NBA Power Rankings: Ranking Every Team's Best Offseason Move

The 2011 NBA offseason was fast and furious thanks to the lockout, and now that the 2011-2012 season is at least a little bit underway, we have a chance to look back and reflect on some of the biggest moves that were made. 

Each and every team made its fair share of moves during the offseason. Some moves were much better than others, though. 

The following rankings aren't necessarily the 30 best individual transactions of the offseason, but rather a ranked order of the best single move made by each of the 30 teams in the NBA. 

30. Oklahoma City Thunder: Drafting Reggie Jackson

The worst best move of the offseason, if that makes any sense, belongs to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

If it seems like I'm disparaging Sam Presti and the Thunders' front office, I'm not at all.

They simply didn't need to make a big move, and they didn't. 

Oklahoma City's nucleus is already in place. Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Nick Collison, Eric Maynor, Thabo Sefolosha and Kendrick Perkins were all with the team before the season started. 

So Presti simply remained patient and found a nice value in the draft in the form of Boston College's Reggie Jackson.

Jackson won't serve as anything more than a third-string guard this season, but he's a nice piece to have for the future. 

29. Toronto Raptors: Drafting Jonas Valanciunas

The Toronto Raptors are not going to be a good team during the 2011-2012 season. There's no doubt about that.

While the Raptors organization is never going to admit this, they may be looking forward to the loaded 2012 draft class even though we're only a few games into the season. 

Toronto failed to make a single high-impact free agent signing during the shortened actual offseason.

Rasual Butler, Aaron Gray, Gary Forbes, Anthony Carter and Jamaal Magloire aren't exactly going to blow anyone away. 

But Bryan Colangelo did make a terrific pick at No. 4 during the 2011 draft when he selected Lithuanian center Jonas Valanciunas.

While he won't play for even a second during this NBA season, he should come across to the United States and make an immediate impact during the 2012-2013 season. 

It's strange to think about, but the Raptors could be decent in a few years. They'll have another player to build around with their inevitably high pick in the 2012 draft, and he'll join Valanciunas, DeMar DeRozan and Ed Davis in an intriguing young lineup. 

28. Phoenix Suns: Drafting Markieff Morris

The Phoenix Suns had one of the worst offseasons of any team in the NBA.

The only reason they're in 28th here is that their biggest move is actually going to impact this season—at least a little bit. 

In addition to signing Shannon Brown, Ronnie Price and Sebastian Telfair and re-signing what remains of Grant Hill, the Suns drafted Markieff Morris, one of the two twin forwards from Kansas. 

The Suns frontcourt is pretty crowded already, and Morris will not play too many minutes during his rookie season, but he's a good shooter and can help spread the court when he's in the game. 

27. Orlando Magic: Using the Amnesty Clause on Gilbert Arenas

The only positive of the Orlando Magic's offseason was that they retained Dwight Howard.

And even that may not be much of a positive, as the return they get for him in the inevitably upcoming trade is only going down and down as the trade deadline gets closer. 

Jason Richardson re-signed with the team for a ridiculously large deal. He receives four years and $25 million despite the fact that there wasn't any serious interest from any other teams.

The team also traded for Von Wafer (hold the applause please) and Glen Davis. Interestingly enough, they traded away Brandon Bass for Davis despite the fact that Bass is a better player and doesn't make as much money. 

That leaves just one thing as an option for their best move of the offseason—the use of the amnesty clause on Gilbert Arenas. 

26. Atlanta Hawks: Signing Vladimir Radmanovic

For a team that's on the brink of contender status, the Atlanta Hawks sure don't seem like they're interested in moving up in the ranks.

How else can you explain the fact that Tracy McGrady and Vladimir Radmanovic were the biggest signings of the offseason? 

I'm not that excited about T-Mac's tenure with the Hawks, even though there's a defined role for him now that sixth-man Jamal Crawford has departed for Portland.

I'm much more excited (relatively) about Radmanovic, a big forward who can play beyond the three-point line and open up the court for the Hawks' young athletes. 

Radmanovic has been solid in his role thus far and that probably won't change. He won't win many games for the team, but he won't lose them, either. 

25. Milwaukee Bucks: Trading for Stephen Jackson

In a complicated three-way deal on draft day, the Milwaukee Bucks lost John Salmons and Corey Maggette to gain Beno Udrih and Stephen Jackson.

