NBA Trades & Free Agency: 4 Surprising Moves of the 2019 offseason

The 2019 free agency doors opened on 30th June, a Sunday night, and things started off hectic. In 2018, we saw LeBron James sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, Chris Paul resign with the Houston Rockets, Paul George resign with the Oklahoma City Thunder, DeAndre Jordan sign with the Dallas Mavericks, and many more. The most shocking signing came when big man DeMarcus Cousins signed with the Golden State Warriors. At that point, the whole league was in shock because it was not expected at all.

But if you thought that the 2018 free agency was crazy, this year's free-agent class was much better with more star players entering the market. Players including Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, and Kemba Walker, all hit the market.

With that being said, here are 4 surprising moves made in the 2019 offseason so far.

#1 D'Angelo Russell to the Warriors

Until the day of free agency, there was no news of the Golden State Warriors being interested in Russell (or vice versa). Teams that were supposedly interested in Russell were the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Warriors aren't the type of team to make crazy trades in free agency, or in general. We saw them trade Andre Iguodala to the Houston Rockets but trading for DLo makes sense, as they lost All-Star Kevin Durant who signed with the Brooklyn Nets. They wanted to make sure to get some sort of compensation for losing him and the result was D'Angelo, a young point guard/shooting guard that continues to improves his numbers.

Now that they secured Klay Thompson with a 5-year, $190 million contract, the starting five seems to be at first not as lethal with KD gone. But with Curry, Thompson, and Russell, the offense should continue to be on fire.