Trade Talks: So Where is Everyone Going?

It’s been a crazy trading season, like usual, so I have decided to give you an easy rundown on what is happening. Here is your trade cheat sheet.

Boston Celtics

Ray Allen bid farewell to the team in order to warm the bench in South Beach with the Miami Heat. Or as some fans refer to Allen he sold his soul to the devil. But don’t worry the Celtics have managed to hold on to big man Kevin Garnett. I know what you are thinking but Garnett is like 36 but don’t forget he can still do fist push-ups so he’s good for at least another season. The Celtics also managed to hold onto Brandon Bass, Chris Wilcox and Jeff Green. Although Green has been out to due heart surgery he may just be the it scoring factor the Celtics need.

They are still in the process of acquiring Jason Terry from the Dallas Mavericks but the paperwork should be done by the end of the week.  So don’t worry they will be fine without Allen.

The Miami Heat

Obviously the Heat are in a great position. They are coming off their championship win and they have all three major players still in place: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. Now they just have to hope no one gets injured. They are now just padding their bench with veteran players. Allen is the perfect example of this. Joining Allen they added Washington Wizard Rashard Lewis. Both were former Seattle Supersonic players back in the day.

One thing is clear the Heat are looking for another championship win next year.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers obviously need to replace point guard Ramon Sessions since he didn’t intend to return. And aside from that the after being knocked out of the second round of the Playoffs it was obvious something needed to change. So the Lakers brought in veteran Phoenix Sun point guard Steve Nash. We can only hope he is more comfortable on the court than he looked at the ESPY awards the other night. The Lakers also managed to hold onto Devin Ebanks for another year.

Now the question is will the Lakers end up with Dwight Howard? Up until today it was looking like the Houston Rockets were going to get Howard but now the Lakers seem to be back in the mix. There is nothing official about what the deal would look like. Everyone has speculated that Andrew Bynum would be exiting as part of the deal. As a Laker fan I would gladly take Howard over Bynum even if it’s only for a year.

New York Knicks

The Knicks have definitely had an interesting season. Getting rid of coach Mike D’Antonio to appease star Carmello Anthony. Now under coach Mike Woodson the team is looking to rebuild. The interesting thing is the Knicks are not taking chances on rookies but instead acquiring almost retirees. The Knicks picked up Jason Kidd from the Dallas Mavericks, Marcus Camby from the Houston Rockets, James White from some Italian basketball league, and Pablo Prigioni from some Spanish leaugue. Their line-up sounds more like the premise to a movie, “When old men try to play in the NBA,” rather than a strategy.

In the meantime they have yet to resign Jeremy Lin. To add pressure to the Knicks Lin signed an offer sheet with the Houston Rockets. Despite that the Knicks are expected to match it and keep him. Let’s hope they do because they need some young blood.

The Brooklyn Nets

The Nets or Dwight Howard’s dream team are trying to establish themselves after the move from New Jersey. Like all bridge and tunnel people who move to the city to live their dreams, the team changed its look. They got a new cooler logo. They got a hip mascot, Jay-Z. And all that was left was to get a good team together. So they laid down major bucks to get Joe Johnson from the Atlanta Hawks. If only they had known that just two days later Howard would be pleading to come to them. The Nets then tried to still acquire Howard in a very confusing 4 way orgy trade that eventually fell through.

With the lure of Howard gone the Nets decided to start re-signing players. Deron Williams had already re-signed before the trade saga began for $100 million. Then the Nets re-signed Brook Lopez and are likely to re-sign Kris Humphries.

Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers haven’t had a ton of movement this trading season. They got back Lamar Odom from the Dallas Mavericks and gave away Mo Williams to the Utah Jazz. They have managed to hold onto stars Blake Griffin(who just got injured) and Chris Paul. There is talk that the Clippers want shooting guard Marco Belinelli from the New Orleans Hornets. But apparently that offer is not tempting to the Hornets.

The Dallas Mavericks

The most exciting thing for the Mavericks aside from unloading Lamar Odom is the acquistion of Philadelphia 76ers Elton Brand. They also picked up Darren Collison and Dahntay Jones from the Indiana Pacers in a trade for center Ian Mahinmi. Lastly the Mavericks picked up center Chris Kaman from the Hornets. They got him for the bargain price of $8 million. Kaman was an All-Star just two years ago but has somehow vanished from the valuable player list. Maybe he will make a comeback in Dallas.

-M

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