Rights to a few rookies were also exchanged between the Bucks, Charlotte Bobcats and Sacramento Kings. 

Jackson is still a good scorer, but he's getting older, and it seems to me like the Bucks gave up more than they got in this trade. 

Through three games, Jackson has averaged only 25 minutes per game and is being held to single-digits in the scoring column. 

24. San Antonio Spurs: Drafting Kawhi Leonard

The San Antonio Spurs traded away young guard George Hill and drafted overrated point guard Cory Joseph and potentially overrated forward Kawhi Leonard. They also signed Gani Lawal and T.J. Ford during the free agency period. 

I say potentially overrated when describing Leonard for a reason.

I was completely convinced that he was going to be a bust as a "good at everything, great at nothing" player, but I've learned not to doubt the players that R.C. Buford chooses to draft. 

Leonard has made an impact just a few games into the young season and should provide a nice infusion of youth to an aging Spurs lineup as the brutal campaign progresses. 

23. Houston Rockets: Drafting Marcus Morris

The Houston Rockets had by far the most heartbreaking offseason of any NBA team.

They made a terrific trade during the Chris Paul sweepstakes, one that would have added Pau Gasol to the team, only to have the deal vetoed by David Stern. 

Then the Rockets went for the second option and attempted to sign Marc Gasol. But the younger Gasol chose to remain with the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Rockets were left without a single big addition. 

Almost by default, the selection of Marcus Morris in the 2011 NBA draft was the high point of the offseason.

The better of the Morris twins, Marcus will make an impact during his rookie campaign—just not a big one. 

22. Los Angeles Lakers: Signing Josh McRoberts

The Los Angeles Lakers thought they landed Chris Paul. But then they didn't. 

The Los Angeles Lakers thought they were going to trade for Dwight Howard. But then they didn't. 

The Los Angeles Lakers thought it was a good idea to trade an unhappy Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks. But it wasn't. 

With Phil Jackson also leaving the team after the playoffs last year and Kobe Bryant fuming internally about the team's blundering personnel moves, this offseason was just terrible for the Lakers. 

Fortunately, they made one good move by signing Josh McRoberts. The big man will never blow anyone away with his schedules, but he's a solid player on a team desperately in need of one more rotation member. 

21. Utah Jazz: Drafting Enes Kanter

The Utah Jazz had an excellent draft, picking up Enes Kanter at No. 3 and then stealing Alec Burks later on that night.

Both players are going to make significant contributions this season, but Kanter should end up playing consistent minutes throughout the year. 

It's a little bit disappointing that longtime Jazz member Andrei Kirilenko was not brought back and will instead play in Russia, but it was a move made in the team's best interest. 

Kanter has struggled with his shot early in the season, but the seven-footer's soft touch will soon get the ball into the hoop more often than not. 

20. Washington Wizards: Drafting Jan Vesely

Thanks to a hip injury, Jan Vesely has yet to play a single minute during his rookie season.

But he should return soon, and he's going to make an immediate impact for the young Washington Wizards. 

At 6'11" with Blake Griffin-esque leaping skills (see Vesely's nicknames: European Blake Griffin and Dunking Ninja), Vesely is going to score and score a lot, even as a first-year player.

With only Rashard Lewis ahead of him on the depth chart, Vesely is going to start games by the halfway point of the season. 

The Wizards didn't make any other big moves—they simply sat, content to watch their plethora of young players develop into solid contributors. 

19. Sacramento Kings: Signing Chuck Hayes

Chuck Hayes isn't a name that will get many people excited, but he was the perfect fit for the Sacramento Kings. 

Hayes is a tremendous rebounder who knows his role.

He understands that he's simply not good enough to be a starter.

He understands that he's not going to score a lot of points. 

He's a player who doesn't let his ego get in the way of his role with the team. On a squad with Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton, DeMarcus Cousins and Jimmer Fredette, all of whom need the ball to be successful, this was a vital signing. 

18. Miami Heat: Drafting Norris Cole

Norris Cole may have made some big plays during crunch time in his first few professional games, but he hasn't been as good as everyone seems to think he's been. 

Cole has a ton of potential, and he's a guy I was particularly high on during the draft.

He's going to be good, but let's not get ahead of ourselves quite yet and hand him the Rookie of the Year award on a platter.

