NBA off season

[vonkaar]

holy FUCK what is wrong with Donnie Nelson???

from the front page of hoopshype... quick synopsis of the trade rumors:

Lakers land Ron
Ron Artest is signing with the Los Angeles Lakers, according to CBSSports.com ... Celtics offer Rasheed Wallace a contract using the mid-level exception? ... Trevor Ariza meeting with the Rockets ... Marcin Gortat to Dallas? ... Grizzlies and Heat talking with Allen Iverson ... Raptors pursuing David Lee ...

So... in order...

Ron Artest, Rasheed Wallace, Trevor Ariza, Marcin Gortat, Allen Iverson and David Lee.

Guess which one DALLAS goes after! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

It's so hard to be a Dallas fan lately. We are like... the anti-Boston

[Arlos]

According to ESPN, Trevor signed with the Rockets already.

I must admit I've been paying more attention to the NHL offseason, though.

-Arlos

[Zanchief]

Raps aren't going after David Lee. That's just to put a bit of fear into Marion. We're going to end up overpaying for either Turk or Marion. Either way it will be a pretty productive player on a bad contract.

[vonkaar]

well, it looks like we've got Kidd now... so... that's good.

holy hell about Detroit. They made some great moves so far, and now they are close to trading Rip for Boozer. That's a tough team.

[Zanchief]

Why would Utah do that?

They have to be getting Prince too.

[vonkaar]

Paul Milsap >= Carlos Boozer

Younger... healthier... cheaper...

They are just way too heavy at the 3 / 4 spots. Supposedly, they are shopping AK47 around too.

Deron Williams
Rip Hamilton
Ronnie Brewer
Paul Millsap
Mehmet Okur

That's a pretty good starting lineup... and much cheaper than the past few years. If they dump Kirilenko as well, that's probably the top lineup for the money.

[Zanchief]

It looks like Dallas is trying to work a S&T with Marion. I don't know how this is going to work since we can't really take any more contracts in return.

[Arlos]

Big? (Certainly complex) trade sends Shawn Marion to Dallas...

A four-team deal sending Shawn Marion to the Dallas Mavericks has been approved by the league office and was to be formally announced by the teams on Thursday.

Marion is set to receive a five-year contract from the Mavericks worth an estimated $39 million, according to sources.

Under the sign-and-trade deal, the Orlando Magic traded Hedo Turkoglu to the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors sent Marion, Kris Humphries, Nathan Jawai and cash considerations to Dallas, while also sending a future second round draft pick to the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Mavericks in turn shipped Jerry Stackhouse and cash considerations to the Grizzlies and Devean George and Antoine Wright to Toronto, while the Grizzlies dealt Greg Buckner to Dallas.

The inclusion of Jawai to the Mavericks was a new wrinkle in the deal. In an earlier version, the Raptors were to send Quincy Douby to the Grizzlies instead.

According to sources, the cash that accompanies Stackhouse from Dallas will help the Grizzlies buy out his contract. Only $2 million of Stackhouse's $7.25 million salary next season is guaranteed, as long as he is waived by Aug. 10.

Thoughts from those with actual clue about basketball? (not me, obviously... )

-Arlos

[vonkaar]

I love it. I hear we'll probably buy out Greg Buckner, but I wouldn't mind if he stuck around. He was pretty popular here in his past 2 stints as a mav.

Shawn Marion should do well here. I think that he's seriously undervalued from the past 2 seasons. I'm looking forward to seeing him in action. I see this as a huge win-win for us.

I didn't know it was really a '4-way' trade. I thought that Toronto-Miami was a separate deal, but I guess Toronto couldn't afford to do this unless they dumped players all over the place. I *do* think Turko is slightly overrated from a couple of decent years in Orlando. Not worth that kind of money or attention, IMO.

[Zanchief]

I watched a lot of Marion last year so I know he's not undervalued. The guy gets by entirely on athleticism. He only scores easy baskets on the fast break. The only real asset he brings is that he rebounds well from the 3, which is why he was valuable to us. Once he wanted more then 8 mill a year it was an easy decision to get a younger more skilled player for a bit more money. It's a lot of money, but you have to pay a lot to get a good player in free-agency.

The deal is great for us because it has a ton of cap implications (some of which are a bit hazy for me), but we can know use all our cap exceptions so we can even net another good piece (if we want to pay luxury). It looks like we're going to swing for the fences this year in a bid to keep Bosh. I don't know if it will work (I know all the American media are claiming it's 100% he's leaving, don't believe it) but it will be fun trying.

Question for Vonky. What are we getting back? Are Wright and George worth anything?

Oh btw I've always been a fan on Hump (big sexy as we call him). He's not a star or anything but he'll surprise with some great plays from time to time and drive you crazy with some terrible shot selection.

[vonkaar]

George still has some gas in his tank, but I think he's getting tired. At best, he's a Michael Finley (last year). At worst, he's a roster spot that... doesn't cost too much so nbd. Wright is nice though and he should fit in well with your team. High basketball IQ, chooses his shots carefully... good fundamentals.

Athleticism is exactly what we needed. For the past few years, that's been a major sticking point. We have had Josh Howard, Devin Harris and before age & injuries - Jerry Stackhouse as our athletic slashers. I think we've been in the bottom 10 for 'points-in-the-paint' for the past five years. Yet, we're 1 season away from a decade of 50+ wins. Gortat is supposed to be a great athlete... Marion undoubtedly is. We have plenty of offensive capability, what we need are slashers... offensive rebounders... thugs. Consider that we basically gave away 2 roleplayers and a nice expiring contract for a starter. It's a great move all the way. Once again, I think Memphis got the short-end here.

We might not be done, and that's the exciting thing. Dampier is another BIG expiring contract and he's known for putting effort in contract years. Either we'll benefit from his extra motivation, or we'll benefit by dumping that contract to a team that wants that gamble. Whichever way, it looks like we'll finally get 'something' out of Damp for the $60m gamble. Remember, we signed him for $60m the same summer we told Nash that he wasn't worth $50m.

I'm really excited about it all. This has been the best off-season since 05.

[Zanchief]

Wright is the guy that I'm a bit more interested in. If he doesn't take bad shots and just hits some open 3s and defends the two reasonably well he'll probably start ahead of Derozan as he's getting used to the NBA (unless we sign a better player with the MLE).

If Kidd still has the legs to run with Marion he will do much better then he has in the last two years. Remember this was a top 5 fantasy player while he was playing with Nash. He's just really bad in the half-court though. The one thing that scared me about a long term contract with an aging player like Marion is once he starts slowing down his skills will diminish in a hurry.