The calendar has turned to September. You know what that means, right?! Our offseason outlook series is back for the third-straight year!
Hot Hot Hoops senior writer Matt Hanifan will provide his take on the offseasons of all 30 teams for the next 30 days! We will be going in alphabetical order, beginning with the Eastern Conference. In the second iteration, we will look at the Boston Celtics’ summer!
Previous offseason outlooks:
Evaluating the Boston Celtics’ 2026 offseason
Additions: Mike Conley, Paul George, Mitchell Robinson
Subtractions: Jaylen Brown, Nikola Vucevic, Dalano Banton, Max Shulga, John Tonje
Re-signed: Ron Harper Jr., Neemias Queta, Jordan Walsh
Draft: Chris Cenac (No. 27 overall), Dillon Mitchell (No. 40)
Hanifan’s outlook: Whew.
Lucky the Leprechaun may as well have been a Jinxed Jester this summer.
There are only a handful of teams — if that — who had a worse offseason than Boston, who shocked the whole league by going from a play-in hopeful to a 56-win second-place finish during the regular season.
However, it’s all spiraled downhill since. The Celtics overplayed their hand in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes, ultimately upsetting five-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA honoree Jaylen Brown. Oh, and they didn’t want to include Hugo Gonzalez for a two-time MVP.
They not only lost out on Antetokounmpo, but eventually shipped out a disgruntled Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers, a conference rival, for a 36-year-old Paul George plus two first-round picks. That will show them!
Yikes!
There are three reasons why I didn’t give Boston an F-, even though I heavily considered it.
- They drafted a top-15 prospect in Chris Cenac Jr. at No. 27 … he’s still very raw, but has the potential to be a starting caliber big in the NBA.
- To give themselves some extra protection in the frontcourt, they signed Mitchell Robinson to a four-year deal. I was at the forefront of the “Miami Heat should target Mitchell Robinson” campaign. Alas, he was out of their price range, which I expected.
- The Celtics are still going to win a lot of games and be a competitive team in the East.
In a postseason setting, however, this is not a championship team. They punted that chance by kicking Brown to the curb — setting themselves back when they really didn’t need to.
Grade: D-
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how the f is leonard not suspended thats bs
NBA is inconsistent in its discipline. Charlotte fo should have been fined and suspended and Silver should have been fined and suspended himself. He either knowingly approved a fraudulent trade or is incompetent.
KESHADS BACK
Where ya been? Old news. I, and others, wrote he signed the same day Richards did.
didnt see it rc saw richards .they were signed around same time?no mention of the dunk champ from what i saw ill take a look now
happened today
Heat sign center Nick Richards to round out power rotation; Keshad Johnson returning on two-way deal.
(headline from August 27)
maybe they just put their names on the dotted line today.
From nba.com:
HEAT SIGN KESHAD JOHNSON TO TWO-WAY CONTRACT August 27, 2026 7:52 PM EDT
spo doesnt play him for whatever reason.not a spo fav
He’s a tweener on defense, played center in NCAA with a 8’7″ standing reach. He’s a good player to have on a two way with the energy he brings.
jovic should be the two wayer scratch that one wayer back to serbia no returning.pats only mistake recently.rozier lowry before that.
Jovic has a 9’0.5″ standing reach and has shown flashes of being able to guard on the perimeter. The Heat made a bet on Jovics extension that is underwater at the moment but might not always be. The Lowry trade was justifiable because Lowry is a HOF player, just ended up being past his prime with the Heat. The Rozier move was the worst of the three but that’s hindsight, I thought it was a good move at the time, sure many others did also. And it was also a cost savings move which people forget.
Terry Rozier trade grades for Heat, Hornets after deal for first round draft pick
“Miami Heat grade: A-
The pressure is on for Miami once again to win at the highest levels. You have to credit them for going for it.”
https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2024/1/23/24047917/terry-rozier-trade-miami-heat-charlotte-hornets-grades-deal-news
They got a higher grade trading for Rozier than for Giannis
That’s because Charlotte AND Silver conspired to withhold relevant information from Miami
that would have had a direct bearing on Heat’s trade decision. Instead, they let Miami walk into a buzz saw that cost them $85M+ and years of underperformance by Rozier whose mind was preoccupied by a criminal investigation, not thinking about basketball.
