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The NBA: where losing parity happens.

I know, I know, I know…every one of you is mad at me for not writing about what happened in the NBA Finals, wondering where I have been come draft-time, why I haven’t been around during this free agency period, and whether I would ever write another article again. Well, I’d love to say that the Examiner gave me time to write my book or that I was doing a 1 month TV stint on ESPN, but, sadly, my career as a sportswriter hasn’t blossomed as well as I had liked. The real reason I’ve been depriving you of Orlando Magic articles: Jury Duty. Although glamorized by the 1995 Pauly Shore hit movie (that was agonizing to type), actually doing public service in court was agonizing. For weeks I had to sit in a stuffy courtroom while the most boring public speakers in the world tried to shove irrelevant information into my cranium. (Which, I never understood why lawyers, whose job it is to directly impact the LIVES of their clients by presenting things orally, don’t spend more time working on their oratory skills.)

 

So, with what little brain cells I have left, I want to play a little bit of catch-up with what’s been going on post-NBA Finals. Oh, and I’m not blind to the hundreds of e-mails I got about the results of the Championship…I am man enough to admit I was wrong. I can write article upon article making excuses on why the result should’ve been different, but, it wouldn’t make too much sense to write a post-Finals article a month after the fact, now would it? Therefore, with Tab soda in hand (still have yet to strike that sponsorship deal….hint, hint), here are the major events (and my subsequent thoughts) that occurred since my last Examiner article:

 

June 23 – San Antonio trades forwards Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas, and center Fabricio Oberto to Milwaukee for forward Richard Jefferson. How do the Spurs constantly steal talent? Whether it’s late picks of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, or signing Robert Horry on the cheap, or swindling Kurt Thomas from Seattle….they seem to just harbor amazing role players. With the Bucks simply giving up on their team (Bowen is past his defensive prime, Thomas celebrates his 87^th birthday this year, and “O Boy” Oberto will end up 3^rd string behind Andrew Bogut and Dan Gadzuric), San Antonio adds a great hustle forward who can help compliment in the scoring department. Oh, by the way, mark this as the first in a trend of the NBA turning into MLB, where the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

 

June 24 – Minnesota trades guards Randy Foye and Mike Miller to Washington for the 5^th overall pick in the 2009 Draft. We’ll get to the NBA Draft in a bit, but, for the Wizards, this was a great move. In a VERY weak draft, you give up a pile of beans for a great young guard in Foye, and a veteran scorer in Miller (which, I still don’t understand why teams don’t hold on to him). Watch out for next year’s Washington team. With a healthy Gilbert Arenas and a revenge laden Flip Saunders as the coach, you have a starting lineup that includes: Agent Zero, Miller, Caron Butler, Antwan Jamison, and a 7’ cardboard cutout (a.k.a. any big man in a Washington uniform). Don’t be surprised if this team averages 120 a game next year.

 

June 25 – Blake Griffin goes #1 overall to the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2009 NBA Draft. Ricky Rubio receives the biggest slap in the face the NBA has ever seen since the 2002 Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference Finals. Because I can’t go over every single pick, here are some highlights:

 

- Blake Griffin is doomed. For every Clipper draftee that’s bolted elsewhere to achieve fame (Lamar Odom, Tyson Chandler), there’s at least 5 others who have been relegated to NBA Hell (Michael Olowokandi, Lamond Murray, Darius Miles, Melvin Ely, Maurice Taylor, Yaroslav Korolev, Terry Dehere…and no, I’m not making these last few names up…these were actual 1^st round picks by the clippers). Let’s just hope your ACL doesn’t blow in the next 4 years so another team can enjoy your talents comes 2013.

 

- I’m not sold on Hasheem Thabeet. He’s a solid big man who will be a defensive monster, but, I’m afraid he’s got the coordination and hands of a kid awkwardly going through puberty. At best, he’ll be a Dikembe Mutombo. At worst, Yinka Dare (how’s that for an obscure reference?)

