- The Los Angeles Lakers adding Steve Nash and Dwight Howard AND keeping Pau Gasol: The basketball gods must heavily favor the purple and gold because it seems they ALWAYS come out of trades looking like thieves.
Most recently, prior to this summer, it was the Pau Gasol robbery from Memphis (although that deal looks much better now with Marc Gasol's emergence with the Grizzlies than it did when it actually went down back in 2008).
This summer, they somehow made off like bandits not once, but twice, in separate trades that could alter the championship picture for years to come.
While the offer was absolutely horrendous from Phoenix's end, they did the right thing for Steve Nash after everything he gave the franchise, which is something of a rarity for teams in today's sports landscape. Nash, even as he approaches the end of his career, instantly becomes the best point guard Kobe Bryant has played with in the NBA.
Then, for some ridiculous reason that will never make sense to me, the Orlando Magic finally caved in and decided to part with Dwight Howard, only somehow they managed to fail to even get Pau Gasol out of the deal. Other than Andrew Bynum, Josh McRoberts and Christian Eyenga were the only other players Los Angeles had to part with to ADD THE BEST CENTER IN THE NBA.
Instead of potentially landing Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, while shedding most, if not all, of their horrendous contracts in the inevitable trade of Dwight Howard, the Magic decided to take back a package that didn't include either player and left the Lakers with a starting five of Nash-Bryant-World Peace-Gasol-Howard.
I'll never know how Los Angeles Laker's GM Mitch Kupchak managed to swing those deals, but I'm going out on a limb here and declaring him the NBA Executive of the Year. Heck, the NBA might as well go ahead and give him the real award now, it's not like anyone is topping his moves this offseason.
- The Denver Nuggets acquiring Andre Iguodala in the Dwight Howard mega-deal: The Nuggets found a way to sneak themselves into the Dwight Howard mega-deal as one of the two teams that helped facilitate D-12's move to the City of Angels and they made out quite well for their troubles.
Denver added one of the most well-rounded players in the league in Iguodala and all it cost them was Aaron Afflalo, Al Harrington, and the lower of their 2014 first round draft picks.
Afflalo is a great young talent at point guard, however, the Nuggets will be just fine with Ty Lawson and Andre Miller still manning the back court. Lawson is also two years younger than Afflalo, and his 19.4 PER (Player Efficiency Rating) crushed Afflalo's 14.7 PER this past season, so I think it's safe to say Denver kept the better of the two.
Iguodala is still on the right side of 30, at only 28 years old, and is coming off a pretty solid run with the USA's Olympic squad that earned their second consecutive gold medal. Through his first eight seasons in the league, all with the 76ers, Iguodala averaged 15.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.7 steals per game.
His critics have always hammered him for not being able to be "that guy" who carries a team on his back. However, Denver doesn't need him to fill that type of role, making him the perfect fit for their system.
Iggy's addition could push Denver from a borderline playoff squad all the way up the ladder in the West to the upper rungs, just below the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder, but as good or better than anyone else in their conference.
- The Brooklyn Nets walking away from negotiations for Dwight Howard with the Orlando Magic: The Nets and Howard had their eyes set on each other for nearly a year, dreaming of a pairing they felt would be perfect both for the franchise and the player.
However, in mid-July, after months and months of negotiations that had gone no where, Nets GM Billy King gave the Orlando Magic a deadline to get something done or Brooklyn was walking away from the table for good.
I'm not sure if the Magic and/or their new GM Rob Henenigan thought King was bluffing when he told them of the deadline, however, we are sure of how it turned out now.
They re-signed Williams and Gerald Wallace to long-term deals, signed Brook Lopez to an extension, kept Kris Humphries on a two-year deal, and added several other complementary pieces as well.
While the pairing of Williams and Howard might have been nice for Nets fans, their supporting cast would have been somewhere between pretty bad and "Seriously, THIS is why we wanted to team up in Brooklyn?" bad for the duo.
Think about it. They would have had to part with Lopez, Humphries, MarShon Brooks, and several decent draft picks just to land Howard and bring back some of Orlando's collection of horrible contracts, which in turn, would have kept them from signing role players like C.J. Watson, Jerry Stackhouse, and Mirza Teletovic.
I'd much rather have Williams-Johnson-Wallace-Humphries-Lopez and a decent bench instead of Williams-Jason Richardson-Hedo Turkoglu-Earl Clark-Howard and a bunch of nobodies (with no draft picks) any day, all day, and twice on Saturday's.
- The Atlanta Hawks moving their two worst contracts (Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams) in less than 24 hours AND arguably improving in the process: New Atlanta Hawks' general manager Danny Ferry would almost certainly be the front-runner for NBA Executive of the Year if not for Mitch Kupchak's two armed robberies.
First, he traded Johnson, and the league's most expensive contract, to the Brooklyn Nets for Anthony Morrow, Jordan Farmar (since waived), Jordan Williams, DeShawn Stevenson and Johan Petro, as well as a 2017 second round pick.
Later in the day, he then shipped Marvin Williams (the team's constant reminder that the Hawks could've drafted Chris Paul to his hometown Hawks and blew it) to the Utah Jazz for Devin Harris.
