As the NBA world awaits another LeBron James decision, the Philadelphia 76ers jumped in and stole all the headlines by making a stunning trade for Jaylen Brown on Wednesday night.
We’ll get into the details below, but just know this was a massive score for the Sixers that headlines our list below of the five best moves of the NBA offseason so far. We still have to wait and see where James ends up. When we have the answer, these rankings will likely be updated. But until then, here’s where things stand.
1. 76ers score Jaylen Brown
A deal that came out of nowhere shakes up the balance of power in the East
The word “insane” has become pretty watered down in today’s sports parlance, but this Brown-to-Philly deal is insane. The Sixers are sending the Celtics Paul George, two first-round picks (2028 and 2031) and two second-round picks (2028 and 2030), according to ESPN, and in return get an in-his-prime MVP-level player to pair with Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe.
Count me in for the retrospective report we’ll eventually get on how bad things had gotten between Brown and the Celtics, or just how toxic they felt Brown’s multi-layered grievances were going to be for them to feel they needed to move on this badly.
Because listen: George has been regarded as one of the worst contracts in the league since he showed up in Philadelphia. The Sixers probably should have had to give up draft capital just to get off that deal. Forget getting Brown.
Jaylen Brown trade grades: 76ers get ‘A+’ for landing Celtics star as Boston makes baffling decision
Sam Quinn
George is a 36-year-old, super-injury-prone 3-and-D player who is set to make $54 million next season with a $56.5 million player option in the season following that. The draft picks Boston gets here are cool. It would’ve been better if Boston could’ve gotten 2033 instead of 2028, as by then there’s a much better chance the Sixers will stink. But who knows? Maybe they will end up pretty valuable as Embiid fades. But even without Embiid, the Sixers now have a legit Big Three to move forward with in Brown, Maxey and Edgecombe.
In most cases, you have to gut your roster to get a player like Brown. Independent of the draft picks, Philly just swaps George for Brown straight up? Good lord. What a deal. Now, the Sixers don’t have a lot of depth and who knows if Embiid can stay healthy. But if he can, this is a championship starting unit that, by the way, I would be considering quite strongly if I were LeBron James.
2. Clippers trade Kawhi Leonard
It was time for the failed Kawhi era to end in L.A., and the Clippers got a haul in return
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer saying he didn’t want or plan to trade Leonard was always bogus. The Clippers would have been crazy to extend Leonard’s contract. This is a guy who barely played in half the Clippers’ games during his seven seasons in L.A., but after playing in 65 last season, and at an MVP level no less, his market was never going to be higher. They had to trade him.
But there was no guarantee they were going to get as good a deal as they got from Toronto, which sent them a total of four draft picks (unprotected firsts in 2031 and 2033 and two seconds), a first-round pick swap in 2027, Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick.
For an injury-prone 35-year-old, that is a haul. And it’s in keeping with the borderline-amazing work the Clippers have done to dig themselves out from the massive hole the original trade for Leonard and Paul George put them in.
Kawhi Leonard trade grades: Clippers get ‘A+’ for franchise-altering pivot as Raptors take major risk
Sam Quinn
First, they let Paul George walk for nothing two summers ago when it would’ve been easy to overpay him with a new arena to fill. Then they swapped a 36-year-old All-Star point guard, James Harden, for a 26-year-old All-Star point guard in Darius Garland. They traded Ivica Zubac to the Pacers for a 2026 top-four protected pick — which landed at No. 5 and thus delivered the Clippers Keaton Wagler — and a 2029 first.
Now add these two future first-rounders from Toronto, and suddenly this Clippers team has gone from basically having no future building blocks to a young All-Star point guard, an even younger potential All-Star point guard behind him, and a restocked draft chest. All while ridding themselves of what would have become dead-weight deals. Letting George walk was a single. Trading Harden was a double. Trading Zubac was a triple. Trading Leonard was a grand slam.
3. Raptors trade for Kawhi Leonard
Toronto got back in title contention by bringing back the man who led the team to the 2019 championship
I love this deal for the Raptors almost as much as I love it for the Clippers. Leonard goes back to Toronto, where in 2019 he authored the greatest one-year story in NBA history by delivering the Raptors their first championship. And now he puts them in position to win a second.
Toronto is by no means the favorite in the East, but outside of the Knicks, who just lost Mitchell Robinson by the way, look around the conference and tell me who is definitively better than the Raptors.
The Pistons barely got out of the first round after winning 60 games, and we still don’t even know what’s going to happen with Jalen Duren. The Celtics lost Brown, as previously mentioned. The Cavaliers were no match for the Knicks, and the simple truth is nobody is scared of a Harden-led team.
The Heat got Giannis Antetokounmpo, sure, but they lost Norman Powell and don’t have nearly enough shooting to support their frontcourt of Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo. The Magic can’t score. The Hawks are pretty good but certainly not great. The 76ers added Brown, but lack depth and nobody would bet very much on Embiid staying healthy.
