6 Teams with the Most Holes to Fill Heading into 2015 NBA Draft
Entering NBA draft season, not every team is on equal footing.
Some squads already have rosters loaded with incumbent members and are prepared to make yet another run at a title. Others didn't find so much success in 2014-15, but they have the right pieces in place to make significant strides going forward. This year, the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder serve as the primary examples, as both should be contenders for playoff spots in the Western Conference, even without making any major offseason moves.
But unfortunately for some teams, they're entering the draft with plenty of holes to fill.
A couple were quality outfits, but the looming specter of free agency and the aging nature of other pieces means they're going to have to find more quality contributors in order to get back into contention. Others are in the midst of lengthy rebuilds. One just needs a star.
What they all have in common, though, is a dire need to fill in some significant gaps on the roster, and each can achieve that during the upcoming selection process.
Dallas Mavericks
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Expected Draft Picks: No. 21, No. 52
The Dallas Mavericks are coming off a playoff season and will retain the services of the face of the franchise. But Dirk Nowitzki is not enough, especially now that he's clearly starting to decline on both ends of the floor and just finished what was arguably his worst season of the millennium.
Normally, the Mavs aren't big players in the draft. They trade away picks, watch the proceedings from afar and reload through free agency, even if they miss out on their primary targets. But this year could be different, both because Dallas has a pick in the early 20s and because there are so many potential holes to fill.
Potential, though, is the operative word in that sentence.
Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons (who will be coming off surgery), Devin Harris and Dwight Powell are the only ones working with guaranteed contracts, and that's not exactly a promising core.
Meanwhile, Al-Farouq Aminu, Raymond Felton and Monta Ellis all have player options, but it's looking like the least valuable of the three could be the only one to return without hitting the open market. Felton is planning to file papers and make his $3.9 million in 2015-16, per RealGM's Shams Charania, and uncertainty reigns supreme for the other two.
General Manager Donnie Nelson knows that Aminu is going to opt out, but as he told Michael Florek of the Dallas Morning News, he'd like to retain his services on a new contract: "We were lucky Al chose us. With an eye on the history that we've had here with Rick [Carlisle] and our development program, he certainly should opt out, and he will, as noted. We hope to be in a position to reacquire his services."
Is the same true of Ellis? Though his decision hasn't yet been made public, the end of his season with the Mavericks didn't exactly come on a high note.
"Regardless of whether anyone will admit it on the record, Ellis is a big part of that problem," ESPN Dallas' Tim MacMahon wrote in late March. "Folks in the Mavs organization have been fretting for weeks about the impact Ellis' moodiness has on the team's soul."
Nelson, Mark Cuban and everyone else in the Dallas front office will have plenty of tough decisions to make. But with Tyson Chandler, Rajon Rondo and more set to hit the open market, along with the aforementioned opt-out candidates, it will at least have plenty of holes to fill with those rare draft picks.
Honorable Mentions: Los Angeles Clippers (need bench help but have no picks), Indiana Pacers (depends too much on players opting out) and Portland Trail Blazers (still hard to see the team completely disbanding)
Denver Nuggets
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Expected Draft Picks: No. 7, No. 57
I'm cheating a bit here.
The Denver Nuggets have filled most of the holes on the roster, even if the team lacks a distinct identity and the upper-tier talent necessary to do more than flounder away in the land of Western Conference mediocrity. Strictly speaking, they don't have too many gaps in the lineup at the moment, especially if Randy Foye (team option) and Jameer Nelson (player option) are officially added into the mix.
However, that could quickly change, and it's looking increasingly likely that it does.
"These actions have not endeared himself to an organization that can now, more than ever, be persuaded to trade him if the right offer is made. His 'I wish' Instagram put many Nuggets fans into the category of moving on from him as well," Christopher Dempsey recently wrote for The Denver Post, referring to the now-deleted Instagram post in which Ty Lawson revealed his desire to move on from the Nuggets and join the Dallas Mavericks. "He has done all of this to himself. And that may be the hardest thing to delete of all."
If the Nuggets do indeed trade Lawson, it will likely be for some combination of draft picks and young talent, which only opens up more gaps to fill. But even if he's retained, Denver still has to plug up the biggest hole of all—the glaring lack of a superstar who can take this team to that proverbial next level.
Right now, he doesn't exist in the Mile High City.
Lawson puts up terrific offensive numbers, but his defensive inadequacies are problematic, and he's been unable to promote a winning mentality among his teammates or display the necessary leadership skills. Kenneth Faried hasn't managed to live up to the expectations created by his play at last summer's FIBA Basketball World Cup. None of the young players have improved that drastically.
Somehow, someway, the Nuggets need a superstar. Whether that's achieved by wheeling and dealing, moving up in the lottery order or getting lucky during the selection process, Denver will be trying—desperately trying, really—to fill in that yawning chasm.
Los Angeles Lakers
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Expected Draft Picks: No. 4, No. 27, No. 34
This is about as obvious as figuring out who will take the last shot for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Purple and Gold simply don't have that many keepers on the roster.
Kobe Bryant is certainly one, though he's potentially playing out the final season of his legendary career and then passing the torch to one of the young guns who call Tinseltown home. Fully healed from the broken leg he suffered in the first official game of his professional tenure, Julius Randle should assert himself as one such player for years to come. Jordan Clarkson should do the same, building upon his tremendous second half.
And then what?