Conspiracy is a strong word, you’re saying Charlotte and the NBA acted together against the Heat, when Arison is now the chairman of the NBA board of governors.
Talked about this before but the Rozier trade saved the Heat $15m in tax payments in 2023-4, he played in 2024-5, he didn’t play in 2025-26 as a result of suspension by the NBA, and the Heat as a result got a 2nd round pick which they used to draft Conwell. So what you’re saying basically is the remedy was insufficient and they should give up Conwell for a pick next year.
What I’m saying is Charlotte and/ or Silver owe Miami a first. Plus Charlotte should pay Rozier’s salary for last 3 years. Consider Conway a penalty for failure to disclose a defective product.
You’re saying the trade should be retroactively canceled, Miami’s 2027 first should be returned instead of what they got as additional compensation, the 2026 second from Charlotte. That would mean no Conwell on this team, it’s one or the other. Those two picks on paper could be roughly equivalent, in a weak draft next year maybe Conwell as the top volume shooter in NCAA is a late first round pick.
The reason they didn’t get the first back was the Heat already benefitted from the trade in 2024 by saving money, and Rozier was available to play for most of his contract, just didn’t play well, which is part of any trade.
When a party enters into a contract based on misinformation or undisclosed information it can constitute fraud. If a party is a victim of fraud, it has a right to be made whole again. Miami was not made whole, Charlotte came out ahead and Silver paid no penalty at all.
Miami is made whole/trade is rescinded: Miami gives up Conwell and gets its 2027 first back, pays $15m bill for luxury tax from 2024
Trade is amended: Miami gets Conwell, keeps $15m, gives 2027 first to Charlotte
The option to be made whole by having the trade rescinded, if it was possible, isn’t even better than the amended trade. They get an extra year of Conwell and effectively swapped a early second in a strong 2026 draft for a likely late first in a weak 2027 draft.
Every friggin player in nba shows flashes these are the top 450 players in the world 15.i have nothing against the guy he just flat out suks more than flashes.rozier was so off on his shots down here i thought he was intentionally missing them before the investigation stuff came out.was there a slower pg in nba history than turtle miami heat lowry.i would not put lowry near hof player.
Jovic specifically is a 6’11 wing who can guard the perimeter. Keshad is a 6’7″ PF with below average NBA length for a forward position. They are just very different players.
Miami fo thought Rozier trade was good at the time because a very important/relevant fact was not disclosed by Charlotte or Silver.
NBA strips Clippers of 5 first-round draft picks, fines Steve Ballmer $30M in Kawhi Leonard salary cap circumvention probe
The NBA has stripped the Los Angeles Clippers of five first-round draft picks and fined owner Steve Ballmer $30 million at the conclusion of its probe into allegations that All-Star Kawhi Leonard received impermissible benefits during his tenure with the team in violation of the league’s salary cap.
The league is also fining Leonard $700,000.
The NBA announced the decision Wednesday. The Clippers will be stripped of first-round picks in the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033 NBA Drafts.
The league is also suspending Ballmer “from all league and team activities for one year.”
Per the NBA, Ballmer is banned for “knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities, for approving a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard, and for his failure to create conditions under which his organization abided by the NBA’s circumvention rules.”
The announcement was accompanied by a statement from NBA commissioner Adam Silver:
WOW!! Of course, in the meantime (and I know it’s not apples to apples), we got 1 second round pick, we were stuck with a dead, unusable, untradable player, and Charlotte got virtually no penalty.
I mean I’m not sure the hornets wronged the Heat so as much as the league. The league was aware of the investigation, and let the trade go through. Where this time, they held a trade up, while they continued the investigation.
