This offseason has been a whirlwind of signings, trades—and quite frankly, theft.
With all the veterans changing scenery, who is going to thrive the most in their new location?
Will it be the "traitor" Elton Brand? The misguided Baron Davis? Or perhaps the recently-stolen Marcus Camby?
Let's take a look at the big-name guys who changed teams this offseason, and break them down one by one. Here's a hint, they all have to do with Los Angeles:
Elton Brand, F/C, 76ers (formerly of the L.A. Clippers)
Elton Brand just contributed to global warming, as all his former fans have burned his Clipper jersey.
The man had a $90 million deal on the table from Golden State, so he didn't do it for the money. He had a $70 million deal on the table from a loyal team who recently went out and aggressively fought to get a stud point guard in Baron Davis.
So why Philadelphia? The 76ers may compete in the East, but will it be for a title?
No. So why not go with the money? It all doesn't make sense to me.
Of course Brand was recently assured that the 76ers would re-sign Andre Iguodala. Really, Elton? The same way you promised the Clippers you would re-sign with them? Brand will thrive in Philadelphia stat-wise, but will he get his ring there? Nope.
Baron Davis, G, L.A. Clippers (formerly of the Golden State Warriors)
You really have to feel bad for Baron Davis. The Pistons were reportedly pursuing him hard, but Golden State wanted too much in return (this was before the opt-out deadline). So he opts out and bolts to L.A., where he gets the chance to play with a stud post player in Elton Brand.
What he got instead was Marcus Camby. Oh well.
You have to give credit to the Clippers for sticking by Davis, and getting him the post player he was expecting. They seem committed to winning now, and with Davis on board, it's not out of the question to see them playing in the post-season in 2008-09.
Davis will be the stud leader they're looking for, and should average close to a double-double once again.
Marcus Camby, F/C, L.A. Clippers (formerly of the Denver Nuggets)
Marcus Camby finds himself in a strange situation. He was traded away from Denver for the option to swap second round picks in 2009.
Really?
One year removed from winning the Defensive Player of the Year award, Camby didn't even bring back a ham sandwich in exchange for his services. He should be furious with Denver for giving him away like that.
Obviously he didn't fit in with the Mile High city, since he actually plays defense, but still he is worth more than a second round pick-swap. That's just plain insulting.
Camby will show the Nuggets just how wrong they were to trade him away at that price. Look for him to average a double-double and team up with Chris Kaman to form a nice tandem down low.
So, of these three, who is going to benefit the most? I think it has to be Baron Davis. He didn't get to play with Elton Brand, but Marcus Camby is no small consolation prize. Los Angeles is looking very serious in the strong West, and could make a playoff push this upcoming season.
Tomorrow, I'll look at the guys who haven't been traded yet—but would be well suited if their GMs pulled the trigger.
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2 months ago
Please, don't talk about the Clippers being a loyal team when they offer Brand a "take-it-or-leave it contract" worth 20 million dollars less than what the Sixers offered him. The Clippers have a history of low-balling their top free agents; why else do the Clippers best players bail out of Clipperland whenever they become free agents?
And while the Sixers aren't a title contender yet, they're close; infinitely closer than the Clippers even with Davis and Camby. Philly now has an elite post player, an explosive wing, and a perfect complementary point guard. They still need spacing---Andre Iguodala's jumper is sub-par, and Andre Miller doesn't have three-point range---but they're still hoping Willie Green can be that guy.
The entire team is composed and plays hard all the time, they have two shot blocking centers, a scrappy bench with Reggie Evans, Louis Williams, and Thaddeus Young.
Philly is no farther away from a championship than Cleveland and Orlando; who knows how the Celtics will age, and Detroit has proven to lack a championship killer-instinct.
And you criticize Brand for displaying a lack of loyalty but don't mention a thing about Baron Davis. San Francisco treated Davis like a god and Don Nelson gave Davis total control of the team.
Davis responded by playing totally self-abosrbed basketball---dogging on defense, taking nothing but bad shots, failing to get his teammates involved. Even Don Nelson had enough and benched Davis during their second-to-last game of the season.
Since Davis can never handle any criticism directed towards him, he quit on the Warriors and high-tailed it to Los Angeles the first chance he got. Who cares if he's a stud? He won't do a damn thing to improve the team, he'll only go out and get his numbers.
