The Laundry List of NBA Trades

I'm going to attempt a list of all the trades from the NBA's trade deadline this afternoon. They came in a flurry. If I forget one or two or mess one up, let me know. Here we go...

1. New Orleans traded scoring two-guard Marcus Thornton to the Sacramento Kings for Milwaukee native Carl Landry.

Trade works for both sides. The Hornets add frontcourt depth and the Kings get a scorer alongside 'Reke Evans.


2. Baron Davis and the LAC 1st round pick to Cleveland in exchange for "Mo" Williams and Jamario Moon.

Donald Sterling is mean. I gotta believe Baron is saltier than a volcano burrito from Taco Bell. He has to leave his hometown and Blake Griffin to go to freakin' Cleveland and play with Antawn Jamison and Anderson Varejão. Zoiks.

3. Captain Kirk Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong to the Hawks for Mike Bibby, rookie Jordan Crawford, Maurice Evans and a first round draft pick.

The only reason I care about this trade is Jordan Crawford. He's a rookie and has plenty of upside with the John Wall and the Wizards.

4. Hasheem Thabeet to Houston for Shane Battier.

Thabeet gets to return to the place he called home at the beginning of his stay in America. Otherwise this is just a cap move.

5. Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic to Beantown for Nate Robinson and Kendrick Perkins.

Makes little sense for Boston to give up their center for an athletic forward and a clumsy center, neither of whom can rebound and play good defense. They may have surrendered the Eastern Conference championship.

6. Gerald Wallace to the JailBlazers for Joel Przybilla, Dante Cunningham and two first round picks.

G-Force gets to go to a pretty solid team and contribute for the playoffs. MJ looks to the future for the Bobcats who just gave up their best player while vying for a playoff spot in the East.

7. Semih Erden and Luke Harangody to Cleveland for a second round pick in 2013.

Whoopdee-doo. The Cavs got some size.

8. Aaron Brooks to Phoenix for Goran Dragic.

I can taste the end of Steve Nash in the Valley of the Sun. While it saddens me, maybe he'll go to a better team before his time runs out.

9. Nazr Mohammed to OKC for D.J. White and Morris Peterson.

D.J. White was  GOD DAMN BEAST in college but I didn't think he was still in the league. Same goes for Mo-Pete for that matter. The Thunder have a ton of size now with Perk and Nazr.

10. Marquis Daniels was traded to Sacramento, but I have no idea what Boston got in return for him.


Initially, Daniels was expected to veto the trade but now he's going with it.


-Mikko

Top 5 Free Agent Signings

Now that the dust has almost completely settled on what ended up being a rather lackluster free agency period, now is the time to do every blogger's favorite thing; declare winners and losers. While I'll put off a full free agency analysis until I get back home from my current trip, here is a look at the top five signings of the free agency period;

5. Jacque Vaughn
No, that is not a typo. The fact that Vaughn makes this list is an indictment of the ridiculous amount of fiscal irresponsibility that was exhibited during the free agency period. Between teams bidding against themselves, overvaluing players, and making just plain stupid deals, the Spurs showed why they have won four championships in nine years. They knew they needed a backup PG, they knew Vaughn fit into their system, and they paid very little in order to get him. (2 years, $2.5 million) In the current NBA landscape, with so many teams languishing in salary cap hell, moves such as getting a solid backup PG for near the league minimum can be much better than throwing a max contract at a so so talent. (See; Lewis, Rashard)

4. Darko Milicic
This is not to say that Darko is going to be some sort of star in Memphis; he likely won't be. The Grizzlies did make a good signing with Milicic on a number of levels. First, they filled a need. Everyone in the NBA knew that Memphis was looking to find a big man to compliment Pau Gasol, and the Grizzlies went hard after both Anderson Varejao and Andres Nocioni. They were able to get Milicic, who in spite of all of the criticism levied against him is actually turning into a pretty serviceable 7 footer. So the Grizzlies filled a need, added a young talent, and most importantly were able to do it without breaking the bank. The Darko deal was for three years and somewhere between $18-$21 million. When you realize that Darko was originally seeking about $9 million a season, this deal looks that much better.

