With the regular season ready to start I thought it might be helpful to do a quick recap of things you may have forgotten happened during the long summer break.
Free Agency:
Baron Davis, seeking to be teamed with close friend Elton Brand left the Warriors and moved south to join the LA Clippers. Close friend Elton Brand then left the Clippers to get away from the center rich Western conference and joined the up-and-coming Philadelphia 76ers. Seeking to ward off the temptation of comfort food, Davis then joined Jenny Craig and showed up to camp fit and trim
The growth of basketball internationally and the weak dollar made playing overseas too attractive to pass up for several free agents. Josh Childress, Carlos Arroyo, Carlos Delfino, Juan Carlos Navarro, Bosjan Nachbar and Arizona recruit Brandon Jennings all signed deals to player overseas next year. While international players leaving the NBA to play closer to home is not ground breaking news, a rising star like Childress leaving to play in Greece was quite a surprise. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues next summer.
Role player extraordinaire James Posey left the world champion Celtics for the New Orleans Hornets. Posey may prove to be exactly the type of role player that will push Hornets to the next level.
Everybody’s favorite candidate for Comeback Player or the Year, Shaun Livingston, signed with the Heat and is seeking to resurrect the promising career he had prior to suffering a devastating knee injury. You have to be pulling for a guy who suffered an injury as brutal as he did, right?
Trades:
Sometimes insane Ron Artest moved from Sacramento to Houston, in what I find to be one of the most interesting moves of the off-season. Houston now has one of the premier on the ball defenders in the league to go with 7’6″ Yao Ming clogging up the middle. This gives them a formidable defensive presence to go with one of the premier scores in the league, Tracy McGrady.
Larry Legend decided that the best thing to do in Indiana was blow up the Pacers and start over fresh. Jermaine O’Neal was traded on draft night to Toronto for T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and the No. 17 pick (which became Roy Hibbert). Shawne Williams (and his troublesome entourage) was traded to Dallas for a 2nd round pick, while 11th pick Jerryd Bayless and Ike Diogu went to Portland in exchange for 13th pick Brandon Rush, Jarrett Jack, and Indy native Josh McRoberts. Unfortunately, Bird has yet to find a taker for Jamaal Tinsley. Though, technically still a Pacer, Tinsley has been told not to report to the team.
Danny Ferry went out and got Mo Williamsfrom the Bucks to (hopefully) take the burden off all-everything Lebron James. If Williams can push the pace for the Cavs and get James easy looks in the open court, they really have the opportunity to be explosive on the offensive end this year. With a solid point guard, solid center (Big Z), two quality shooters in Pavlovic and Szerbiak, and a couple big rebounders in Ben Wallce and Anderson Varejao, the Cavs looks like they might be coming together for another run.
In one of the strangest deals in years, the defensively challenged Denver Nuggets traded Marcus Camby, the only guy on their team who had any interest in defending, to the Clippers for a swap 2ndround in 2010. Dropping Camby’s contract gave the Nuggets financial flexibility, but certainly did nothing to improve the team in the short term. The Clippers, on the other hand, were able to replace Elton Brand for virtually nothing and should be much stronger coming into this year.
Coaching Changes:
It was a busy offseason for coaching changes, as over a quarter of the league will be led by a different coach than they were last year.
Mike D’Antoni – New York Knicks – D’Antoni is a great coach, but even if he weren’t, he’s not Isiah and that’s all that matters to most Knicks fans.
Larry Brown – Charlotte Bobcats – Hall of Fame coach seeks to jump-start a franchise that’s struggling both on and off the court.
Vinny Del Negro – Chicago Bulls – Probably the biggest surprise of the summer coaching carousel – Del Negro was not on many people’s radar as a prime candidate to get this job.
Scott Skiles – Milwaukee Bucks - Skiles is a Midwest guy – grew up in Indiana, went to Michigan State, played for the Pacers, and has coached the Bulls prior to going to Milwaukee. He should be a good fit for the Bucks.
Erik Spolestra – Miami Heat – Youngest current head coach in the NBA worked his way up through the Heat organization, which he joined in 1995 at a video coordinator. He’s earned Riley’s respect and it will be interesting to see how he handles himself as the one running the show.
Rick Carlisle – Dallas Mavericks – Carlisle’s ball control offense + legendary coach killer Jason Kidd = Interesting situation in Dallas.
Michael Curry – Detroit Pistons – Former Piston was a popular choice in the locker room and with the fan base.
Terry Porter – Phoenix Suns – The Suns should be deep and a new voice in town may be what they need to push them to the NBA Finals.
Suspensions:
Monta Ellis signed a huge contract which he then promptly violated by riding moped that he then even more promptly wrecked, severely injuring his ankle. Doing what many young men who have been caught doing something they weren’t supposed to do, he then lied to the Warriors about the cause of the injury and has thus been suspended for the first 30 games of the season (which he will miss anyway due to the injury) costing himself approximately $4 million.
And finally…
The Seattle Sonics are now the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder will likely get a boost at home playing in front of energetic packed houses all year, especially after their final lame duck season in Seattle.
Image Source: ISASports.com
