Archive for the 'Trades' Category

Best Offseason Moves of 2008

Published
by
Bob
on September 29, 2008
in Free Agency, Signings and Trades
. 1 Comment

Well it’s time I stop being a lazy piece of shit. After the Delonte signing, I needed to put some real work in so as to not get fired from my paying job. But at this point, it’s time to start writing again and start looking around the division/league. Seeing as I already did a write-up on my least favorite moves of this offseason, it’s only fitting that I make my feelings known about which moves I like best.

So without any more delay, I give you my five “Best Moves of 2008 Offseason”:

1.) Elton Brand signs with the Sixers

This one is pretty obvious to sit atop my list in large part because it was unexpected. If you had told me that Brand would leave the Clippers, under rather nefarious circumstances, after the Clippers acquired Baron Davis, I would have told you that you were crazy.

The guy has been nothing but a loyal workhorse, and the monetary differences didn’t seem enough to prompt a guy to uproot his life and walk away from a potentially contending trio of Brand/Davis/Camby with promising young support from Thornton and Gordon.

But yeah…. That happened, and now I have to hope the 20 and 10 we’ve all come to expect from Brand is either a thing of the past, or mostly hollow numbers that don’t translate to “surpassing the Cavs”. Call me skeptical that another year together and the addition of Brand/Speights/Ratliff won’t spell significant progress for the Sixers.

He’s worth every cent of the deal he got, and the fact that Sixers resigned Igoudala and Williams only makes this deal all the bigger in my eyes.

2.) Rockets acquire Ron Artest

This is one of those fantasy roster moves that of course I love until I see how it plays out. It’s low risk, and simply for that reason alone, I can get behind it. If Artest works out, you’ve put yourself in the driver’s seat when he negotiates his next contract. If not, he plays out the final year of his contract and he’s off the books next summer. Either way, the on court impact he could have on an already solid defensive squad could be tremendous. With Battier and Artest harassing the opposition, Tracy can focus on what Tracy does.

Giving up Donte Greene after his summer league showing might have been unfortunate, but we all know summer league ball does not an NBA player make (see Shannon Brown), and considering the way his stock free fell during the actual draft (sliding all the way to Memphis at #28 before being traded to Houston for weed smoking Darrell Arthur, the Rockets were probably fortunate to luck into such a promising talent that late in the first round anyway. Turning him and the corpse of Bobby Jackson into Ron Artest is a deal you make 11 out of 10 days.

2.5) Clippers acquire Marcus Camby

I already posted my thoughts on why this was a bad deal for the Nuggets, so logically I’d love it for the Clippers. Low risk, high reward. Moving on.

3.) Portland acquires Jerryd Bayless and Ike Diogu for Brandon Rush/Jarrett Jack/Josh McRoberts

A slashing point guard like Bayless would have been a dream scenario for the Cavs, but most expected he could go as high as the fourth overall pick. Why dwell on something which will never happen? He did slip quite a long way…. all the way to #11 where he was taken by the Pacers. Instead of holding on to him as the replacement for Jamaal Tinsley, the Pacers shipped him off to the Trailblazers.

The Trailblazers essentially turned the 13th overall pick (Brandon Rush) and two other players (Jarrett Jack and Josh Roberts) into the summer league’s best rookie who could start immediately or provide a huge scoring punch off the bench, a big man in Diogu, and almost as importantly, they opened up one more roster spot which is valuable for a team that is loaded up on overseas talent.

After seeing Rudy Fernandez’s performance in the Olympics, you’d be hard pressed to find somebody that would take issue with the Blazers offseason roster maneuvers. Did I mention Greg Oden returns?

4.) Roger Mason signs with the Spurs for 2 years, $7.3 million

I had to make at least one of these picks about a role player who flew under the radar. I loved this signing. The Spurs are aging and they added a 28-year old perimeter player who can do a little of everything to ease the loss of Brent Barry and the decay of Michael Finley. He shot nearly 40% from behind the arc last year, showed the ability to put the ball on the floor a little, and even spelled Daniels and Arenas at point when injuries required it.

Considering players like Michael Pietrus got the entire midlevel exception even after the Magic invested a first round pick in a player of the same position (Courtney Lee), you can hardly second guess the Spurs for acquiring yet another versatile role player for only $3.5 million to plug in alongside their starters. Watching Mason play these last few years have given me a healthy respect for his all around game. Mason won’t be enough to offset the age/injury concerns the Spurs continue to have, but he was a nice addition.

