This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Charles Curtis is filling in for Andy Nesbitt.
It wasn’t too long ago — three years, to be specific! — that I was pushing my kid on a swing and felt my phone buzz. There was NBA news!
It was July 6. I was about to be informed that Paul George was traded to the Clippers and that Kawhi Leonard was shocking the world and signing in L.A.
That was honestly the last time I remember there being completely Earth-shattering NBA free agency movement. That was also the summer of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving going to Brooklyn (in hindsight: LOL!) We’re talking megastars joining forces in early July.
Since then, and especially on Thursday? YAWN. The biggest move was Jalen Brunson joining the New York Knicks. All of the big superstar names stayed with their respective teams and got paid a lot of money, thanks in part to supermax contracts that help some franchises retain their best players.
I’m not counting KD shaking everything up with his trade request. If it wasn’t for that, free agency would have been a true snoozefest.
But here’s the thing: It might be really good for the league.
Maybe it means the players who could demand trades elsewhere saw what happened with the Nets or the Los Angles Lakers and realize there might be better routes to team building. I don’t necessarily think the “superteam” era is over — let’s see where Durant lands first, OK? — and I think we’ve always had so-called superteams.
But for the NBA overall: The talent is a little more spread out. The rebuilding teams have some good draft picks to grow. Homegrown stars are sticking around.
Quick hits: Happy Bobby Bonilla Day! … NBA Summer League names to watch … The Avalanche parade … and more.
— It’s July 1, which means everyone on the internet is celebrating the Mets paying Bobby Bonilla deferred money, although as we point out, active players are getting paid down the road, retired players are as well, and New York isn’t the only team paying him.
— Some undrafted college hoops stars who will get an NBA Summer League shot.
— Here are a bunch of awesome photos from the Avalanche Stanley Cup parade, and Nazem Kadri’s awesome trolling t-shirt he wore.
— The winners and losers from Day 1 of NBA free agency (even though it was mostly boring!).
