Free Agent Movement v1.0

So in looking at the current free agent market, today is the day that free agents can begin signing with their new teams. Recently the only signings that have happened was the signing of the draft picks by various teams, but now big name free agents (at least the biggest of the year) are definitely moving about, and offers are being thrown left and right and big things are happening. Here's my breakdown so far:

Winners:

Philadelphia 76ers

Elton Brand ($82 million for 5 years)

The Sixers lose Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth, and a future pick for cap space that will in essence bring them Elton Brand. It's not official yet, but everything's pretty much settled save the actually signing of the contract. Sixers win big on this one, here we have the dark horse 7th seed of the Eastern Conference adding to their thin frontcourt, in a frontcourt thin Eastern Conference. With this they bolster their starting lineup with veterancy, and not only that, but it helps that your veteran is a perennial 20-10 performer as well. Regardless of how they break down the starting 5 it'll look scary, I believe that it'll be something like this:
PG - Andre Miller
SG - Willie Green
SF - Andre Iguodala
PF - Elton Brand
C - Samuel Dalembert
You also add in the athletic forward Thaddeus Young off the bench alongside with speedster Lou Williams (as I've heard the East Coast version of Monta Ellis), and it's a solid team. It definitely helps the Eastern Conference look semi-respectable again. I believe it definitely helps them jump the Sixers immediately to the 4th or 5th spot in the Eastern Conference (still behind Boston, Detroit, and Orlando).

Orlando Magic

Mickael Pietrus

I don't exactly know the terms of the deal, but I think that this has been greatly underplayed by the Elton Brand story, so it's not huge, but it definitely solidifies the team. It adds a long athletic SG for Orlando and definitely gives them a more consistent scorer and defender than Keith Bogans or Maurice Evans. They won't need him to shoot as many 3's what with Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Jameer Nelson on the perimeter, but he spreads the floor even more giving Dwight Howard (or as I call him Shawn Kemp 2.0) even more room to operate. The starting five would be:
PG - Jameer Nelson
SG - Mickael Pietrus
SF - Hedo Turkoglu
PF - Rashard Lewis
C - Dwight Howard
Maybe Tony Battie will be back and give them a boost, and then also they can move JJ Reddick maybe for some depth with the possibility of both Carlos Arroyo and Keyon Dooling leaving. Depth again I think becomes an issue with the Magic, but they are continually improving.

Losers:

Los Angeles Clippers

Baron Davis ($65 million for 6 years)

Davis is good, but as soon as he came Maggette was out the door and now with Brand jumping ship to the 76ers, the Clippers had better hope they can make offers to either Emeka Okafor or Josh Smith that the Bobcats or Hawks can't match. As good as Baron Davis is, he's never really shown that he cares to win that much. His move to LA was simply to get back to LA and get a longer contract more than trying to get on a contending team. Sure I don't think he'll be happy if his team is a losing one but I doubt that he seriously considered the Clippers a contender, maybe a for a playoff berth, but a serious contender even if Brand had stayed. The current lineup looks like so:
PG - Baron Davis
SG - Cuttino Mobley
SF - Tim Thomas
PF - Al Thornton
C - Chris Kaman
You've got guys like Quinton Ross, Brevin Knight, Eric Gordon, and Josh Powell coming off the bench. Unless Eric Gordon turns out to be some kind of rookie stud that the Clippers somehow stole at 7th, I don't see them being very good, especially with teams like Portland getting much better with the return of Greg Oden and the signing of Rudy Fernadez. Clippers better hope they can get the other PF free agents. Also assuming that Kaman continues his 18.5 pt and 13 rbd average even after playing all summer in the Olympics with Dirk Nowitzki for Germany (seriously, what's up with that?)

Washington Wizards

Antawn Jamison ($50 million for 5 years)
Gilbert Arenas ($111 million for 6 years)

So... the Wizards haven't really gotten anywhere with their roster, and their solution to that was... to what? Bring back the same roster but pay them more? As much as anyone can argue how good this team is on paper when all of them are healthy, the past two seasons have done little but show that you can't really expect these two with Caron Butler to be consistently healthy. I mean seriously, Arenas is coming off of 2 knee surgeries in 2 years, on the same knee... I know I'm saying this a lot, but, seriously. What were they thinking? Roster looks exactly the same:
PG - Gilbert Arenas
SG - DeShawn Stevenson
SF - Caron Butler
PF - Antawn Jamison
C- Brendan Haywood
The only good things that come out of the past two seasons were the pleasant discoveries that Antonio Daniels and Brendan Haywood aren't as bad as we thought they were, and that Andray Blatche actually has some talent. However, even if Etan Thomas comes back from surgery, the Wizards are still looking to be early exits out of the playoffs, perrenial early exits.

TBD:

Golden State Warriors

Corey Maggette ($50 million for 5 years)
Ronnie Turiaf ($17 million for 4 years)

Ok, so Ronnie Turiaf isn't guaranteed yet, but considering that the Lakers are only willing to offer him a $1 million one year qualifying offer, I don't see them matching the Warriors' offer anytime soon. Maggette will fill in the void that is left by Barnes and Pietrus, and then Turiaf adds a grittiness down low that the Warriors have been lacking all this time. Sure, Turiaf isn't going to get you your 20-10, but hey, he'll do well enough. Hopefully Brandon Wright and Marco Bellinelli will step up this year, Warriors seem to like 2nd year breakouts, look to see Kelena Azubuike get his due too. Lineup should look like so:
PG - Monta Ellis
SG - Stephen Jackson
SF - Corey Maggette
PF - Al Harrington
C- Andris Biedrins
With Bellinelli, Wright, Azubuike, and Turiaf coming off the bench. They don't look as nice, but I think they'll do fine. Of course ideally you'd want someone other than Ellis manning the point, so there are hopes for a PG off the market, along with the development of CJ Watson (my coworker is hoping for Stephon Marbury to get bought out and pulling a quick sign for cheap like Steve Francis and the Rockets)