5.) Timberwolves acquire Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins for OJ Mayo, Greg Buckner, Marko Jaric, and Antoine Walker

Let’s take the dead weight out of the analysis of this deal (Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker, Brian Cardinal). It’s moving bad money for other bad money, with the only difference being years.

The core of this deal is Kevin Love and Mike Miller for OJ Mayo. Personally I think I’d take Love for Mayo straight up. Love is a big man with both an inside and outside game (although we’ve yet to see how effective his inside game will be in the pros). He’s worked tirelessly to get his body in optimal NBA condition. He rebounds very well. He has a good attitude and fundamentally, he’s perhaps the best player in this year’s draft.

As for Mayo, he’s got the “upside”. Many would say at USC he was underwhelming given the level of hype he came in with. His character certainly can be called into question after witnessing his youtube antics and reading about his alleged “benefits” while playing at USC. But I’m trying to view this independently of any off court related reasons.

Why would a big man starved team (the Grizzlies) trade a very promising big man for another perimeter player on a team that already has Conley, Crittendon, Lowry, and Gay? Mayo has the “upside” but he’s hardly shown that’s he’s a traditional point guard, and with Crittendon and Gay on the outside, the Grizzlies don’t lack for guys who can fill it up when given the green light.

Call me a hater, but I think the Mayo legacy that was created post-Lebron is responsible for the Grizzlies trading away a guy who will end with a better NBA career.

Delonte guaranteed $500,000 in third year of deal

Published
by
Bob
on September 15, 2008
in Free Agency, Rookies and Trades
. 0 Comments

So Bob Finnan had a follow up to the Delonte West signing that included some concrete numbers, but more importantly, it included information about the all-important third year, which previously had been reported as one that included a team option. While that is by and large true, Delonte does have a portion of that third year guaranteed even if the Cavs waive him during the summer of 2010. Finnan reports:

West’s contract starts at $3,850,000 this season, a source said. It’s a three-year deal worth $12,705,000. He will be paid $4,235,000 in 2009-10 and $4,620,000 in 2010-11.

The third year might not be a club option, as once thought, but it’s conditional. West has $500,000 in salary protection in the third year. If he’s on the roster by a certain date — perhaps by July 1, 2010 — his contract will become guaranteed. But the Cavs can waive him and he would be owed $500,000.

Signing West puts the Cavaliers at somewhere between 90 and 91 million dollars of guaranteed salaries. That ranks behind only New York and Dallas for the league’s highest payroll. There’s a reason why the Cavaliers have so many potential trade packages. It’s because their roster is still loaded with highly paid, underachieving players. Ferry is doing all he can to fix that. So what else can we expect to see this year?

The next item we’ll likely see is the release of Lance Allred (who currently sits 7th on the depth chart of Cavalier big men). Billy Thomas was waived last week and has already signed overseas, and those moved together would leave the Cavs with 14 players on the roster. Eric Snow’s situation is still largely unresolved, but the one certainty is that he won’t be suiting up with the Cavs again. Finnan adds some details on his injury settlement situation:

Cavs guard Eric Snow’s knee is shot and he can no longer play in the NBA. He has one more year on his contract worth $7.3 million.

A source said he won’t be on the Cavs this year — as a player or coach. So what gives?

Let’s muddle through this. If he’s waived, his $7.3 million contract will remain on the books.

That’s not what the Cavs want. They can’t petition the league to remove his salary from their payroll until one year after Snow’s last game (last Feb. 22 against Washington) in an injured player exception.

Up until that time, Snow could theoretically be used in a trade. Remember, he still owns an expiring contract, which could come into play near the trade deadline of Feb. 19, 2009. If he’s traded, though, the team that acquires him can’t use the exception.

Let’s hope Gilbert and Ferry keep him around, if for no other reason then to add to their options come trade deadline.

6 degrees to the Summer of 2010…

Published
by
Bob
on August 29, 2008
in Free Agency, Lebron, NBA News and Trades
. 0 Comments

It’s all but a certainty that any deal related to the Cavs, Knicks, or Nets will be tied to “luring Lebron in 2010″.  Well the recent rumors of Zach Randolph being shopped to Memphis for Darko Milicic and Antoine Walker’s bloated expiring deal have done just that.  From Hoopsworld:

This morning’s top NBA story was a trade rumor that the New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies could be close to a deal that would send Antoine Walker and Darko Milicic to the Knicks for the often-rumored Zach Randolph. No doubt Knicks fans are scratching their heads . . .and maybe Grizzlies fans, too.