3. Grant Hill
This was a signing that was great for both sides. For the Suns, they were able to add a veteran leader who also filled a need (are you that crazy about Boris Diaw or Raja Bell?) for a low price. (2 years, $3.8 million) For Hill, going to the Suns gives him a chance to play for a championship, play in an exciting system, and to play a significant number of minutes at an age(34) where many teams would have wanted to put him out to pasture. The deal was a steal for the Suns, and adding Hill may well put them over the hump and into the Finals next season. Now, if they could just get rid of Marcus Banks...

2. Jamaal Magloire
When I first saw news of this signing my initial reaction was "Oooph". For those of you unfamiliar with what "Oooph" is, it's the sound that you make when you see something particularly nasty. A six foot blond walking down the street? "Oooph". Sean Taylor knocking a wide receiver head over heels? "Oooph". Coming home and seeing a big fat steak already sitting on the table? "Oooph". The prospect of the Nets starting Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson, Nenad Kristic, and Jamaal Magloire next season? "Oooph". That does not even take into account the fact that signing Magloire for one year and only $4 million is both cheap and low risk, and that signing Magloire also prevented them from throwing away money on Mikki Moore. This signing was ridiculously good.

1. Gerald Wallace
Did you see the contract that Rashard Lewis got from the Magic? Now imagine a player that is five years younger, plays the same position as Lewis, has an offensive game that is fast developing to match Lewis', is one of the top five defenders in the NBA, and is just generally better than Lewis in every single way other than perimeter shooting. Now imagine that you just signed him for half as much as the Magic signed Lewis. That is the kind of dream that the Charlotte Bobcats have been having ever since they signed Gerald Wallace to a six year, $57 million deal. Wallace is a star in the making, and if you have watched him at all in the past few years you know that he has been making quantum leaps in his game every single season. The Bobcats easily made the best signing of the year getting Wallace for the money they did.

Wallace Stays...Wither Morrison?

Gerald Wallace has re-signed with the Charlotte Bobcats to the tune of 6 years and $57 million, ending speculation that he would end up in Dallas or elsewhere. Thea deal also includes a total of $12 million in bonuses, so the total value of the contract could be pushed up to $69 million. If you read the site reguarly, you are probably already aware that I like Gerald Wallace quite a bit. Why? Wallace has done things the right way on the way to his big payday. He plays hard on D, rebounds, and operates within the team scheme on offense. Think of him as Shawn Marion Lite. I guarantee you that Wallace will be a much better player six years from now than Rashard Lewis, even though Lewis will be making more than twice as much money.

Now that the signing is official, on to two big questions that concern the Bobcats:

Is This A Playoff Team?: Last season the Bobcats finished 33-49, seven games out of the playoffs. That finish continued the general upswing of the team, as they have improved their record in every season of the franchise's existence. Now consider this; the Bobcats posted that record while only getting partial seasons out of Sean May (35 games), Walter Herrman (48 games), and Primoz Brezec (58 games). So will healthy campaigns by those three, coupled with the acquisition of Jason Richardson to start at the 2, lead to the Bobcats having a .500 record next year? On paper it seems to be almost a certainty. Consider; how many teams in the East can boast a frontcourt that rolls six deep (Okafor, Brezec, Wallace, Herrman, May, Morrison) like the Bobcats? Not many. The trouble of course for the Bobcats has been that their backcourt in recent years has been underwhelming in comparison to their young and talented forwards. The Jason Richardson trade along with the re-signing of Matt Carroll will go a long way in righting this imbalance. The only glaring weakness on the roster is at PG, where Ray Felton has looked promising but will no longer have Brevin Knight around to help carry the load. So will Richardson and a healthy stable of forwards put the Bobcats in the playoffs? The answer is only maybe at this juncture, only because a .500 record may not be an automatic ticket into the Eastern playoffs next year. The two bottom playoff teams (Orlando and Washington) should be improved next season, and the Knicks also appear to be poised to make a postseason push with the acquisition of Zach Randolph. That being said, the Bobcats will certainly be in the mix for the final playoff spots.


