he cannot ferry the offense to respectability outside the pick-and-roll. That burden falls upon Ricky Rubio first and foremost. He is one of the craftiest playmakers in the NBA, but the absence of a reliable jumper, or even a strong touch around the rim, can render certain offenses predictable. Hitting on another shot creator is paramount. The Jazz have Joe Johnson, but he's a million years old. Joe Ingles is one of the league's most underrated point forwards, but his on-ball value suffers when he can't leverage the shooting of Hayward or George Hill. Rodney Hood is a smart bet to lead this team in

The Charlotte Hornets stayed true to their roots over the NBA's offseason: They retooled, despite being a non-factor in free agency, without embracing a total reinvention. Dwight Howard's integration will play a big role in whether the Hornets meet their ceiling. They have to indulge his post-up penchants to some degree, but head coach Steve Clifford has moved away from those back-to-the-basket sets in favor of more three-pointers. Can he sell Howard on a high-usage role as the pick-and-roll diver? And can Howard accept this job description without letting his volume on offense impact his demeanor on the defensive end? Getting more out of Nicolas Batum will also be key. He was a turnover machine in the pick-and-roll last season and has seen his efficiency drop from beyond the arc. His defense remains solid, even at the 2, but the Hornets may need to find time for him at the 4—where they're overstocked—if it turns out he cannot get by opposing 2s and 3s. Not to be lost in any of this is Kemba Walker. He has tr

So much is going on with the Philadelphia 76ers, we jump-start their 2017-18 season preview in the only way that makes a semblance of sense: by posing roughly six bajillion-zillion-quadtrillion questions. First and foremost: Are they a playoff team after signing J.J. Redick to a one-year deal—Amir Johnson, too—and adding Markelle Fultz to a healthy Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid? Hell, is Embiid even healthy? How many games should we expect to see him play in this year? And to this point, what do the Sixers do with his extension situation? Should they pursue a deal now, when so much about his health is still up in the air? Do they just let negotiations ride out into restricted free agency next summer? Will a renegotiate-and-extend get done with Robert Covington, as everyone initially assumed, or do the Sixers prefer leveraging his micro cap hold next summer into oodles of spending power? And speaking of RoCo, is Dario Saric really a threat to start at the 3 over him? (Spoiler: He's not.) Assuming everyone's heal

Not a lot happened for the Phoenix Suns over the summer—other than them doubling down on their rebuild. They resisted the temptation to go all in on a Kyrie Irving trade, instead electing to keep the tandem of Devin Booker and rookie Josh Jackson intact. They also signed T.J. Warren to a four-year, $50 million extension, a deal that seems more like a hedge against a breakout campaign from the 24-year-old. Beyond that, plus the returns of Alex Len and Alan Williams, there isn't much to review. The Suns are facing the same question they were facing at the end of last season, following a mid-year tank job that landed them the top-three pick and right to select Jackson: Where do they go from here? Eric Bledsoe's future will say a whole lot about this team's interest in rebuilding from the ground up. He's 27, so he doesn't run completely counter to their timeline, but he'll be a free agent in 2019, at which time Booker will be a restricted free agent himself. Investing what it'll cost to keep that backcourt togeth

Posting the best record in the East and earning a trip to the Conference Finals did not stop the Boston Celtics from wheeling and dealing over the offseason. Team president Danny Ainge overhauled nearly two-thirds of the minutes represented from last year's squad to form a new-look faction built around Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward and Al Horford. The names are flashy, the roster well-stocked, but this reinvention came at the expense of key core members, including Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Kelly Olynyk and Isaiah Thomas. That makes it a gamble—a big one.  That the Celtics embraced this extensive shakeup at all suggests they're not done straddling two timelines. More than that, it implies they care far more about being the next-superpower-up, rather than the foremost threat to current juggernauts like the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. Indeed, the Celtics might still be that team. The Eastern Conference is a mess of sub-mediocrity below the Cavaliers, and they have the talent to run off 50-som

