The Biggest Regrets from the 2022-23 NBA Season
With the 2022-23 regular season coming to a close and the playoffs bearing down on them, NBA teams can't afford to look back.
We can, though.
Sure, we're as excited as anyone about what appears to be a wide-open postseason, but we can't help but remember the road traveled to get here. And while that path is lined with jaw-dropping moments, an endless highlight reel and some savvy front-office work, it also spawned some major regrets along the way.
From summer gambles that went bust to imperfect rosters left unattended, let's revisit the biggest missteps of the 2022-23 season. Since rosters were assembled last summer, offseason moves are eligible for inclusion here.
Bulls Snoozing Through Trade Season
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Two years back, the Chicago Bulls told the hoops world they weren't chasing mediocrity. So, what exactly is the aim in the Windy City, then?
You'd think the answer would be maximum competitiveness, since there's little other reason to roster 33-year-old DeMar DeRozan, 32-year-old Nikola Vučević and 28-year-old Zach LaVine. But if that truly is the objective, how on earth did Chicago let trade season come and go without making a deal?
The loss of Lonzo Ball left a glaring void at point guard. The lack of a leap year from Patrick Williams left Chicago without the impact two-way forward it so desperately needed. The lack of vertical lift from Vučević left the Bulls vulnerable on the defensive interior. The lack of three-point shooting left this offense routinely squeezed for spacing.
All of this was obvious ahead of the deadline and still...crickets?!
The Bulls reportedly discussed a LaVine trade with the New York Knicks, per Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. If that level of blow-up was being mulled over (as it absolutely should have been), why didn't Chicago at least move on from impending free agents like Vučević and Coby White?
What's the plan now? The Bulls bring them back to a still flawed roster—that could be without Ball for all of next season, too—and still fall colossally short of their goals?
This was a major missed opportunity. The trade deadline was a fork in the road. Turn one way, and Chicago could've loaded up on win-now talent for a major playoff push. Turn the other, and the franchise could've flipped veterans for as many long-term assets as possible.
Instead, the Bulls barreled right into the fork. As a result, they now find themselves without an obvious path forward.
Heat Not Addressing Roster Flaws
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Last season, the Miami Heat snagged the East's No. 1 seed with 53 victories. They then finished a Jimmy Butler dagger three shy of representing the conference in the NBA Finals.
So, why are they now headed toward either a play-in tournament appearance or a late charge to the No. 6 seed? Because while the rest of their conference competitors loaded up with talent over the last year, the Heat let their roster get weaker and more imbalanced.
It's one thing to let P.J. Tucker walk last summer instead of matching a three-year contract that will pay him into his 40s. It's quite another to bypass all external replacements and effectively let his vacated starting spot go unfilled.
Miami promoted Caleb Martin to the first five, but that only weakened its second unit, which nosedived from seventh to 25th in net efficiency. It later handed that spot over to a well-past-his-prime Kevin Love, who has the team's worst defensive rating (by a mile). It's also leaned heavier than ever on Jimmy Butler at the 4, putting extra strain on a 33-year-old with a ton of NBA mileage on his odometer.
Miami's offense is a mess. The only five teams who fare worse on that end are all playing for the future. This was predictable based on personnel. They have long needed another shot-creator to get their attack out of the mud. That's why they're always linked to Bradley Beal, and why they were previously in the running for James Harden.
Banking on more growth from Tyler Herro wasn't enough. The same goes for hoping that Victor Oladipo would turn back time or that Duncan Robinson could morph back from the cap-clogging pumpkin he's become. The Heat needed to do something: replace Kyle Lowry, scratch an obvious itch for more shooting, swap picks, prospects or both for an off-the-dribble scoring threat.
Heat president Pat Riley might be a living legend, but the 2022-23 campaign will go down as a chapter he'll want to forget.
Trail Blazers Not Committing to Timeline
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The Portland Trail Blazers keep telling anyone who will listen that a major move is coming. That sufficient support for 32-year-old franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard—who just watched perhaps the best season of his career be wasted by an underwhelming supporting cast—is on the way.
"We're borderline anxious to push all of our chips in," general manager Joe Cronin said, per Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. "We can't wait for that moment to happen. It just hasn't come up yet."
Someone might want to tell the Blazers that they have some control over the timing of this eventual megatrade.
An all-in push isn't moving a future first-round pick and two second-rounders for Jerami Grant. It definitely isn't doing minor deals for Cam Reddish and Matisse Thybulle or turning Gary Payton II into a pile of second-round picks.