What About Adam Morrison?: This is the question that I find truly interesting with the Bobcats. Just last season they invested the #3 overall pick in Morrison, with the general assumption that he would ascend to the lead role on the team when Wallace left this Summer. A funny thing happened on the way to Morrison being the next Larry Bird however, as he completely laid an egg last season (366th in PER) and the Bobcats re-signed Wallace. And Carroll. And they traded for Jason Richardson. And they drafted another 1st Round SF in Jared Dudley. If you judge the Bobcats thought process solely based on their transactions this offseason the conclusion is obvious; they are moving on from Morrison after just one season. Remember, Michael Jordan has soured quickly on top draft picks before. (See: Brown, Kwame) Now Morrison will have two $10 million a year swing players in front of him, a backup SG signed to a 6 year deal, and a brand new first rounder to battle him for the backup minutes at SF. The only real question left with Morrison is whether or not the Bobcats will even bother to pick up the final three years on his contract after next season.

Start Your Engines

Today is the first day that NBA free agents can officially sign new contracts. So other than a few deals we already know about being made official, what other storylines are there to follow in the next few days? Here is a look at the current status of some of the top remaining free agents:


Gerald Wallace: Most speculation has Wallace re-signing with Charlotte for a 6 year deal worth in the neighborhood of $60 million. There are persistent rumblings however, that Dallas still has a strong interest in Wallace. The Mavericks have been mentioned in the Wallace discussion ever since free agency began, and for the life of me I can't understand why they are interested. Don't they already have a young and athletic small forward in Josh Howard? Why would Dallas want to bring in another $10 million a year guy just to back him up? Even beyond that however, for Dallas to sign Wallace it would require a sign and trade deal with Charlotte. All signs seem to point to Wallace taking the easy route and taking the long term deal from the Bobcats. The second order effects of that signing would be very interesting to observe in Charlotte, mainly in regards to the future of Adam Morrison. The team just recently brought in Jason Richardson via a trade (signed for the next four years), re-signed SG Matt Carrol to a six year contract, drafted SF Jared Dudley with their 1st Round pick, and are close to re-signing Wallace. What kind of message do those signings send to Morrison after a lackluster rookie campaign? It would seem to me that management might be saying none too subtly that they are ready to cut their losses with Morrison.


Where Does Mo Go?: After Chancey Billups and the Pistons agreed to terms on contract extension Mo Williams suddenly found himself as the best point guard available in free agency. As luck would have it though, three of his potential destinations have dried up; the Lakers took Javaris Crittenton in the draft and then signed Derek Fisher, the Grizzlies took Mike Conley, and the Hawks selected Acie Law. Those moves essentially leave Williams with only two options, one being re-signing with the Bucks to the tune of about $8 million a year, or taking less money to go to the Miami Heat. What his choice essentially boils down to is whether or not he wants to compete for a championship now, which would require taking less money, or if he is willing to stay with Milwaukee through their rebuilding process.


Rashard Lewis is Stinkin Rich: It has just been reported that the Magic and Sonics have agreed upon a sign and trade deal for Rashard Lewis, with Orlando sending Seattle a second round pick. This move will allow Orlando to sign Lewis to a six year deal worth $127.2 million. Lewis will make $25.6 million in the final year of the contract. Read that last sentence again, and then try and tell me this deal is not going to be a disaster for the Magic, especially since it means that they won't have enough money to re-sign Darko Milicic which happens to complicate another situation...


Memphis Wants Your Big Man: One of the more interesting and and least talked about subplots in free agency is the Grizzlies mission to acquire a big man to pair with Pau Gasol. Going into the draft the Grizzlies had two glaring holes in their roster at point guard and power forward, and they wisely chose to address the point guard issue in the draft considering the previously discussed lack of quality point guards on the free agent market. The free agent crop at power forward however, is much more promising. Initially the Grizzlies were rumored to be after Chicago's Andres Nocioni, but the Bulls and Nocioni have since agreed to an extension. That leaves Anderson Varejao and now Darko as the Grizzlies' two main targets. Varejao is a restricted free agent and the Cavs have been saying all along that they will match any offer. So assuming that Memphis does not vastly overpay Varejao in order to dissauade Cleveland (which is in luxury tax territory) from matching the deal, that leaves Memphis with Darko.

A Lesson Easily Forgotten

In the weeks leading up to the NBA Draft debates raged about which top prospect the Portland Trailblazers should've selected with the first overall pick. Oden or Durant. Center or swingman. Scoring or defense. It was a debate that was philosophical at its core. What is more important in basketball? A dominant scorer or a dominant defender? Does the age old axiom, "Defense wins championships" really hold true? Should the NBA game resemble the Suns or the Spurs? In the end the Blazers seemed to settle the issue, opting for the stalwart post player Oden over the scoring dynamo Durant.

