[ESPN] Offseason Survivors (Hollinger)

I have already named the offseason winners and losers. What I've yet to discuss is the most interesting group: the survivors.

Every team came into the summer with a Plan A, but those plans don't always work out. For these teams, for a variety of reasons, their initial goals didn't happen.

Nonetheless, each of them made good, helpful deals that put them in at least as strong a position as when the summer started, both for this season and the future. As a result, these six teams are my top survivors of the 2010 offseason:

New York Knicks

After two years of predicting Armageddon if they couldn't land LeBron James, Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh, the Knicks missed out on all three of their top targets. But their offseason still worked out OK. After signing high-scoring Suns forward Amare Stoudemire, New York -- among the league's worst shot-blocking teams each of the past two seasons -- was able to parlay David Lee into human fly-swatter Anthony Randolph and then sign Raymond Felton to a relative bargain deal. The inability to use all the cap space on superstars also had a silver lining: the Knicks were able to keep $854,000 bargain Bill Walker, who could emerge as a force next season on the wings.

Was it a perfect summer? Of course not. I'm not sure Felton, a mediocre pick-and-roll guard, will thrive in a Mike D'Antoni system, and the difference between Stoudemire and Lee at the offensive end is relatively minor. (As odd as this sounds, Stoudemire's comparatively less-awful defense is his main advantage over Lee.)

But the Knicks will live to fight another day. The Lee deal brought in two potential expiring contracts, giving New York the flexibility to get well under the cap in 2011 … and again in 2012. They also have enough pieces to put together deals before then, beginning with their efforts to pry Chris Paul from New Orleans. For both the short and long term, the Knicks are better off than they were a year ago. That's pretty good for Plan D.

Dallas Mavericks

One can argue that the Mavs should have seen this coming and traded Erick Dampier's non-guaranteed contract at the February trade deadline. His $13 million deal was expected to be a huge trade chip this summer, but it was almost immediately overshadowed once other teams went to their own Plan Bs.

Entering the offseason, the thought was that nobody could offer as tantalizing a piece as Dampier to a team looking to dump a contract. Instead, the Mavs' ace in the hole turned into a four of clubs when as many as seven teams became able to offer even greater relief in the form of huge trade exceptions (Cavs, Jazz, Raptors, Suns) and vast troves of unused cap space after losing in the LeBron sweepstakes (Clippers, Nets, Knicks). Even after a few of those teams put the assets to use, the Mavs were in no position to dictate terms to the market.

So they did the next best thing -- they found the best deal available and lived with it. Dallas used the Dampier chip to dump two terrible contracts on Charlotte and gave itself something of an upgrade at center in Tyson Chandler, who carries a large expiring contract himself. Not as tantalizing as Dampier's, perhaps, but something to keep Dallas in the trade game should a potential deal materialize.

Utah Jazz

The Jazz were supposed to be losers in the free-agent game after the Bulls and Blazers took turns raiding their roster. Chicago nabbed Carlos Boozer and Kyle Korver, while the Blazers signed Wesley Matthews to an onerous, front-loaded offer sheet that the Jazz elected not to match. Suddenly, three of last season's top eight players, including the leading scorer, were gone.

The Jazz, however, put themselves in arguably better position than they were last season with a couple of brilliant saves. First, they executed a trade for Minnesota big man Al Jefferson that cost them relative peanuts. Jefferson not only fills Boozer's position, it also shores up a potential hole left by Mehmet Okur (Achilles injury) and allows Paul Millsap to move to a starting gig at power forward.

On the wings, the Jazz drafted Gordon Hayward and signed veteran wing (and one-time Jazz) Raja Bell to a three-year deal. It's unlikely that they'll replace the production that Korver and Matthews delivered last season, but they cost a fraction of the money and allow the Jazz to stay competitive without a burdensome payroll. As a result, Utah sidestepped a potentially ravaging summer and is in good position to make further upgrades once Andrei Kirilenko's $17 million anchor comes off the cap after next season.

