duncan228
08-13-2008, 11:38 AM
http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/southwest_080813.html
Changing of the Guard
by Keith Langlois
Editor’s note: Pistons.com today continues a six-part series examining the off-season moves made by the NBA’s 30 teams in a division-by-division analysis. In today’s Part II, we look at the Southwest Division: Coming in Friday’s Part III: Northwest.
A year ago at this time, Dallas was coming off a 67-win regular season and San Antonio was the reigning NBA champion. But there at least appears to be a changing of the guard going on in the Southwest Division, where Houston’s acquisition of Ron Artest and the continuing ascendance of Chris Paul’s New Orleans’ Hornets have a loaded division up for grabs.
It was a relatively quiet off-season for the Southwest’s five teams, the pending Artest deal the biggest splash of the summer with New Orleans’ free-agent signing of James Posey ranking second.
Here’s a look at the summer work turned in by the Southwest’s five members ranked in order of significance of activity:
HOUSTON
COMING – Make no mistake about it, the addition of Ron Artest is fraught with risk for the Rockets, but not so much if you believe the Rockets as constituted weren’t a threat to win an NBA title. Are they now? If Artest doesn’t combust and if he doesn’t infect the locker room with his unique brand of toxicity – two very considerable ifs – then, yeah, they are. Artest makes an already superb defensive team that much stingier and his offensive ability might be even more valuable to a team that too often bogs down on nights Tracy McGrady isn’t in unstoppable mode. The Rockets also added veteran shooter Brent Barry, further weakening rival San Antonio in the process, and tough rookie Joey Dorsey in the draft.
GOING – Still no resolution in sight with last year’s surprise second-round rookie contributor, Carl Landry, whose agent is threatening the European option. Other than that, not much of value was lost aside from cagey veteran guard Bobby Jackson, packaged with No. 1 pick Donte Green in the pending deal for Artest.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Rafer Alston (Aaron Brooks, Steve Francis); shooting guard: Tracy McGrady (Brent Barry, Luther Head); center Yao Ming (Dikembe Mutombo, who remains an unsigned free agent); power forward: Ron Artest (Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes); small forward: Shane Battier (Mike Harris).
BOTTOM LINE – There are a lot of questions surrounding the Rockets, starting with the ongoing health concerns of McGrady and Yao, whose oft-injured legs and feet can’t be helped by another heavy summer of toil with the Chinese national team. Artest’s volatility will bear constant monitoring and, unless Mutombo returns to the fold, there’s nothing remotely resembling a backup center on the roster. But if everything falls into place for Houston, the Rockets will head into the playoffs a much more credible threat next spring than last.
NEW ORLEANS
COMING - James Posey seemed like one of the victims of the 2007 free agency season when few teams had money available and he wound up settling for a below-market, one-year deal with the Boston Celtics. How propitious that now seems. Boston’s ride to the 2008 NBA title and the critical role Posey played off the bench allowed him to strike it rich with a four-year, $25 million free-agent deal from the Hornets. New Orleans probably will live to regret the length of the deal, but in the short term there’s not much question Posey makes this a better team.
GOING – Nothing much so far. The Hornets let big man Chris Andersen, who returned from a two-year drug suspension late in the regular season, leave as a free agent. But it appears likely that two veteran free agents won’t be back – Jannero Pargo and Bonzi Wells – and you have to wonder if Posey for Pargo and Wells isn’t a net loss for the Hornets.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Chris Paul (Mike James); shooting guard: Morris Peterson (Rasual Butler); center: Tyson Chandler (Melvin Ely, Hilton Armstrong); power forward: David West (Julian Wright); small forward: Peja Stojakovic (James Posey).
BOTTOM LINE – You’d have to think GM Jeff Bower should be a little nervous heading into mid-August with what appears a thin bench. But there are still plenty of serviceable veteran free agents looking for work, so it’s not out of the question that one or two shrewd minimum-deal signings can plug the holes. The Hornets were one game away from advancing to the Western finals last June and figure to be a factor for the foreseeable future with the nucleus of Paul, Chandler and West intact.
MEMPHIS
COMING – The Grizzlies had the potential to do so much more in free agency – and still do, because they’re the only team left with any appreciable money to spend under the salary cap – but apparently are content to sit this summer out and, maybe, spend their bounty next summer on what is potentially a deeper class of free agents. They opened a few eyes last week by agreeing to an offer sheet with Atlanta’s Josh Smith, but it wasn’t the bowl-you-over offer that might have dissuaded the Hawks, who matched within hours. The big news for the Grizzlies came on draft night, when they picked Kevin Love and wound up swapping him to Minnesota for O.J. Mayo and later traded again for Kansas power forward Darrell Arthur, who was thought to be a lottery pick but plummeted to the bottom of the first round, apparently due to sketchy reports of health issues that were later proven unfounded. Memphis is saying it wound up with three lottery picks – Mayo, Arthur and Marc Gasol, a piece of the trade for brother Pau and a player who enhanced his status as a prospect with a big season in Europe. The Love-Mayo swap also brought in three other players from Minnesota who’ll factor into the rotation of a painfully thin roster - Greg Buckner, Marko Jaric and Antoine Walker.
