Twenty-seven percent of NBA players polled by ESPN agree: The Boston Celtics make the league’s best free-agency pitches.
The worldwide leader polled “48 NBA pros” on various hot topics, including LeBron James’ free agency, DeMarcus Cousins’ future with the New Orleans Pelicans and LaVar Ball’s impact on the Los Angeles Lakers’ appeal. ESPN also asked these players which teams make the best sales pitches each summer, and the Celtics won by a relative landslide.
Here’s how this question panned out:
Celtics: 27 percent
Heat: 15 percent
Lakers: 12 percent
Warriors: 9 percent
Other: 37 percent
Others gaining votes: Clippers, Grizzlies, Hornets, Knicks, Mavericks, Pacers, Rockets, Spurs, Wizards“Boston [has the best]. If you bring Tom Brady? That’s pretty damn cool.” — Eastern Conference guard
Good luck refuting these findings—particularly if you’re basing the returns off the past two summers.
The Celtics are two-for-two on superstar recruitments during this time. They signed Al Horford in 2016 and then poached Gordon Hayward from the Utah Jazz last July. They also deserve similar praise for appealing to Kyrie Irving as part of his trade request. He lacked real leverage, since he’s signed through next season, but many believe teams like the Phoenix Suns didn’t make a deal for him because he was unlikely to stick around after his current contract. That the Celtics unloaded the Brooklyn Nets pick to get him suggests they weren’t treated to those mixed signals.
The rest of this list is fairly interesting. We could have guessed the Miami Heat would finish in second. Pat Riley’s recruiting meetings are legendary. He helped woo LeBron James in 2010, and the Heat, along with the Jazz and Celtics, were one of three finalists in last summer’s Hayward sweepstakes.
Seeing the Lakers at third is a bit of a surprise. They haven’t landed a marquee free agent in some time, despite repeated attempts to stage offseason coups. Hell, they needed a mulligan meeting with LaMarcus Aldridge in 2015. Are they really better at pitching free agents than the Warriors, who signed Kevin Durant, a top-five player, in 2016?
Finally, shout-out to whoever voted for the New York Knicks. Your standards are clearly pretty low.
