NBA offseason winners and losers
Hunter Felt www.theguardian.com hunter-felt
<p><strong>Hunter Felt:</strong> The NBA offseason has seen Dwight Howard join the Houston Rockets, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce leave the Boston Celtics for the Brooklyn Nets, and much more. Who are the winners and losers of the trade merry-go-round?</p>
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the Guardian
The NBA offseason has seen plenty of action. With the most recent headlines being about the Mike Miller sweepstakes (it looks like he's headed to Memphis) and what team will land a notorious draft bust who hasn't played in the NBA for two seasons (Greg Oden's Decision most likely will not be made on an ESPN special), most of the major moves of the season have been made (and hey, if it's not too soon for Zach Lowe it's not too soon for this writer). So, here's what this offseason's winners and losers look like, at least for the time being. Keep in mind that winning or losing the offseason often means nothing once the actual games start. After last season's moves the Los Angeles Lakers were penciled in as favorites to win the Western Conference. That... That didn't quite happen.

Winners

The Houston Rockets

All things considered, Dwight Howard's free agency period was relatively painless for the rest of us. The erstwhile Basketball Hamlet has been frustrating fans and media alike ever since he vacillated on committing to the Orlando Magic at the 2012 trade deadline, a drama that extended into the summer before the Magic mercifully ended it by sending him to the Los Angeles Lakers. So, with Howard becoming a free agent after a beyond-disappointing season in L.A., people worried that Howard would once again hold the sports media hostage by making "will Howard stay or will he go" the never-ending story of the summer.

Thankfully for everybody, Howard didn't hesitate at all to make his decision this time around, announcing that he was headed to the Houston Rockets even before NBA teams could officially sign free agents. Howard's departure from the Lakers caused an instant shift within the Western Conference. Not only did the move strengthen the Rockets, it forced the Lakers into a rather unfamiliar position: losing out on a superstar free agent because he didn't want to play with them.

Just one year ago, the Rockets seemed to be headed nowhere, their big offseason move in 2012 looked like it was going to be overpaying for one-season wonder point guard Jeremy Lin. Then, the Rockets pulled off a trade heist, stealing reigning Sixth Man of the Year James Harden from the Oklahoma City Thunder with the idea he could be the cornerstone of a playoff team. That went pretty well, the Rockets made a surprise postseason run and played a competitive series against a Thunder team struggling without an injured Russell Westbrook (and no Harden for insurance). If Howard can work with Houston's system, and considering Howard's alleged maturity issues that's not necessarily a given, the Rockets should be looking at a much deeper playoffs run next season. At the very least, their season is now expected to outlast the Lakers'.

The Brooklyn Nets

All of the other teams can stop searching, there are no more available players because the Nets have signed them all. Following a busy summer, the Nets have the most stacked roster in the Eastern Conference boasting an all All-Star starting lineup of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Now, granted that sounds more like a 2008 All-Star Game lineup than a 2014 All-Star Game lineup, but still, on paper Brooklyn will field the most improved team in the East.

The big "all in" moment for the Brooklyn Nets was when they swapped a handful of good but relatively unexciting players (including the former Mr. Kardashian) to the finally rebuilding Boston Celtics for Pierce and Garnett (and also Jason Terry, presumably because Boston forced the Nets to take his ugly contract). Since the Nets' new head coach isn't too far removed from the All-Star Game himself, it will be curious to see how Jason Kidd, only months after his playing days, manages to coach his incoming veterans.

No, the Brooklyn Nets won't have an easy time next season, after all they still share a conference with a Miami Heat team hoping for a three-peat. Rosters with this many big name players often look better on paper than they do on the court, and if they're unable to gel under their first-year coach this whole thing might just become a prohibitively expensive disaster. Sink or swim, the Nets, for the first time in franchise history, will be the most interesting team to watch next season.

The Orlando Magic

When Dwight Howard decided to flip off the Lakers and sign with the Rockets, he helped bring about maybe the most unexpected development of the summer: The Orlando Magic won the Dwight Howard mega-trade. Now, Nikola Vucevic, Maurice Harkless and Arron Afflalo may not be superstars, but at least they're still on the Magic roster.

How did we get here? Well, let's look at the major players of the trade: Howard (who went from the Magic to the Lakers), Andre Iguodala (who went from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Denver Nuggets) and Andrew Bynum (who went from the Lakers to the 76ers). Dwight Howard opted out with the Lakers after a disappointing season. Andre Iguodala had a much better year with the Denver Nuggets, but his team didn't make it past the first round and he opted out of his contract to join the suddenly ascendent Golden State Warriors. Andrew Bynum's career with the Philadelphia 76ers lasted approximately one practice and absolutely zero official games. The Magic, meanwhile, still have most of the spare pieces they received during the trade, and still have a few draft picks left over that could turn into something. Not bad for a team that has done close to nothing this offseason.