After finishing the 2016-17 NBA campaign on a 30-11 tear, the Miami Heat had two options: They could lean into their half-season detonation, reinvesting in a promising squad that didn't make the playoffs, or they could pivot into a quasi-rebuild or full-scale teardown. Surprise, surprise, Pat Riley chose the former. Except, he didn't just steer into the 30-11 Heatles. He cannonballed into them.  Both James Johnson and Dion Waiters got new contracts. Then he added Kelly Olynyk. And then he signed Josh Richardson to an extension. Clearly, Riley believes his squad can recapture the magic from last year's 41-game miracle. Well that, or he knows he won't be around much longer and doesn't want to spend the next one to two years losing a crap ton of games. Whatever, though. The Heat are all-in on this season either way—and, as of now, the next two to four, since they'll be lucky to avoid the tax in 2018-19 and 2019-20. But we digress. This podcast is about 2017-18, albeit with plenty of big-picture talk. We must dec

The New Orleans Pelicans are approaching perhaps the most important season in franchise history. This slant is neither hyperbolic or inflammatory. It's the truth. So much is riding on how the Pelicans fare this year, after missing the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. Pretty much everything starts with DeMarcus Cousins' free agency. He will hit the open market in 2018, and while the Pelicans get to dangle a fifth year that no one else can, his return is hardly guaranteed. If they fall out of the playoff picture or get the sense he's itching for a relocation, they'll have to look at moving him around the trade deadline.  And if he leaves, Anthony Davis' future is suddenly shrouded in mystery, if not butter-thick panic. The notion that the Pelicans must shop him now is overblown (read: stupid). He cannot explore free agency until 2020 (player option), and the designated player exception he'll surely qualify for could keep him in town no matter what.  Lose Cousins, and the Pelicans are forced to confront

The Washington Wizards offseason was, somehow, simultaneously hectic and not-at-all busy. On the one hand, the roster doesn't look that much different, because it had no way of looking that much different. The Wizards entered the summer with no cap flexibility, so small-time additions like Tim Frazier, Jodie Meeks and Mike Scott were their ceiling. They did, however, match the Brooklyn Nets' max-contract trade-kicker special to Otto Porter—an inevitable move that is nevertheless important. See, the Wizards must largely bank on internal improvement to build upon last year's 49-win finish. They may be a tad deeper, but they were so reliant on their starting five of John Wall, Bradley Beal, Markieff Morris, Marcin Gortat and Porter that a little extra depth doesn't mean much, if anything. That quintet turned out to be among the most-used lineups of the freaking decade, logging nearly 1,347 minutes —nearly 500 more than any other unit last season. Getting spikes and leaps from younger incumbents is paramount if y

The Cleveland Cavaliers are never uninteresting. It doesn't matter whether they're getting hammered for not being as good as the Golden State Warriors or lauded for pulling off the greatest NBA Finals comeback ever in 2016. We never run out of things to discuss when it comes to LeBron James' teams. This upcoming season is no different. In fact, it's more of the same...on steroids. The Cavaliers indulged Kyrie Irving's surprise trade request, sending him to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Jae Crowder, Isaiah Thomas, Ante Zizic and the Brooklyn Nets' 2018 first-round pick. Though there have been mixed reactions to the Cavaliers' situation, the general consensus is this: They received a phenomenal return on Irving's departure and remain set up to blitz through the Eastern Conference. Questions remain, though. How will LeBron respond to Irving's exit? Might we see him go hard after his fifth MVP award? Or will he perhaps crack, ever so slightly, under an increased workload in his 15th season? What will Kevin L

So much for the Oklahoma City Thunder's lack of flexibility. Though they entered the summer barren of cap space and with very few trade assets, the Thunder somehow turned their restrictive position into the additions of Paul George, Patrick Patterson and Raymond Felton, morphing themselves into one of the NBA's most dangerous title contenders. Sure, they still need to take the floor. Things could go sideways. Russell Westbrook and George could clash. The freshly re-signed Andre Roberson could keep bricking wide-open threes. Patterson's athroscopic procedure on his left knee could lead to a more sinister setback. Steven Adams could fail to recapture his pick-and-roll mojo. Jeremai Grant could stop hitting three-pointers. Or, you know, everything could go down perfectly. The Thunder, on paper, are built as well as anyone to contend with the Golden State Warriors. George and Westbrook just make sense together, and the signing of Patterson unlocks deadly small-ball combinations the Thunder didn't have at their di