On the Knicks side of the ledger, this would be all about taking $17 million off of their payroll in time for the 2010 NBA free agency period. Milicic’s deal ends that summer and Walker’s contract has a player option that could take him off the books even a year earlier should he choose to exercise it. Ultimately, the move would be made in order to set up a courtship of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James.

Wait for 2010… or trade in 2009?

Published
by
Bob
on August 29, 2008
in Free Agency, Lebron, Signings and Trades
. 0 Comments

I’m relatively impatient in general. But at least as it relates to the Cavaliers, I think I’ve been the opposite most of my fan life. That would be the obvious statement I suppose. They’ve yet to win an NBA Championship and that is kind of the whole point, but I’m speaking more to the roster moves they make and the time it takes for them to accomplish the goals that mainstream media lay out for Danny Ferry.

I don’t get all that rattled by drawn-out contracts battles, at least not with the role players. I understand that there is no miracle fix for a roster loaded with bloated contracts that can be exercised at any moment. It takes a willing third party team looking to amend mistakes of their own, or time for guaranteed contracts to expire. Fortunately, the NBA will always have the Knicks, and roster mistakes are in no short order.

From 2005 on, it’s been an impossible set of circumstances for the Cavs when faced with how to significantly upgrade the team around Lebron. Sure their have been some player resignings (Drew, LBJ himself, Anderson Varejao, Pavs) and a couple of minimum salary additions (David Wesley, Devin Brown), but by in large, the Cavs made a calculated risk, put a whole lot of money behind that risk, and in the world of guaranteed contracts found themselves stuck.

Danny gets the chance at a redo, at the latest in 2010. Today’s NBA offers two clear paths. Do teams use their expiring deals as tradebait and limit themselves to the malcontents, bad deals, old players, or expiring contract players who are shopped annually (hello Zach Randolph!)? Or, alternatively, do you wait out your own team’s bad deals, let them get off the books, and then attempt to make your additions through the unrestricted free agency market (something that Portland could be attempting to do with Raef LaFrentz’s deal), one which is notorious for driving up salaries and the years needed to get deals done(hello James Posey!)?

That is where the Cavs are at. Many of the trades Ferry has made in the last year have largely been seen as victories. Dealing Larry, acquiring Delonte, bringing in Mo Williams…. all these things seem to have been more positive than negative to the fanbase (albeit Mo is still an unknown, but so little was given up). Given what Ferry has done since 2005 managing to move some of his own worst deals, really makes me want to see what Ferry can do when given his best collection of trading assets to date.  

You never know when a Pau Gasol situation will emerge where a good player whose largely seen as worth his money is traded simply because a team is spending at an unacceptable level for the ownership.  Those are the situations you pray for as fans of opportunistic teams who don’t seem to blink at overpaying (hello Ben Wallace!).

But there’s the other path. The one that could blow up in your face and leave you with nothing, because there is no safety net. The one that asks the fanbase to wait until 2010, and the uncertainty of unrestricted free agency to try to net one of the big dogs (Bosh, Amare, Wade) to play alongside Lebron. Patrick McManamon of the Akron Beacon Journal has already hinted at it publically. It’s something we’ve all thought about privately. But it’s a path so riddled with uncertainty, I can’t help but hesitate to embrace the unknown. McManamon writes:

Everyone has been focusing on the cap space of the New Jersey Nets or the New York Knicks or Athens, Greece, but the Cavs quietly have manipulated themselves to the point that they have more salary-cap room than anyone for that offseason.

The Cavs have almost $30 million in cap space — and that counts James’ salary, which will go away when he opts out of his final year.

As of today the Cavs have four players under contract (sort of) in 2010-11: James for $17 million (though he’s probably going to be a free agent), Maurice Williams for $9.3 million, Daniel Gibson for $4 million and J.J. Hickson on a team option for $1.5 million.

That’s it.

Wally Szczerbiak’s contract expires after this season.

Ben Wallace goes after two seasons.

So does Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Other players surely will be added to the roster, but the Cavs won’t add anyone who will compromise their ability to bring in talent in 2010.

