Posey Moving to the Big Easy; Gibson Re-ups with the Cavs

James Posey has signed with the New Orleans Hornets accepting a 4-year $25 million deal on Wednesday.  Picking up Posey is a strong pickup for the Hornets who were in need of a wing player to come off the bench.  Posey gives the Hornets another shooter off the bench who can hit the three pointer but what may prove to be even more vital is he provides the Hornets with a quality perimeter defender off the bench.  He also gives the Hornets a player who has won two World Championships in the past three years with the Heat and the Celtics.

On the flipside of that the Celtics lose a key role player from this past season’s Championship squad.  Posey had six double digit scoring games, seven games of six or more rebounds, and hit just under 40% (.398) of his three point shots off the bench for Boston in the postseason.  Re-signing Posey was a priority for Boston this off season but they just were not willing to give Posey the kind of offer he ultimately recieved from New Orleans.  The Hornets took a calculated risk by trading their top pick for cash in order to free up more cap space to be able to sign an established veteran role player as opposed to spending that money on a rookie who will need a couple of years to develop and it appears as though that gamble paid off for the Hornets.

Another signing of note was announced today as Daniel Gibson accepted a five year deal to stay in Cleveland.  Gibson is a good fit for the Cavs as one of those small point guards who comes off the bench and can shoot the three a-la Janerro Pargo in New Orleans and Leandro Barbosa in Phoenix.  Gibson does not do much for the Cavs by way of handling or distributing the ball but he fills it up from the outside and shot .440 from behind the arc this past season.  The Cavs have no real financial flexibility this summer so retaining Gibson was a priority for them.  Cleveland is in a real precarious situation as they need to make some moves to get better before LeBron opts out and potentially leaves town and they just do not have many options to accomplish that goal.

NBA Free Agency Update: Monta Ellis Sweepstakes is Heating up

The Heat and Cavs are interested in Monta Ellis while he claims to have an interest in playing for the Knicks. Unfortunately for those teams Ellis wants $10 million per year and none of those teams have any cap space to be able to sign him outright.  They would have to do some kind of a sign-and-trade deal and it is debatable whether any of those teams have anything Don Nelson would be interested in that would be available.  The Knicks have some tradeable assets though I don’t know the Warriors have any interest in them.  Stephon Marbury and Malik Rose’s expiring contracts are available and David Lee is available for the right deal.  The thing of it is is you do not trade a young up-and-coming talent like Ellis away for expiring contracts and David Lee does not really fit into Nelson’s style of play.  Cleveland really has nothing of interest to offer either other than expiring contracts of mediocre players.  With Baron Davis having jumped ship to Los Angeles Golden State ultimately cannot deal Ellis without getting a starting point guard in return.

Switching gears to Corey Maggette.  He is rumored to be considering the Celtics after a conversation with Doc Rivers.  I still don’t see how Maggette fits into the equation in Boston with Pierce and Allen still in the mix.  Meanwhile Maggette talks as though he is done with the Clippers and with some extra cash to spend now that Baron has jumped ship the Warriors are expected to show interest in Maggette’s services along with the Sixers who are likely hedging their bets in the event they cannot come to terms with Andre Iguodala.  The Warriors interest is probably stronger than the Sixers at this point.  If they retain Ellis and move him over to the point as is expected to happen they will then have an opening at shooting guard and Maggette could fit right in there.  The Sixers are likely using Maggette as a bargaining chip with Iguodala.  Otherwise if they re-sign Igoudala then they have no real use for a guy like Maggette with Thaddeus Young already in place as the small forward of the future.

NBA Free Agency Update: Maggette Drawing Interest Around the League

The Celtics have reportedly contacted Corey Maggette about a deal.
The Spurs are reportedly ready to offer Maggette their full mid-level exception.
The Jazz and Magic are also reportedly interested.
As are the Hornets.

Of the teams mentioned thus far the Hornets seem to be the most intriguing of the choices and possibly the best overall fit for Maggette.  He is saying all of the right things right now but with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen currently under contract for the next two years one wonders how happy he would be in Boston having to defer the lion’s share of minutes to those two.  A guy like James Posey was perfect for Boston at that spot because he only commands 20-25 minutes per game and Maggette is not going to be happy unless he is getting at least 30 minutes a game if not more.

