The Big Questions After the Dust Settles

The flurry of phone calls and speculation is all over, with the trade deadline come and gone, all we have to speculate about now is the current state of the teams involved. Of course we could continue to wonder about what teams will do on the waiver wire, such as; will New Orleans be able to convince PJ Brown to come out of retirement? Will Detroit sign Dale Davis after waiving Flip Murray? Which team (Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston, or Golden State) will pick up waived Brent Barry? However, those are minor issues across the spectrum of things. We all know that the Lakers won out with their trade for Pau Gasol and the Shaq on the Suns trade seems to be working out, what about the other teams we haven't seen yet?

With the added talent surrounding Lebron, is Cleveland now a contender?
Despite my continual assertion that with Lebron, anything is possible, the Cleveland Cavaliers have never been contenders for the title. However, I commend Danny Ferry on his efforts and flurry of movement through the trade deadline yesterday. To be brutally honest, Cleveland has replaced mediocrity, with improved mediocrity. The hope is, that it's enough to give James his support as the Cavs go into playoffs. Don't get me wrong, Joe Smith, Ben Wallace, Wally Sczerbiak, and Delonte West are big improvements over Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Shannon Brown, Cedric Simmons, Donyell Marshall, and Ira Newble, but they are by no means team-saving caliber material. I'd call them serviceable at best. Delonte West is a valuable combo guard that will fit in nicely, he can handle the ball, shoot the ball, pass the ball, he'll be big especially with Daniel Gibson out for 4-6 weeks, he's shown streaks of good play, even from his Boston days, he's just never had enough consistent minutes to really make something of it, if anyone, I'd keep an eye on West the most. Ben Wallace now gets to move back to his original position of PF, I imagine that he'll be plugged in when the Cavs need some defense, Joe Smith will be used because he shown everyone lately that he can score, I imagine those two will platoon the time next to Big Z, and will further share time with Big Z and Anderson Varejao once he gets back. Sczerbiak is a prolific shooter despite his horrible defense, a step up from Donyell Marshall, so look to him to just spread the floor, and take pop-up 3s, I'm pretty sure that's all anybody expects from him. The trade helps the Cavs, but certainly doesn't make them championship material. I still stand that if any team not from Boston or Detroit makes the Finals from the East, then we're looking at a repeat from last year, a pretty boring NBA Finals series.

Do the Spurs have a better shot after beefing up?
The biggest danger of the Spurs' acquisition of Kurt Thomas is Brent Barry getting healthy, signing with another team, and suddenly getting a hot hand, which in this situation, is entirely possible. However, there's a huge chance that Barry might wait out for 30 days and then just come right back to the Spurs (what Stackhouse wanted to do with the Mavs). Greg Popovich and the Spurs have always been somewhat defensive minded, so someone like Kurt Thomas fits the bill pretty well. He's a solid defender that can give even Mr. Fundamental, Tim Duncan, trouble in the paint, so he's a solid big man to play next to Duncan. Additionally, his midrange game allows for the middle to be opened up, giving Duncan more room to do his thing, he'll help out a lot, especially given how old Robert Horry is getting. I expect him to share time with Fabricio Oberto. Now, a lot of people are concerned that 11 players on the Spurs roster are over 30, and yeah, that's sort of disconcerting, for next season and the seasons to come. As far as I'm concerned they're a perennial contender and they've still got a shot at their dynasty.

Beyond that, New Orleans addressed their depth issue with Mike James and Bonzi Wells, and should look to rest up Chris Paul as they go into the playoffs, all other trades were sort of inconsequential, unless you think Von Wafer for Taureen Green is big news.