The NBA offseason stands as one of the most exciting elements of basketball fandom.
Teams seek to reshape their rosters in hopes of improving their championship fortunes.
With hundreds of contracts being signed and millions of dollars being spent, players bounced between teams.
Now, many veterans look for fresh starts with their new teams.
With training camps around the corner, most of the major moves have been made, save for something like the Philadelphia 76ers trading Ben Simmons.
Teams now look to training camp to bring the new versions of their clubs together.
And it’s during training camp that these veteran forwards get a new lease on their careers.
3. Carmelo Anthony
Free agent F Carmelo Anthony has agreed to a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, his manager Bay Frazier tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 3, 2021
The Los Angeles Lakers made waves at the start of NBA free agency by signing forward Carmelo Anthony to a one-year deal.
This move paired the 18-year veteran with his 2003 NBA Draft classmate, LeBron James.
Entering his 19th season in the NBA, Anthony should provide Los Angeles with a much-needed scoring off the bench.
After bouncing around the league following his All-Star run with the New York Knicks, Anthony reinvented himself as a bench scorer with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Last season, Anthony averaged 13.4 points in 24.5 minutes per game for the Blazers.
He shot a career-best 40.9 percent from three-point land.
With all of the scoring pressure squarely on the shoulders of James and Anthony Davis over the last few seasons, Anthony provides the Lakers with a necessary scoring supplement.
Anthony hopes to fill in the missing piece of his resume, a championship.
He has 13 career playoff appearances, but made the conference finals just once.
2. DeMar DeRozan
The DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade to Chicago has officially been completed and he will wear No. 11, league sources tell @YahooSports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) August 11, 2021
DeMar DeRozan‘s time in San Antonio ended after three uneventful seasons.
The rebuilding Spurs opted to trade DeRozan away in a sign-and-trade deal with the Chicago Bulls.
DeRozan landed a three-year, $85 million contract with Chicago, and joins a team on the precipice of the playoffs.
The Bulls are building around All-Stars Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević.
Chicago has supplemented the roster with the additions of Lonzo Ball and DeRozan.
After making the playoffs just once in three years with San Antonio, DeRozan looks to return to the postseason with the Bulls.
DeRozan sports 58 career playoff games, with a scoring average of 21.9 points per game.
It’ll be interesting to see if DeRozan can build upon his career-high 6.9 assists per game last season.
The playmaking responsibilities will likely fall to Ball and LaVine, but DeRozan should provide them with an excellent finisher who can play either forward position at this point in his career.
1. Lauri Markkanen
Cleveland is acquiring Chicago restricted free agent F Lauri Markkanen on a four-year, $67M deal in a sign-and-trade, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 27, 2021
The Cleveland Cavaliers continued to reshape their frontcourt rotation this offseason with the sign-and-trade acquisition of Finish forward Lauri Markkanen.
Markkanen entered the NBA as the seventh overall pick in the 2017 draft out of Arizona.
He flashed promise on the perimeter in his early years, hitting on 36 percent of his three-point attempts.
In his second season, Markkanen averaged a career-high 18.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.
Although only 24 years old, Markkanen is coming off his worst season as a pro.
He fell out of the starting lineup in Chicago after being a staple there for the Bulls in his first three seasons.
Markkanen finished 2021 playing a career-low 25.8 minutes per game, posting averages of 13.6 points and 5.3 rebounds, also career-lows.
Markkanen joins a crowded frontcourt with Jarrett Allen, Kevin Love, and No. 3 overall draft pick Evan Mobley.
With a fresh start in Cleveland, Markkanen can look to rebound from his lost season with the Bulls.
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