GOING – The Grizzlies were crowded in the backcourt with Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley and Javaris Crittenton – part of the take for Pau Gasol – all in the picture at point guard, but it still hurts to lose an asset like Juan Carlos Navarro for nothing. Navarro, after one season in the NBA, is returning to his native Spain. The Grizz also lose Kwame Brown, another part of the Gasol trade acquired for his expiring contract, as a free agent. The biggest loss, though, was veteran gunner Mike Miller, the premium Memphis shipped to Minnesota to get Mayo.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Mike Conley (Kyle Lowry, Javaris Crittenton); shooting guard: O.J. Mayo (Marko Jaric); center: Darko Milicic (Marc Gasol); power forward: Hakim Warrick (Antoine Walker, Darrell Arthur); small forward: Rudy Gay (Greg Buckner).
BOTTOM LINE – Memphis is a slam dunk to finish last in this division and the odds-on pick to head to Secaucus next May with the most Ping Pong balls in the hopper when the NBA determines the lottery order. Mayo and Gay could be stars and Conley, Arthur and Gasol give Memphis reason for hope, but this bunch is a long way from the fringe of playoff contention.
SAN ANTONIO
COMING – The Spurs are kind of quietly going about retooling on the fly, letting some veterans critical to their recent title runs go and filling in with youth. Aside from retaining trade-deadline acquisition Kurt Thomas, the key free agent signing to date is Washington’s Roger Mason to back up Manu Ginobili. Mason is a shooter with unlimited range who last year, for the first time, shored up other areas of his game enough to factor as an asset. The Spurs also signed a young big man, Anthony Tolliver, based on a strong Las Vegas Summer League showing. The draft yielded the first round’s biggest surprise, point guard George Hill of IUPUI, and also versatile wing Malik Hairston out of Detroit Renaissance and Oregon. The Spurs are in the mix for a valuable free agent guard, Jannero Pargo.
GOING – The man who probably cost the Pistons the 2005 NBA title, Robert Horry, won’t be back with the Spurs – and maybe not at all. He declined steeply last season and barely factored by the end. The more painful loss will be Brent Barry, who signed with division rival Houston. It’s also unclear whether a third veteran free agent, Michael Finley, will be back or not.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Tony Parker (Jacque Vaughn, George Hill); shooting guard: Manu Ginobili (Roger Mason); center: Fabricio Oberto (Kurt Thomas, Ian Mahinmi); power forward: Tim Duncan (Matt Bonner, Anthony Tolliver); small forward: Bruce Bowen (Ime Udoka, Malik Hairston).
BOTTOM LINE – Tony Parker is only 26 and still has room for growth, but Tim Duncan at 32 and Manu Ginobili at 31 – and maybe an old 31, given his reckless style of play – are at the point where they’re going to need a little more help. San Antonio management is deservedly recognized for keen personnel decisions and budget management, but there’s at least some danger that this year the Spurs slip a rung in the unforgiving West.
DALLAS
COMING – The Mavericks didn’t have a first-round pick, courtesy of their bold February move to acquire Jason Kidd, resisted the temptation to trade Josh Howard for Ron Artest and only had the mid-level exception as a major bargaining chip in free agency. Dallas chose to spend all of it – a whopping five-year, $33 million commitment – on offensively challenged former Mavs center DeSagana Diop, who was shipped to New Jersey in the Kidd deal. Other than that questionable move, the Mavs didn’t do much else, though they at least filled out the back of the bench by signing James Singleton and Keith McLeod and rolling the dice on slam dunk champ Gerald Green, out of the league since Houston waived him last season.
GOING – The Mavs lost two useful spare parts in free agents Malik Allen and Tyronn Lue, both of whom signed with Milwaukee. Three other free agents who were part of last year’s roster – Juwan Howard, Jamaal Magloire and Devean George – remain unsigned.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Jason Kidd (J.J. Barea, Keith McLeod); shooting guard: Jason Terry (Eddie Jones, Antoine Wright); center: Erick Dampier (DeSagana Diop); power forward: Dirk Nowitzki (Brandon Bass); small forward: Josh Howard (Jerry Stackhouse, Gerald Green, James Singleton).