First let’s get this out of the way.  Patrick’s article does not take into account fully what other teams will be able to do between now and then to free up even more money.  The Cavs will not be alone.  The summer of 2010 has gotten far too much coverage to think that GM’s aren’t scheming league-wide.  That doesn’t make the above scenario impossible.  It just makes it harder to orchestrate.  

Don’t kid yourselves.  That is not an easy scenario to plan for.  Ferry has shown patience and shrewd maneuvering, but there’s a long history of the best laid plans blowing up in team’s faces. This summer the Clippers saw that plan fall apart first hand. Instead of retaining their superstar (Elton Brand) and adding the other big name on the UFA market (Baron), they got Baron Davis and filled the void of the departing Brand with Marcus Camby. Not exactly what they hoped for. That plan required them to let Maggette walk, and to top it off, Kaman didn’t exactly do the PR department any favors with his Benedict Arnolding (that’s not a verb…. but it is now).

As for the Cavs, 2005 saw Michael Redd spurn the Cavs despite what appeared to be the perfect “intangible” mix to counteract the extra year Milwaukee was able to offer him back in 2005. Cleveland was his hometown, he was a star at Ohio State, and he could have played alongside the league’s top talent (although not in 2005) with a skill set that all but guaranteed him as the perfect fit. Instead the Cavs ended up with Larry Hughes. Not Ray Allen. Not Joe Johnson. Larry Hughes. The fanbase is the one who should have tattoed tear drops to their faces. It’s been three straight years of “well it will get better…next time the Cavs can’t possibly do worse”.

So what then do the Cavaliers do to remedy their current roster woes? Two years is an eternity, and while WFNY and Cavalier Attitude have already done a great job of discussing who could be out there in 2010, I think it’s equally relevant to try to take an unbiased look at where the Cavs will be, and how they’ll be portrayed entering what will undoubtedly be the most important summer in team history.

Amar over at Cavalier Attitude had this to say when speaking on the likelihood of the Cavaliers obtaining Amare Stoudemire:

So don’t be surprised if the Suns start falling apart at the seams this season. This is a team that desperately needs to get younger and find more pieces to build around for the future. Just Stoudemire by himself, unlike just James by himself in Cleveland, won’t be enough for the Suns to keep improving down the road with everybody around him retired and no young players around him.

It’s time we as a fan base look in the mirror.  Should the Cavs decide to wait out their bad deals and enter 2010 with a huge pile of money and dreams of Lebron/Bosh or Lebron/Wade or Lebron/Amare, then they will be a shell of a roster.  

To have the full complement of money that they could assemble, it would require allowing Wally, Z, Ben, Anderson, and Sasha all to walk away thus freeing up their money.  

Sure the Suns could be stripped and old by that point, but they’d still likely have Barbosa (our Mo equivalent), Diaw, Robin Lopez (a young big…our JJ equivalent but more in the Varejao mold), and Alando Tucker along with Shaq’s 20 million dollars off the books and Nash’s 14 million.

What I’m saying essentially, is that Amar’s statement above would largely apply to the Cavs as well, since they’d need to rid themselves of nearly all their assets even just to take the chance on luring a guy like Bosh or Stoudamire.  That’s not even considering that it would require “the other superstar” to come to a team that could offer them less money to be the second fiddle to LBJ.  Check out the same statement Amar made, but slightly revisited.  It’s not that far off from the situation the Cavs are faced with:

So don’t be surprised if the Suns Cavs start falling apart at the seams. This is a team that desperately needs to get younger and find more pieces to build around for the future. Just Stoudemire by himself, unlike just James by himself in Cleveland, won’t be enough for the Suns Cavs to keep improving down the road with everybody around him retired and no young players around him.

Olympic summers like this one foster hope, because superstars played as a team, and things like patriotism and love of the game are the story lines for what drive guys, but that doesn’t apply in today’s NBA.  Marion couldn’t coexist as part of team.  He wanted his.  Redd had the chance to join a better team, but stayed as the big fish in the small Milwaukee pond.  It’s foolish to think things will be as easy as simply waiting out a couple more moderately successful years with this current Cavs incarnation and then turning the roster spots of Wally, Ben, Z, Snow, and Sasha into a perennial All-Star.  

