The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 2

Continuing on, two other teams mentioned in regards to the whole Melo trade speculation thing have been the Bulls and Rockets.  Here's what I think it will boil down to...


Chicago Bulls send Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah, and James Johnson to Denver for Melo.
Frankly if this ever gets proposed and this does end up happening Ujiri will look like a genius and Paxson an idiot.  It's not that I don't like Melo, but the Bulls are getting fleeced for this deal, unless a third team gets involved and Chicago gets more out of this, this is the only way Chicago can even muster up enough salary to match Melo, short of trading Derrick Rose.  While a core of Rose, Melo, and Carlos Boozer is quite formidable, the Bulls essentially have gutted their entire frontcourt.  Chicago is now relegated to once again searching free agency, since their C slot is relegated to Omer Asik and Kurt Thomas, leaving no one really to backup Carlos Boozer.  I don't mind a 3 big rotation, but only if the three bigs are of high caliber.  Not to knock on Asik and Thomas, but frankly, Asik is completely unproven and Thomas, well, at best he'd be the third big. 

As for Denver, well, they get an amazingly solid lineup.  The presence of Noah will slide Nene back to PF, where he is more comfortable, and then Deng can take Melo's starting spot.  While perhaps not as offensively polished as Melo, Deng can hold his own and is a defensive force to be reckoned with.  Tack on the hustle and rebounding of Taj Gibson, plus scoring off the bench of Al Harrington (provided the rotations work out) and the Nuggets actually get better by getting rid of their best player.


Houston Rockets send Kevin Martin and Shane Battier to Denver for Melo.
Ultimately I really see this to be something of a wash, since it involves how well Melo meshes with a very team oriented system on Rick Adelman's Rockets.  This certainly allows Courtney Lee to get his chance as a starter on the Rockets next to a formidable lineup of Aaron Brooks, Melo, Luis Scola, and Yao Ming (if healthy).  While they don't have a number of big name players, Jared Jeffries can spot minutes as a defensive specialist, and Kyle Korver and Brad Miller off the bench is still a pretty good system roster wise.  Melo definitely is a step up from Kevin Martin scoring wise and should take a lot of that load off of Yao, providing a very balanced offense with Scola's hustle and Brooks's shooting.

On the flip side, Kevin Martin and Shane Battier slide into the Nuggets' starting lineup quite well.  However, the question is, how well will a platoon of J.R. Smith and Arron Afflalo for minutes work behind Martin in the depth charts.  Again, it's muuch more of a horizontal movement than any improvement given Martin's peaking game and Battier's decline due to age.

The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 1

So, Denver's front office has said that it will listen to trade offers for Melo, so as per usual, me and my trade mongering ways, I am going crazy with ESPN's trade machine. Rumors have the Nuggets asking for "top-tier young players, future first-round draft picks, young assets (i.e. high-upside players with relatively affordable contracts), and salary cap savings."  Chad Ford of ESPN also says that New Jersey is the front runner for Melo.  So here's the mongering!

New Jersey Nets send Derrick Favors, Troy Murphy, and Kris Humphries to Denver for Melo.
Chad Ford has this as the "intriguing" package that New Jersey has to offer.  Of course, the trade would mostly be for Favors, so Ujiri would be banking entirely on the upside of the 3rd overall pick of the 2010 draft.  Troy Murphy is more for an expiring contract piece and like Humphries is mostly there to make the money match.  While Humphries is a solid energy man off the bench for a thinner frontcourt given Kenyon Martin's injury, Troy Murphy is basically a white, more expensive, slightly better rebounding version of Al Harrington.  It's pretty ironic that it was only a few years ago that they were traded for each other (Golden State and Indiana).  While neither Harrington nor Murphy spell a move for Nene back to his more comfortable PF position, it does add a substantial amount of depth to the frontcourt, giving them two PFs with excellent range, unfortunately Favors and Humphries are both also PF and Favors is definitely someone that Denver would want to develop.  With Chris Andersen already spelling minutes as backup this creates mostly a logjam more than any significant amount of depth to be afraid of, as none of Harrington, Murphy, Favors, nor Humphries look to sop up minutes as a center in a non-Don Nelson rotation.  That means 6 players (Favors, Murphy, Harrington, Martin, Shelden Williams, and Renaldo Balkman) fighting for 48 minutes at one position.  Naturally, now that they have no SF, it's entirely possible to see Harrington slide back to SF where he originally played in Atlanta, but like Josh Smith, he is a little slow on the defensive end in keeping up with the wings.  It's possible to see J.R. Smith and/or Arron Afflalo start to see minutes at the SF slot with a dual PG thing with Billups at the 2 and Ty Lawson seeing more minutes.  That'll be something for George Karl to figure out.  In general, other than a cost cutting mechanism, it's not really looking like a good thing for Denver. 