Nick Young and Ryan Kelly are under contract. Tarik Black (non-guaranteed), Robert Sacre (team option) and Jabari Brown (non-guaranteed) could be as well, though none of them are huge difference-makers. Additionally, Jordan Hill (team option) and Ed Davis (player option) could join that group, though neither is by any means a guarantee.
It's unlikely the Lakers would be willing to divvy out $9 million to the former, instead preferring the cap space they'd gain by letting him go. Meanwhile, what's Davis' motivation to make only $1.1 million when he could parlay his Hollywood success into a bigger and lengthier deal? He's already told Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times that he's opting out.
There aren't enough building blocks, even if Davis and Hill are both back.
L.A. needs another keeper in the backcourt. It has to find the center of the future, and it could use more help at basically every other position under the stars. This offseason is all about talent acquisition, which will ideally be aided by the NBA draft and then completed with the loads of cap space set to be used during the hottest months of the year.
Miami Heat
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Expected Draft Picks: No. 10, No. 40
The Miami Heat bench played few enough minutes this season that they finished in the bottom half of the playing-time leaderboard, per HoopsStats.com. And if that wasn't enough, they came in at No. 27 in offensive efficiency and No. 25 in defensive efficiency.
Obviously, that's not a strong combination.
The good news here is that Miami's starting five figures to be a killer unit. Assuming that Dwyane Wade, Goran Dragic and Luol Deng are back—all three have player options for 2015-16 in their contracts—they'll team up with Hassan Whiteside and a healthy Chris Bosh to form one of the best quintets in the Association. There's all sorts of offensive firepower and defensive potency contained in that lineup.
But the bench is a problem, even if Michael Beasley is the only member of this year's second or third unit that doesn't have another season on his contract.
Miami has to figure out how to shore up nearly every position. Mario Chalmers and Shabazz Napier should be fine at point guard, but James Ennis is the only semi-reliable wing player on what should be a playoff team. The Heat can't get by with no one else behind the injury-prone bodies of Wade and Deng, making the 2 and 3 the top priorities this offseason.
And in the frontcourt, can they count on Josh McRoberts (even if he's healthy) and the aging Chris Andersen to play significant minutes behind Bosh and the oft-injured Whiteside? Help is quite clearly needed there as well.
Miami won't be able to make many free-agency splashes this summer, unless some of the potential free agents are using their player options and departing. That would create more problems than money-aided solutions, though.
Ideally, it's all going to be about the draft in South Beach.
New York Knicks
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Expected Draft Picks: No. 2
No team has more holes to fill than the New York Knicks, who have been intentionally clearing the books as much as possible to gain cap space for their expected free-agency bonanza. After trading away rotation members during the season, they literally only have five players left under guaranteed contracts:
- Carmelo Anthony, who remains a franchise cornerstone.
- Jose Calderon, who seemed to spend the season on the trade block and really shouldn't be a starter for a high-quality team.
- Tim Hardaway Jr., who was disappointing as a second-year player and hasn't yet proved he deserves to be a starter.
- Cleanthony Early, who didn't do much as a rookie.
- Langston Galloway, who was a pleasant surprise in 2014-15 and should be in the starting five next year.
That's one guaranteed first-string player (Anthony) and Galloway. After his breakout season (by lottery-team standards), one in which he spent plenty of time playing both shooting guard and point guard, he could be considered a bench building block, but he's got a long way to go before he looks like a starter on a championship-caliber squad.
Again, that's it. There's no one else.
The good news here is that Anthony, even coming off an injury-filled season that didn't help save the Knicks from arguably the worst year in franchise history, remains a superstar. Putting the right players around him can thrust a team into contention, and that's more than many other franchises with glaring needs heading into the draft can say.
But with only one pick at their disposal, the Knicks are still going to need to rely on free agency in a big way if they hope to get out of the doldrums as quickly as possible.
Philadelphia 76ers
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Expected Draft Picks: No. 3, No. 35, No. 37, No. 47, No. 58, No. 60
Surprised? You shouldn't be.
The Sam Hinkie plan just keeps on keeping on, and there's really no telling what's going to happen next. Is the Philadelphia 76ers GM going to hang on to all the players who impressed this season and finally make some strides toward the playoffs? Is he going to trade Nerlens Noel and dump Robert Covington as unceremoniously as he dealt K.J. McDaniels earlier this year?
Anything could happen.
But even if the Sixers' core does stay together, plenty of holes remain. Noel and a healthy Joel Embiid would have the biggest spots in the lineup locked down, while Covington and Tony Wroten, fresh off the recovery from his ACL tear, would take on two more. And beyond that?
Well, that's where things get tricky. You can make arguments for Jerami Grant, Hollis Thompson and Isaiah Canaan, but it's tougher to do so when you remember that they're supposed to be key contributors on a team that eventually contends. Chances are, they won't stick around long enough for that to happen, and they may not have enough upside to justify long-term investments from the Philly front office.
Regardless of which pieces the Sixers do decide are keepers, there are still plenty of spots on the roster that aren't occupied by anyone. This team needs a franchise point guard in a big way, and it could solve that issue before free agency begins by drafting Emmanuel Mudiay or D'Angelo Russell.
And even if that biggest hole is filled, there's more work to be done. Finding wing players who can space the court, acquiring backups who don't allow for huge drop-offs while the starters catch their breath and making sure there's no need to keep giving try-outs to young players are all necessities this offseason.
Unless Philly is content to remain a rebuilding organization for yet another season, of course.
Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @fromal09.
