This has been a pretty wild and crazy NBA summer. There’s a lot of old faces in new places as teams tried to improve to over throw the reign of the new NBA champion, Miami Heat. So we will take a look at the good, bad and the ugly of the summer in the Association.
THE GOOD
Miami Heat– The rich got richer as the NBA champions added two veterans that will help space the floor even more for Wade and James. Ray Allen is number one in all time three pointers made and Rashard Lewis is number eight. The former Seattle Super Sonic teammates reunite to help the Heat repeat. A line up of James, Wade, Bosh, Allen and Lewis just doesn’t seem fair.
New Orleans Hornets – The summer started for the Hornets when they won the NBA draft lottery. They turned that into Anthony Davis. With their 2nd lottery pick they drafted Austin Rivers. Some would say the Hornets got the two most talented players with the most potential in the potential draft. They then resigned Eric Gordon even though he seemed married to the idea of playing in Phoenix. After Gordon’s complaints of lack of bigs the Hornets traded for Ryan Anderson and Robin Lopez. Just a year removed from the Chris Paul era and the Hornets are a team ready to make an impact next season with a very bright future.
Dallas Mavericks– The Mavericks are started the summer pretty ugly when they lost out on Deron Williams, then lost Jason Terry and Jason Kidd in free agency. It looked like the Mavericks 12 year streak of making the playoffs was in Jeopardy but a couple of 2nd tear moves put the Mavs back in position to compete. They signed O.J. Mayo who could be a big time scorer in Dallas and Chris Kaman who is a former all-star and teammate of Dirk on the German National team. They also brought over Darren Collison and Dontay Jones in a trade with Indiana. Add these moves to returning Delonte West, Branden Wright, Roddy Beaubois, and Shawn Marion and the Mavs don’t look half bad. The best thing about these moves are that they are one year deals so it still leaves them able to contend in free agency next summer.
Other good summers
Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks, and the Brooklyn Nets.
THE BAD
Orlando Magic– With Dwight Howard threatening to leave the Orlando Magic made absolutely no moves to keep him. In fact they even lost their second best player in Ryan Anderson. Not only did they not improve on the court but they ended their coaching search by hiring Jacque Vaughn. Jacque Vaughn only coaching experience came in this year summer league. As an assistant for the San Antonio Spurs Vaughn was so far down the list of assistant coaches that he sat behind the bench. Way to do everything to keep your star.
Charlotte Bobcats– The Bobcats had the worst win percentage in the history of the league and they were rewarded with the number 2 pick in the draft. They drafted MKG which isn’t a bad pick but they followed that up by trading Corey Maggette for Ben Gordon. ? You mean the shorter Ben Gordon with more years and more money on his contract? Yeah that Ben Gordon. I guess he was the missing piece to their championship run.
Chicago Bulls– As a Bull fan I might be being a little hard on them but I am so not looking forward to this upcoming season. No Rose for much of the season and possibly no Deng. They lost their whole bench from last season except for Taj Gibson. They have Carlos Boozer though. They signed Marco Belinelli, Vlad Rodmonavic, Nazi Mohammad and Nate Robinson. They also drafted a point guard that’s not ready to play this year and when Rose come back won’t play so they just pretty much wasted a pick.
THE UGLY
Houston Rockets– The Rockets made moves to acquire assets to get Dwight Howard. Do they have Howard? Nope. Will they get Howard? Nope. Did they over pay for Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik? Yep. Is the rest of the roster filled with first and second year players? Yep. The future is bright in Houston but it might get real ugly next season.
New York Knicks– They didn’t sign Jeremy Lin. Smart. They did sign Jason Kidd. Not so Smart. They signed Ray Felton. Not the one from two season ago that was a border line all-star with New York. They signed the fat one from Portland. Hope that works out for you. They also got Marcus Camby.(shrugs shoulders) The Knicks have went all in on a championship and if they don’t win next season things could get real ugly in New York.
Los Angeles Clippers– They made some solid moves this summer that could put them over the top they also could blow up in their face and things could get ugly as Paul decides to sign elsewhere. Grant Hill is going on 40 and he’s coming off one of his worst years in the league. Chauncey Billups is coming of an injury and he isn’t getting any younger. Lamar Odom is coming off a horrible season that left him mentally unstable. What Odom are the Clippers getting? Yeah things might get Khloe Kardashian ugly in LA.
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