I guess Charlotte may have with held back info, or maybe they thought since the league had investigated.
End of the day, it’s Adam silver being inconsistent. And id say from a league perspective what he did with Heat/Hornets is what the league should be doing to protect its image.
This is a bad look. A month ago they denied any wrong doing. Now they are coming down with the most severe punishment on a franchise, while the player who was enriched and participated in the cheating, gets a slap on the wrist.
Agree strongly on most of this, including how is there no suspension for Kawhi? Oh yeah, so they can allow the trade to go through. Only minor disagreement is that Charlotte was fully aware of the investigation and said nothing to the Heat. I don’t think the team would’ve gone ahead with that trade if they were actually informed.
The Hornets obviously knew, but maybe they thought the league had finished it’s investigation or that the league would inform the Heat? Shady for sure, but again – it was a NBA investigation and the league didn’t feel the need to say a word to Heat FO.
I do think we over blow this situation a bit. I mean Miami got 1.5 years of a bad player and got a second rounder for the first round pick. They thought they were getting a good player. If he was the guy they envisioned, and had contributed to winning in that year and a half, would we still be saying the same thing?
The Kawhi situation is a CBA and salary cap issue which is why the NBA came down so hard, they want to protect the salary cap for the benefit of the other 29 owners. Remember Silver as NBA commissioner is an employee of the NBA board of governors/the owners. In this situation in 2019 Kawhi in free agency signed with LAC over other options in part because LAC offered him more money beyond his max contract. LAC knew the salary cap rules in the CBA like every other front office and went around them to get Kawhi on the team. But no salary cap to begin with and this is a non-story and there’s no investigation.
I mean that’s fair, but just very different with how say the NFL handles scandals. It’s not the NBA’s first time doing this, as they had a similar punishment for Joe Smith (that they later/slowly walked back).
NFL has nonguaranteed contracts and a players union that is very weak, more like a company union. The team owners basically have full control over what goes on. That’s the model NBA owners would like to move towards. Having the NBPA ready to take this case to arbitration if the league imposed a harsh penalty maybe helped Kawhi here. But also the fault is primarily with the team who is knowingly getting around the salary cap to sign players, and then lying about what they’re doing. Just get rid of the cap IMO, Ballmer could have signed Kawhi to 100m a year contract which is a fair market price rather than add up all these side deals to get around the cap.
You’re damn skippy Charlotte wronged the Heat. They saved 3 years of wasted time and $80M+ in salary and got Miami’s first round pick to boot…all for lying.
Silver couldn’t very well fine and suspend himself for approving that terrible trade knowing there was a pending federal criminal investigation. Riley should have sued TF out of Silver and Charlotte. He let them off the hook far too f’g easy. Heat sure could use that first round pick in 2027, for a trade if nothing else.
The league is sponsored by gambling companies and that’s what’s driving up team valuations, this is the kind of stuff that happens with gambling. The way to look at the Rozier situation IMO from the Heats perspective is letting the Rozier contract expire without a trade for more salary back this past year allowed the space to take on Giannis and Portis $73m combined this year.
The contract was going to expire either way. Charlotte failed to alert Miami and NBA/Silver conspired with the Hornets by keeping the whole thing quiet.
There were many arguments on here a few months ago for why the Heat should trade Roziers contract this year and how they were fools not to use an expiring contract in a trade, but it turned out letting it expire was part of the moves that was required for the Giannis trade.
I’m thinking the C’s are a play in team, seventh or eighth seed. They probably will make the first round and maybe even get past it. They still have some nice pieces and an allstar, but a few of their important players are long in the tooth. They won’t get any farther than the second round.
They were not going to extend Browns contract this summer and were able to clear his long term money while getting assets back. The team had no championship ceiling last year losing to a Philly team that was swept in the next round. But they do have a chance to be better than Philly this year in the regular season IMO, and are a deep team with a top 5 defense,the coach of the year, and with draft assets from the Brown trade to set up for the next big move.
Don’t count them out. #6 or higher. They could surprise some people.