NBA Free Agency 2009: Day One

As said by Laz last night, it was the NBA's Christmas Eve, and it looks like Christmas day has brought Ben Gordon and Charlie Villaneuva to Detroit. My initial thoughts on this:

1) Pistons GM Joe Dumars has lost his way. 5 years, $55 million for Ben Gordon? Which rock has Joe Dumars been hiding under? Did he not know that no one else was bidding? Did he not know that most of the teams are hurting financially?
2) Pistons GM Joe Dumars has lost his way. Bringing in one defensive liability is one thing, but I don't ever recall a team succeeding in rebuilding by bringing in TWO players that are known as defensive liabilities (PF Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon). Good luck with that.

Story #2 is comical. However, it will make you puke in your mouth if you are a Memphis Grizzlies fan. The Grizzlies have traded the expiring $9 million contract of Quentin Richardson for the 2-year, $33 million contract of Zach Randolph. My initial thoughts:

1) The Grizzlies just took themselves out of the free agency market in 2009. Actually, they still have another $15 million in space, but I doubt they use it. Unless of course, the GM can find another international 7-footer. Last year, he had Darko, Marc Gasol, and Hamed Haddadi (Iran). This year, he swaps out Darko for Hasheem Thabeet. I really don't understand what the point of his fascination with collecting the most amount of foreign 7-footers is. Maybe they'll sign Gortat, he's also an international.
2) The Grizzlies just doubled their payroll in 2010 from $17 million to $34 million. That still leaves about $26 million in cap space. However, OJ Mayo, and Mike Conley have team options that need to be picked up (totaling $10 mill) and Rudy Gay is a free agent. Let's say another $10 mill. Oops. There goes free agency 2010. And why?!? To add Zach Randolph. I can't believe this happened.
3) I can't come up with even one reason why the Grizzlies did this. Yes, this is the same GM who engineered what I called the "greatest offseason" in 2007. A few short months later, he traded Pau Gasol for less than market value. In addition, after giving up a 1st round pick to acquire Juan Carlos Navarro... he let him go back to Europe after just one season. I'd say that it has been a pretty horrendous 18 months! I'm going to assume most 14-year olds would have made better decisions.