Trade Review v1.0

So, since draft day there have been a couple of major players in the trade market, making some major moves. Most notable among those would be Memphis, Minnesota, Indiana, Toronto, and Portland. So this is my personal grading of the trades that have happened, and basically, who I think wins from all this.

Grizzlies and Timberwolves:
Memphis sends Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins
Minnesota sends OJ Mayo, Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker, and Greg Buckner

My gut instinct is to tell me that Memphis got fleeced again. Seriously, but when I take a long hard look at this I can't really think how either team wins in this. In essence, if you boil it down, it's OJ Mayo for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, and cap space (which Memphis has plenty of to give). It's a far cry from the highway robbery that was Pau Gasol, it definitely doesn't look very pretty for Memphis. What does Memphis get out of this, potentially one of the better guards in this year's rookie class: OJ Mayo, making the team younger, centered now around Rudy Gay and OJ Mayo and.... who else? Marko Jaric? Darko Milicic? I'm gonna guess that they hope that for Marc Gasol Spanish League MVP translates into something tangible on the NBA court. Of course, with Memphis, I don't think you ever know what they're thinking. Honestly, given how they're in a permanent rebuilding phase (until like 2015), I think the biggest mistake was wanting Mayo enough to give up Mike Miller. Even if Memphis wanted to get rid of Mike Miller, I'm almost positive they could've gotten a lot more value out of him. OJ Mayo could be explosive, he could be like the next great super star, we could be saying OJ Mayo and Brandon Roy's names next to each other like some long awaited match up of the century, or, he could end up being the guy on your fantasy roster that somehow gets 40 minutes a game, but you're really not sure what he does with them (think DeShawn Stevenson), that's a huge gamble there, of course, it's Memphis, so I don't know that they have much to lose.

Minnesota gets arguably one of the better big men in the draft in Kevin Love, and a prolific impact player in Mike Miller, add on the fact you get rid of Marko Jaric's $42 million contract, what's not to like? Well, firstly, we have to look at the T'wolves as a team. First, T'Wolves are nowhere near the playoffs and nowhere near looking like they're moving towards being playoff bound within the next 3 seasons, sorry Mike Miller, but we'll effectually be wasting the prime of your basketball career. Second problem, Al Jefferson can't guard centers, Al Jefferson is not a center. So... get another big man, right? Problem, Kevin Love is even less of a center than Al Jefferson. As great as Kevin Love's outlet passing and overall skills are, he's potentially a liability on defense, as he's slow, and his athleticism is often in question. So essentially, you lock Al Jefferson at center, a position he can't, and really isn't suited playing, and you play a mini-White clone of him at PF. I'm really not sold on this front-court. It's two players, one playing out of position, and one playing undersized, getting banged up under the basket. I don't see how Kevin McHale smells victory with this combo. Congrats on getting Mike Miller, but this roster still doesn't look like it's going anywhere.

Pacers and Raptors
Indiana send Jermaine O'Neal and rights to Nathan Jawai
Toronto sends TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovich, Maceo Baston, and the rights to Roy Hibbert

Is it me, or does Indiana suddenly have like 6 centers? I'm really not sure where they're going with this, but I suppose Jeff Foster and Troy Murphy can technically count as power forwards. Between them, you also add on Rasho, another high upside defensive rookie in Roy Hibbert, and the developing Shawne Williams. Not sure where they'll get the minutes, but I'm sure it'll be a spectacular front court... Right now, I don't feel like there's really a great way for Indiana to "win" in any trade, they carry way to much excess baggage as a franchise. Getting rid of all the old players (Jermaine, Artest, Jackson, Harrington) is a start, and with Ford coming in it's fairly apparent that Tinsley, one of the last of the infamous thug-Pacer era will soon be seeing his way out the door. That leaves them with... the new big 3! TJ Ford, Mike Dunleavy Jr, Danny Granger! Sorry Indiana, but I'm just not really shaking in my boots right now. They go from a non-playoff bound team to a non-playoff bound team with fewer off the court problems, in the Eastern Conference.

For Toronto, the entire success in this trade rests on Jermaine O'Neal's ability to stay healthy enough to play at least 70 games in the regular season and through all of playoffs. Honestly though, looking at it on just paper, this team will be scary. With O'Neal and Bosh making up the front court, naturally you'd go with a pass first point in Jose Calderon over TJ Ford. That was the luxury that Toronto had all these years, they had two starting caliber point guards. Tack on role players like Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon and then a slew of perimeter shooters in Jason Kapono, Carlos Delfino, and Andrea Bargnani, and you've got a solid team. What O'Neal does best is not create shots, and on a team with Bosh, he won't need to, he'll be able to do what he does best which is grab rebounds. He'll get his fair share of scoring, and with Bosh's ability to spread the floor with his range, it'll be easy. Pending any injury notices Toronto definitely wins out on this one. They are easily one of the top 5 in the East.

Blazers and Pacers
Portland sends Jarret Jack, Josh McRoberts, and rights to Brandon Rush
Indiana sends Ike Diogu and rights to Jerryd Bayless

I've only seen a couple of rookie highlights of Jerryd Bayless so I'm not entirely certain of how he plays. However, from what I've seen and heard, he's an excellent penetrator who can create his own shot. Playing alongside Brandon Roy, I think he has a great shot to grow and develop into a deadly player, perhaps a next coming of Allen Iverson. Ike Diogu just really shores up the reserves and depth of an already monstrous front court. With Oden coming back, if he really only turns out to be as good as Andrew Bogut or something, playing alongside LaMarcus Aldridge, Blazers are solid.

With the arrival of reserve guard Jarret Jack, it's almost guaranteed that Jamaal Tinsley is leaving. Brandon Rush looks to be good talent, but again, Indiana really doesn't look like it's going anywhere anytime soon.

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)