For New Jersey, well they get Melo.  They do effectively trade away all of their PFs though.  While Melo and Outlaw can both play spot minutes at the 4 slot, it's not something I'm entirely comfortable seeing either doing for long stretches.  This makes Joe Smith the primary PF, and while that should be okay around a core offense of Devin Harris, Melo, and Brook Lopez, it's not really something I think ideal.  I like the young sharpshooter Anthony Morrow manning the SG slot and keeping defenses honest with his range, but depth at every position other than SF is something of a concern.  Johan Petro is a great addition as a hustle guy behind Brook Lopez, but all other positions are only one deep, which means a lot of extended minutes for the starters or a lot of people playing out of position.  While getting Melo may sound good, I'm not sure I'm entirely in favor of this trade, I don't think it's really good for either team. 


New York Knicks send Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, and Eddy Curry to Denver for Melo.
This now is entirely in the realm of my personal speculation.  I think ultimately Gallinari is the biggest asset that New York has to offer.  Whether or not Ujiri sees enough upside in him may also determine whether or not New York throws in even more picks which it doesn't really have a lot of, into the deal or something.  Eddy Curry is finally an expiring contract, and at worse is just that, if Curry does somehow make a comeback, he might be a decent low-post option to slide Nene back to PF.  Gallinari and Chandler make a decent 1-2 combo at the small forward position, and if Gallinari pans out, it'll be all in all something good for Denver, as he brings a lot of similar skillsets that Melo brings to the table.  Chandler is a good athletic spark plug off the bench and also solid defensively. 

For New York, well, it's part 2 of the supposed Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire big 3.  It certainly adds another major scoring punch, but coexistence with Amar'e may be questionable.  Though, if Melo did it decently with Allen Iverson, I don't suppose it'll be significantly more difficult than that.  With Raymond Felton at PG it'll be a decent lineup with a high potential Anthony Randolph and high energy Ronny Turiaf sharing the frontcourt with Amar'e.  At the 2 you have decent shooters of Roger Mason and Kelenna Azubuike as well as the scoring energy of Bill Walker.  If Tony Douglas keeps up the strong play behind Felton, then I think the Knicks all-in-all would have a pretty dang good team.  Not stellar, but definitely middle of the pack good.  Playoff good.

Those are the two main teams I think that have a shot at landing Melo in the East.  While there are teams that I think might need him, it's entirely up to speculation.  Melo has expressed interest in Orlando, but frankly, I don't know that they can offer enough and I don't think Melo is a good enough fit to be worth speculating excessively about it.  I'll post more later.

Revisiting NBA Jam: The Eastern Conference

Apparently they're making this again. I did this already before, but not for a couple of years, let's do this again...

If I recall correctly you have three players per team of which you have to choose a two player combination, on the list I will list the defaults then add the third player. 

EASTERN CONFERENCE:

Atlanta Hawks:
Default: Joe Johnson, Josh Smith
Res: Al Horford
This isn't going to change unless the Hawks decide to trade Josh Smith or something.  As bad as the Joe Johnson contract is, NBA Jam is hardly a game that looks at the long-term prospects of players.  This would probably be one of my personal favorite teams to play with, I'd love bombing those alley-oops all day, with the crazy 3/4 shots from Johnson.  Horford is probably going to be the third player that no one ever uses, though maybe we could use Jamal Crawford instead.

Boston Celtics:
Default: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett
Res: Rajon Rondo
It's hard to leave Ray Allen off of this short list, but with the emergence of Rondo and the decline of the Big 3 it's hard to justify adding Allen at the expense of the 3rd best point guard in the league.  Pierce and Garnett still remain the face, though Rondo is slowly usurping them.  If only Garnett could still play like this in real life.  No love for the O'Neals, but that's really not surprising.

