Man teams aren’t wasting time making deals as the first week of free agency has been crazy. We all know by now that Dwight Howard is leaving the Lakers to join the Rockets and we all know about Chris Paul returning to the Clippers. All that is cool but so much more has been going on that I decided to recap it all together.
Well first let’s tackle the boring stuff, you know players who are resigning with the same team. Surprisingly besides Chris Paul, not a lot of players have been sticking around with their old teams. It was pretty much already known David West would return to the Pacers as he was the heart and soul of the team last season. It wasn’t too surprising that Tiago Splitter is going back to the Spurs, but his contract was a surprise. They’re going to give him 9 mil a year which is great for him and probably great for the Spurs too (they never do anything wrong). The other big name that’s returning to their team, is J.R. Smith. J.R. is one of the most inconsistent players to ever do it but some how kept it all together for a whole season and won 6th man of the year. Now he’s back for four more years.
As for trades the biggest one that has went down since the Brooklyn-Boston deal is the three team master piece between Portland, New Orleans and Sacramento. Everyone won on this deal as the Kings are getting Greivis Vasquez, the Pelicans are getting Tyreke Evans, and the Blazers are getting Robin Lopez. Nothing to hate about this deal as everyone got an ideal player for their team. The other major deal involved Eric Bledsoe and Caron Butler heading to the Phoenix Suns with the Clippers only getting JJ Reddick and Jared Dudley. The Bucks definitely lost as all they got back was draft picks.
As for the free agent signings , there have been a lot of big names moving. Josh Smith will be heading to the Detroit Pistons. The Hawks already have their replacement for Smith as they are picking up big man Paul Millsap on a pretty good two-year deal. Millsaps former front court partner Al Jefferson is also on the move as he’s heading to the Charlotte Bobcats. The Warriors also made a big pick up by signing Andre Iguodula to a four-year deal and even got rid of their two trash contracts. OJ Mayo decided to move on from the Mavs and will be going to Milwaukee Bucks for three years. Other lesser names made moves but they aren’t league altering like these moves (well not Mayo but I wanted to mention him anyway). Players like Andrew Bynum and Monta Ellis are still available. I can already image there’s so many more crazy moves to come.
