Breakdown of Magic/Suns/Wizards Trade

What happened?

• Magic traded away Rashard Lewis to the Wizards and received Gilbert Arenas.
• Magic traded away Vince Carter, Mikael Pietrus, Marcin Gortat, 2011 first round pick, $3 million to the Suns and received Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson, Earl Clark.
  

Magic just had a fire sale and completely reshaped their lineup. Traded away two starters in Lewis and Carter, and an overpaid backup center, Gortat for three probable starters in Arenas, Turk and Richardson, and another back up center in Earl Clark.

First things first, I feel really happy for Marcin Gortat. He was stuck in bench purgatory behind Dwight Howard and may actually get some meaningful minutes in Phoenix behind or maybe starting in place of Robin Lopez.

Let's deal with what the Suns were trying to do with this trade:

Hedo Turkoglu for the most part this season was the Suns' starting power forward. Turk is a natural SF/SG and going against the top PFs in the league wasn't getting it done. He also has a horrible horrible contract, paying him $10-12 million per year for the next four years (He'll be turning 32 in March). Jason Richardson is currently in the last year of his deal that pays about $15 million. He was having a solid career in Phoenix. Why didn't the Suns want to re-sign him? Because the Suns are officially in rebuild mode after Amare Stoudemire left this summer for New York. With no scoring all star quality big man, and a replacement of Hedo Turkoglu, the Suns said forget this, let's start over.

So they unloaded Hedo's horrible contract and Vince Carter's expiring contract ($17 million this year and a TEAM option of $18 million next year, which more than likely they will not use, making Vince a free agent). They also got Mikael Pietrus who is getting paid $5 million and has a player option of $5 million next year, which if he takes up, is still better than paying Hedo $11 million. And Marcin Gortat who is getting paid $6 to $7 million for the next four years.

Numbers aside and in plain English, they saved themselves millions of dollars for the next 4 years. They can now start rebuilding a team that may or may not include Steve Nash who is on contract for this season and next season before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

What were the Wizards trying to do in their trade with the Magic:

Well this summer, they drafted John Wall with the number 1 pick AND traded for PG/SG Kirk Hinrich when they already had gun slinger PG Gilbert Arenas. Their current forward situation wasn't anything to brag about either. They were starting Al Thornton and Andray Blatche. So simply enough, they got rid of a Gilbert who had worn out his welcome and had a horrible contract that he never even close to lived up to for a power forward who can shoot the three, but also has a horrible over paid contract. Now John Wall can fully take over this Wizards team and have a power forward who can stretch the floor on offense.

And just FYI, Rashard Lewis is getting paid $20, $22, $23 million for this and the next two seasons. Gilbert Arenas is getting paid $17, $20, player option $20, $22 million for this and the next three seasons. This is a good trade for the Wizards. And here's to a safer locker room, cheers!

Finally, the Magic:

I've written a lot about the Magic and their bad decisions, and this is no different. They got rid of Rashard Lewis who had a bad contract, yes, but in exchange they get Gilbert Arenas who has an even worse contract for longer years. when they already have an all star (granted it was an injury fill in all star) quality point guard in Jameer Nelson!? If Gil comes off the bench, that's gotta be a record of highest paid bench player in the history of sports. And if he starts over Jameer Nelson, well that's gonna be one disgruntled bench player. So I guess they'll start them both, since Vince Carter was playing the shooting guard position.

But will Jason Richardson then come off the bench? Jason Richardson can play the small forward spot. But what about Brandon Bass and Hedo Turkoglu? Who is this team's power forward? If they play Hedo at the 4 spot, Dwight Howard is gonna have a lot of help defense on his shoulders. Hedo got torched in Phoenix by PFs, let's see if the trend continues in Orlando.

Possible lineup?

PG - Jameer Nelson / Chris Duhon
SG - Gilbert Arenas / JJ Reddick
SF - Jason Richardson / Hedo Turkoglu
PF - Brandon Bass / Ryan Anderson
C - Dwight Howard / Earl Clark

Don't get me wrong, that's a lot of offensive power right there. But it's undersized defensively and quite frankly, NOT GOOD defensively, outside of Dwight Howard. We'll definitely see if this is enough to keep Dwight Howard happy. I will say this though. I think the addition of Hedo Turkoglu will help. He's another option who can run the point position on some plays to maybe take advantage of some other small forwards around the league. That is my bold position. He's played in this system before, he can pick it up where he left off.

(Photo from Clippers Top Buzz)

It takes a big man to admit he was wrong. And I am that big man. 10 games ago when every team was undefeated, I predicted that the Clippers would contend-nay BE the 8th seed in the playoffs by season's end. I was naive. I thought Baron was gonna turn his life around. I thought Chris Kaman was gonna be a back up all star quality player again. I thought Eric Gordon was going to work on his dribbling. And I thought Blake Griffin was going to have energy for 48 minutes a game.

I WAS WRONG.

It took Baron 3 games to get hurt. THREE GAMES. At least it gave the team PG responsibilities to rookie Eric Bledsoe who is good, but still a rookie who has hesitation issues.

Chris Kaman is shooting 36% from the field this season and after 8 games, he is also injured.

Eric Gordon is good. He can shoot and drive to the basket and run a fast break. But he is no point guard. He does what makes every high school basketball coach tear his hair out; jump in the air and not know whether he's shooting or passing, which leads to turnovers, or horrible horrible shots. He has no left hand. I have no idea why opposing coaches don't tell their players to force him left. He will lose the ball. He didn't go left at the end of regulation last night against the fourth but at a tie game with 9 seconds left, he dribbled it off his foot and Richard Hamilton scooped it up and almost hit a game winning shot, but instead went to overtime.

