NBA Free Agency: Day One

At 12:01 AM yesterday morning, this year's free agency frenzy kicked off in the NBA, and already the first shots have been fired. 

Deals have been made that have ranged from shocking (Baron Davis heading to the Clippers to live it up in Hollywood) to irrelevant (Hassan Adams signs up in Toronto).  Let's take a look at the deals that were supposedly agreed to yesterday:

Dallas Mavericks Sign SF Gerald Green and re-sign PG JJ Barea- I think this pick may be very much like the Mavs' coup of Brandon Bass last year.  For whatever reason, after a strong 2006-2007 season with the Celtics, in which he averaged more than 10 PPG, he just never gained the trust of Randy Wittman in Minnesota, and eventually wound up being sent to Houston for Kirk Snyder before getting cut. 

It's obvious that the former slam-dunk champ has tons of talent; there's a reason it was an upset that he fell out of the lottery when he was drafted a few years ago.  The question I have is whether there's a problem with his work ethic - if you can't play on the team the Timberwolves had last year, that's a serious red flag for me. 

Regardless, for a one-year deal it seems like a low-risk, high-reward deal for the Mavs.  JJ Barea was their 13th man last year, and I doubt he'll ever be much more, but he will probably be given a shot to earn the backup PG spot.

Los Angeles Clippers Sign PG Baron Davis (Warriors)- Obviously, this is the deal everyone is talking about today.  While I agree that any time it looks like Donald Sterling is willing to open his wallet to be competitive has to look good if you're a Clippers fan, I'm actually not as high on this move as it seems everyone else is. 

Although Davis certainly looks like he's going to make the Clippers competitive again with a lineup of Davis, Mobley, Thornton, Brand, and Kaman, I don't think that's a championship-caliber starting five.  I'm not even 100% sure it's a playoff- caliber starting five, when you look at the Nuggets' with Iverson, Kleiza, Melo, K-Mart and Camby only managing an 8th seed in the brutal West and Portland obviously on the rise. 

The move looks even more suspect when you consider they now have no money to sign bench guys, and the best guy they have left returning is Tim Thomas.  Nobody knows whether Eric Gordon can give them decent minutes off the bench.  Furthermore, crossing your fingers and hoping that Davis, Brand, and Kaman, who have all had injury issues in the past will all stay healthy, is a dubious plan at best. 

Personally, I think that NBA teams should always make moves with the intent of eventually building a championship contender, and I think the Clippers may have just tied their hands with Davis' huge salary to the point that they won't be able to get much better with this group of players.

For the Warriors, this move is going to seriously hasten Don Nelson's return to retirement, and probably jump-start the rebuilding process in the Bay Area.  They're not going to pry Gilbert Arenas from the Wizards now that Jamison is sticking around, so they might as well just resign Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins and give guys like Brandan Wright and Marco Bellinelli a chance to develop.  Trying to sneak into the playoffs in the stacked west with this roster just isn't going to work.

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