As NBA trades heat up, still no home for Dwight Howard.
After
the frenzy that was the 2010 offseason, I thought we had seen the last of the
drama filled trade and free agent business in the NBA. Boy was I wrong. Even
though free agency isn’t even into its second week, we have already seen some
questionable and excellent deals. We have also not seen a deal that looked like
a lock.
Did your team get better this offseason, and is a big deal about to go down that could greatly increase their NBA odds for a title run?
No sleep for Brooklyn
The Nets
have been extremely busy so far. They started by trading a wealth of expiring
contracts to Atlanta for the massive amount of money that is left of shooting
guard Joe Johnson’s contract. Their big gamble paid off, as JJ’s trade led to
Deron Williams re-signing with the Nets. However, when it was time to put all
the cookies in the jar, it all fell apart.
The
Magic have severely screwed up the Dwight Howard situation. I understand they
wanted to hold out for the best deal, but the Nets got sick of the Magic giving
them the run around. Brooklyn gave Orlando an ultimatum yesterday, and the Magic
didn’t budge. So, the Nets withdrew from the Howard talks, and they re-signed
Brook Lopez to a max deal.
This
basically ends the possibility of Howard going to Brooklyn via trade this
offseason. The Lakers and Rockets now emerge as the teams with the best
possibility at landing Howard. Houston can offer the expiring deals of Louis
Scola and Kevin Martin, while the Lakers can try to recruit a third team so
they can basically swap Andrew Bynum for Howard. Either way, the Howard saga will continue for
the near future and probably into the season.
Nash and the dark side
Steve
Nash does not believe in the force. When Toronto and New York were jockeying
for position to try and sign Steve Nash, the Lakers went all in and neither
teams could call. The Lakers gave up multiple first round picks for the rights
to make a sign and trade with Phoenix to get Nash in LA.
This is
a monster move and will shake up the West. I don’t care how old Nash is; he
could probably play until he is 45 if he wanted to. Nash and Kobe Bryant will
team up to try and compete with the Spurs and Thunder for the West crown, and
they have everything needed to do it. Even though Nash isn’t going to stop many
people on defense, he makes the Lakers’ offense much better. Assuming the
Lakers are going to keep their same roster intact with the addition of Nash,
this team could very well win the West in 2013.
Other trades of note
A deal
that just went through helps the Mavs, as they get Darren Collison and Dahntay
Jones from the Pacers for Ian Mahinmi. They also signed Chris Kaman.
The
Rockets finally were able to find a taker for Kyle Lowry, as they sent him to
Toronto for a future lottery pick and Gary Forbes. The Rockets weren’t done
there, as they shipped out Marcus Camby to the Knicks for Toney Douglas, Josh
Harrelson, Jerome Jordan and some second round picks.
Teams
only have a few more days to complete trades, so expect the rumor mill to keep
flying. There are rumors of a big three team deal involving the Blazers, Wolves
and Bulls, which would send Nicholas Batum to the Wolves, Kyle Korver to the
Blazers along with a few first round picks, and a second rounder back to the
Bulls.
The big
trade of Howard obviously didn’t go down…yet.