Charlotte Bobcats:
Default: Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace
Res: Boris Diaw
The third player here is pretty much just something of an afterthought.  You know he's there, but you only really look to see who he is, and you'll only ever play with him if you accidentally choose him to be on your team.  That being said, Jackson and Wallace would probably be something I'd enjoy playing too.  Especially since Jam players are indestructible, so if they don't give Gerald Wallace concussions in the game, I'm happy with it.

Chicago Bulls:
Default: Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer
Res: Luol Deng
Boozer was the big free agent addition this year, so this would be interesting.  Deng is probably one of the more interesting third options, despite his injuries, the whole invincible player thing would solve that problem.  So let's not worry about it.  Though a substitution thingy would be pretty nifty, I can see it being frustrating actually having injuries.

Cleveland Cavaliers:
Default: Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison
Res: Jamario Moon
Cleveland once again becomes the team that everyone avoids like the plague, it'll be kind of sad, probably more than kind of.  Moon, the former Globetrotter makes the cut because, well, he's a former Globetrotter.

Detroit Pistons:
Default: Ben Gordon, Richard Hamilton
Res: Tayshaun Prince
There are going to be a number of these plague-like teams.  Honestly, just looking at the roster I had a hard time figuring out who I would actually enjoy playing with on this team...  As tempting as Charlie Villanueva, Chris Wilcox, and Kwame Brown would've been, I showed restraint.

Indiana Pacers:
Default: Danny Granger,Tyler Hansbrough
Res: Darren Collison
This is only marginally easier than Detroit to figure out due to the presence of Danny Granger on the roster.  I think Collison will be a big part of the Pacers offense.  Though I know that this is not an accurate portrayal of the ethnic demographic of the Pacers team, I could not in my right mind bring myself to make a team of Tyler Hansbrough, Jeff Foster, and Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Miami Heat:
Default: Dwayne Wade, LeBron James
Res: Chris Bosh
Gee... that was hard.  Insert joke about Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Juwan Howard.

Milwaukee Bucks:
Default: Brandon Jennings, Andrew Bogut
Res: John Salmons
I think Michael Redd is done, and I'm sure everyone hopes that Bogut makes a full recovery.  I wonder who they'd get to call the game (it was Steve Kerr if I remember the Live series correctly, but that was 2008).  It would be sweet to hear them saying Mbah a Moute, seriously.

New Jersey Nets:
Default: Devin Harris, Brook Lopez
Res: Troy Murphy
I kind of wanted to squeeze Travis Outlaw in there somehow, but hey, this is good.  Nets still seem like a sad team, but there are other teams that seem sadder.  Still, I suppose you can't get much worse than 18 wins.  Good thing this isn't real life.

New York Knicks:
Default: Amar'e Stoudemire, Anthony Randolph
Res: Danilo Gallinari
I hope the Knicks keep Randolph, and I hope he develops into a great player, he's got the potential.  I kind of feel bad for Wilson Chandler with the addition of Kelenna Azubuike and D'Antoni's propensity to move forward with Gallinari.  I think these are the only three players that are going to be here for the long haul.  Maybe this is the only opportunity for Eddy Curry to get some playing time.


Orlando Magic:
Default: Dwight Howard, Vince Carter
Res: Jameer Nelson
This is one way I can continue to convince myself that Vince Carter has still got game.  Hard leaving Rashard Lewis off, but he's fallen off so much, it's hard to justify putting him on.  Besides, who doesn't want to see Jameer Nelson dunk on and swat 7-footers?

Philadelphia 76ers:
Default: Andre Iguodala, Elton Brand
Res: Louis Williams
This was the first team I was tempted to put a rookie on, but Evan Turner was so disappointing in Summer League that Sixer fans would probably get angry at how good he is in the game.  I really can't figure out who is actually any good on this team, but that has never made a difference.

Toronto Raptors:
Default: Andrea Bargnani, Leandro Barbosa
Res: Jose Calderon
Until Calderon gets traded, we'll stick with this.  When Andrea Bargnani is your primary scoring option, your team is screwed.  If you beat someone else with this team though, you got bragging rights.  Can't you imagine running around screaming: "YOU JUST GOT POSTERIZED BY ANDREA BARGNANI!  YOU GOT DUNKED ON BY A GUY NAMED ANDREA!!!"

