They didn't stand pat and they didn't panic and sign bad contracts, but that's not enough to say they had one of the best offseasons in the league. Not for a .500 team anyway.
There are a bunch of ways to evaluate off-seasons because there is not one singular goal for the off-season that applies to all organizations. 'Make the organization better' comes with caveats as to when, and for how much, and to what degree. 'Win a championship' has teams at different places on the path towards that goal - some teams aren't even on the path, they have to find their way back to the path.
Hollinger on the Athletic rated the Celtics as one of the top 5 off-seasons: Nets, Wizards, Celtics, Bucks, Spurs. His list of the bottom 6 was Toronto, New Orleans, Chicago, Minnesota, Portland and Utah.
The things that seemed to matter to him were, in no particular order:
- Activity (Minnesota did almost nothing)
- Impact (Portland, they re-signed Powell, signed 3 minimum vets, didn't use their MLE as a team that's stuck in 1st/2nd round purgatory with a star that's itching to get better or get out)
- Flexibility (Wizards moves opened up their future moves possibilities even if you think they didn't really change their salary situation or their on-court product very much)
- Value (Chicago, he thinks DeRozan is a gross overpay, Toronto he thinks that the contracts they gave Gary Trent Jr./Khem Birch makes no sense)
- Big Picture (Boston's roster makes more sense, they cleared up their cap situation and can be a cap-room team for 2022)
I think where you stand on Chicago reveals a lot about how you evaluate off-seasons. I've seen a lot of commentary about how Chicago made big moves in Ball and DeRozan, they're a team that got substantially better. At the same time, they're a team that traded away a star in Butler partly because they didn't want to be locked in purgatory, started rebuilding, got a new star in LaVine, and now they're fully committed salary-wise to be...locked in purgatory? What's the ceiling for this Chicago team? The 4th seed?