Write On Sports LLC - "NBA Offseason Review - Part 2" by Mark T.R. Donohue

NBA Offseason Review - Part 2

2006-09-23 00:17:44 | By: Mark T.R. Donohue

I have a challenge for all of you NBA League Pass subscribers. Try and watch a Hawks-Blazers game all the way through this season. See if you can do it. No sleeping, picture-in-picture, or looking at porn on your laptop. Watch the whole game. Atlanta visits Portland on December 3rd and the Hawks host the Trail Blazers on March 23rd. The names have changed a little but the story's the same in Atlanta, where they still have a bunch of good-looking athletes who don't have positions or any sort of defined roles which lend themselves to winning basketball games. They did desperately need a point guard, and Speedy Claxton is definitely a point guard. So now instead of playing five combo forwards at once, it'll be Claxton and four combo forwards. Baby steps. Baby steps.

Here's the breakdown for the rest of the Eastern Conference:

Central Division

Chicago Bulls
Innies: C Martynas Andriuskevicius (trade, Cleveland), F Tyrus Thomas (draft pick), G Thabo Sefolosha (draft pick), G/F Adrian Griffin (FA, Dallas), C Ben Wallace (FA, Detroit), F Viktor Khryapa (trade, Portland), C/F P.J. Brown (trade, New Orleans).
Outies: G Eric Piatkowski (FA, Phoenix), G Jannero Pargo (FA, New Orleans), F Darius Songaila (FA, Washington), G Eddie Basden (trade, Cleveland), F/C Othella Harrington (waived), C Tyson Chandler (trade, New Orleans).

Longtime Bulls fans will remember the 2000 offseason when Jerry Krause rolled out the red carpet for Tracy McGrady and other free agents and ended up with nothing, sullying the franchise's good name. Happier times have finally arrived in Chicago, not coincidentally beginning right around the time of Krause's enforced departure. But the lesson will be long remembered: all the cap space in the world isn't worth very much at all if no decent players want to come and take your money. Now it's 2006 and the Bulls have a pretty good if hardly frightening young team, a great coach, and a developing reputation as a team that's no fun to play against with their elbow-swingin' defense. Is overpaying for a decline-phase Ben Wallace a good idea? In isolation, maybe not. For the Bulls at this moment, the move makes a lot of sense. Wallace is Scott Skiles' kind of player. His acquisition allowed the Bulls to rid themselves of Tyson Chandler, who responded to a terrifically undeserved massive contract extension by regressing to rookie-year level last season. What's more, Wallace's playing for Bulls means he won't be playing for Chicago's division rivals in Detroit. The Knicks' spectacular incompetence has gifted with the Bulls with a lottery pick this year and next. Tyrus Thomas could help a great deal, but even if he does nothing, this is still a very good team. They won't get to the finals unless one of the young guys makes The Leap, but with Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, and Ben Gordon they have a lot of likely candidates.

Cleveland Cavaliers
Innies: G Shannon Brown (draft pick), G Daniel Gibson (draft pick), F Ejike Ugboaja (draft pick), C Scot Pollard (FA, Indiana), G David Wesley (FA, Houston), G Eddie Basden (trade, Chicago).
Outies: G Flip Murray (FA, Detroit), F/C Alan Henderson (FA, Philadelphia), C Martynas Andriuskevicius (trade, Chicago).

Not much has changed, unless you count the exchange of Flip Murray for David Wesley as a major adjustment. Cavs management has made their decisions for now, and they'll have to wait and see whether Larry Hughes and Big Z are enough support for LeBron. Their cap situation won't allow them to do anything dramatic. There's absolutely no precedent for anyone being as good as James is this young, so it may well be the case. He was this close to carrying Cleveland to the conference finals last year when the Cavs blinked in the last two games against Detroit. The sky's the limit for James but unfortunately his ascent is coinciding with the ascent of Dwyane Wade, who has the enormous advantage of the not-quite-obsolete Shaq in his frontcourt. On the other hand the Pistons are down a bit and Chicago doesn't have anyone who "commands the respect of the refs" (read: is allowed to cheat) the way King James does. The biggest news of the Cleveland offseason was the extension LeBron signed fashionably late after Carmelo and D-Wade almost immediately signed theirs. As much as some in the media overreacted to the significance of James's delay in putting pen to contract, many were too quick to assume that the story had reached a happy ending when he finally did. He can still demand a trade if he feels like the franchise isn't going to win a championship soon. Or if Nike tells him he has to.