Washington Wizards:
Default: John Wall, Gilbert Arenas
Res: JaVale McGee
Eh... this was a pretty hard one too, throwing Yi Jianlian out was hard.  Oh well.  Wall is supposed to be good, so he goes in here.  Arenas... sure.  McGee... well... he almost made Team USA? or did he? What? Anyways, Epic Vale sure.

Seriously Cleveland? Suck it up

Sure, this probably feels a heck of a lot worse than the Carlos Boozer debacle in 2004.  Still, I'm sick and tired of reading about how LeBron James sucks for announcing on national television that he will sign with the Miami Heat.  Frankly, I don't know anybody outside of Miami that is happy.  Nobody.  Was getting on national TV and screwing over your hometown a poorly planned, narcissistic, inconsiderate, and frankly just plain bad move?  Probably.  Frankly, I think the only place that LeBron could have gone without getting all this flak would've been like to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where nobody knows what's going on, and that wasn't going to happen.  For the people that are upset in regards to the decision to have a fairly classless announcement of his decision via an ESPN interview on national television, I can't help you, it's bad press, it was a stupid PR stunt.  For those of you that are upset he didn't stay in Cleveland (ahem, Dan Gilbert), I have two words for you: shut up.  

Yes, James can probably dubbed an egotistical narcissist, I will neither deny nor endorse that statement.  From a purely basketball perspective though, let's consider what James has in store.  If Cleveland wants to blame anyone for LeBron leaving, blame the front office, seriously, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in all honesty (and my "expert" opinion) have never been championship contenders, that they even got this far is frankly (I think) a merit to how good LeBron James really is.  Seriously, since LeBron James was drafted in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers the Cavs have never had anyone really any good outside of LeBron James.  In James's rookie year behind James you had Carlos Boozer, Ricky Davis, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas all averaging about 15 points per game, fair enough, that seems like a pretty good team, right?  You still got Tony Battie and Darius Miles coming off the bench.  In 2003-2004 the Lakers lost in the Finals to a well balanced Detroit Pistons featuring a starting five of Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, and Ben Wallace.  The Cavs?  Yeah, no playoffs.  LeBron was a rookie, fair enough.  In 2004-2005 season, no playoffs again for the Cavaliers.  Oh yeah, Spurs beat the Pistons in 7 that year.  Boozer and Davis are gone and the Cavs' second scoring option is Zydrunas Ilgauskas, behind him you now have Drew Gooden as your third offensive option and a huge curtail off behind that with minutes being sopped up by Robert Traylor, Ira Newble, and Jeff McInnis.  In the 2005-2006 season, Paul Silas gets canned as the head coach and replaced by Mike Brown.  The Cavs make the playoffs and lose in the second round to the Pistons.  Cavs front office got the brilliant idea to give a huge contract to Larry Hughes to play next to LeBron, we all know how well that worked... Hughes averaged a rough 15.5 points per game, kind of Ricky Davis-esque performance eh?  This year, the Mavericks collapse to the Heat after taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the series.  In 2006-2007 we're still featuring a "Big Three" of LeBron, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Larry Hughes/Drew Gooden.  The Cavs miraculously get to the finals only to get swept by the Spurs.  In 2007-2008 the Cavs revamp, Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes are traded for Ben Wallace and Joe Smith.  Smith is later traded to the Sonics for Wally Sczerbiak and Delonte West.  Something along those lines.  Cavs lose to the new Big Three of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett in the conference semifinals.  In 2008-2009, we revamp again, the Cavs draft J.J. Hickson and manage to acquire Mo Williams from the Bucks.  Then they are subsequently destroyed by Orlando's pick-and-roll game in the conference finals.  Finally in 2009-2010, to remedy their problems, the Cavs add Shaq, who is notoriously one of the worst pick-and-roll defenders in the league.  Yeah... makes a ton of sense right?  They trade mid-season for Antawn Jamison and then are ousted in the second round once again by Boston.