 

- How do the Kings AND the Thunder pass up on Ricky Rubio? And how do the T-Wolves steal him at #5 (thanks to the Wizards trade) then disrespect him by immediately drafting another point guard at #6? And at #18 (although eventually traded)? And another guard at #28? Then one more in the 2^nd round? Does Minnesota think this is StreetBall? I’m not saying Rubio is the second coming of John Stockton, but, outside of Griffin, he’s the only sure thing in this draft. His passing ability is something that the NBA will not see in a draft for years, and yet he slips to #5 to a team that proceeds to draft 4 more guards. No wonder he’s considering staying in Spain for another year.

 

- How much does every Knicks fan hate everyone in the Bay Area? With the prospects of having a young Stephen Curry to pair with a scrappy David Lee, then awaiting the free agency bonanza of 2010 with heavy rumors of landing LeBron James and Chris Bosh (my thoughts on that later), everyone in New York was paying attention to this year’s draft for just 1 player. And that was ripped from right under them 1 pick earlier. Conversely, if you’re the Warriors, do you just make that pick to screw over the Knicks? Your team is in shambles, your best player is Monta Ellis, and no one on your team can effectively run Nelly-Ball. Considering no one in the draft can legitimately improve your team, why not take Curry just to screw over another team? You have nothing to lose anyway, and worse comes to worse, you trade him for someone of actual value. If I’m living in San Fran, I’m laughing hysterically. If I’m in New York City, I’m saving up money for season tickets to the Brooklyn Nets (whoops, did I just give away my thoughts on the LeBron sweepstakes?)

 

- As a University of Central Florida graduate, props to former Knight Jermaine Taylor for being the first UCF basketball player ever drafted. Although eventually traded to Houston, Taylor will be a great bench scorer playing the 2. And with T-Mac constantly riding the bench, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets some meaningful starting time with the Rockets. Every Knight still living in the Orlando area should get tickets to the Rockets/Magic this season, if anything, to start a U-C-F chant and show our support to Jermaine.

 

- As I’ve mentioned before, the Spurs steal talent yet again by nabbing an available DeJuan Blair from Pittsburgh. Sigh…

 

- Last note about this year’s NBA Draft: It was boring as boring can be. I can’t even remember the last time there was a draft this lackluster. Outside of the Griffin, Thabeet, Rubio race, I wasn’t interested. I mean, the ineptitude of teams to forgo Ricky until pick #5 kept me watching for a little while, but, I was quick to change the channel soon after.

 

June 25 – New York trades guard Quentin Richardson to Memphis for center Darko Milicic. I’ll let you guys make your own “stiff for stiff” joke here.

 

June 25 – Phoenix trades center Shaquille O’Neal to Cleveland for center Ben Wallace, guard Sasha Pavlovic, a 2010 2^nd round draft pick, and cash. This just continues along the lines of the NBA losing its great history of having parity in the league. What was once a world of “any team can legitimately beat any team” during the regular season to filtering out the contenders from the pretenders in the playoffs has now turned into a game of “I’m going to give away what little talent my team has to your already powerful team for half of a ham and cheese sandwich.” This trade makes no sense to Phoenix other than to clear up cap space with Wallace set to retire.

 

By the way, it really bothers me that Big Ben was going to retire anyway, but the Cavs convinced him to delay it just so they can use his contract to match salaries in this trade. It’s completely unfair how teams can do that. If a player has full intentions of retiring, you shouldn’t be able to make him wait a day, steal a player via trade, then allow him to retire. The NBA should include a clause stating that, if a trade occurs in the off-season and a player involved in the trade retires before the beginning of the following season, his original team should have to pay a salary cap penalty. Considering how frequently this occurs (and yes, even the Orlando Magic were involved with the same thing when dealing Francis for an aging Penny Hardaway), something needs to be done. Then again, anything involving “the NBA” and “logic” I’m sure would create a black hole, wiping out existence of some sort.