Detroit Pistons
Innies: C Cheick Samb (draft pick), G Will Blalock (draft pick), F Ronald Dupree (FA, Minnesota), G Flip Murray (FA, Cleveland), C Nazr Mohammed (FA, San Antonio).
Outies: C Ben Wallace (FA, Chicago), G Maurice Evans (trade, LA Lakers), C Kelvin Cato (unsigned FA), G Tony Delk (unsigned FA).

Everyone forgets that before sweating out that series with the Cavs and imploding against the Heat, Detroit was the big regular-season story of 2005-06, threatening 70 wins (not really) and further eroding the Larry Brown myth. Until they just completely stopped making baskets in the playoffs, the Pistons had a pretty good offense last year. Losing Wallace, one of the most offensively backwards players in the history of the game, will make them even better. However, with Mohammed in the middle, can they be anything like they used to be on defense? Under Brown and Flip Saunders the Pistons' entire defensive scheme was built around funneling players toward Big Ben. This allowed Chauncey Billups to save his energy for offense and kept Rip Hamilton's lack of strength from being exploited. While he is a decent rebounder and shot-blocker, no team ever struck it rich designing a defense around Nazr Mohammed. More critically, they've done nothing to address the lack of depth that was at the heart of their postseason collapse last year.

Indiana Pacers
Innies: F Shawne Williams (draft pick), G/F James White (draft pick), F Maceo Baston (FA, Europe), G/F Marquis Daniels (trade, Dallas), G Darrell Armstrong (trade, Dallas), C John Edwards (trade, Atlanta), F Al Harrington (trade, Atlanta), G/F Rawle Marshall (trade, Dallas), F Josh Powell (trade, Dallas).
Outies: G Fred Jones (FA, Toronto), C Scot Pollard (FA, Cleveland), F Austin Croshere (trade, Dallas), F Peja Stojakovic (trade, New Orleans), G Anthony Johnson (trade, Dallas), F Jonathan Bender (waived), G Eddie Gill (unsigned FA).

When the Pacers finally dealt Ron Artest to Sacramento for Peja Stojakovic, the assumption was that Peja would be sticking around for a while. Somewhat surprisingly, Stojakovic is bound for NO/OK, and Indiana has rolled with the punches quite nicely. Their Plan B involves the return of Al Harrington, who seems to have learned a few things during his exile to the basketball wastelands of Atlanta, and a big trade with Dallas that netted them the useful veteran Darrell Armstrong and the blossoming Marquis Daniels. Whether Indiana is able to capitalize on these improvements to the supporting cast is all on Jermaine O'Neal's shoulders. O'Neal's talent is unquestionable but I have my doubts as to whether he has the stuff to be The Man for the Pacers. I can't articulate it precisely but I have my doubts. Of course the same was true of Dirk Nowitzki until last postseason.

Milwaukee Bucks
Innies: F David Noel (draft pick), F Damir Markota (draft pick), G Lynn Greer (FA, Europe), G Steve Blake (trade, Portland), C Ha Seung-Jin (trade, Portland), F/C Brian Skinner (trade, Portland), F Charlie Villanueva (trade, Toronto), F Ruben Patterson (trade, Denver).
Outies: F Jiri Welsch (FA, Europe), G T.J. Ford (trade, Toronto), C Jamaal Magloire (trade, Portland), F Joe Smith (trade, Denver), G Reece Gaines (unsigned FA), G Jermaine Jackson (unsigned FA), C Ervin Johnson (unsigned FA), F Toni Kukoc (unsigned FA).

T.J. Ford's recovery and good play helped the Bucks a lot last year, but the trade of Ford for Charlie Villanueva is a great one for Milwaukee. The Bucks desperately needed more athleticism inside to take full advantage of Andrew Bogut's passing skills. Getting a guy with Villanueva's upside who's still on a rookie contract is a huge plus. The Bucks are in a bit of a bind because they signed Michael Redd, who's a great player but not a max contract guy, to (you guessed it) a max contract. They're not going to be able to run with the heavyweights of the Eastern Conference right away but if they make the playoffs again it won't be described as overachieving.