The Los Angeles Clippers

The two L.A.-based teams received 2013's biggest free agents via trade, however only one of them managed to entice their superstar to stay. The punchline: It was the Clippers. Yes, the Clippers managed to hold on to point guard Chris Paul and all it really took them, besides money, was agreeing to switch from one of the worst head coaches in the NBA (Vinny del Negro, who honestly isn't even worth the "one of the" disclaimer) for one of the best (Doc Rivers). While the Clippers finally traded away extra piece Eric Bledsoe during the offseason, sending him and Caron Butler to the Phoenix Suns in a three-way trade with the Milwaukee Bucks, they got back Jared Dudley and J.J. Redick, the three-point threats the Clippers lacked in their last two playoff appearances. Just by keeping their franchise player, the Clippers have won the "best offseason by a Los Angeles team" contest for possibly the first time ever.

The New York Media

Confession: Throughout last season, the rough draft of many of these blog posts erroneously identified the Los Angeles Lakers' Metta World Peace as a member of the New York Knicks. It was an easy mistake to make, World Peace always seemed to be the exact kind of character that belonged in the absurdist drama that is Knicks basketball. In fact, the Knicks could have drafted the New York born-and-raised World Peace way back when he was a kid named Ron Artest in 1999, but instead they chose Frédéric Weis, who didn't play a single NBA game. Maybe no group of New Yorkers missed MWP more than the New York sports media who would have had nonstop material with one of the most controversial and ridiculous players in NBA history on hand (although it should be noted that they had Stephon Marbury to kick around for a few years, which was a reasonable substitute).

Now World Peace is a Knick in reality and not just in this writer's subconscious dreamworld. The Lakers, trying to figure out their new Dwight Howard-less identity, used their amnesty on the Baller Formerly Known As Ron Artest to reduce their cap hit, allowing the most inevitable Knick of all time was free to officially sign with New York. It's not quite certain what role World Peace will have on the court, but it's very clear that in the locker room, he's replacing Rasheed Wallace as the team's veteran headcase/comic relief.

The long-delayed New York debut of Metta World Peace is just one of the storylines that the New York sports media will have to work with next NBA season. While the Brooklyn Nets failed to really emerge as a true rival to the New York Knicks in their first year of existence, at least as far as media attention goes, that may change with Carmelo Anthony's arch-nemesis Kevin Garnett now playing for Brooklyn. The Knicks MVP candidate had a memorable encounter with Garnett last season when he played for Boston, so there's a lot of potential drama with the two players now sharing the same city.

A potential sub-winner of this deal? General Mills, who will get plenty of free advertising for Honey Nut Cheerios when the Nets and Knicks face off against each other.

The Golden State Warriors

First they knock the Denver Nuggets out of the playoffs, and then they steal their best player. Not cool guys. The Golden State Warriors went farther than many people expected in the playoffs last season, and ownership apparently believes that now is the time for the Warriors to not just make the NBA Playoffs but to go deep. That would explain why they signed Andre Iguodala, ending his brief Denver career, to bolster their already potent lineup.

Iguodala should add both offense and defense to the club, with that second part being the key as their gamechanging defensive player Andrew Bogut has an acute case of "being Andrew Bogut" which leaves him sidelined with injuries. While the team will miss hot/cold sixth man Jarrett Jack, who signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, their offense still features Klay Thompson and, most importantly, Steph Curry who might have been the best shooter during the Playoffs. The Warriors also signed Jermaine O'Neal which is one of those low-ri- wait, Jermaine O'Neal isn't retired?

The Aliens

For claiming Baron Davis off terrestrial waivers.

Losers

The Celtics/Lakers rivalry

There may have been no introductory press conference more depressing than the one held by the Boston Celtics to introduce their new acquisitions. Keith Bogans, MarShon Brooks and Kris Humphries all looked something close to suicidal in the resulting pictures, and, considering what the Boston Celtics have been doing this offseason, they had a reason to not be incredibly thrilled at joining one of the marquee NBA franchises. (Fellow acquisition Gerald Wallace was a no-show.) The only press conference that could compare was the Brooklyn Nets conference to introduce the players they received in the deal: Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. While addressing the media, Pierce looked and sounded nearly as sad as most Celtics fans did when they finally realized the long-time face of the franchise was gone for good. By trading away Pierce and Garnett, not to mention head coach Doc Rivers, who was a bit more cheerful than his former players at his introductory press conference with the Los Angeles Clippers, the Boston Celtics have finally committed themselves to a rebuild that everyone saw coming but nobody really wants to go through.