 

Anyway, back to this trade…the Suns will probably lose Grant Hill to free agency, they’ve lost Shaq, Amare Stoudemire is constantly involved in trade talks, and Jason Richardson is being exposed as a shoot only guard. The only player with heart left on the team is Steve Nash, and that’s disheartening. For a team that was once the single most exciting team to watch in the NBA, it’s now going to be in the same likes as the Thunder and Bobcats.

 

For Cleveland, I’m a bit torn on whether or not this is a good trade. On the one hand, Shaq is, well, Shaq. Although aged past his prime, he’s still a dominating force in the paint. But, if Cleveland is trying to get past Boston and the Magic (whom, for those keeping score, they lost to in the Eastern Conference Finals), this seems like a lateral move. Historically, O’Neal hasn’t been able to keep up with Howard or Garnett in recent years. And if the Cavs are trying to give LeBron a more dominating inside presence, they’re doing so at the cost of Anderson Varejao leaving for free agency (cough, Orlando Magic signing, cough). Now, if you take a look at it from a future standpoint, it may make a lot of sense. Come next year (dubbed “The Summer of LeBron”), Cleveland will have over $51 Million off the books to sign King James (which includes Shaq’s $21 mil, James’ $15.5 mil, and Ilgauskas’ $11.5 mil). And they’re definitely not afraid to pay the Luxury Tax associated with keeping LeBron. That means, assuming they don’t resign O’Neal or Big Z, they’ll have as much money as possible to throw at LeBron as well as one or two other complimentary players (which include D-Wade, Bosh, Dirk, and T-Mac, just to mention a few). By leveraging a retiring Wallace into a 1-year contract with Shaq, they still remain somewhat competitive this year while ensuring that they’re one of 3 big players in the “I can’t wait to see the chaos that ensues” Summer of 2010.

 

However, as big of a trade as this was, it was still upstaged by…

 

June 25 – New Jersey trades guard Vince Carter and forward Ryan Anderson to Orlando for guards Rafer Alston and Courtney Lee, and center Tony Battie. Oh man, where do I begin? I love and hate this trade for so many reasons. First off, it’s extremely sad to see Lee no longer on the team. As the youthful, energetic spark that this team needed (especially at the 2-guard position), it’s going to hurt not seeing his hustle and defensive ability on the court anymore. Courtney was part of a strong foundation that was planned to carry future of this franchise. And now, he’s no longer here. With the fate of whether or not Hedo Turkoglu would re-sign with the magic (more on that later), we looked at having a starting lineup of 5 All-Stars…guaranteed the best starting 5 in the league (Jameer, Vince, Hedo, Rashard, and Dwight). And with backups AJ, Pietrus, Redick, Gortat, and I’ll even throw in Anderson, I was confident in this team to return to the NBA Finals. But, alas, the salary cap factors in and Orlando could never realistically be able to have Vince, Hedo, AND Gortat. But, that was ok. Just having either Hedo OR Gortat would be satisfactory for the Magic…however, as the timeline will soon indicate, the City Beautiful is now stuck in a bench depletion it can’t afford to be in.

 

When it happened, this trade fell in to what I was talking about earlier. The Magic, coming off an NBA Finals appearance and knocking off 2 powerhouses in the Celtics and Cavs along the way, just strengthened their team more by giving away an extra point guard, a bench riding big, and a fairy raw rookie guard in exchange for an All Star. Now, this isn’t as blatant of a robbery as what Cleveland pulled (or what the Lakers and Celtics will soon manage), but, on paper, it is an example of New Jersey giving up their best player for a couple of off-beats and a chance at building their future (again, knowing what events would occur soon after, this isn’t as big of a “rich getting richer” scenario as it first led on).