It seems however, that in spite of the widely lauded choice by the Blazers to take Oden the NBA as a whole is not neccessarily backing that choice's logic with their actions in free agency. How so you might ask? Just listen. Who is the most talked about free agent this year? Rashard Lewis. Lewis is a fantastic offensive talent. Simply put, there are very few basketball players on this earth that are 6-10 and can shoot the ball the way that he does. Whenever Lewis steps foot on the court he is an instant matchup problem for the opposing defense. The trade-off in Lewis' case however, is that his defensive game, or lack thereof, also creates an instant mismatch when the Sonics are on defense. Lewis' defense is so bad that after the 2005-2006 season John Hollinger described it thusly:

"The Sonics were the worst defensive team of all time, and Lewis was a big reason why. He has never been the most interested defender, but like a lot of teammates he suffered a noticeable drop in intensity last season. While Seattle had myriad problems and Lewis was only a part of them, it's simply shocking to look at his defensive numbers from a year ago.

As bad as the Sonics were defensively, they were worse with Lewis on the floor. A LOT worse. Seattle gave up 6.6 points per 100 possessions more when Lewis played -- and keep in mind, his replacement most times was Vladimir Radmanovic, who won't be appearing on an All-Defense team any time soon. Additionally, Lewis' man was doing most of the damage -- he surrendered an 18.6 opponent PER from the small forward spot, and a staggering 23.5 at power forward."

This isn't to say that Rashard Lewis is a bad player. That just wouldn't be true. What is shocking about the Lewis situation is not that he is a desireable free agent; it is that he is the most desireable free agent of this entire class, even though there is another free agent at Lewis' very own position who is younger, cheaper, and an elite defender. Where is the love for Gerald Wallace? If defense wins championships, don't you want one of the three players in NBA history to average at least 2 blocks and 2 steals in an NBA season on your team? (The other two were David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon by the way) Alas, despite his defensive prowess Wallace is likely to either re-sign with Charlotte or go to the runner up in the Rashard Lewis sweepstakes. I will guarantee you this though; the team that gets Wallace will be much better off than the team that gets Lewis. I mean for goodness sakes, Wallace is only 24 years old. An elite defender in his prime is on the market and all everyone can talk about is a 6-10 jump shooter that is too slow to defend on the perimeter and too weak to defend on the block? Obviously people did not read the memo about Oden, or see the Spurs win the title on the strength of a suffocating defense.

It isn't just isolated to the Lewis/Wallace situation either. Take a look out West in the Arizona dessert. The Suns are pressed up against the lottery tax, and are trying to deal Shawn Marion to get cap relief. That's right, Shawn Marion, the man who is arguably the best defensive player in basketball. The Matrix is a defensive freak, and like Wallace also has a pretty good offensive game to go with his lockdown D. So why on earth would the Suns be looking to get rid of him? To guard Amare Stoudemire of course. Amare, who only scored 3 more points per game than Marion even though Marion scored the vast majority of his points in transition and on broken plays. Amare is sexy though, Marion is not.

You know who else is being ignored in free agency right now? A former All-Star center, Jamaal Magloire. Right now rumor has it that he is being looked at for mid level exception money by a few teams. They should pull the trigger. And they should play him. Again, Magloire does not play a sexy game. He is a big man that gets position down low on offense and defense and is hard to move. He is still one of the best defensive rebounders in the game. Yet nobody seems to be making a serious play at him. Last year his own team didn't even give him a serious look, as Magloire found himself behind both Joel Pryzbilla and LaMarcus Aldridge in Portland. Do you want to know what happened when Magloire did get some serious PT though? In the 12 games last year where he played at least 30 minutes last year Magloire averaged 11.4 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks. Yet, you don't hear a peep about this center that could be a double double machine somewhere if he got the playing time. Because he isn't sexy. He doesn't run the floor or shoot three pointers. He just plays a tough defensive game and puts the ball in the hoop effectively on offense. It really is too bad that a league that seemed so close to understanding what winning basketball is all about with the Oden pick is ignoring it so quickly. Some teams do get it though, and those teams will be the ones that sign up Gerald Wallace, trade for Shawn Marion, and snap up Magloire for the mid level exception. And those teams will be winners.