Blake Griffin. I love Blake Griffin. I love his hard work and his willingness to go after rebounds. But this hustle simply stops in the middle of the game when he gasses himself out. All the energy he had in the first quarter dwindles quickly in the 3rd and 4th. Last night's game, he slovenly took 10 seconds to run up the court after inbounding the ball to Bledsoe, then got lazy on the offense end and did what we all do at the park when we're lazy. Not call for the ball and set screens for the point guard to get him an open look. Perhaps that's what the coach told them to do because every possession was a pick and roll situation with Blake and Gordon.



HE DOESN'T GO THIS HARD AT THE END OF GAMES AND IT ANNOYS.

This Clipper team is not ready. Baron Davis is on contract for a few more years and trading him will take a lot of work. It's no secret that he's fat and takes bad shots. It's no secret he has a huge contract. And also, no team really NEEDS a point guard right now. This will be another long year for the Clippers. I admit it. I was WRONG in my pre season bold prediction post.

Here's to another season of fail.

Baselines demographics!

Cool feature I just found out on blogger is you can see where in the world people are viewing your blog. So here's mine!


So cool! Thanks for reading!

Baseline Bold Predictions!

Well after a long summer of a whole lot of player movement (see my off season cheat sheet), the season is finally upon us. Embrace it. Cherish it. For it may be the last season before a possible lockout! But that's not what this post is about. These are my predictions on widely discussed topics as well as some other random predictions for specific teams.

Let's get the boring predictions out of the way.

MVP: Kevin Durant of the Thunder. LeBron coming 2nd in voting. Dwight Howard and Dwyane Wade coming in 4th and 5th or vice versa. Kobe 5th at best. I doubt he'll play the whole season, Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum... "too much" help and voters will go for the feel good story of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the more-quiet-than-a-mouse-after-a-thunderous-dunk-humble Kevin Durant.

Defensive player of the year: Dwight Howard of the Magic. He'll lead the league in blocks and defensive rebounds. And then who? Are there any more impact making defensive players? Shane Battier? Anderson Varejao? Howard will run away with this award.

Rookie of the year: Blake Griffin of the Clippers. I'm biased. I have Clipper season tickets and have seen more Blake Griffin games live from this and last year before he got hurt but he's just simply put: beastly. Powerful on the LeBron scale without the ball handling skills, but has more post moves than his unfair NBA comparison Carlos Boozer. Griffin will be better than Carlos Boozer when it's all said and done in 10 years. 2nd place John Wall. Clippers will have a far better record than the Wizards who have 3 point guards, one of whom is so out of touch with reality he seems to be in a 24/7 daze (Gilbert Arenas). Griffin's 18 points and 12 rebounds for a 45 win team will impress more than Wall's 15 points/7 assists on a 25 win team.

6th Man - Jamal Crawford of the Hawks. He'll have the same role this year as he did last year and if the Hawks owner keeps not re-signing him to an extension, he'll be playing for a contract this summer (unless he demands a trade). Jason Terry on the Mavericks is always a contender and could swoop in and take the award.

Most Improved Player - Any good bench player who becomes a starter or any starter who gets a lot more minutes. I have mad beef with this award, but I would have to go with Kevin Love. On a horrible, horrible team and they just got rid of Al Jefferson. He's the only big guy who can grab rebounds (unless Darko Milicic proves his 20 mil contract) and will be counted on for a lot more scoring than he had gotten last year. I'm telling you. He always had the ability. I watched him at UCLA, it's just now he'll get the minutes which means he'll get the stats... which means he'll get the award!

Executive of the year - PAT RILEY! LeBron, Wade, and Bosh and yeah, a completely new team.

Playoff teams

WEST:

1. Lakers

2. Mavericks

3. Thunder

4. Jazz

5. Nuggets (if Carmelo stays, if not, 8th or lottery)

6. Blazers

7. Spurs

8. Clippers (Rockets as well if Denver falls out)

East

1. Heat

2. Magic

3. Bulls

4. Celtics

5. Hawks

6. Knicks

7. Bucks

8. Bobcats

Finals Matchup - Lakers vs. Celtics

Finals winner - Lakers

Finals MVP - Pau Gasol

Now some predictions you may not have thought about:

• Steve Blake will be starting for the Lakers in place of Derek Fisher within 25 games of the season.
• Toronto will have the worst record in the league and will be praying for the first pick in the draft (or Minnesota, or Detroit).
• Marcus Camby will average double digit rebounds for the Trailblazers, AGAIN, whether or not Oden plays the whole season.
• Kobe will hit the league limit in technical fouls and will be have to be suspended for at least 1 game. So will at least two Boston Celtics, Matt Barnes, Vince Carter and Amar'e Stoudemire.
• Carmelo Anthony's desires to be out of Denver will show in his game, kind of the way LeBron's Game 5 and Game 6 against Boston in the playoffs played out (until he's traded, if he's traded).
• Gilbert Arenas won't suit up for at least 10 games and NOT because of an injury.
• Tiago Splitter for the Spurs will play magnificently for his draft position and for coming out of nowhere (well not NOwhere but from Europe).
• Jermaine O'Neal will be instrumental in the Miami Boston series should they meet in the playoffs. Oh, and Rondo will average about 13+ assists in that series.
• Houston's playoff chances will all depend on the health of Yao Ming's foot. No Yao, no playoffs.
• Cleveland will set the noise-o-meter record when LeBron is announced for the starting lineups in the Miami @ Cleveland game.

That's all I got so far but I'm sure I'll be posting more predictions on here and on my twitter account @betweenbaseline