So you have the Knicks and the Pacers, who are bringing back Tyrese Haliburton from the 2025 Finals team and replaced Myles Turner with Zubac. Toronto has every right to believe it’s in the same class as Indiana, Miami, Philadelphia, any of these non-Knicks teams — at least until we see if LeBron ends up on any of them.
Either way, just as it did in 2019, Leonard’s presence vaults Toronto into contention. They already took Cleveland to seven games with a roster that defends and runs like crazy, but lacked the elite half-court shot-maker every contender needs. Scottie Barnes is overtasked as that guy. He’s the Scottie Pippen, the do-everything defender/athlete who will get you 20 points in the cracks. Leonard is the Michael Jordan. That’s worth the cost of the draft picks. Ingram was a negative for them moving forward anyway. Gradey Dick is whatever.
Keeping Leonard healthy is a concern. The good news is he just came off one of the healthiest and arguably the best regular season of his career. He played in 65 games, averaging 27.9 points and 6.4 rebounds on 50/39/89 shooting splits. The best part for Toronto? It will reportedly be only a two-year deal for Leonard. It’s probably going to be north of $60 million annually, but even if Leonard can’t stay healthy, this isn’t a contract that’s going to bury the Raptors long-term.
4. Miami pulls off Giannis blockbuster
The Heat finally got their star after years of searching
For a player of Antetokounmpo’s caliber, the Heat didn’t have to give up all that much, or really anything, in terms of blue-chip assets. Maybe you think Ke’lel Ware still has All-Star upside or you’ve got ground-floor Kasparas Jakucionis stock, but these are not premium prizes. We’ll see about the draft picks.
But in totality, this guts Miami’s depth and leaves them with minimal shooting to properly space the floor around this non-shooting Antetokounmpo-Adebayo frontcourt. Throw in Davion Mitchell, who’s a decent 3-point shooter at low volume but not anyone that really stretches a defense, and this offense is going to be packed pretty tightly. I hate that Miami couldn’t keep Powell, who signed with the Bulls. That hurts.
Giannis Antetokounmpo trade grades: Heat earn ‘B+’ in blockbuster, while Bucks pay for waiting too long
Sam Quinn
So, as it stands, while getting Antetokounmpo is great in itself, I don’t think the Heat can compete with this roster. And that’s if Antetokounmpo stays healthy in the first place. He hasn’t been through the injuries that Leonard has, but he’s been on the shelf plenty, and he’s also presumably going to get a longer contract extension than Leonard will get in Toronto.
You have to trust Miami’s ability to find shooting and depth on the margins. We all know their player development and eye for fit-specific talent is top-notch. They’ll have to find a couple more gems to really maximize this Antetokounmpo deal. Until then, I’m not as high on it as I am Leonard to Toronto or Brown to Philadelphia.
5. Lakers sign-and-trade for Walker Kessler
Luka Donċić needs a lob-catching, rim-protecting big man
I like the addition of Kessler for the Lakers. I think we all do. He fits perfectly with Luka Doncic as a lob-catching big man who can, one, clean up the few inefficiencies of a Dončić-Austin Reaves offense with offensive rebounds, and two, anchor the defense as an elite rim protector.
What I don’t like is the price the Lakers had to pay to get him. All along, we thought the Lakers were just going to use their cap space to throw a huge offer at Kessler, a restricted free agent, in hopes that the Jazz wouldn’t match. I don’t think the Lakers expected to pay as much for Reaves as they did (four years, $185 million), but the looming Detroit threat forced them to dig deeper. And while that didn’t affect their ability to offer Kessler a max contract (Reaves’ cap hold was only $21 million for next season), it’s fair to wonder if giving that much to Reaves made them squeamish on a max for Kessler.
Walker Kessler trade grades: Lakers get C+ in massive, albeit necessary, overpay; Jazz play it perfectly
Sam Quinn
Or, maybe the Lakers simply thought Utah was going to match even a max deal and they couldn’t afford to miss out on a much-needed center acquisition in this summer cycle. Either way, they pivoted to a sign-and-trade for Kessler, throwing the Jazz unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 and first-round swaps in 2028 and 2030 to prevent it from becoming a bidding war.
There goes all the draft capital they could’ve used to add more quality pieces (they don’t have control of their first-round pick for the next seven years, as is their cap space with Dončić, Reaves and Kessler making huge money). So now this team has to be good enough as is to compete with the Spurs and Thunder, let alone the other awesome West teams. And I just don’t think that’s the case.
Collin Sexton is a nice auxiliary guard, as is Quentin Grimes. They paid over $100 million in total to get them — which in combination with Kessler and Reaves is going to cost them Rui Hachimura. You’ve already lost LeBron James. Jarred Vanderbilt is potentially slotting as your starting power forward. Alongside Kessler, the spacing is going to be problematic, to say the least.
So again, I like the Kessler signing. It’s a good fit. It fills a major hole. They had to do it. But the price they wound up paying was too much and it’s going to cost them realistic paths to get better. And they still need to get better. If we’re being honest, this was actually a better move for the Jazz, who never wanted to pay Kessler this much in the first place and waited long enough for the Lakers to throw them a bunch of assets they didn’t expect.