SPOILER ALERT: The Brooklyn Nets are not going to be good next season. Crazy, we know. As much as they've done to revamp the roster, they still project to be one of the NBA's worst teams. But will they be the NBA's worst team? Definitely not. Maybe. We think. After finishing 2016-17 with just 20 wins, the Nets have undergone a quasi-transformation. They traded Brook Lopez over the summer while taking on Timofey Mozgov's bloated deal in order to get D'Angelo Russell. They scooped up an extra two picks from the Toronto Raptors in exchange for eating the final two years on DeMarre Carroll's deal. They landed Allen Crabbe from the Portland Trail Blazers. They drafted Jarrett Allen. They are better. Much better Hell, they might even be better than that. A full year of a healthy Jeremy Lin and Caris LeVert, coupled with all their new additions, attached to a crappy Eastern Conference, could make for some surprising returns.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Nets are still in the early stages of a thorough

Chris Paul is a member of the Houston Rockets. Yes, that happened. No, you didn't dream it. It was a real thing that went down over the offseason. Paul and James Harden are starting in the same backcourt. The Rockets have 55-plus wins written all over them. They have overtaken the San Antonio Spurs, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the new-look Oklahoma City Thunder, as the biggest threat to the Golden State Warriors. Or have they? Superstar formations take time to jell. Harden and Paul should be no different. There will be a learning curve, perhaps a steep one. But the fact that Paul and Harden wanted this matters. It means both of them should be willing to make the necessary concessions. At the very least, after opting in and delaying a long-term payday, Paul should be ready to do whatever it takes to thrive alongside Harden. Mix in the returns of Nene, Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza and Clint Capela, along with the additions of Luc Mbah a Moute and P.J. Tucker, and it's hard not to see the Rockets as a budding

As far as NBA offseasons go, the Milwaukee Bucks' summer was not especially active. They re-signed Tony Snell and drafted D.J. Wilson and Sterling Brown. That's their sabattical in a nutshell. Standing mostly pat is taboo unless you're a juggernaut, and last season, the Bucks were no superpower. They finished with the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference and gave the Toronto Raptors a little scare before bowing out in the first round of the playoffs. Standard stuff. Jabari's Parker ACL injury suggests they needed to be more aggressive over the summer. But they had zero cap space and not a lot of expendable trade assets. In many ways, they were—they are—plain stuck. And that's okay. Giannis Antetokounmpo is just 22 and already closer to a top-five player than not. Mix in a fully healthy Khris Middleton, a reborne Snell and another season of development for Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon and Thon Maker, and the Bucks might really have something. They're long as hell, with a Baby Death Squad to rival

Few teams in the NBA are as tough to forecast ahead of the 2017-18 season as the Portland Trail Blazers. They won just 41 games last year and are not appreciably better on paper, but their 20-tilt tear with Jusuf Nurkic suggests they're on to something. Can that small-sample detonation hold? After all, the Blazers' roster setup is officially wonky. They added to their dizzying number of frontcourt volume on draft night and pawned off Allen Crabbe onto the Brooklyn Nets. Though any team led by Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum will never want for offense, the Blazers' spacing feels iffy. Could they experience regression on the more glamorous end if Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu fail once again to shoot league-average clips from three-point range? How will they structure their frontcourt pecking order? Will Nurkic start beside Noah Vonleh? Have they given up on Meyers Leonard? Where does Evan Turner fit into all this, assuming he factors in at all? Equally important: Can McCollum and Lillard coax Carmelo

The Los Angeles Clippers are one of the NBA's most facinating teams to watch leading into 2017-18.  On the one hand, they lost Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets, a soul-sundering move no matter how you spin it. On the other hand, they  rebounded nicely, securing an objectively good haul in exchange for his services while retaining Blake Griffin, landing Danilo Gallinari and bringing in Milos Teodosic, the best playmaker not in the NBA. Still: How is all this going to work? What will the offense look like with Griffin as the alpha? Do the Clippers have enough off-ball shooting and speed to prop up an inside-out model? Will playing him beside Gallo spell defensive disaster? Are they somehow, after all this, still thin on the wings? Most importantly, what does the future hold for these Clippers beyond 2017-18? Does it include DeAndre Jordan? Or Doc Rivers? NBA Math's Adam Spinella (@Spinella14) joins Hardwood Knocks to make sense of it all. As always, be sure to subscribe to and rate Hardwood Knocks on iTunes. Y