Now that's a quick snapshot history of the Cavs with LeBron on the team, and quite frankly, Dan Gilbert and Danny Ferry had done a horrendous job of putting any talent next to LeBron, any talent that would get them anywhere.  Some people might note that they've had the best record in the league before, so what?  The Mavericks had a 67-15 record going into the playoffs in 2006-2007, and they were beaten in the first round by Don Nelson's crazy ball Golden State Warriors.  Just because you're a good regular season team doesn't mean jack.  The only way it could mean anything would be if the NBA was formatted like the NCAA March Madness tournament, one and done.  It doesn't make a difference if Cleveland and LeBron had a 66-16 overall record for the 2008-2009 season, the fact that they couldn't guard a Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard pick-and-roll set means that they can't win in the playoffs.  Frankly Cleveland fans, if you're going to be angry, be angry at your FO, be angry at your team roster management, because frankly, they didn't get the job done.  Don't tell me they tried, because to be frank the Cavs were never that good.  

So LeBron is gone.  Yeah, he is.  He's gone, and it's too bad.  Don't blame him though, he's going where he can be successful.  Think about it logically, forget the money, we know he has enough.  If I'm LeBron, what are my choices?  The top were what? New Jersey, Cleveland, New York, Chicago, and Miami.  So think about this, who would I rather play with if I'm LeBron?  Who's going to give me the best shot at winning?  Should I go back to Cleveland where it's just Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison?  Where I haven't won anything in the past 7 years?  Should I go to New York where Amar'e is?  Play next to Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari?  Or New Jersey with Brook Lopez and Devin Harris, who almost broke the record for most losses in a season?  Chicago? With Carlos Boozer and Derrick Rose?  Or with Miami, where we already knew that Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, two fellow 2008 Team USA teammates and good friends, and fellow All-Stars have committed to sign?  Sure, he was a jerk to do it on national TV but we're all suckers for watching him do it.  Seriously Cleveland, suck it up, don't blame LeBron, if you're going to blame anyone, blame your organization for not being able to keep him.  Seriously, why do you think Garnett didn't win a ring until he got to Boston?  Seriously.  

The Exit Poll: Chicago Bulls

Next team up is the Chicago Bulls, the once great dynasty from the 1990s, oh, how the great have fallen.

Coach: Vinny Del Negro
PG: Derrick Rose, Jannero Pargo
SG: Kirk Hinrich, Flip Murray
SF: Luol Deng, James Johnson
PF: Taj Gibson, Hakim Warrick
C: Joakim Noah, Brad Miller
Reserves: Acie Law, Devin Brown, Rob Kurz, Chris Richard, Joe Alexander

I don't know where to start with this team.  I know Kelly Dwyer from Yahoo! Sports has a soft spot for this team.  I personally was rooting for the Mailman during the Finals in 1997 and 1998.  Now... well, frankly, they only made the Playoffs because the Raptors really are that bad.  I don't know enough about Del Negro to say how he does as head coach, but I've heard enough stories to know that he's not really that good, and I suppose I'm putting it a little more nicely than some of them.  Derrick Rose has shown potential, but not a whole lot else.  Sure he can score, sure he's fast, sure he can get assists, but his shot selection isn't stellar and he takes probably the most inefficient shot in basketball at a very, very high clip.  Everyone else, well, everyone else is a plug piece.  Noah and Gibson are both energy guys in the mold of someone like Anderson Varejao, while Deng, one of the premier mid-range shooters in the league, is primarily a viable instant-offense second option.  Hinrich is a facilitator and defensive specialist, great piece but only in the right system (say Portland?).  This means Derrick Rose is the go-to guy, not a go-to guy I'd look for.

I think most of these guys are expiring contracts.  Word on the street is Vinny Del Negro is out, but in terms of players, it's hard to say.  The obvious answer is a more consistent scorer, optimally someone in the post.  However, if we like Taj Gibson.  Well, I don't know that they want to get rid of or give up on Derrick Rose yet, but maybe an offensive option in the 2 and defensive options off the bench, better than James Johnson, Jannero Pargo, and Flip Murray.  Maybe a fully healthy Luol Deng will make the difference, but I can't say how much so.  Nothing short of a major re-haul, but maybe I'm biased, I don't really like anyone on the team aside from Deng.

The Exit Roll: Charlotte Bobcats

I apologize for those people that are looking to read my witty exposition and my failure to write for you.  Anyways, so here is my next piece, or set of pieces.  I'm looking at the teams that got ousted from the first round of the playoffs and how I think they can change it.  Let's go:

The Charlotte Bobcats.  Well, they did a lot better than people thought they would.  I personally think that they got bad luck drawing the Magic for the first round.  I really think that they had a shot if they drew Boston, but instead, they had to face Dwight Howard and a rather embarrassing first round sweep as their franchise playoff debut.  So going into this post season, how can they get better?  Well, let's start at the logical place, what do they have now?

