Washington Wizards (so far)

The Wizards made minimal moves last summer and followed that with a disappointing campaign where they failed to make the playoffs. This summer was another fairly quiet one, will that be good enough to get back into the top eight in the East?

The first step of this off-season was bringing back Bradley Beal (5yrs/$120m). They went on to add  Ian Mahinmi (4yrs/$24m), Jason Smith (3yrs/$16m), Andrew Nicholson (4yrs/$26m), Trey Burke (for a 2nd rd pick), all veterans since they had no draft picks this year. They let go of Ramon Sessions (Hornets), Garrett Temple (Kings), Nene Hilario (Rockets) and Jared Dudley (Suns).

It doesn't feel like they lost much: Sessions is a nice backup PG, Dudley is a nice 3-point shooter, Temple is...I don't know Temple and Nene's best years were certainly behind him. Nothing that seems irreplaceable. Burke will take up the 2nd string PG minutes (not a bad fit, he's still young and hungry enough to be worthy of this kind of opportunity), Mahinmi replaces Nene (not as good as Nene at his peak, but played with some fire in the playoffs last year, seems like a nice veteran pickup down low), while Smith and Nicholson add size and rebounding at reasonable prices. The new isn't overwhelming but the old wasn't either. But then there was a late summer wild card: Tomas Satoransky, an intriguing Euro-vet most recently of Barcelona. He could be Ichiro, could Hideki Irabu, we just don't know. But its a great move for the Wizards, low risk, high reward, though it may take a while for him to find his groove in the NBA.

Starting five: PG Wall, SG Beal, SF Porter, PF Markieff, C Gortat with Burke, Satoransky, Oubre, Nicholson, Ochefu, Smith off the bench. Hard to tell if they're better. In 2013-14 and 2014-15, the Wizards made the 2nd round of the playoffs but deep down we all know they overachieved; then last year they failed to make the playoffs, but we all know they were better than that. So how good are they? I have no idea. My guess is Wall, Beal and Porter take a step forward allowing Oubre and Satoransky to make worthwhile contributions. If Markieff, Gortat, Nicholson and Mahinmi just do what they need to do, I think the Wizards could be 4th or 5th in the East. Realistically they're probably gonna struggle to get back to the post-season but I think they make it.