As for Camby, the Nuggets can be a joke of a defensive team with him, or they can be a joke of a defensive team for 10 million dollars less without him. Being that Camby can't defend anybody who attacks him directly and is one of the most overhyped defensive players of the decade, Denver's starting with him while they start stripping the team down and start over after next season.
from 2 months ago
hmm, i would call 48 wins last year "winning", even though it wasn't good enough. hey, he has his flaws i'll be the first to admit. i can't count how many times i screamed "pass the ball!" at games last year. but after the Dun-Murphy years, the guy is a savior.
And yes, they WERE grinded into submission by a bigger, tougher, unathletic jazz team. thats why they responded by drafting... oh wait randolph. and thats why they signed...turiaf.
your take is a little cynical, but hey you live in new york.
from 2 months ago
I look at all the games the Warriors had against good teams last year in which Davis melted down. The Mavericks game in which they were run out of the building. The Nuggets game with about four games to go. The Phoenix game when they were down to their final straw.
Those were the games where winning players take control and lead their teams to victory. Instead, Davis was horrible in each. Over the season’s final four weeks, when every top team in the West was in playoff mode, Golden State went 2-9 against Dallas, Denver, San Antonio, Phoenix, Houston and New Orleans. Considering Golden State's expectations were to make the playoffs, those numbers are failures.
Yes, the West was unusually strong, but could the Warriors at least knock off Phoenix, Dallas, and Denver squads that won a combined two games in the playoffs last year?
The athletes in the NBA are all so talented, it's mind-boggling to watch the spectacular, almost super-human things they can do.
Ultimately though, for the most part, the talent in the NBA cancels itself out, and winning and losing is determined by other factors...attitude, effort, discipline, heart, enforcing your will on another, etc...
Trust me, I love watching all forms of basketball. I even broadcast my college's basketball games and both the men's and women's teams are bad teams, even in a terrible conference. Even a Bucks-Grizzlies game in early April is high theater for me.
That's why I'm cynical sometimes.
Watching players who have the athleticism but don't have the mentality, watching players who can't get it done when it matters most, watching players who are universally lauded by fans and media members for putting up numbers, when those players are truthfully self-absorbed or mistake prone...there are few things in basketball more depressing.
What makes Rasheed Wallace inferior to Tim Duncan? It certainly isn't Wallace's talent level, or even his bad-boy attitude. Why is Ricky Davis not worth the trouble? Why is Vince Carter overrated? Or Amare Stoudemire?
On the other side, how come Allen Iverson-led teams constantly underacheive, yet Andre Miller-led teams constantly get the most out of their flawed rosters? How can the Jazz compete with virtually no athleticism on their roster? What separates the Spurs and the Celtics from other talented teams?
This is what a strive for when I watch basketball. Anyone can tell you that Andre Iguodala, Baron Davis, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, and Mike Bibby are "good." But how good are they? What makes them so good? What separates them from other good players? Are they great, if so, why? Or do they have debilitating flaws which doom them, and their teams.
And since all writers are obligated to represent the truth, it's my obligation to be cynical towards players that for whatever reason or another, don't measure up.
2 months ago
The Clippers are a loyal team because they went out and got Brand a superstar to play with in Davis, and their contract offer was only $10 million less than Philadelphia, $20 million less than Golden State.
Yes the Sixers are close to being a contender in the East, but a title contender? No sir. They can't match up against the powerhouse West. In the East a sub-.500 record will lock up a playoff berth. Golden State went 48-34 and still missed the post-season in the West, while Cleveland's 45-37 record was good enough to secure a No. 4 seed in the East.
I won't argue that Philadelphia is talented, but I wouldn't bet on Andre Iguodala sticking around for too long. He's going to get a monster offer from someone else and the Sixers may have no choice.
Davis I don't criticize for loyalty because of exactly what you said. He was benched by Don Nelson and was shown no loyalty by his team, so why should he show them loyalty? He had an opportunity to go to a team that wanted him and his style of play, and so he took the opportunity.
How is Camby one of the most over-hyped defensive players of the decade?
He has led the NBA in blocks per game for the past three years, and the year before he was No. 2.
He has also been top 5 in rebounds each of the past three seasons.
I don't see how he could possibly be overrated on the defensive end, his stats beg to differ.
from 2 months ago
But you don't play hard ball with your franchise icon by making him a "take-it-or-leave it" offer worth less than offers from other teams. If you want to show loyalty, open up the vault.
