WATERCOOLER CHAT: NBA TRADES
In the NBA, the free agent market is on FIRE.
The big winner yesterday: The Detroit Pistons. They acquired 2 incredible free agents. The first was (former) Chicago Bulls shooting-guard Ben Gordon. Gordon was positively terrific in the first round playoff series against the Celtics. He showed that he is a prolific scorer in this league, and simply could not miss when he put the ball up. Now, the Pistons will have his sharp-shooting abilities throughout the season.
Secondly, the Pistons acquired another key free agent in (former) Milwaukee Bucks power forward Charlie Villanueva. Villanueva is a consistent scorer and quality defender in this league, and he will be a solid role-player for the Pistons. This gives the Pistons a line-up of Rodney Stuckey, Rip Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Tayshaun Prince, and Charlie Villanueva. This is a quality team, for sure, but there’s also a chance that they will trade Rip Hamilton. For who, nobody knows as of now, but look for the Pistons to make at least one more move this off-season.
Elsewhere in the NBA, the Los Angeles Clippers have solved their conundrum at power forward. The Clippers took phenom Blake Griffin with the first pick in the NBA draft. However, they already acquired a Power Forward the prior season in Zach Randolph. They didn’t want to have a controversey at that position, so yesterday they shipped Randolph out of town. He will be joining the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for swingman Quentin Richardson. Richardson started his career with Clippers, and now that he’s a seasoned veteran, the Clips look to have, at least, a competitive team next season.
Finally, it looks like Trevor Arizona might not be in a Laker uniform next season. He was a key piece in the Lakers championship run, and apparently, the Lakers are unwilling to pay him more than the 5.6 million mid-level salary. This would be a bigger loss than the Lakers think. Arizona was a reliable piece in crunch-time (remember the pivotal steal at the end of Game 1 of the Nuggets series. That set the tone). Now… Ariza could easily be wearing a Cavs, Celtics, or even Clippers jersey in the coming days.