The Hornets are young up-and-coming team in the west and the one thing they are lacking right now is a dynamic scorer to pair with Chris Paul and David West.  Maggette is just the type of player the Hornets are looking for to stick at the two spot alongside Paul.  Maggette could potentially be that one guy to put the Hornets over the hump and into the Finals next year.

The same can be said about the Magic as well.  Orlando is desperatley looking for someone like Maggette who can come in and score from the 2 guard spot and create his own shot.  Turkoglu and Lewis essentially score the bulk of their points by playing off of Dwight Howard and converting open jumpers.  Maggette gives them another option that teams will have to guard against attacking the rim and potentially opening up more scoring opportunities for Howard.  He could be the guy to help Orlando get over the hump as well.

Everyone is always going to be open to listening to what the Spurs have to say simply because they have been contenders to reach the Finals the last 9 or 10 years.  But, I am not convinced Maggette’s game fits so much with what the Spurs do.  The Spurs don’t like to run as much and Maggette likes to get up and down the floor.

Initial Thoughts on the ‘08 NBA Draft

The Bulls still need to make some moves for the Rose pick to work for them.  I still think Micheal Beasley made more sense from a need perspective.  They need to leverage Hinrich or Gordon to get some frontcourt help otherwise they will continue to be a fringe playoff team at best.  The frontcourt of Deng, Gooden, Nocioni, Noah, Aaron Gray, and Tyrus Thomas strikes fear in the hearts of nobody.  As it stands right now they are looking at their top 3 paid players being bench players and now have a logjam at the guard position with Hinrich, Larry Hughes, and Ben Gordon and unless they do something they will be counting on someone like Noah, Gray, Cedric Simmons, or Thomas to step their game up and be able to give them 30-35 productive minutes a game.

I am intrigued by the moves Boston made.  Ainge is either going to come away looking like a genius for grabbing J. R. Giddens and Bill Walker or a fool for taking a wildcard like Giddens in the first.  Giddens is an amazing talent but he comes with a ton of off-court baggage.  Walker comes as a second rounder so there is nothing to lose on him and I think he has the chops to be a quality player if he stays healthy.

I don’t understand Memphis’ thinking at all unless they are going to be flipping someone for a big man.  Kevin Love may never be anything special but he is probably, at the very least, an upgrade over Darko.  Darrell Arthur is a nice talent but he is not much of a rebounder and Memphis needs someone who is going to hang and bang under the basket for them and Arthur is not going to be that guy.  Between Gay and Miller the Grizz had plenty of perimeter scoring and with plenty of point guards in the fold already I am just not sure how Mayo significantly improves this team.  They basically gave up an elite 3-point shooter and low post help for another scorer.

On the flipside I love the move for the Wolves.  Sure neither Love or Jefferson is the ideal size for a center but it gives them the opportunity to let Jefferson play some at the PF slot where he is more suited to play and they pick up Mike Miller who gives them the elite perimeter shooter they have been lacking for a few years now.  Minnesota was going to have to figure out what to do with the 3-headed monster of Foye/McCants/Mayo so moving Mayo solves that problem as that may not have played out so well if McCants or Foye are healthy and losing minutes to Mayo.

NBA Draft: Where will J. J. Hickson and Ty Lawson Land?

With the draft quickly approaching and since I live in ACC country I thought I would take a look at where two intriguing prospects from this area (Raleigh-Durham), J. J. Hickson and Ty Lawson, may end up going.  For what it is worth both Yahoo! Sports has Lawson going to New Orleans at 27, NBADraft.net has him going to Memphis at 28, ESPN’s Chad Ford originally had Denver taking him at 20 but has since dropped him out of the first round, and SI’s Ian Thomsen has him going to the Pistons who own the 29th pick. 

Of the 4 Ford’s forecast of him going to Denver and Thomsen’s pick of him going to Detroit make the most sense to me on Lawson.  For the life of me I cannot think of a reason why NO would spend a top pick on Lawson when they already have Mike James and Janerro Pargo who can back Paul up at the point.  Ty Lawson is strictly a PG so why draft someone who is only needed for 10-15 minutes a game?  They are better off finding combo guards who can play the point in a pinch or for short stretches of time as Paul is going to be on the floor 36 to 40 minutes almost every night.