Another Update

OK, OK, I may have been a little too harsh on the Milwaukee Bucks and Drew Gooden. Yes, they still made a bad move, but I completely forgot that they traded for Corey Maggette. They even convinced their owner to take a financial hit to re-sign Salmons! Scotty Skiles has coached this team well, so there's no counting them out next year. Right now, the Bucks may be the smartest team in FA. Except that whole Drew Gooden robbing them blind, naked and deaf thing. Seriously, his agent must would make a killing in the used car market.

Here's another MAJOR issue which needs to be addressed. How are we going to allow Minnesota Timberwolves GM David Khan to continually make bad choices. Last year, he drafts 3 point guards! One being International Phenom Ricky Rubio. Oh wait, he also drafted Johnny Flynn, effectively angering the Rubio camp and keeping him overseas. Not only that, but he traded Ty Lawson who actually was probably the better point guard last year. Wow, ok, everybody gets one major flub. Wait what? This year's draft too?! Yes, they took Wesley Johnson and Luke Babbit who was traded for Martell Webster during the draft and also have Damien Wilkins. Oh yeah, they are working extremely hard to pick up Rudy Gay too.(WHO RE-SIGNED WITH THE GRIZZ FOR WAY TOO MUCH see below). Obviously they need more small forwards. Let's not forget that they shelled out some cash to pick up WHO?!?! Nikola Pekovic. Yup. They signed him to a 3 year $13 million contract THEN they went on and brought back Darko Milicic (WHO IS THE EXACT SAME PERSON) for a 5 year $20 million deal! What is going on?! How does anyone want Darko Milicic, let alone for 5 years? This reminds me of McIlvaine-gate! Darko is the same guy who said he would leave if he couldn't start over Kevin Love, you know, the guy who came off the bench to average a double-double? I don't know what Khan is doing.

THE OFFSEASON HAS OFFICIALLY REACHED CHAOS MODE
Well, I don't even know where to start. How about two laughable contracts.Rudy Gay has decided to resign with the Memphis Grizzlies on a 5 year $81 million contract. Oh, and Joe Johnson is probably going to stay put as well on a 6 year $191 million contract. I don't even want to get into why this is bad, but I will make a few points. Rudy Gay is 23 still young and very talented. I like Rudy Gay as a player and I like what the Memphis Grizzlies have done in the past few years. Though they basically gave the Lakers two + rings, they have also built a strong, competitive group of core players. Gay, Mayo, Conley, Brewer and Gasol are very talented and now they have Zach Randolph playing like he actually cares. Why kill yourself with this contract for a guy who is not an all-star, not all-NBA and not even your first option? Look at his shooting percentage, not up to snuff. Defense? OK. Rebounding? 5.5 career avg. for a guy who's 6'8" with ridiculous hops and length. Unacceptable. Turnovers? ATROCIOUS! Rudy Gay is a decent player and with a good coach, he could get rid of some of those bad habits, but now, to invest so much into a young unproven player is just plain bad.

Now on to Joe Johnson. Sleepy JJ has been the "Star" in the ATL as of late and was a hot item this offseason. In fact I would go as far to say that the Knicks probably would have thrown a max at him, had they been desperate. Well, don't worry about that because the Hawks have offered him a 6 year $191 million contract which he would be a fool not to take, from a financial standpoint of course. JJ is a good player, don't get me wrong. HE IS NOT WORTH A MAX CONTRACT!!!! I literally want to scream! The Hawks have a great young core! They've come out of obscurity to become a playoff team that fills arenas. What they have now is a problem. What happens when Smith and Horford look for a few more dollars? The Hawks have messed things up before. I believe they really mishandled Josh Childress a couple years ago and now he's playing in Europe. Now, they somehow have cash on cash and lock up JJ. I know that it's scary to lose your best player, but some times, cut your losses and move on. I mean, if he is the leader of this team, he just lead the Hawks into a second round playoff slaughter.
Well, I'm not going to get too much farther into that. I just don't see what's going on here. People who shouldn't be in the league are getting long contracts, 2nd or 3rd options are being maxed out and teams that are clearly built for the future are in "win now" mode apparently, because they're throwing their money around like Pacman Jones in a "skrip club."

