Gasol to LA, Shaq to Phoenix, There are More Trades on the Horizon in the NBA

The Boston Three Party.  The Lakers new Pau-er Forward.  The Sun Rising in Phoenix.  With all the new faces in new places everyone is satisfied now, aren’t they?

Well, not exactly.  There is still a lot of work to be done before the trade deadline reaches.  First order of business: make LeBron happy.

The Cleveland Cavaliers need to make a move to give LeBron a quality second option and solidify their position as a favorite for the finals.  Now, if they had signed Michael Redd they would not have this problem.  Instead, they ended up with injury prone Larry Hughes, who had an amazing contract year and seemed to be a great fallback option.

But hindsight is 20/20 and he is not the player that the Cavs expected when they decided to dish out $10 million a year.  And they are stuck with him now that everyone else knows he is not the spark plug he was in Washington and his contract is not expiring this year. 

As a matter of fact, the Cavs just signed two more bad contracts with Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varajeo, who may have qualified as decent trade bait if Cleveland would have shaved a couple million off of those salaries.  So now, LeBron wants Jason Kidd but unfortunately cannot have him, especially since it looks like Kidd will head to the Mavericks.  What would they have traded to get him?  Hughes and Varajeo?  I would not take that.  Neither would the Nets.

Speaking of the New Jersey Nets, they want to restructure too, and rightfully so.  The “Not as Big a Three as San Antonio and Boston” obviously cannot win the title so it is time to ship them off.  The Dallas Mavericks' management would love to add Kidd to the roster but Devean George decided it was a bad idea.  Who? 

George has to be the only player to shoot 0-11 one night and become GM the next.  There's a dim hope George will soften his stance and allow himself to be traded but Cuban may need to go take the Keith Van Horn route after all.  Maybe Kidd won't be traded.

    So let’s ship Vince Carter.  Sure, it sounds great but he is not the spring chicken he once was and while he may still be able to leap tall Russians in a single bound, he does not exactly jump out of the building like he used to.  He is still exciting and more flexible in age and playing ability than Kidd so he would probably get moved, but who needs a shooting guard? 

The Indiana Pacers are thinking of trading Jermaine O’ Neal for Carter straight up.  That’s great for the Nets.  But the Pacers would leave themselves with a huge void to fill.  Finding a good big man is much harder than finding a decent swingman and Jermaine is two years younger than Carter.  The chances of the Pacers picking up a solid shooting guard before O’ Neal, 29, gets too old are much better than drafting a solid power forward before Carter, 31, does.  And they would still need other pieces to be come a playoff contender.  Forget the ring.

Now the Nets could trade Kidd or Carter for a few drafts picks and make trades to free-up cap space but they just helped the Memphis Grizzlies do that by taking Stromile Swift off of their hands so they obviously are thinking win now or win with less.

Now if the Pacers want to fill holes in a lineup, they should call the Grizzlies.  There is a void at shooting guard and Mike Miller would fill it.  And at the rate the Grizzlies are going, the bidding price probably is not that high. 

And the Suns may not be done either.  The Phoenix lineup is old.  Very old.  Half of its lineup could retire tomorrow if no one is watching.  To be a playoff contender you need fresh legs that can go seven games from the first round to the finals. 

Eric Piatkowski is not exactly fresh and unless 35 is the new 25, Nash, Shaq, and Grant Hill are going to be winded.  Even Raja Bell is 31.  Leandro Barbosa, Boris Diaw, and Amare Stoudemire are young players who will have to play a lot of minutes to make this work, but more importantly, solid minutes.  Chemistry wise, Shaq and Marion may have been the stronger frontcourt duo to win right now, but what’s done is done.

Lastly, the New Orleans Hornets could use a small trade to strengthen the bench.  They are a young and fast team led by one of the leagues best point guards, but a sprinkle of veteran leadership on that bench could change things dramatically for the surprising Hornets come playoff time.  The current squad will have problems against the very physical Popovich-led Spurs. 

With the trade deadline drawing near, expect one more jaw-dropping transaction to take the NBA by storm.  The playoff picture is as open as it has ever been and every general manager is aware of it.  The championship trophy is up for grabs and a team could take it with a single trade.