Going into Sunday night's stellar performance, Cole had actually hurt the team on offense more than he'd helped it (-0.1 offensive Win Shares) and his 11.84 PER was well below the league average.  

17. Philadelphia 76ers: Re-Signing Thaddeus Young

There's no doubt that re-signing Thaddeus Young was the Philadelphia 76er's best move of the offseason.

The 6'8" forward from Georgia Tech is now in his fifth season, but he's still only 23 years old. 

Coming off a third straight efficient season, Young is ready to stay in his off-the-bench role and keep putting up good all-around numbers for the playoff-contending 76ers. 

The 76ers also re-signed young big man Spencer Hawes and drafted true seven-footer Nikola Vucevic.

Both moves were good, just not as good as the re-signing of Young. 

16. Detroit Pistons: Drafting Brandon Knight

The Detroit Pistons had quite the busy offseason. 

They hired a new head coach in Lawrence Frank, waived Richard Hamilton, signed free agent Damien Wilkins, re-signed Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey and drafted Brandon Knight. 

Of those moves, the addition of Brandon Knight is the biggest deal, and it's not even close. 

The former Kentucky Wildcat is still a raw combo guard, but he has an incredibly high ceiling and should become a franchise point guard for the Pistons. 

15. Dallas Mavericks: Trading for Lamar Odom

Lamar Odom has been simply terrible so far this season for the Dallas Mavericks.

There's no sugar-coating that at all. Terrible may be too nice of a word to use here. 

But that said, getting Odom for next to nothing was still one of the bigger steals of the entire offseason.

The sixth man extraordinaire still has plenty left in the tank and should turn it around as soon as he works himself back into playing shape. 

The Mavs have started off this season in an embarrassing fashion, winning just one of their first five games, but Odom is going to help make a playoff charge when it's all said and done. 

14. Portland Trail Blazers: Signing Jamal Crawford

Recapping the offseason might bring too many bad memories back for the Portland Trail Blazers, so I'm just going to let the title of this slide speak for itself out of respect for the fans. 

13. Boston Celtics: Trading for Brandon Bass

Brandon Bass is a better player than Glen Davis. 

Brandon Bass is cheaper than Glen Davis. 

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how the Boston Celtics managed to pull of this heist. 

12. Golden State Warriors: Revamping the Front Office and Sideline

The Golden State Warriors brought on a great basketball mind in Bob Myers as the assistant general manager so that he can take over the head role in the future.

Jerry West returns as a consultant for the team and Mark Jackson is now prowling the sidelines, ready to bring a previously unseen defensive philosophy to the Warriors. 

These moves will prove to have far more of an impact down the road than any of the on-court changes that Golden State made. 

11. Minnesota Timberwolves: Bringing Ricky Rubio Across the Pond

When Ricky Rubio finally agreed to join the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team got better immediately and everyone actually got excited about the Wolves. 

Rubio has exceed my expectations and then some this season, as he's proven that he actually can score while making ridiculous passes to find open teammates. 

Minnesota has an intriguing lineup of young players, and Rubio has managed to shine among all that talent. 

10. Denver Nuggets: Re-Signing Nene Hilario

Nene Hilario went from vastly underrated to slightly overrated thanks to his prominent spot in this year's weak free-agent class.

He's a valuable all-around center who plays consistently well but rarely takes over the game. Nothing less and nothing more. 

After spending all of his career in Denver, it was a bit of a surprise when Nene decided to test the free-agent waters, and he gave indications that he would not be returning to the Mile High City. 

Re-signing the big man, along with Arron Afflalo, gives the Nuggets the depth and firepower necessary to remain a sneakily good team in the Western Conference. 

9. Charlotte Bobcats: Hiring Rich Cho

I was quite tempted to put drafting Kemba Walker in this spot, but the acquisition of general manager Rich Cho is going to be more valuable down the road. 

Previously with the Portland Trail Blazers, Cho has a great track record and should be able to make the good basketball decisions that this franchise so sorely needs. 

He's a math wiz and will soon have to start adding up more wins than normal for the Charlotte Bobcats. 

8. Memphis Grizzlies: Re-Signing Marc Gasol

The only two significant moves the Memphis Grizzlies made this offseason were drafting Josh Selby and re-signing Marc Gasol. 

Selby is an incredibly raw athlete who I hesitate to call a true basketball player at this point in his career.

