The Golden State Warriors made it abundantly clear how important it is to constantly strive to be better when they added the 2014 NBA MVP and one of the league’s top-five players in Kevin Durant this offseason. The fact that a team that just set the single-season wins record and went to game 7 of the NBA Finals felt the need to upgrade with an MVP demonstrates a number of different things and one of them is what the Warriors feel it will take to win multiple championships. Meanwhile, there were a number of playoff teams from a year ago that opted not to make substantial additions to their cores this summer. Here is a look at the four NBA playoff teams that failed to capitalize on their momentum with substantial upgrades this offseason.
Toronto Raptors
Coming off a season in which they registered a franchise-record 56 wins and made it to within two wins of the NBA Finals, the Raptors were one of the NBA teams that failed to capitalize on their momentum this offseason. Toronto brought back All-Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan for max money but failed to upgrade its roster including at the power forward position where they had a glaring need. The Raptors lost playoff star Bismack Biyombo and Luis Scola while bringing in Jared Sullinger to fill their glaring hole at power forward. Toronto will enter the 2016-17 season with a very similar roster to the one that led them to the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago and many people are pointing to the NBA Draft as an area where the team has failed. They had a lottery pick and an additional first-round pick, yet drafted two centers instead of a power forward of the future. The rest of the conference has improved and the Raptors don’t appear any closer to contending for a championship than they did last season.
Los Angeles Clippers
A mix of injuries and off-court issues prevented the Clippers from reaching their potential as a true contender in the Western Conference a year ago. While they can expect to be fully healthy heading in to the 2016-17 season, they failed to upgrade their roster this offseason while the Warriors and San Antonio Spurs actually got better. LA will have tough decisions to make when it comes to what to do with a pending unrestricted free agent in Blake Griffin – especially after the way things unfolded for him both on and off the floor a year ago. The Clippers are till one of the more talented teams in the Western Conference but a failure to make any progress this offseason could prevent them from contending for a title again this coming season.
Charlotte Hornets
The Hornets managed to bring back Nicolas Batum and Marvin Williams while also trading for Marco Belinelli, but remember that they also lost Al Jefferson and Jeremy Lin. On the whole, this is about neutral if not slightly worse. They didn’t do anything to upgrade their frontcourt and their roster looks very similar to the team that finished sixth in the Eastern Conference last season. Charlotte isn’t any worse on paper than they were a year ago, but they aren’t any better either.
The Chicago Bulls, Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks were NBA teams that all made substantial improvements in the offseason after missing the playoffs a year ago and the result could be one or more of those NBA teams helping to bump the Hornets out of the postseason picture in the East this coming season.
Detroit Pistons
Detroit is another one of the NBA teams that pretty much stayed the course in the offseason with the same roster they had a year ago when they clinched the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond lead a talented young core, but failing to upgrade could very well result in the Pistons falling outside of the top-eight in 2016-17. Detroit will be in the same position as Charlotte as they look to hold off a handful of improved teams that are bound to challenge for those final couple of playoff spots in the East. The Pistons took a small step forward with a return to the postseason a year ago but they could end up taking a big step back this coming season by failing to improve on last year’s run.
