Artest to Houston; Kings Officially Rebuilding

With the trade of Ron Artest to the Houston Rockets for a #1 pick, Bobby Jackson, and a player to be named, reportedly Donte Greene, the Kings are officially a franchise in transition.  The Kings opening day starters, potnetially looks like this: PG – Beno Udrih, SG – Kevin Martin, SF – Donte Greene or Francisco Garcia, PF – Mikki Moore, C – Brad Miller.  Not the most imposing five in the NBA by any stretch.

But the Kings had to do something with Artest as he has spent the month of July bemoaning the fact that he decided not to opt out of his contract.  The Kings get some cap space for next year when Jackson’s contract expires and what amounts to two #1 picks in Greene, the 28th pick in June’s draft, and a #1 next summer.  I don’t think anyone truly believed the Kings were interested in dealing Artest to a division rival in the Lakers so this was probably the next best option for them.

This is a move the Rockets had to make in order to contend in the west.  They needed that third star player to contend with teams like the Spurs, Lakers, Jazz, and Hornets who all have better depth than the Rockets do.  Artest will gives them that third scorer, lockdown defense, and an extra edge out there.  Artest is definitely an offensive upgrade at the small forward position over Shane Battier and he is arguably as good of a defender.

In other news ESPN is reporting that the Bulls and Luol Deng are close to sealing the deal on a six year contract reportedly worth in the neighborhood of $70 million.  If this deal comes to fruition it likely means Ben Gordon is as good as gone and will be dealt via the sign-and-trade option.

Okafor Re-Ups and More

Charlotte Bobcats’ fans can breathe easy now that Emeka Okafor has agreed to a 6-year, $72 million deal that will keep him in Charlotte for the foreseeable future.  I have to admit that I was mildly surprised when I read that they had reached an agreement this morning as everything being printed in the media the past week or so implied that both sides were at an impasse and a deal was not imminent and that the ‘Cats were pondering whether or not they should explore a sign-and-trade deal for Okafor. 

After inexplicably passing on Brook Lopez in favor of point guard D. J. Augustin in the draft the Bobcats had to re-sign Okafor if they have any hopes of making the playoffs next season.  Okafor is the only real offensive threat on the low post for them and he is the team’s best rebounder and shot blocker to boot.  They had to realize that they were not going to be any kind of a threat if they were to rely on Sean May and Nazr Mohammed to hold down the middle for an entire 82 games.

With Okafor back on board next season could be the breakout year the Bobcats have been looking for.  They have enough talent to make a playoff run and there is no reason why they cannot compete with teams like Washington and Toronto for that 5th or 6th seed in the east.  They had the talent last year until Sean May and Adam Morrison went down due to injury.  Once they lost May and Morrison they lost their top two options off the bench and when Gerald Wallace missed an extended period of time due to injury they had nobody to fill his spot in the starting lineup.

Childress Jumps to Greece, Jennings Goes to Italy: The Beginning of a Trend?

Restricted free agent Josh Childress is heading overseas to play in Greece for Olympiakos after agreeing to a 3-year deal worth $20 million.  Childress is heading to Europe to play despite the fact that Atlanta allegedly had a $36 million deal on the table that started at a base salary above $5.6 million.  This is a very intriguing move to me to say the least and coupled with Brandon Jennings deciding to play in Europe as opposed to going to college for year raises some interesting issues for the NBA.

Now Josh Childress is not the first NBA free agent to decide he is going overseas to play ball next year: Primoz Brezec, Carlos Delfino, Juan Carlos Navarro, and Bostjan Nachbar have signed with European teams as well for next season.  Nor is Childress the first American player to go overseas to play basketball scores of college kids who do not get drafted go overseas to play every year.  What Childress is, is he is the first American born free agent that NBA teams are interested in who has decided to spurn the NBA and go overseas to play basketball.