It's a bit of a different story for the Los Angeles Lakers, who were supposed to contend for a Finals appearance last year following the trade for center Dwight Howard. With Dwight Howard in Houston, and franchise player Kobe Bryant out indefinitely with an Achilles tendon injury, the Lakers now look like they're going to struggle to even make the playoffs this season. Things in L.A. are bad enough that some fans are suggesting what would have been unthinkable a few months ago: that the Lakers unload veterans Steve Nash and Pau Gasol and commit a full on tank-job for a season.

As it stands right now, assuming that Celtics GM Danny Ainge doesn't trade Rajon Rondo, his last remaining star, or that Kobe Bryant doesn't do a Derrick Rose impression and sit out for the entirety of the season (which doesn't seem likely), the Lakers and Celtics may have found themselves in the worst possible position in the NBA: Not good enough to contend, not bad enough to sink into the NBA Draft Lottery. For the first time since the trades that brought Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to Boston, there won't be much at stake the next time the Lakers and Celtics meet. This is good for fans of parity, most fans would be quiet happy if neither team wins a championship again, but probably not the best thing for TV ratings.

Brooklyn Nets' payroll

Say what you will about Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, but he's not afraid to spend money. This year's fantasy league edition of the Brooklyn Nets is so expensive that, as the New York Times mentions, the $82 million he will be spending in luxury taxes alone is more than 25 other NBA teams' entire payrolls. That's even after factoring in that Andrei Kirilenko signed with the Nets for a much smaller contract that he was offered from other teams, a turn of the events that have some NBA front offices insinuating that the Russian billionaire used underhanded Bond villain techniques in order to sway the Russian born player.

The Denver Nuggets

You know a team's in trouble when they get rid of the reigning NBA coach of the year. Welcome to the depressing regression of the Denver Nuggets, already in progress. After one too many first-round playoff exits, George Karl received the Coach of the Year honors, voted for before the beginning of the postseason, and then received his walking papers. Shortly afterwards, Andre Iguodala, the Nuggets' big offseason acquisition, tested out free agency, where he was rewarded by the suddenly all-in Golden State Warriors with a four-year $48 million dollar deal in a sign-and-trade. The offseason isn't all bad news for Denver, of course, they signed J.J. Hickson and, in fact, they managed to ink a deal for one of the postseason's breakout players, a veteran of big-time clubs like the Knicks, the Celtics and the Bulls. Enjoy the Nate Robinson Era, Nuggets fans.

Philadelphia 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers made their intentions known during the draft, when they traded away their best player, Jrue Holiday, for the rights to Nerlens Noel. It was a sign that they were punting on the whole Andrew Bynum situation, moving past the free agent center who went MIA for his first and only year in Philly, and heading into an official rebuilding stage. The 76ers most likely will be trying to tank this season in order to position itself for the upcoming draft, a process helped by the fact that Noel will be rehabbing an injury for much of the upcoming season. Of course, the problem with Philadelphia attempting to tank is that they are still in the Eastern Conference which legally has to send eight teams to the postseason even during years it doesn't have eight postseason-caliber teams (see: last year's Milwaukee Bucks team). This season has the potential to be "The Producers", where the team accidentally succeeds when those in charge are hoping for failure.

So, have the 76ers really "lost" this offseason if everything they've done so far has brought them closer to the goal of bottoming out? New GM Sam Hinkie wants a clean slate, and my stars does he have one of those now, so in a way he has won. Maybe "Philadelphia fans hoping for a watchable season" are the true losers in this category.

Dirk Nowitzki

Mark Cuban: Okay, so I know I promised I could bring Deron Williams and Dwight Howard here to the Dallas Mavericks so you could have one more shot at a title and that didn't work out. But there's good news!

Dirk Nowitzki: Yeah what's that?

Mark Cuban: We got Monta Ellis!

(Silence.)

Mark Cuban: Dirk?

Dirk Nowitzki: What's the punchline here?

Mark Cuban: No, I'm serious. We signed Monta Ellis.

Dirk Nowitzki: You know, I bet you could get a lot back for me if you decided to package me in a trade. Just saying.

No clue

Andrew Bynum