Boston Celtics

The Celtics entered the offseason in a more vulnerable position than has been acknowledged. With Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Nate Robinson and Tony Allen entering free agency, Rasheed Wallace retiring, Doc Rivers contemplating the same and Kendrick Perkins likely to miss a big chunk of next season, Boston could have found itself needing to nuke the roster.

Instead, the Celtics survived to make another run at the NBA title. Jermaine O'Neal took their midlevel exception to replace Perkins at the start of the season. Ray Allen, Pierce and Robinson agreed to terms to keep the rotation stable. Draft pick Avery Bradley can take over Tony Allen's role as a defensive stopper off the bench. And perhaps best of all, Rivers agreed to return and coach the team for one more year.

The Celtics still have one card left to play, as Wallace's contact is still on the books and can be converted into a useful player if they find a team looking to dump salary. Even without such a deal, the Celtics kept themselves relevant. And the best part is, they did it as part of a larger plan. With Allen, Robinson and O'Neal signing two-year deal that coincide with Kevin Garnett's $21 million coming off the books, Boston has positioned itself for two more runs with the veterans before landing in great position to revamp the roster … this time, on its own terms.

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets weren't able to rip off Joe Dumars in a trade this year, and their efforts to use their midlevel exception were rebuffed at every turn (Jermaine O'Neal and Udonis Haslem, among others, said no thanks). With Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen both suffering from knee problems that could last well into the season, Denver was desperate to come up with a frontcourt player.

Enter the creative contract for Al Harrington, a five-year deal for the full midlevel that, with partial guarantees in the last two years, contractually looks more like a three-year, $27 million deal. While Harrington isn't the defender Utah was hoping to nab, he offers a completely new dimension. The Nuggets haven't had a floor-spacing big man in roughly a century, and it should give Carmelo Anthony in particular a lot more breathing room on the blocks.

Denver also got good value by inking Shelden Williams to a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum. I saw enough of the Shelden Experience in Atlanta to know what a frustrating offensive player he is, but as a hard-working banger off the pine you could do a lot worse than this guy. The Nuggets need somebody to soak up frontcourt minutes in the first half of the season without killing them; Williams can do that.

The Nuggets' future is still tenuous -- Anthony is weighing whether to sign an extension, while Nene, J.R. Smith and Martin can become free agents after the season. But if Melo stays, the expiration of Martin's deal will relieve Denver from a painful stint in luxury-tax territory and it has kept a ton of flexibility for 2011-12 and beyond, including the aforementioned options in years four and five of Harrington's deal.

Houston Rockets

No, Plan A didn't work. Houston's plot to get Bosh was dead on arrival and the Rockets ended up spending excessively because other teams kept going after their players (Kyle Lowry signed a big offer sheet with Cleveland and Luis Scola was poised to do the same with New Jersey before the Rockets intervened with a big offer). Throw in the use of nearly the entire midlevel exception on Brad Miller and the Rockets have quietly become among the league's biggest spenders. Houston's payroll stands at about $10 million over the luxury-tax threshold.

By any reasonable standard, Scola's five-year, $47 million deal is rich for a 30-year-old power forward. Yet as I keep mentioning, the rules of the game dictate overpaying to keep your own players once a team is over the cap. Houston is intractably so, assuming it plans on keeping Yao Ming after this season, and thus didn't have the money to replace Scola if he'd left.

A somewhat similar logic applies to Lowry, who will be paid awfully well for a backup point guard but would have been near-impossible to replace on the open market. As for Miller, I'm not a big fan of that deal -- three years is a long time for a 34-year-old who struggled mightily last season -- but Euro softie David Andersen wasn't cutting the mustard as a backup 5 and the market for centers got frothy really quickly.

Houston looks to be a 50-plus win team again, but the nice thing is that the Rockets still have an out if this doesn't work. With $33 million in expiring contracts and only two players making more than $10 million a season, they can change gears quickly if the mix doesn't turn out how they hoped.

 

I was thinking the same thing! he didnt mention us in his winners or losers article, so before opening it i figured we'd HAVE to be here......then he goes and puts us last. At least he sees us as a 50+ win team, which we are.