NBA offseason winners and losers: Rockets loving the Brooklyn chaos, Jazz set up

One thing not a lot of people are talking about with all the Brooklyn Nets drama is how much the Rockets stand to benefit. Houston owns Brooklyn’s 2024 and 2026 first-round picks as well as the right to swap first-round picks with the Nets in 2023, 2025 and 2027. If the Nets get worse, which looks like a certainty once Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are traded, those picks that Houston owns suddenly become a lot more valuable. 

That makes Houston but one of many offseason winners as we’re into Day 4 of the free agency period. We’ll slowly be factoring in draft results as we flesh out this full list of 2022 offseason winners and losers. This post will continue to update. Here’s what we have so far. 

Winner: Boston Celtics

After finishing two wins from an NBA championship, the Celtics went out and landed Danilo Gallinari, who cleared waivers after being let go by San Antonio, and Malcolm Brogdon in a trade with the Pacers, who took back Daniel Theis, Aaron Nesmith, Nik Stauskas, Malik Fitts, Juwan Morgan and a 2023 first-round pick from Boston. 

All of those parts are highly expendable for Boston, which essentially got Brogdon for a first-round pick that will likely land in the mid-to-late 20s. Brogdon is really good. He adds to Boston’s ridiculously stacked defense and is another ball-handler and scorer to live well in a flowing, egalitarian offense. Shocker: Another Celtic who can shoot, create and defend. Good luck finding a hole on this team. 

Winner: Atlanta Hawks

Trading Kevin Huerter, a good player, for a draft pick that very well might not convey until 2027 is questionable to me. Now, if that pick eventually gets attached to, say, Clint Capela or John Collins and the Hawks flip for another All-Star-ish player (to go with the Dejounte Murray move), then we’ll reevaluate. But right now, losing Huerter just because you have a position logjam is tough. The Hawks would’ve almost certainly preferred to keep Huerter over Bogdan Bogdanovic, but the latter doesn’t have the trade value to bring back a first-round pick, protected or otherwise. 

Still, getting Murray from the Spurs makes this offseason a win for Atlanta. It can still get better, but Murray alone is a really nice addition. There are pessimistic points about the pairing with Trae Young. Both thrive with the ball. Young is a more natural option playing off-ball, but he has to commit, and by commit…