Tagged As: NBA, Lakers, Celtics, LeBron James, Sports, basketball, trade deadline, 2010 free agents

Not much happened this time around at the trade deadline as the league has moved on from the Boston Celtics title run in 2008 and has moved onto the practice of making trades in the hopes of acquiring expiring contracts and not talent.

Last season the entire dynamic of the second half of the season was changed by a single trade, the Los Angeles Lakers acquisition of Paul Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies. The trade acted as a catalyst that brought big names to the Western Conference, Shaq and Jason Kidd, that ended up being big bombs in the playoffs. This season every move seemed to be made with an eye on the 2010 free agent class that will most likely be all for naught.

For those of you unaware, the 2010 free agent class has 15 players that could easily be the best player available in the offseason any other year. There is LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Dirk Nowitzki, Joe Johnson, Manu Ginobili, Amare Stoudamire, and many more. These are franchise history changing players. The entire hierarchy of the NBA can be overturned in a single summer.

Many teams, i.e. the New York Knicks, are counting on such dramatic player movement. I just do not see it happening. The Knicks want LeBron James, but why would he move. He has proven he can make hundreds of millions of dollars playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He also has a front office willing to sacrifice their executives first born to make the future 2009 MVP happy.

The Knicks have their own problems before even dreaming of making such a move. So far this season they have shed the salaries of Zach Randolph, Jamal Crawford, Malik Rose, Jerome James, and Tim Thomas.

The very fact that they did this and will not have a singe player they got in return under contract in the 2010 offseason is amazing. Give Donnie Walsh the NBA Exec of the Year, but due to the shrinking cap they have to decide whether to resign David Lee and Nate Robinson to generous contracts or dump them for two marquee players and start building the D’Antoni system again.

The team that I think most helped themselves in the race for the Summer of 2010 is the Chicago Bulls. They used their expiring contracts and contracts that expired in 2010 to get Brad Miller, Jerome James, Tim Thomas, and John Salmons. Miller, James, and Thomas will be gone during that magnificent offseason, leaving the Bulls with Luol Deng, Derrick Rose, John Salmons, and an open spot for Chris Bosh (I am assuming that they will find a way to move Kirk Hinrich before 2010).

One can argue that the Kings put themselves in great position for that summer, but you have to ask the question: Who wants to play in Sacramento?

Other teams, the Miami Heat and the Toronto Raptors merely exchanged headaches that they thought would work out for new headaches they think will work out. I’m guessing that Marion pouts because he is playing in Toronto and O’Neal quickly gets injured again in his Miami Heat debut.

The surprise of the trade deadline was actually the rescinding of the Tyson Chandler trade. Chandler would have gone to Oklahoma City, but a doctor found a problem in the center’s left toe that make a huge injury risk and sends him back to the New Orleans Hornets. I am actually happy for Hornets fans that they get to continue to enjoy the Chris-Paul-Chandler alley-oop show for a couple more years.

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