Changing of the Guard
by Keith Langlois
Editor’s note: Pistons.com today continues a six-part series examining the off-season moves made by the NBA’s 30 teams in a division-by-division analysis. In today’s Part II, we look at the Southwest Division: Coming in Friday’s Part III: Northwest.
A year ago at this time, Dallas was coming off a 67-win regular season and San Antonio was the reigning NBA champion. But there at least appears to be a changing of the guard going on in the Southwest Division, where Houston’s acquisition of Ron Artest and the continuing ascendance of Chris Paul’s New Orleans’ Hornets have a loaded division up for grabs.
It was a relatively quiet off-season for the Southwest’s five teams, the pending Artest deal the biggest splash of the summer with New Orleans’ free-agent signing of James Posey ranking second.
Here’s a look at the summer work turned in by the Southwest’s five members ranked in order of significance of activity:
HOUSTON
COMING – Make no mistake about it, the addition of Ron Artest is fraught with risk for the Rockets, but not so much if you believe the Rockets as constituted weren’t a threat to win an NBA title. Are they now? If Artest doesn’t combust and if he doesn’t infect the locker room with his unique brand of toxicity – two very considerable ifs – then, yeah, they are. Artest makes an already superb defensive team that much stingier and his offensive ability might be even more valuable to a team that too often bogs down on nights Tracy McGrady isn’t in unstoppable mode. The Rockets also added veteran shooter Brent Barry, further weakening rival San Antonio in the process, and tough rookie Joey Dorsey in the draft.
GOING – Still no resolution in sight with last year’s surprise second-round rookie contributor, Carl Landry, whose agent is threatening the European option. Other than that, not much of value was lost aside from cagey veteran guard Bobby Jackson, packaged with No. 1 pick Donte Green in the pending deal for Artest.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Rafer Alston (Aaron Brooks, Steve Francis); shooting guard: Tracy McGrady (Brent Barry, Luther Head); center Yao Ming (Dikembe Mutombo, who remains an unsigned free agent); power forward: Ron Artest (Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes); small forward: Shane Battier (Mike Harris).
BOTTOM LINE – There are a lot of questions surrounding the Rockets, starting with the ongoing health concerns of McGrady and Yao, whose oft-injured legs and feet can’t be helped by another heavy summer of toil with the Chinese national team. Artest’s volatility will bear constant monitoring and, unless Mutombo returns to the fold, there’s nothing remotely resembling a backup center on the roster. But if everything falls into place for Houston, the Rockets will head into the playoffs a much more credible threat next spring than last.
NEW ORLEANS
COMING - James Posey seemed like one of the victims of the 2007 free agency season when few teams had money available and he wound up settling for a below-market, one-year deal with the Boston Celtics. How propitious that now seems. Boston’s ride to the 2008 NBA title and the critical role Posey played off the bench allowed him to strike it rich with a four-year, $25 million free-agent deal from the Hornets. New Orleans probably will live to regret the length of the deal, but in the short term there’s not much question Posey makes this a better team.
GOING – Nothing much so far. The Hornets let big man Chris Andersen, who returned from a two-year drug suspension late in the regular season, leave as a free agent. But it appears likely that two veteran free agents won’t be back – Jannero Pargo and Bonzi Wells – and you have to wonder if Posey for Pargo and Wells isn’t a net loss for the Hornets.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Chris Paul (Mike James); shooting guard: Morris Peterson (Rasual Butler); center: Tyson Chandler (Melvin Ely, Hilton Armstrong); power forward: David West (Julian Wright); small forward: Peja Stojakovic (James Posey).
BOTTOM LINE – You’d have to think GM Jeff Bower should be a little nervous heading into mid-August with what appears a thin bench. But there are still plenty of serviceable veteran free agents looking for work, so it’s not out of the question that one or two shrewd minimum-deal signings can plug the holes. The Hornets were one game away from advancing to the Western finals last June and figure to be a factor for the foreseeable future with the nucleus of Paul, Chandler and West intact.
MEMPHIS
COMING – The Grizzlies had the potential to do so much more in free agency – and still do, because they’re the only team left with any appreciable money to spend under the salary cap – but apparently are content to sit this summer out and, maybe, spend their bounty next summer on what is potentially a deeper class of free agents. They opened a few eyes last week by agreeing to an offer sheet with Atlanta’s Josh Smith, but it wasn’t the bowl-you-over offer that might have dissuaded the Hawks, who matched within hours. The big news for the Grizzlies came on draft night, when they picked Kevin Love and wound up swapping him to Minnesota for O.J. Mayo and later traded again for Kansas power forward Darrell Arthur, who was thought to be a lottery pick but plummeted to the bottom of the first round, apparently due to sketchy reports of health issues that were later proven unfounded. Memphis is saying it wound up with three lottery picks – Mayo, Arthur and Marc Gasol, a piece of the trade for brother Pau and a player who enhanced his status as a prospect with a big season in Europe. The Love-Mayo swap also brought in three other players from Minnesota who’ll factor into the rotation of a painfully thin roster - Greg Buckner, Marko Jaric and Antoine Walker.
