Drew Gooden agreed to a three-year deal worth around $23 M after originally seeking something in the neighborhood of the 6-year/$60 M deal that Nene signed with the Nuggets. That Nene deal was not representative of the market, and caused a lot of free agents to inflate their expectations. Many expected Gooden to be in another city by this time, but the stars aligned, and he’ll be back with the Cavs…The Al Harrington deal that will send the forward to the Pacers for draft picks might finally be done, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I’m not holding my breath…Bonzi Wells is still looking for a home. The latest rumor is that the Kings are talking to the Nuggets about a sign-and-trade. Wells isn’t worth what he’s asking…Isiah Thomas got a good player, but he paid too much when he signed Jared Jeffries to a 5-year/$30 M deal. Jeffries is solid, but he hasn’t shown the offensive ability to be worth $6 M a season.
Category: NBA (Page 531 of 595)
It appears the NBA is starting to get a clue in regards to their playoff format. They are changing their seeding as follows:
Starting in the upcoming season, the top four seeds — the three division winners and the second-place team with the best record — will be seeded according to their win-loss total, guaranteeing that the top two teams in each conference can’t meet until the conference finals, the league announced Wednesday.
As a result, the debacle which happened in the Western Conference last year will not happen again. Dallas was forced into the #4 seed, even though they had a better record than division winners Phoenix and Denver.
The new system will still guarantee the division winners a playoff spot, but it will put more emphasis on the win-loss record, which is how it should be. A team like Dallas last year proved why the previous NBA playoff format is not effective. Just because a team wins their division doesn’t mean it should be guaranteed a top 3 seed. Records always should matter and unfortunately for the Mavs last season, they were forced to match up with the #1 seed Spurs in the second round despite having the second best record in the league.
The NBA realizes they made a mistake, fixed the problem, and the playoffs will be better because of it.
One of the less-publicized signings from last week was Sacramento’s acquisition of John Salmons in a deal that is reportedly for five years and worth around $25 M. Salmons became an unrestricted free agent after nixing a sign-and-trade deal that would have sent him to the Toronto Raptors. In a puzzling move, the Sixers withdrew their qualifying offer, which allowed Salmons to sign with any team.
The deal is a good one for the Kings, who get a versatile player who will compete with Kevin Martin to start at off guard. Given some of the other contracts we’ve seen this summer, the price is definitely reasonable.
How much has Jamaal Magloire’s stock fallen? Once mentioned in trades involving Charlie Villanueva, Troy Murphy and Carlos Boozer, the Bucks finally shipped Magloire to the Blazers for PG Steve Blake, F/C Brian Skinner and C Ha Seung-Jin.
This is essentially a Magloire for Blake swap, giving the Bucks a backup point guard for Mo Williams after trading away T.J. Ford to the Raptors for Villanueva. Meanwhile, the Blazers get Magloire, who is in the final year of his contract. Many feel that he will be expecting a big deal next summer.
Hell, I’d vote for him:
Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley has changed his political uniform from red to blue and is talking again about running for governor of Alabama, possibly in 2010.
“Alabama, that’s my home. I’m thinking about running for governor; they need the help,” Barkley said.
Barkley, a Leeds native, has been talking about running for governor of his home state since he was playing with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. In 1995, he said he was considering running in 1998 as a Republican but that never materialized.
After that, Barkley continued to identify himself as a Republican until recently, when he switched to the Democratic team.
“I was a Republican until they lost their minds,” he said earlier this month at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada.
“Sir Charles” reinforced that Tuesday while speaking to a convention of public school board members in Destin, Fla.
“What I’ve said is I’m rich like a Republican. But I’m not one,” Barkley said in remarks reported by The Birmingham News.
Can you imagine kids 50 years from now reading about Governor Barkley in their history books?
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