NBA Offseason thus far

This NBA offseason has been an incredible roller coaster in regard to player movement and who the future powers of the league will be.  Here are my thoughts on how the offseason seems to be going for certain players and teams:

·         Boston Celtics

To me if you are the Celtics fan right now you should be ecstatic about how the team is handling this offseason.  They resigned Kevin Garnett for a good contract and are also going to be signing Jason Terry.  They will in all likelihood be able to keep Brandon Bass and Jeff Green as well, and possibly even Ray Allen.  Combining all those elements along with the addition of Jared Sullinger you have to think that while the Celtics wouldn’t be considered the favorites in the East you would think they would only be behind the Heat in that regard

·         Atlanta Hawks

Thus far no team has been more impressive this offseason than the Hawks.  This sounds strange for a team that just traded arguably their best player for only expiring contracts and traded a recent top 5 pick.  However they got by far the best end of both trades because of the position that it put their franchise in.  First let’s look at the Marvin Williams deal, to me one of the most confusing trades in years.  The Hawks were able to trade Marvin Williams, a perennial disappointment with two years left on his contract for Devin Harris a superior player with one year left.  Then with the trade of Joe Johnson, a player who has one of the worst contracts in basketball for a variety of expiring is a steal for the franchise that is no longer going to be stuck as a team that would lose in the first or second round of the playoffs every year.  This is because of the cap space that this will clear up after this year, an off season that happens to have both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul available.  These two trades to me make the Hawks the favorites to get both players.  They can make a trade for Howard, an Atlanta native, with Al Horford and Jeff Teague and then sign Chris Paul in free agency.  They would also have Josh Smith giving them one of the best big 3’s in all of basketball.  Really though if you were Chris Paul would you rather play for the Clippers with the worst owner in all of sports, Donald Sterling, who just rehired the worst coach in basketball, Vinny del Negro, or play with Josh Smith and Dwight Howard.

·         Brooklyn Nets

To me this offseason the Nets had a chance to turn themselves into a consistent title contender by waiting the season out and then signing Dwight Howard, but choose to become the new Atlanta Hawks.  They overpaid Gerald Wallace significantly, giving up the 6^th overall pick in the process, and traded for the contract of Joe Johnson.  These two are good players, but it is very unnecessary to pay those two that much money.  These trades destroyed the Nets cap space and any chance of Dwight Howard, likely just to give them a playoff team as they move to Brooklyn.

·         Dwight Howard

I know I am not in the minority here, but the way Dwight Howard has handled himself this past season or so has been an absolute disgrace.  The constant trade demands and backing off of those demands is just confusing and downright embarrassing.  Personally I am extremely excited to hear that he in fact will not be going where he wants, the Nets, and the only person he has to blame for it is himself. 

·         The Steve Nash situation

While I do believe Steve Nash out of a show of patriotism will end up signing with the Raptors, I do not believe it was smart of them to sign Landry Fields to a 3 year 20 million dollar contract just to eliminate the Knicks as a competitor.  Nash still has the opportunity to return to Dallas and reunite with Dirk, and even some other options at his disposal.  I think that they were better off just adding money to Nash’s offer then giving a mediocre player a bad contract.