Any team that makes Iguodala a monster offer is binding themselves into a mess because Iguodala can't shoot under pressure and good defenses can bottle him up easily. Even without Iguodala, the Sixers might be a second round team with Brand and Miller, and that's more than the Clippers would be.
Davis was benched by Nelson because he wouldn't stop taking bad shot after bod shot, and catering only to himself. Davis' loser persona reared it's ugly head last season when the contests mattered most. The Warriors let him have absolute freedom hoping it would make him a more dynamic playmaker, and with the exception of one season (the second half of 2006-2007, and the first half of 2007-2008), Davis accomplished nothing.
Camby is overhyped because he gets all of his blocks from the weakside and can't actually defend any post player who attacks him straight up. He also fails to get into good defensive position by rotating into penetrators, instead opting to stay to their sides and sell out for blocks. Camby also chases after ball penetrations, abandoning his own defensive responsibilities leading to a lot of drop-offs for layups.
Camby also fails to challenge any shots in his vicinity that he can't block, leading to a lot of good looks for opponents.
Camby's rebounding numbers are also misleading. He isn't a good rebounder in a crowd because he's not strong enough, and part of his inflated rebounding numbers are the fact that the Nuggets have played at a frenetic pace the last two years, leading to a lot more shots, a lot more misses, and a lot more chances for Camby to bottle up rebounds.
If Camby was really a top-notch defender, why would the Nuggets be such a pathetic defensive team? I understand the rest of their players are horrific defenders as well, but Camby's defense has had literally no impact in Denver's last two playoff series' against the Spurs and the Lakers.
2 months ago
I wouldn't take things this personally.
Baron Davis may be dubbed a traitor by some, but when he came to the Bay Area, he brought winning with him. He turned around a basketball program that had been struggling for 13 years without a playoff berth and took them to the national spotlight.
Of course, last year it was obvious he was playing for an extension, and the Warriors knew it. He played lazy defense most of the time, and there were several games where he phoned it in. Plus, his selfish style of play arguably stunted the growth of our younger players. In some ways, this was a luxury for Nellie. Take a risk on the youth? Naw, just put it in B-Diddy's hands. He will be missed in the Bay Area, but its pretty obvious the Warriors weren't interested in locking him up long-term. Particularly with young franchise-type players coming into their own.
Elton Brand on the other hand, seems to have spurned the Clipper's ownership, even after he publicly proclaimed that he'd take a smaller deal in order to get better players around him. But he's hungry for a championship and he went to where he sees the best chances of that happening (good luck with that one, Mr. Brand).
As for Camby, he's a great shot-blocker, but i don't think he's in the same caliber as brand and davis. Does he make the Clippers a championship team? i dont think so. is he a nice piece to the puzzle. definitely.
I'm more interested in how Maggette will play with his new team, and coming from Dunleavy Sr.'s system, in which he was obviously frustrated, into a free open system like Nellie's in which most players are very excited to play. my guess is that he will flourish, score even more, and maybe become a better team player as a result. Conversely, i think Davis will have some trouble and feel stifled in Dunleavy's system (unless he gets his own version of the Brand-in-the-post plays drawn up for him).
from 2 months ago
Honestly though, except for the second half of 2006-2007, and the first half of 2007-2008, when did Davis ever bring winning to Golden State? He had a magical run late in 2007 and his Warriors beat a timid, scared, unprepared Mavs team in the playoffs that year before the unathletic Jazz grinded them into submission.
2 months ago
Touche Erick... That's why you're my hands-down favorite writer on this site. You certianly know your stuff.
And no, none of that was meant to be sarcastic.
from 2 months ago
I just don't like it when basketball fans take things solely at face value. It's so easy to qualify players statistically that people often miss what players actually bring to the basketball court. Camby is one of those players who's stats are sweet as candy, but whose actual defense rots your teeth as much as it stimulates your taste buds. He's not a horrible defensive player---nobody who can block as many shots as Camby should ever be dismissed, but he isn't this rock solid defensive force that the numbers suggest he is.
Brand's never had a history of being a malcontent, and when I read on ESPN.com that the Clippers low-balled him and gave him a "take-it-or-leave-it" offer less than what other teams (as you've mentioned Golden State and Philly) had offered, I was more than willing to overlook whatever promises Brand had made. Dollars and cents are the best way in showing a player how loyal you are, especially when you're a franchise like the Clippers that has been notoriously stingy when taking care of (rather failing to take care of) their own.