It would require sacrifice from another team’s superstar both monetarily and on the court.  It would require patience from Lebron and the type of commitment to the Cavs that no one truly knows if he would make before seeing who Ferry could lure.  And it requires Ferry to pass on the opportunity to turn limited overpaid players, into more talented players because of their attractive contract status… one that can’t be used if their deals are allowed to expire.  That’s a lot of faith to place in a “best case scenario” when “well we’ve got Lebron, that’s the difference” has yet to produce any beneficial second banana results.

I think it’s pretty obvious what way I feel.  I would love the idea of Chris Bosh alongside Lebron James.  But call me the pessimist.  I think the trade market has proven far easier to navigate for Ferry than the free agency market, and until I see something to indicate that big money deals like Greece aren’t truly what drives most players, then I’m not buying into the “well he’ll come to Cleveland for less money to play with Lebron as second fiddle” dreams.

Yep….obligatory poll time…..

What do the Cavs do with their expirings?

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Delonte and Ben Gordon: A sympathetic restricted free agency ear…

Published
by
Bob
on August 21, 2008
in Free Agency, NBA News, Rookies, Signings and Trades
. 3 Comments

Delonte’s negotiations haven’t progressed at all.  The Knicks-Cavs trade rumors have been covered extensively (and may I add more extensively).  I’ll briefly write up my feelings on the proposed trades later today (and it will likely be in a quick summarized fashion), but as the season approaches, I want to look to Chicago where the Bulls faithful are awaiting a resolution on the Ben Gordon situation much like Cleveland fans are with Delonte.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I was envious of the Bulls good fortunes.  It’s very similar to how I feel about the Portland Trailblazers now.  Through shrewd picking in the NBA draft and some timely trades, they had positioned themselves to be a force in the league for a long time to come.  2003 saw the addition of Kirk Hinrich.  2004 brought both Ben Gordon and Luol Deng (not to mention Chris Duhon).  They assembled a talented young core in the span of two drafts that was able to grow together unfettered by the concern of minutes.  

They’re still a very good team.  I don’t feel that their record last season was a true indication of how good they can be.  And that record allowed them to add Derrick Rose.  Damn.

Admittedly, my fear/respect for their current talent has chilled somewhat.  But that’s bound to happen as a player’s “ceiling” becomes more apparant, and all the promising young talents that were/are on rookie deals during my infatuation period sign big deals.  Before, criticism was impossible.  Objectively, no fan or hater could label any of the Bulls core players “not worth the money”.  That kind of “oh shit, what happens in three years” problem was a good one to have…. until now.  

In my estimation, the first move the Bulls made that concerned me was adding Jim Paxson to the staff.  The second was signing Ben Wallace to the massive deal he was given.  That’s easy to say now, and I have no way to prove I adamantly opposed that deal at the time.  This blog didn’t even exist two months ago.  But you’ll have to take my word on it.  

Truth be told, as much as I found myself hating Larry Hughes as a Cavs fan, I think the move the Bulls made to unload Wallace was a great one for them as well as us.  We needed a fourth big man who could log minutes (even if they are rotational ones), and the deal brought back that extra body in Joe Smith, not to mention the closest thing we’ve had to a point guard since Jeff McInnis (Delonte).  They got a more talented Hughes (albeit overpaid) and a cheap, young offensive oriented power forward to complement their largely defensive frontcourt until they can upgrade the position (Gooden).

Anyway, the point of this post is not to revisit the Wallace-Hughes trade.  It’s to look at what is an eerie parallel.  Through trade, the Bulls added Hughes, and with him, they have a “fallback” in place for Gordon who was commanding much of the salary cap space that could have been used more wisely if not for guaranteed contracts signed foolishly by other teams (cough).  They added a high priced, high profile player (think Mo) who could lessen the potential sting of losing a valuable young asset should he play hardball in free agency (think Delonte).

The Bulls find themselves in a contentious negotiation with their own restricted free agent Ben Gordon, who like Delonte seems opposed to going overseas.  I’ve made my stance on Gordon pretty clear.  The guy can score.  But Deng is a much more well-rounded player, and if reports are true that Gordon (a offensively gifted small 2-guard with limited defense) thinks he should command the largest salary on the team, I think he’s batshit nuts.  Worse still for the Bulls is that while Delonte doesn’t really have a good parallel on the market (unless you count Chris Duhon…which I don’t) he’s still viewed as a role player around the league.  Guys like Andre Igoudala and Luol Deng are who Gordon has equated himself too in terms of value. 

