NBA offseason grades - Where the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors and every West team check in

Which NBA Western Conference teams have done the best and worst this offseason?

Although the futures of Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell remain unresolved, the bulk of the NBA's summer activity has been completed, giving executives a much-needed chance to take a break after conducting three drafts and three free agency periods in the past 21 months.

As a result, it's time to look back on how well teams took advantage of their opportunity to upgrade their rosters for either the 2022-23 season or the more distant future. (Immediate improvement won't necessarily get credit if it came at the expense of long-term results.)

These offseason grades are on a curve with «B» as the most common outcome, and they reflect the opportunities teams had to improve their rosters via the draft and cap space to use in free agency. Teams don't necessarily get credit for having a high draft pick or cap space as the product of past moves. And the draft isn't weighted as heavily as moves involving NBA veterans because of our uncertainty about prospects.

Keeping that framework in mind, let's get to the grades in the West, starting with a contender that just lost one of its cornerstones:

Watching free agent guard Jalen Brunson sign with the New York Knicks was a tough blow to the Mavericks in the wake of their run to the West finals. Having opted not to offer Brunson the largest possible extension last summer ($55.6 million over four years, which Dorian Finney-Smith did sign in February), Dallas saw Brunson basically double that total in a $110 million contract the team was unwilling to beat.

Already deep in the luxury tax, the Mavericks had limited options to replace Brunson and instead chose to invest their taxpayer midlevel exception in center