And Baron Davis is a loser who can't handle anybody who doesn't cater to him. He got thrown out of New Orleans because the Hornets wouldn't allow him to bring a personal therapist with him into their locker room. Instead of using the Hornets' own trainers, Davis would go outside and receive therapy from his therapist knowing it would infuriate the organization. When he was punished, he basically quit on the team and demanded a trade.
That's the kind of person and player Davis is and it's only a matter of time before Los Angeles finds that out.
2 months ago
Erick does not "know all his stuff", wheres his proof Clippers gave Brand a "take it or leave it offer", think he should listen to the interview with Dunleavy in regards to that and the text messages.
2 months ago
Gee Erick did Baron Davis do something to you in a previous life, "And Baron Davis is a loser who can't handle anybody who doesn't cater to him"
Then your take on this , have you actually substantiated anything or do you take things on the face value of one hearsay or one article. "Brand's never had a history of being a malcontent, and when I read on ESPN.com that the Clippers low-balled him and gave him a "take-it-or-leave-it" offer less than what other teams "
2 months ago
Kirby and Erick please don't get in a comment war on my article.
2 months ago
I'm not heading down that path Greg, but a scribe must back up his comments, and saying I read it on another site does not hold much substance, when if you seach the internet, there is at least 3 maybe more different alternatives to this trade, and what happened, depending on if you listen to Brand, Dunleavy, Falk, Davis and others.
Maybe a listen to this from another angle http://stations.espn.go.com/stations/710espn/sectional?id=stevemasonpodcasts
A journalist should always check his sources never go on the hearsay of others straight up.
2 months ago
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3480691
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3483045
Two articles regarding Brand's departure from LA. From the second article:
"On Thursday, as Brand was introduced as the newest member of the 76ers, Falk (Brand's agent) said Brand spurned the Clippers once he was offered a "take it or leave it" contract on June 30 -- a deal Falk said was worth $20 million less than what Brand signed for in Philadelphia.
As for Dunleavy, he was negotiating with Brand behind Falk's back, which is illegal.
"This is what I want to say emphatically: The process was flawed," Falk told ESPN.com's Marc Stein. "The team should not be having two simultaneous negotiations with a player and his agent. But that's the team's responsibility, not the player's. I'm not happy about it, I'm not gloating about it. I regret that the process was flawed, but I don't take any responsibility that the process was flawed."
"Mike and I have had a good friendship for 20 years," Falk said. "[But] Mike has acknowledged that he and Elton were having a private dialogue, which is illegal and a violation of the collective bargaining agreement for teams to do that when they know he has a registered agent.
2 months ago
As for Baron Davis,
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E5D81731F934A15752C1A9639C8B63
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-barondavisclippers070208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
From the second article:
Even so, history suggests that it never ends well with him. The New Orleans Hornets remember him poisoning young players. When Hornets officials told Davis his “personal trainer” (AAU lackey) wasn’t allowed on the practice floor, he protested by dragging the guy outside the team’s facility, laying down a yoga mat and stretching on the sidewalk.
Has he done anything to me a previous life? Who cares? Here's what he's done in this life, taken the easy way out and care only for his own personal interests. Is it really a coincidence why he was exiled out of New Orleans and why Golden State turned their backs on him? What franchise carrier has ever had such unceremonious departures from two different cities?
2 months ago
As for the Dunleavy interview, whatever verbal agreements, whatever Brand said or didn't say, whatever Falk wanted, all would be moot points if the Clippers ponied up the cash for Brand, even though he's coming off an achillies injury. Even if Falk got all insecure because Brand and Dunleavy communicated without him, shelling out cash, even more than Brand had asked for,might have kept him in LA.
The text messages, the comments, all of it is word of mouth, what Dunleavy says, what Falk says, etc.
If Dunleavy says the ultimatum he gave Falk was "opt out, or don't opt out," then he got what he asked for when Brand opted out. If Brand only asked for 75 million, wouldn't it be a sign of good faith if the Clippers offered even more to Brand as a sign of good faith, especially when the Warriors were offering 90 million?
2 months ago
wow...very heated....uhh I think that Baron or Camby would be best in their new situation...b/c their both benefiting off one another...
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