The Detroit Pistons followed up their disappointing 37-win campaign in 2016-17 with one hell of an offseason. They hard-capped themselves on Day 1—Day 1!—of free agency. They traded the two years and $10.4 million remaining on Marcus Morris' contract for Avery Bradley's expiring deal. They then renounced the rights to restricted free agent Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, thus allowing him to join the Los Angeles Lakers. Did they make the right decision? Should they pay Bradley long term? Will they get the expected leap from Stanley Johnson? Is Reggie Jackson healthy enough to lead an above-average offense? Is this the year Andre Drummond finally shows material improvement on both ends of the floor? Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) of PistonsPowered and Locked on Pistons stops by Hardwood Knocks' pressure-cooker to douse cold water on Dan's propensity for KCP and make sense of what comes next for Stan Van Gundy's rebuilding, but-not-really-rebuilding squad. And, finally, do they have enough juice to clinch a postseaso

Pretty much every 2017 NBA free agent you care about has signed a contract—except, for some reason, JaMychal Green and Nerlens Noel. But those are topics for a different day, in a different place. Because right here, right now, in the world of Hardwood Knocks, we're turning our attention to 2018 free agency. Correct: We're getting an 11-month jump on the process, in part because we can, but also beause this stuff already matters. The league is still reeling from the spending craze in 2016. Multiple sources claimed to ESPN.com's Tim MacMahon that the NBA is headed for a nuclear winter-style summer in 2018, with plenty of free agents expected to get "squeezed."  Who are those free agents? Which players suddenly aren't so likely to opt out of their contracts? Which teams will be the biggest offseason players? Where will LeBron James go? Is there any hope at all he'll stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers? Might he (pretty please) consider the San Antonio Spurs or Philadelphia 76ers? And what about the NBA's other to

Kyrie Irving has requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers.  So...now what? There are a lot of layers to this story. Where might Kyre Irving end up? Which types of trades are most appealing to the Cavaliers? Who should they target in return? Is Irving a good fit for the Denver Nuggets? The Milwaukee Bucks? How about the Phoenix Suns? Should you buy your Cavaliers Eric Bledsoe jersey now? Equally important: What does all this mean for LeBron James' future in Cleveland? Is he gone? Does Irving want out in part because he thinks LeBron is leaving, or does he really want to be the alpha somewhere else? And if it's the latter, can Irving be the top option for an above-average playoff team? Justin Rowan of SB Nation's Fear The Sword and Almighty Baller Radio's The Chase Down podcast stops by to break it all down with Andy and Dan. There's loads of stuff to unpack here, and rumor has it you don't want to miss a moment of it! As always, be sure to subscribe to and rate Hardwood Knocks on iTunes. You can also fin

Guess what? No, seriously, guess. Hurry up. You're taking too long.  Screw it, we'll just tell you: The NBA offseason is old enough for us to—wait for it—pass judgement from the comfort of our lavish (read: regular) recording studios (read: respective living rooms)!  In the latest edition of Hardwood Knocks, Andy Bailey and Dan Favale cycle through the biggest offseason winners and losers from both the Eastern and Western Conferences. We know the Oklahoma City Thunder make the cut, but are they the biggest winners of the summer thus far? Where do the Boston Celtics fall on this scale? They basically, after all, signed Gordon Hayward twice. Has the Cleveland Cavaliers' offseason been that bad? Should San Antonio Spurs fans buy custom-made LeBron James jerseys now or wallow in the fact that Chris Paul ended up with the Houston Rockets? Are the New York Knicks the NBA's biggest laughingstock? Or does that honor belong to the Detroit Pistons? Or perhaps the Indiana Pacers? And, finally, have the Philadelphia 76er

It. Is. So. On. The NBA's free-agency bonanza is upon us, so it's time to get weird and busy and weirdly busy with the Hardwood Knocks' official free-agency primer. Hosts Andy Bailey and Dan Favale blow through a ton of topics, because they like hearing themselves speak, but also because this particularl primer won't be automatically dated. You're guaranteed to take away something new and exicting and valuable and whatever from this powwow deep into free agency. Topics discussed include the Chris Paul trade; what this deal means for the rest of the NBA; a weird free-agent point guard market; the Houston Rockets' next move; Paul George's situation in Indiana; Gordon Hayward deciding between the Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics; the plans of the Celtics in general; the future of the San Antonio Spurs; Phil Jackson's exit from the New York Knicks; potential Zen Master replacements for those Knicks; Kyle Lowry's future with the Toronto Raptors; Paul Millsap's next landing spot; Blake Griffin's fit with the Los Angele