GOING – The Grizzlies were crowded in the backcourt with Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley and Javaris Crittenton – part of the take for Pau Gasol – all in the picture at point guard, but it still hurts to lose an asset like Juan Carlos Navarro for nothing. Navarro, after one season in the NBA, is returning to his native Spain. The Grizz also lose Kwame Brown, another part of the Gasol trade acquired for his expiring contract, as a free agent. The biggest loss, though, was veteran gunner Mike Miller, the premium Memphis shipped to Minnesota to get Mayo.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Mike Conley (Kyle Lowry, Javaris Crittenton); shooting guard: O.J. Mayo (Marko Jaric); center: Darko Milicic (Marc Gasol); power forward: Hakim Warrick (Antoine Walker, Darrell Arthur); small forward: Rudy Gay (Greg Buckner).
BOTTOM LINE – Memphis is a slam dunk to finish last in this division and the odds-on pick to head to Secaucus next May with the most Ping Pong balls in the hopper when the NBA determines the lottery order. Mayo and Gay could be stars and Conley, Arthur and Gasol give Memphis reason for hope, but this bunch is a long way from the fringe of playoff contention.
SAN ANTONIO
COMING – The Spurs are kind of quietly going about retooling on the fly, letting some veterans critical to their recent title runs go and filling in with youth. Aside from retaining trade-deadline acquisition Kurt Thomas, the key free agent signing to date is Washington’s Roger Mason to back up Manu Ginobili. Mason is a shooter with unlimited range who last year, for the first time, shored up other areas of his game enough to factor as an asset. The Spurs also signed a young big man, Anthony Tolliver, based on a strong Las Vegas Summer League showing. The draft yielded the first round’s biggest surprise, point guard George Hill of IUPUI, and also versatile wing Malik Hairston out of Detroit Renaissance and Oregon. The Spurs are in the mix for a valuable free agent guard, Jannero Pargo.
GOING – The man who probably cost the Pistons the 2005 NBA title, Robert Horry, won’t be back with the Spurs – and maybe not at all. He declined steeply last season and barely factored by the end. The more painful loss will be Brent Barry, who signed with division rival Houston. It’s also unclear whether a third veteran free agent, Michael Finley, will be back or not.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Tony Parker (Jacque Vaughn, George Hill); shooting guard: Manu Ginobili (Roger Mason); center: Fabricio Oberto (Kurt Thomas, Ian Mahinmi); power forward: Tim Duncan (Matt Bonner, Anthony Tolliver); small forward: Bruce Bowen (Ime Udoka, Malik Hairston).
BOTTOM LINE – Tony Parker is only 26 and still has room for growth, but Tim Duncan at 32 and Manu Ginobili at 31 – and maybe an old 31, given his reckless style of play – are at the point where they’re going to need a little more help. San Antonio management is deservedly recognized for keen personnel decisions and budget management, but there’s at least some danger that this year the Spurs slip a rung in the unforgiving West.
DALLAS
COMING – The Mavericks didn’t have a first-round pick, courtesy of their bold February move to acquire Jason Kidd, resisted the temptation to trade Josh Howard for Ron Artest and only had the mid-level exception as a major bargaining chip in free agency. Dallas chose to spend all of it – a whopping five-year, $33 million commitment – on offensively challenged former Mavs center DeSagana Diop, who was shipped to New Jersey in the Kidd deal. Other than that questionable move, the Mavs didn’t do much else, though they at least filled out the back of the bench by signing James Singleton and Keith McLeod and rolling the dice on slam dunk champ Gerald Green, out of the league since Houston waived him last season.
GOING – The Mavs lost two useful spare parts in free agents Malik Allen and Tyronn Lue, both of whom signed with Milwaukee. Three other free agents who were part of last year’s roster – Juwan Howard, Jamaal Magloire and Devean George – remain unsigned.
PROJECTED LINEUP – Point guard: Jason Kidd (J.J. Barea, Keith McLeod); shooting guard: Jason Terry (Eddie Jones, Antoine Wright); center: Erick Dampier (DeSagana Diop); power forward: Dirk Nowitzki (Brandon Bass); small forward: Josh Howard (Jerry Stackhouse, Gerald Green, James Singleton).