Winners and losers from NBA free agency: Bulls continue to confound

Winner: Philadelphia 76ers 

This could go either way, as the 76ers have had the biggest boom or bust offseason of any team in the NBA. 

It’s wild that Paul George got that much more money than DeMar DeRozan, as they are the same age and DeRozan has been the far more durable player. 

You can argue playing style but DeRozan’s numbers were better last season and the guy never misses games. I'd bet on three years of DeRozan at $74 million over four years of George for $212 million. Just a side rant there. 

Theoretically, adding a third star with Embiid and Maxey makes Philly one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. They signed good role players in Oubre Jr. and Caleb Martin, who are nice fits with their three stars. 

But they have no depth and are relying on historically injury-prone players not to be injured.  

I like that they are trying to max their window with Embiid and if Philly can win a title in the next few seasons, it will have paid off. But Philly won’t have the depth to absorb injuries, so keeping George and Embiid healthy will be the priority. 

Loser: Milwaukee Bucks 

Tick tock. 

That’s the sound of the timer on the Damian Lillard/Giannis Antetokounmpo pairing. 

All of Milwaukee’s biggest competition got better this summer while they did next to nothing. 

They didn’t even take an NBA-ready player in the draft, instead using their picks on project guys in AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith. 

The Bucks still have a chance to change their roster with a trade or low-level free-agent signing, but adding Taurean Prince in free agency wasn’t enough to keep up with Boston, New York or Philly and the young teams coming up may even overtake Milwaukee, who is getting old fast and has challenges to adding additional talent because they are a second apron team.