Portland has a pair of prime trade assets in Anfernee Simons and rookie swingman Shaedon Sharpe. Those should be exciting building blocks for a future-focused team. Instead, they might be the second- and third-most important players in Portland. Grant would factor into that mix as well, but it's hard to give him that designation without knowing how his free agency will go this summer.
Lillard deserves the chance to compete for the crown. Instead, he was shut down early as Portland tries to tank its way to keeping a protected first-round pick away from the Chicago Bulls for a second consecutive season.
This can't keep happening. Lillard looks good enough to lead a championship run. With the curtains closed on his 2022-23 campaign, he's only the sixth player ever to average 32 points and seven assists in a season.
He obviously needs more help, though. Tons of it. And as much as Portland talks about wanting to build a title team around him, its actions say otherwise.
The Blazers should've either cashed in their trade chips for the best player available or let Lillard know they can't chase a championship with him.
The Rudy Gobert Gamble
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Remember when the Minnesota Timberwolves excessively celebrated their play-in tournament win last April? Well, the front office sort of did the same thing over the offseason.
After watching their team snap a three-year playoff drought and get bounced out of the opening round shortly thereafter, the Minnesota execs apparently decided this group was just one player shy of championship contention. There would be no other justification for the colossal cost they paid to get Rudy Gobert: five players, four first-round picks and a first-round pick swap.
That's about as all-in as an all-in price tag can get. Pay that much, and you should feel confident about mapping out the next summer's championship parade. External expectations were...how should we put this...decidedly less than that. Internally, even the Wolves weren't sure how this would work.
"Everybody in the group chat starts saying, 'OK, this is going to be a challenge at first,'" Jaden McDaniels told ESPN's Brian Windhorst.
Blockbuster trades should be no-brainers. This was anything but. And after a full season to integrate Gobert, Minnesota still hasn't conquered this challenge.
No matter how the Timberwolves' final two games play out, they won't win as many games as they did last season. Their defense marginally improved (climbing from 13th to 10th in efficiency), but the offense fell off a cliff (seventh to 24th). Minnesota somehow even regressed on the glass (21st to 26th in rebounding percentage).
Losing Karl-Anthony Towns to a calf strain for four months certainly didn't help, but the Wolves have a losing record when he plays (13-14), so it's hard to pin their struggles solely on his absence. Plus, his awkward on-paper fit with Gobert has proved to be awkward in practice. Minnesota is managing only 105.9 points per 100 possessions when the bigs share the floor. For context, the Charlotte Hornets' league-worst offense is putting up 108.5.
This season has been such a disappointment in the Gopher State that the Association is already bracing itself for a Towns trade. And if Minnesota moves the big fella, it should probably prioritize long-term fits with Anthony Edwards and McDaniels, meaning the remainder of Gobert's tenure with the team could get pretty grim.
Dallas' Decisions at Point Guard
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The Dallas Mavericks made the Western Conference Finals last season. They have one of the planet's five best players in Luka Dončić. There are zero excuses for this club not only tumbling out of the league's elite tier but potentially being left out of the play-in tournament.
There are some explanations, though.
Dallas couldn't have botched the Jalen Brunson situation any worse. The Mavericks could have kept him around had they offered him his maximum four-year, $55.5 million extension prior to last season's breakout, sources told B/R's Chris Haynes, but they never put that on the table. They also could have flipped him at last season's trade deadline knowing he was about to enter free agency, but they didn't. They subsequently watched him skip town last summer to join the New York Knicks.
Lacking a Dončić co-star in the worst kind of way, Dallas wound up opting for a Hail Mary on Kyrie Irving at this year's trade deadline. It was the kind of desperation heave intended to—if everything broke exactly right—get the Mavs back into the championship chase.
They have instead gone a disastrous 8-16 since Irving's debut, leaving analysts wondering whether it's time to tank and making Dončić miss Brunson "a lot." It's the kind of downward spiral that has to at least make Dončić wonder whether Dallas is the best place for him.
To his credit, Irving has been productive when he plays, but it doesn't matter. The Mavs are too flawed for this to work. Their offense is unimaginative, their defense offers the resistance of a wet paper sack, and their supporting cast underwhelms almost across the board. It's been noting short of a nightmare.
Dallas needs to give Dončić a reason to believe that better days are ahead. It's hard to imagine what would give him that notion following a collapse of this magnitude, though.
Statistics courtesy of Basketball Reference and NBA.com and accurate through Tuesday.
Zach Buckley covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @ZachBuckleyNBA.