On paper, the moves don't look like much of an upgrade. However, once you realize that Ferry turned Johnson's 2012-13 salary of $19.8 (and the near $70 million beyond this season) and Williams into a top ten three point shooter (Morrow, career 42.6%), a solid back-up point guard (Harris), and $20.5 million in expiring contracts (all six players they acquired have contracts expiring after this season, including Farmar, who was already waived),
After their other signings and moves, including the additions of Kyle Korver and Lou Williams, the Hawks are right back at the level they were at prior to the trade, only with approximately ten times the potential when you factor in all the new faces and the franchise-altering amount of cap space they will have next summer.
While their 2012-13 roster might not fare much better than Atlanta's recent string of first or second round playoff losses, they are primed to transform into legitimate, consistent contenders if they continue making all the right moves.
Keep an eye on the Hawks and their stockpile of expiring contracts at the trade deadline in February. With a core of Josh Smith, Al Horford, Jeff Teague, Lou Williams, Devin Harris, and Kyle Korver, Atlanta is only a player or two away from being a serious contender in the East (although they will almost certainly remain in the Miami Heat's massive shadow as they share the same division).
However, with Danny Ferry trading the most untradeable contract in the league within days of taking the Hawks' GM job, nothing he does will surprise me from now on.
- The Miami Heat stealing Ray Allen away from their biggest rival in the Eastern Conference while also adding Rashard Lewis: While many people who follow basketball thought Pat Riley would focus on adding some more size to the Heat's front court as his top priority this offseason, he went out and did almost the exact opposite.
However, when you have the opportunity to land the best three point shooter in NBA history AND one of your main rivals' best players in the same signing, you just can't pass that up, regardless of current needs.While Miami could clearly use an upgrade at the center position, they have already shown they have what it takes to win an NBA title playing "small ball" and employing a rotation of semi-competent big men other than Chris Bosh.
While Allen lost his starting role with the Celtics last season to Avery Bradley amid lingering injuries, he won't have to play nearly as many regular season minutes for Miami and will almost certainly be used primarily as a spot up shooter lurking around the three-point line, meaning a lot less running around the floor on offense which means less wear and tear on his body.
With his ability to knock down open threes with such consistency, as well the Heat's plethora of other talented three point shooters (Mike Miller, Shane Battier, James Jones, etc.), Miami will almost certainly be one of the best three point shooting teams in the league next season.
With LeBron James and Dwayne Wade commanding double and triple teams every time they drive to the rim, I also expect more than a few of those threes will be wide-open looks.
Although Rashard Lewis might not be the legitimate big man Riley and the Heat have been searching for during the past two summers, at 6'9, he gives them another player like Chris Bosh that can shoot the ball well enough away from the basket that it forces the man covering him to leave the post and come out to guard him.
With a line-up of James-Allen-Wade-Lewis-Bosh on the court, for instance, head coach Erik Spoelstra would have an almost unlimited amount of options on the offensive side of the ball to work with.
Lewis and Bosh can either take the ball down low to the rim or spot up and shoot from 15 feet, causing nightmares for the large percentage of the league's power forwards and centers that have trouble playing defense away from the rim.
If either one of them draws their man away from the basket, it makes it all the easier for LeBron or Wade to take off and drive to the rim, scoring an easy dunk or lay-up and/or drawing a foul on someone moving off their defensive assignment to try and cover the guy with the ball.
By chance someone makes the defensive switch in time to stop whoever is driving to the rim, it will likely come at the expense of leaving Allen or another one of Miami's deadly three point shooters wide open on the perimeter.
Allen also knows Miami's chief rival in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics, quite well having spent the past five seasons with them prior to deciding to take less money and playing time to chase a second (and maybe even a third or fourth) ring with the Heat.
While the Lakers clearly made some earth-shaking moves by acquiring Steve Nash and Dwight Howard this summer, Miami's addition of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis keeps them in the pole position of the championship race as they look to repeat and build upon last season's success.
Honorable Mention:
- The Oklahoma City Thunder stealing Perry Jones with the 28th pick in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft: Normally, teams coming of an appearance in the NBA Finals don't find themselves in a position to land a player at the NBA Draft that will have any meaningful impact on the franchise in the immediate future.
However, that's exactly where Oklahoma City found themselves during this year's draft as they were the beneficiary of Jones' tumble down the draft board after last minute medical red flags went up regarding his potential knee problems.
Jones, who was once projected as high as a top five draft pick, fell into the Thunder's lap after many teams passed on him due to concerns about the meniscus in his knee dating back to before he played at Baylor.
Standing 6'11 and talented enough to play almost position on the floor, Jones will almost certainly find decent minutes starting out as a rookie, and if he begins to live up to his sizable potential early in the season, could even find himself playing a significant role with the team come postseason time.
Even if for some reason Jones doesn't work out in the long run and fails to live up to his once towering expectations, Sam Presti and the Thunder will have lost nothing other than a late first round pick. If he does work out, Presti once again looks like a genius grabbing the guy everyone else was scared to touch. It's a win-win situation for the Thunder and there is potential here for it to be an extremely big win if Jones pans out.
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