While Childress was a free agent and free to negotiate with any team of his choosing he was still a restricted free agent which means the Atlanta Hawks ultimately held his fate in their hands.  They had the right to match any offer made to him by another NBA team which means that as long as the Hawks still want him around and can afford to match the contract offered him he was destined to remain in Atlanta and apparently that was not an appealing option to Josh Childress.  It is going to be interesting to see if other players in Childress’ class of restricted free agents who have yet to sign with anyone are going to follow suit and there is some quality talent out there like Luol Deng and Monta Ellis.

Camby to the Clippers

The Denver Nuggets, desperate to gain salary cap and luxury tax relief, executed what amounts to a salary dump by agreeing to send Marcus Camby to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for the opportunity to swap 2nd round picks in 2010.  From a financial standpoint the move makes a lot of sense for the Nuggets. 

By shedding Camby’s contract which had two years remaining on it they will now potentially be a good $15 million or so under the cap once Allen Iverson’s contract expires at the end of next season.  They will have the flexibility to be able to part ways with Iverson if they choose to do so and go after an impact player on the free agent market.  Obviously the Nuggets would have preferred to unload Kenyon Martin or Nene but it appears as though they cannot give them away at this stage. 

Martin’s career peaked during the ‘03-’04 season, he has had microfracture surgery on both knees, and he is still owed over $46 million over the next three years.  Nobody wants to take the gamble on him staying healthy enough to be a $15 million a year caliber player.  Nene is a tantallizing talent but he too still has a rather hefty contract and has only managed to stay healthy enough to appear in 81 games over the past 3 seasons. 

Sizing up the NBA Free Agency Market

Free agency started today with the Sixers, Grizzlies, and Warriors having the most money to spend. Here is a list of available free agents:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/s…2008FreeAgents

There is not a whole lot to be excited about with this year’s group.  Elton Brand, Baron Davis, Gilbert Arenas, and Corey Maggette are about the only real difference makers available on the un-restricted list.

Davis and Maggette are as good as gone.  Davis opted out because he is probably still upset over being benched for the entire second half in a late season game against the Suns.  Besides, the Warriors really see restricted free agent Monta Ellis as the future anyway and they would rather match any offer he gets in lieu of placating Davis and giving him the money that he wants.  Davis is supposedly lobbying for a sign-and-trade that would send him to the Knicks though I don’t know what the Knicks could offer aside from potential picks and Marbury’s contract which expires after the upcoming season.

Maggette has supposedly butted heads with Dunleavy since day one and I doubt he whas any interest in staying with the Clippers.  It is being rumored that Orlando is his top choice as of right now but the Magic would have to agree to do a sign-and-trade in order to fit him under the cap and I don’t really see who they would be willing to part with at this point to get him.

Brand supposedly is intent on staying in LA but the Sixers are supposedly going to make a competitive offer to see if they cannot lure him ot Philly.  Although if you are content to stay with the Clippers then why opt out?  Why not make an attempt to negotiate a contract extension if that is where you truly want to be.  If both parties are truly committed to each other then this should not be an issue, right?

Arenas supposedly wants a max deal and it was being reported on SportsCenter last night that the Wizards are willing to give him $100 mil over 6 years.  Arenas is a bit of a dicey proposition though.  When healthy he is as good of a scorer as there is in the league, unfortunately he was only healthy enough to appear in 13 games last year.  Do you take the risk of signing him to a big deal hoping his knee gets back to where he can give you 38 to 40 minutes a night or do you try to sign him to shorter contract? 

One name of interest to keep an eye on from the unrestricted list is Gerald Green.  He is only 22 and looked poised to have a breakout year after averaging 10 points in 22 minutes a game coming off the bench for the Celtics in the ‘06/’07 season.  He got buried on the bench in Minnesota and never got the chance to show what he could do out there. He could easily be a 15-20 ppg scorer on the right team next year and he could end up being a steal of a signing for someone since he is going to command relatively low salary.