Gasol, though, is a proven center with a high ceiling in a league desperate for true centers. 

This one is kind of a no-brainer. 

7. New Jersey Nets: Drafting MarShon Brooks

I love MarShon Brooks.

Here's what I said about him when he was drafted: 

"

MarShon Brooks has been one of my absolute favorite prospects for quite some time now.

He started out the year as a projected middle-of-the-second-round guy, leading me to call him the most underrated player in the draft. As the year went on and Brooks continued to excel, he moved up and up the draft boards.

Then the combine rolled around, and Brooks impressed again. Afterward, he received comparisons to greats like Kobe Bryant and subsequently crept up even higher.

Brooks is a very gifted scorer who has improved his scoring average during each of his four seasons at Providence, topping out at 24.6 points per game for the Friars this past season. Amazingly enough, he also averaged 7.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.

He will undoubtedly be able to continue his knack for scoring at the next level. 

"

Now, Brooks is making my call look pretty good so far.

Through the first four games of his career, he had a blistering PER of over 28, the fifth highest in the league. 

6. Cleveland Cavaliers: Drafting Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving has already shown some flashes of greatness, and we're only a few games into the season. 

Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers lucked into the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft, they still made the right call by drafting the talented Duke point guard. 

Irving is going to have rough spells during his rookie campaign, but what first-year player doesn't? 

In an offseason during which the Cavs drafted Tristan Thompson way too early and traded for Omri Casspi, this stands out as the best move. 

5. New Orleans Hornets: Trading Chris Paul

Dell Demps was faced with the unsavory prospect of trading away his best player or risk losing him during the next offseason for nothing. 

As a result, the New Orleans Hornets general manager shipped Chris Paul off to the Los Angeles Lakers and got one hell of a package back for him.

Then the trade was vetoed, and Demps instead traded the point guard to the Los Angeles Clippers. 

In return, the Hornets picked up a potential All-Star shooting guard in Eric Gordon, solid players in Chris Kaman and Al-Farouq Aminu and the Minnesota Timberwolves' unprotected 2012 draft pick. 

That last asset may prove to be the most valuable of all in an absolutely loaded draft class. 

4. Indiana Pacers: Signing David West

The Indiana Pacers are ready to be called contenders in the Eastern Conference now that they've added the services of David West. 

The power forward has always been a borderline All-Star, and he's going to prove this season that his success was not merely a mirage created by the greatness of Chris Paul, the man feeding the ball to him in the perfect spot time after time. 

West has struggled with his new team to start the season, but the Indiana Pacers are still winning games.

Expect him to turn it around as the rust comes off and he gets used to playing with his new teammates. 

3. New York Knicks: Sign-and-Trade for Tyson Chandler

Tyson Chandler was the perfect fit for the New York Knicks, and he was by far my favorite of the free-agent signings. 

The defensively oriented center doesn't need to score a lot of points, which is good because he wouldn't have on a team that prominently features both Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire.

He's content to merely put up 10 points per game while rebounding the ball early and often and rejecting a few shots per contest. 

The Knicks are an offensive powerhouse, and a brick wall in the paint is exactly what they needed to vault into the top tier of teams in the NBA. 

2. Los Angeles Clippers: Trading for Chris Paul

The Los Angeles Clippers turned a corner when the franchise traded for the first established superstar they've had in quite some time.

Don't worry, Clippers fans, Blake Griffin will get into that category soon enough. 

I was a strong advocate for doing whatever it took to get Chris Paul, even if it meant giving up the Minnesota Timberwolves' unprotected draft pick, Eric Bledsoe, Eric Gordon and Al-Farouq Aminu.

Since they ended up getting to hold on to Bledsoe, this deal was even sweeter for them. 

Now the Clippers have one of the league's top point guards running the show, and Lob City is poised to make the playoffs for the first time in forever. 

1. Chicago Bulls: Extending Derrick Rose

This may be a bit unexpected, but Derrick Rose's contract extension comes in at No. 1 in my rankings. 

Anytime you have a chance to lock up your superstar, who just happens to be the league's reigning MVP and the youngest player to ever win that award, you do it.

When you extend him, it's automatically a good deal unless he gets injured or suffers a serious decline in performance. Rose is only getting better, though. 

The Chicago Bulls have made it quite clear that they want Rose to be their franchise player, and that's now a surety.