Matt from Blog-a-Bull has made some excellent points from the Bulls fan perspective that I think bare repeating (as they relate to Cavs fans as well):

I do not feel good about the sign/trade scenario. Back when it was done with Crawford, it was easy to accept salary relief (getting Jerome Williams off the books) as a benefit. And Curry’s situation was a no-win that actually produced quite the haul of draft picks. But that’s just not enough at this point. Expiring deals, picks, ‘assets’…Paxson’s had 5 years of getting those, and goal for the last couple of those seasons should be actually getting better instead of just more.  Better as in of Gordon’s caliber or higher. And that rarely happens when you’re the one signing and trading.

That’s an excellent point, and one plays out 90% of the time.  Think back over the history of sign and trades.  You have Rashard Lewis to the Magic for a trade exception and draft picks.  You have Joe Johnson to the Hawks for Diaw and draft picks.  You have Kenyon Martin to the Nuggets for draft picks.  

Sure there are ways to get relief monetarily or stockpile draftpicks, and sometimes the team trading the talent wins in the long run (Seattle/OKC looks headed down that path now), but on the sheer basis of talent in the present, sign and trades almost never bring in more for less.

Names like David Lee and Udonis Haslem are being tossed about in rumors for Delonte West.  While it would be great to see that happen since it would address weaknesses in the Cavs lineup, realistically those guys bring as much to the court as West, if not more.  Count me amongst the skeptics those deals would ever happen unless other significant considerations factor in.  Salary relief for the Knicks could do that possibly.  But do we really want to tie our hopes to the idea that New York is finally going to practice some fiscal responsibility?  They just gave Duhon the midlevel!  

As for the Heat, Haslem, despite having Marion on board, still logs major minutes with the massive hole at center they created by dealing Shaq.  Not to mention, Marion isn’t even guaranteed to be there past this year.

Back on the subject of restricted free agency, Blog-a-Bull continues:

If it turns out that not only does signing Nocioni (who the Bulls signed before Memphis gave him an offer sheet in restricted free agency) prevent the Bulls from signing Gordon, but getting rid of Nocioni’s deal is an objective in a Gordon sign/trade…man, how bad was that Nocioni deal?

If Gordon can’t be signed because of the Nocioni contract, that deal goes from thorn in the ass to complete abomination.

For those that don’t realize, Nocioni signed a 5-year deal for $38 million dollars.  That’s an average of nearly $8 million per year.  Anderson Varejao had reportedly asked for somewhere between $8-$10 million dollars a year over a long-term deal from the Cavs.  Ferry refused and Varejao eventually took $5.5 million per year for two season (assuming he exercises his player option after this year).

The Cavs could have very easily found themselves in a similar position had Ferry caved liked so many impatient Cavs fans were crying out for last season.  Hell, the Cavs were the laughing stock of the NBA in terms of payroll because of that type of carefree spending on role players like Jones, Hughes, and Marshall. Now they find themselves with the all powerful “expiring contracts” so they’re in the position to potentially rob some of these money starved teams of superior talent.  We’ll see how that plays out.

If anything is being reinforced in this Bulls scenario, it’s that GM’s need to be more responsible about how they pay role players, even ones that are fan favorites, or that offer skills that the team is by and large lacking.  

Delonte is a role player.  He offers some point guard skills the Cavs had been lacking for a long time.  Ben Gordon is a very good to great role player who scores as well as anyone of the Bulls team.  They’re not on the same level as players.  That’s obvious.

$10 million dollars a season is fair for Gordon.  I say that with complete disregard and lack of concern of the Bulls luxury tax threshold.  As a Cavs fan, you won’t see me crying if the Bulls eventually give in to his exorbitant demands in fear of losing him to unrestricted free agency.  They did something similar with Hinrich (back in October of 2006) and many consider his deal unmovable now.  Similarly, last year they jumped the gun with Nocioni in fear what Memphis may have offered him and signed him to a long-term deal that won’t be easily movable for another few years.

I like the Luol Deng deal.  He plays both ends of the floor, he rebounds well, he has a great midrange game, and to this point in his career, he’s shown nothing even close to unethical behavior in dealing with the Bulls.  I wish the same could be said for two other Duke guys named Carlos Boozer and Elton Brand.  But if you’re love of the game trumps your hate of the Bulls, you have to be rooting for Gordon to get a taste of what so many greedy role players (or greedy role player’s agents) deserve…. reality.