Head Coach: Larry Brown
PG: Raymond Felton, D.J. Augustin
SG: Stephen Jackson, Larry Hughes
SF: Gerald Wallace, Stephen Graham
PF: Boris Diaw, Tyrus Thomas
C: Theo Ratliff, Tyson Chandler
Reserves: Nazr Mohammed, DeSagana Diop, Gerald Henderson, Alexis Ajinca

My first reaction to this roster is simply that, I like it.  It's a good lineup full of good players.  However, a slew of "good" players don't make up for the glaring lack of excellent players.  Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson are known for their above-average defense, and if Gerald Wallace weren't so injury prone then I would call him one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, and Stephen Jackson, well, he's showing his age.  Boris Diaw, well, he's not consistent, but when he's on, he's a good defender and Tyson Chandler is one of the premier post defenders in the league, but Chandler is also known to be an injury liability.  While I think Jackson and Wallace are decent offensively, the Bobcats don't really have a go-to offensive option.  Most notably they don't have a presence in the post, while Jackson is decent, he's not great and not someone I'd consider go-to down low.  Then, neither are Diaw, Tyrus Thomas, Theo Ratliff, nor Tyson Chandler.  Nazr Mohammed is decent, but I understand the reservation Larry Brown has for giving Mohammed extended minutes, we saw how that worked out in every team Mohammed's been on except San Antonio, and of course, that might have something to do with a little someone named Tim Duncan.

I like the core of Jackson, Wallace, and Chandler, and Gerald Henderson looks to be a good prospect, but they need someone, someone that can put points on the board, and given their age and injury track record, they have to win NOW.  I don't think they can get rid of Diaw, and Larry Hughes is an expiring contract, but to be honest, I can't say they have very attractive tradeable assets.  You figure that with 5 different centers they'd figure out something of a big man rotation, but given who it is, DeSagana Diop, Alexis Ajinca, Nazr Mohammed, and Theo Ratliff, they're not really tradeable.  The obvious upgrades, at least positionally, are PG or PF.  Raymond Felton and Boris Diaw, serviceable, but only if you have some offensive options next to them.  Given Stephen Jackson's underrated passing ability, maybe a score-first point guard (Gilbert Arenas?) or something...  Otherwise, a solid post scorer at PF (Carlos Boozer?).  I don't know that free agency is really an option to be frank, I don't know that they have the cap-space, so it's gotta be a trade, but they have all these bloated contracts: Diaw, Diop, Mohammed, etc...  We'll see how it works.  Hopefully Michael Jordan doesn't call too many of the shots.

Trades in the shadow of the All-Star Game

Okay, so I didn't watch the All-Star Game this year, from all reports it was okay that I didn't. I heard it wasn't really that good. Anyways, I check the boards to find, this massive trade between Washington and Dallas. It's something to ponder. In summary, it's Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton, and Quinton Ross.

Hm... how does this pan out? Not sure. We know that Washington is on firesale mode, and completely rebuilding, so it's not a bad deal for them, I think all the contracts are expiring, if not, Howard is a decent piece to build around. So the big question is how this works out for Dallas. I think Butler is an upgrade over Howard, but a marginal one, though many might disagree with me given Howard's recent slump. Though he doesn't bring the rebounding that Howard has, the presence of Shawn Marion mitigates the problem slightly. Additionally, Brendan Haywood I think is the clincher. He's somewhat underappreciated as a center since he played for Washington, he's not elite, but he certainly is an upgrade over Erick Dampier and Drew Gooden on the offensive and defensive ends respectively. I think DeShawn Stevenson is also a legitimate backup on the wings. All-in-all, way to capitalize Dallas. I anticipate Butler and Haywood will start immediately, so as soon as they get integrated into Rick Carlisle's system, Dallas becomes that much scarier. Singleton and Ross were pretty expendable so, Dallas gets an A for upgrading needs at starter and adding depth. Both Butler and Marion can shift between the 2 and 3 slots to the 3 and 4 slots, DeShawn Stevenson can play the same positions as Butler, and then adding in Terry and Dirk the wings are covered pretty well, then Dampier serves a suitable backup for Haywood. Score for Dallas.