NBA 2008 - Arms Race

The NBA has NEVER had a season with this many blockbusters. Not even close. It's the ultimate arms race this season. Here are some quick thoughts on the ridiculous and unpredictable trades in the NBA that happened in the last week:

1) Cleveland -
Is this a good deal? Still trying to get my head around it, but basically, the Cavs are rolling the dice with relatively little risk when you compare the team to their current position. Currently, they were relying on Larry Hughes to play good defense and to handle the ball offensively. Now, the Cavs have a much higher ceiling with Ben Wallace, Wally World, Joe Smith, and Delonte West. So if you compare the before and after, it's a good gamble (I think). The most surprising part about the Cleveland trades is that Cleveland really is in no worse of a position long-term as Hughes and Ben Wallace have similar deals expiring in 2010, Gooden and the other spare parts combine to equal Wally and each expire in 2009, with Donyell Marshall expiring in 2009 but Joe Smith expiring this summer. If anything, it adds a little bit of flexibility this summer (if you can clear out some other expiring deals), though initially, the Cavs are obviously spending more money. So, congratulations are in order to Danny Ferry who essentially is taking a free roll of the dice with financial implications that are no worse than standing pat.

Of course, the biggest question marks which will determine the success of the Cavs' trades are:
a) is Ben Wallace washed up? All he needs to do is play defense and rebound, but no one is sure if he can even do that. If he can do that, this trade really is a success.

b) Can Wally stay healthy with his back, ankle, knee, etc.? As Mighty points out, Hughes was injured all the time, so now the Cavs just have added another 3-point shooter when healthy.

c) If the Cavs were winning on rebounding and defense before the trade, what will happen afterwards? Obviously, Ben Wallace can play defense but I honestly don't know about Joe Smith, Wally (he doesn't play defense), and Delonte West.

d) Who is handling the ball other than Lebron? This is where it gets dicey with West and Gibson assuming the ball-handling along with Lebron. Ultimately though, Lebron has the ball in his hands most of the time anyways on the offensive end.

2) New Orleans - I guess it's nice to have a scorer in Bonzi Wells coming off the bench, but he's always been a problem character-wise. It's interesting that their trading partner ended up being Houston who's also right in the middle of the Western playoff hunt, but apparently, Bonzi was not in their plans. Ultimately, it's only a slight upgrade from having Bobby Jackson (who went to Houston as part of the trade). Long-term: bad trade as they had to pick-up Mike James contract.

3) San Antonio - They wanted an extra big man, and found one in Kurt Thomas. I don't exactly understand why they got rid of Brent Barry, who I thought played a solid role in shooting 3s off the bench. Not a major move, not a major price.

4) Dallas - Acquiring Jason Kidd was dumb. One of the reasons they beat the Spurs in the playoffs 2 years ago was they had a fast Devin Harris to guard Tony Parker and they had Diop to guard Duncan. Now, they're both gone! I even saw an article about how Dallas was trying desperately to acquire another big-man because they know they have a problem now with only Eric Dampier there. Will, the article may have been true, but they never found another big-man. Maybe they can lure Shawn Bradley out of retirement. I don't like this deal from a short-term perspective or a long-term perspective. Good thing Mark Cuban has money to burn.

5) Seattle (who unloaded Kurt Thomas and Wally and Delonte West) now has 13 draft picks for the next 3 drafts and probably has the most amount of cap space this offseason of any team. The question is, will they get Shawn Marion, Gilbert Arenas, Jamison, Luol Deng, or Ben Gordon? You'd have to figure they'd get at least one.