In other news, Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers are back. That's awesome. After that great series, the NBA needed those two to come back for one last shot.

Offseason Talk: Heat and Nets

So the start of basketball's most historic event (since Jim McIlvaine got his monster contract with the Sonics) is underway in hours. A couple of my friends have already started to chatter about what they'd like to see. Especially regarding the Miami Heat.
Of course the Heat are rumored to be the landing destination of the Biggest Three Ever in James, Bosh and Wade. Ya, doubt it. We'd all like to see that happen, but realistically A) That's just stupid. B) LeBron's business ego is not going to allow him to share with Wade and Bosh and C) Come on, seriously?
I don't know what will happen, but I can say I hope the Nets make some good moves. Their new owner is a bad ass Russian who doesn't care what sport he's involved in, he just wants money. Things like "History," "Facts," and "The Nets Suck" do not affect him, AT ALL. He wants new head coach Avery Johnson to build the Nets into a dynasty. Yeah, tall task. Funny thing is, he can do it. He has a proven coach at the helm, an All-Star point guard in Devin Harris, probably the best young center in the game in Brook Lopez and another solid young player in Terrence Williams.
If the Nets don't get LeBron fine. This is how I see it playing out:
A) They get Carlos Boozer. Boozer jumps anytime people throw money at him. He has no sense of loyalty or dedication to his team. Look at his stint with the Cavs. We now have an entire free agent class waiting to see where LeBron goes, many players itching to just play with him. What did Carlos Boozer do? "LeBron?! Yeah, he's tight, but the Jazz want to over pay me!" So he jumped. I see the Nets getting Boozer and having a ridiculous, and I mean ridiculous, low post game. Especially with Harris feeding them the ball. And that may not be the best part:
B) Rudy Gay: Young, talented, and ready to get paid. Any other class may have seen Gay being the top guy, instead he might have to settle for a significant contract upgrade. Only this time, his team is going to win. Harris, Gay and Boozer could provide one of the best scoring trios in the league. Lopez and Gay are both solid defenders too.

So that's what I'd like to see with the Nets. That still leaves room for another significant pick up. Maybe solid bench players? I really do like the Nets next year. Even this past season, they were not as bad as their record shows. Definitely a playoff team next season.

Now, my friends were arguing about the Heat. Disregarding all the LeBron/Wade/Bosh/Batman talk, the discussion was mostly about role players. My friend Andrew, who didn't know Jermaine O'Neal was a free agent, wants the Heat to get rid of Beasley now that JO is gone. He used the scenario of the Heat getting Chris Bosh and Joe "I can't tell if I'm awake" Johnson to go along with Wade.
He brought up a good point. Bosh wants to play the 4, so that would mean the Heat need a center to accommodate. He also likes Joe Johnson at the 3 and D Wade at the 2. He reiterated that there is no real post presence there and that presumably, you're moving Michael Beasley to the bench, because you want Bosh at the 4 and can't have Beasley as an undersized center.
He proposed that the Heat trade Beasley for a "4 Star Point Guard (i.e. Jordan Farmar)" or a 3 star center.

I have problems with this. First off, Joe Johnson will not be playing the 3. He is your classic shooting guard. Actually almost a perfect shooting guard. You have to have someone who can bang with guys like LeBron, Melo and Artest at the small forward position. Johnson is a good on ball defender. So he has to stay at the 2. So this is problematic. You can't really put Wade at the 3 because he's only 6'4", too small for that position. Even though Wade is completely capable of guarding anyone in the NBA.
We'll stay with Andrew here though. Wade at the two, Johnson at the three and Bosh at the four. He thinks they need to make a move at a point guard, a good one I guess by the 4 star or better rating. Except he names Jordan Farmar. No thanks. I don't think the Heat or 25 other NBA teams in the NBA want Farmar running their squad. If they get Farmar, they're going to keep Mario Chalmers at the point because a) He's just as good, if not better and B) He knows the system already.Remember Boston in 2008? Three Amazing players in the starting line up with a big rebounding bruiser named Kendrick Perkins at center and some point guard named Rajon Rondo. Yeah, look at Rondo now. This core group of stars could help Chalmers develop even further and, like Rondo, could rise from obscurity.

OK, well, might have some more stuff later. Keep checking!