 

However, I actually like this trade for the Nets…a lot. Even though it spoils my thoughts about the LeBron sweepstakes, the New Jersey Nets are making an underground move to acquire King James in the summer of 2010. Take these following facts into consideration): the team is soon moving to Brooklyn (a part of New York City). New Jersey is owned in part by Jay-Z. LeBron and Jay-Z are best friends, and dare I say, BFFs. The Nets just got rid of $16 million and a lingering contract this year for 3 players with expiring contracts. This team has over $40 million coming off the books next summer and isn’t even close to approaching Luxury Tax territory (and considering they’re moving into Market #1 in a couple of years, it won’t be a problem to go over the cap). Plus, the Nets have a great (and I mean GREAT) young point guard in Devin Harris, a possibility of having veteran point guards Rafer Alston and Keyon Dooling, a young 2-guard Courtney Lee, a great swingman in Jarvis Hayes, and the unconventionally funny (yet amazingly good) Brook Lopez at center. How is this team NOT built to sway James next year? They have the money, they have the location, they have his BFF, oh, and they don’t have the pressure, the criticisms, or the dysfunctionality that come with the Knicks. It would be a great choice for not only LeBron, but the NBA.

 

But back to Orlando…as it stands right now, I think that the Magic gave WAY too much to acquire Vincanity. I understand giving up Alston. With Jameer Nelson coming back and Anthony Johnson still on the roster for 1 more year, Alston was a $6 million puzzle piece that didn’t fit. However, giving away Tony Battie, in hindsight, is confusing. Now, at the time, it was softened by the prospects of re-signing Marcin Gortat (more on that later), allowing a solid 1-2 punch of bigs. However, now, it seems like Orlando’s bench has weakened to a point of necessity (i.e. finding a 7’ stiff just for the sake of having a 7’ stiff). There’s still time in this free agency bonanza that is 2009, but, it doesn’t look as promising as it once did (more on who the Magic can and should sign later). And, as I’ve mentioned before, losing Lee hurts. I equate this pain to having your best friend move across the country because his parents got a new job. I wish him nothing but the best, but, this is a business and life goes on.

 

However, we don’t want to end this article on a down note. Let me tell you why I love this trade. First off, Vince Carter…Vince freaking Carter! For years, Orlando has been trying (and failing) to lure Air Canada back home. A couple of years ago, when VC was threatening to become available as a free agent from New Jersey, the Magic put on quite an effort to bring Vince to the Magic Kingdom. However, by resigning with the Nets, Orlando had to “settle” on signing Rashard Lewis with their available cap space. And now, just a few years later, the opportunity is here to have both Lewis and Carter on the same team. A thing of beauty if you ask me. Now, I know what a lot of the critics are saying: Vince is too old, and his best days are behind him. And, to a certain extent, that’s true. But, remember, he’s 32 and still has a few good years left in him. For being under contract for 3 years, Orlando still remains quite the competitor of having a pure scorer on the team to replace Hedo. Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, this is his hometown. With a daughter in the neighborhood, Carter will now have a new breath of life and a new jolt of energy he hasn’t had since his Toronto days. Don’t be surprised if the next 2 years bring out a new level of competitiveness no one expected. I can’t wait to have the dominant shooter grace the court of the Amway Arena and every Magic fan should have that same excitement. Never underestimate the comforts of home.

 

Now, as for Ryan Anderson, I’m excited about him as well. Orlando seems to have a knack for nabbing “also” players that turn out to be superstars (Trevor Ariza anyone?). According to my stat department, Anderson’s per 48 stats far surpassed Lee’s. Plus, at 6’10”, we at least have some presence in the paint off the bench. He’s got great hands and rarely turns the ball over, and, carries the same scrappiness Battie once had a few years ago. While not a complete replacement of Lee or Battie, I’m excited as to what Anderson can bring to the table as a backup big.

 

“But Kenny”, you may quip “that was only a fraction of what happened this off-season!” Well, fear not my loyal readers. Tomorrow will bring another article full of insight, analysis, as well as answers to what the Magic need to do to keep up in the East. In the meantime? Finally getting sleep after having to show up at the courthouse every day at 8am (come on, I’m a sports-writer…I never have to wake up that early).