Southeast Division

Atlanta Hawks
Innies: F Shelden Williams (draft pick), F/C Solomon Jones (draft pick), G Speedy Claxton (FA, New Orleans), C Lorenzen Wright (FA, Memphis).
Outies: C John Edwards (trade, Indiana), F Al Harrington (trade, Indiana).

Baby steps. Enough said.

Charlotte Bobcats
Innies: F Adam Morrison (draft pick), C Ryan Hollins (draft pick), F/C Othella Harrington (FA, Chicago).
Outies: F/C Melvin Ely (unsigned FA), F Lonny Baxter (unsigned FA), F Jumaine Jones (FA, Phoenix).

Bobcats mastermind Bernie Bickerstaff has been crystal clear that his plan for the expansion franchise is to take things slow. Glacially slow. Now that Michael Jordan is involved as part owner, will Bickerstaff be allowed to stay the course? This offseason, at least, Charlotte made no effort to make a big splash on the free agent market, despite being one of the few teams with cap space. Emeka Okafor's injury last season prevented the Bobcats from really getting a good idea of how far they'd progressed, but it also put them in the position to draft Adam Morrison, whose scoring touch ought to help a lot. They're still not exactly good but with Okafor, Morrison, Raymond Felton, and Gerald Wallace they have a lot of players worth watching. Just wait until Jordan and Bickerstaff announce that they're going for it.

Miami Heat
Innies: F Mike Gansey (undrafted FA), G Robert Hite (undrafted FA), G Chris Quinn (undrafted FA).
Outies: G Derek Anderson (waived).

Hey, the Heat won the NBA championship. Why wouldn't they return exactly the same team for their title defense? The big news isn't any of the undrafted fliers listed above but that Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton have both decided to forego retirement and re-sign for one last go-round. Payton, Mourning, and Shaq are all old and getting older but with any luck Dwyane Wade will be able to more than make up for it. Indeed, if NBA officials continue calling Wade's drives the same way they did in the finals, Pat Riley can rest his entire team three quarters per game by just having Wade go 1 on 5.

Orlando Magic
Innies: G J.J. Redick (draft pick), F James Augustine (draft pick), G/F Keith Bogans (FA, Houston).
Outies: G DeShawn Stevenson (FA, Washington), F/G Stacey Augmon (unsigned FA), C Mario Kasun (unsigned FA).

OK, who isn't rooting for Darko Milicic to become a huge star in Orlando? The Magic have gone quite rapidly from a very dreary team to an extremely interesting one. Their roster is still a little mismatched, though. Is Grant Hill doing more harm than good hanging around? What are random veterans like Pat Garrity, Hedo Turkoglu, and Tony Battie doing around all these promising youngsters? Is Redick going to be as a big a failure as a pro as everyone seems to think? One thing is for sure. This will be the year that the world catches up with how good Dwight Howard is.

Washington Wizards
Innies: C Oleksiy Pecherov (draft pick), F Vladimir Veremeenko (draft pick), F Darius Songaila (FA, Chicago), G DeShawn Stevenson (FA, Orlando).
Outies: F Jared Jeffries (FA, New York).

Maybe I'm old school. No, correct that, I am definitely old school. But drafting not one but two gangly Euro players and letting Jeffries walk is not going to improve Washington's defense one bit. Gilbert Arenas says he wears the number 0 because he hasn't gotten any respect since he was a prep player. Well, he can file the paperwork to switch to 1 right now. I respect you, Gilbert. You got game. But teams with no D and no post scoring don't typically advance far in the NBA playoffs, and the other second-tier teams in the Eastern Conference are moving forward while the Wizards backtrack. At this point Detroit, Miami, Chicago, and Cleveland look like playoff locks. Milwaukee, Orlando, Indiana, and New Jersey are solid bets as well. Washington has to find a way to stop their opponents from scoring, and a plan for the nights Arenas goes cold from the floor, if they're going to get back in the postseason.