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On Thursday, the New Orleans Hornets added another weapon to their bench by trading for guard Bonzi Wells.

The Trade

• The Houston Rockets receive forward guard Bobby Jackson, guard Adam Haluska, and forward Sergei Lishouk.
• The Memphis Grizzlies receive forward Marcus Vinicius, center Malick Badiane and cash.
• The New Orleans Hornets receive guard Mike James and guard Bonzi Wells.

For the Houston Rockets

There’s some financial reasons for this trade, but it’s not significant enough for sports fans to really pay attention to, so we’ll go ahead and skip over that.

While it’s true that the Houston Rockets lost some firepower by trading away two valuable backcourt players, they did pick up someone that could help the team out tremendously.

Bobby Jackson is a true scorer. In fact, he might be too much of a scorer, but that’s fine for this team. When he’s on the court, more than likely Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming will be taking their breaks on the bench. He’ll have the green light to shoot with the second unit. He’ll also have the green light because of his familiarity with head coach Rick Adelman (Bobby Jackson played for him in Sacramento).

Not much is known about Adam Haluska and Sergei Lishouk, but they are prospects. Teams don’t really mind collecting those if they’re cheap.

For the Memphis Grizzlies

The Memphis Grizzlies are basically involved in this deal to pick up some extra cash and some extra prospects. Nothing too exciting here.

For the New Orleans Hornets

With so many teams in the Western Conference loading up for what appears to be the most competitive playoff series in NBA history, the New Orleans Hornets knew they had to upgrade. They went the same route as the San Antonio Spurs did by adding minor pieces who can contribute to the team’s success.

Mike James was thrown into the deal because the Houston Rockets wanted to get rid of his high salary. However, he can step into Bobby Jackson’s old role and provide the team with some scoring off the bench. If he’s in the right system, Mike James can be an explosive scorer.

Bonzi Wells was the key piece to this entire trade. His arrival should allow the New Orleans Hornets to attack from a few different ways now.

The 6′5, 210 pound guard should immediately step into the rotation, taking up the majority of backup minutes behind Morris Peterson and Peja Stojakovic. His ability to score in the low post should complement the outside shooting of the two starting wing players.

Also, in the playoffs, teams have been known to rely on a few “go to” plays. With Bonzi Wells on board, head coach Byron Scott can run an offensive set that has the guard posting up on the low blocks with Morris Peterson and Peja Stojakovic waiting on the perimeter for a kick out.

Closing Thoughts

This trade has made the best team in the Western Conference that much more potent.

Former defensive player of the year, Ben Wallace, is headed to the Cleveland Cavaliers to help LeBron James get back to the NBA Finals.

The Trade

• The Chicago Bulls receive guard Shannon Brown, guard Larry Hughes, forward Cedric Simmons, and forward Drew Gooden.
• The Cleveland Cavalier receive guard Delonte West, forward Wally Szczerbiak, forward Joe Smith, center Ben Wallace, and a 2009 2nd round draft pick.
• The Seattle Sonics receive guard Adrian Griffin, forward Ira Newble, and forward Donyell Marshall.

For the Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls basically did this trade to rid themselves of Ben Wallace.

The former defensive player of the year was obviously unhappy playing in Chicago. It was to the point where his effectiveness was quite limited. His refusal to be a team captain and his bickering with rookie teammate Joakim Noah basically ruined the team chemistry.

Plus, Ben Wallace has another 2 years left on his contract after this season. He is owed $28.5 million.

Larry Hughes has a pretty big contract as well, but the Chicago Bulls would rather take the risk with him as opposed to keeping things the same with Ben Wallace. Larry Hughes should be able to start in the backcourt alongside Kirk Hinrich. He’s also insurance (albeit an expensive one) in case Ben Gordon leaves the team this summer. The change of scenery could do wonders for Larry Hughes.

Drew Gooden is a solid big man. He should be able to contribute immediately. Plus, if the Chicago Bulls don’t want him in their long term plans, he becomes a valuable commodity next season as a big man with a $7 million expiring contract.

Shannon Brown and Cedric Simmons are basically just two prospects for the team. The Chicago Bulls aren’t expecting a lot from them, so any contribution they give would be a bonus.

For the Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers did this trade in preparations of a long playoff run. They want to return to the NBA Finals again.

In Ben Wallace, the Cleveland Cavaliers add a guy that could be a force as a rebounder, shot blocker, and defender. If the trade rejuvenates him, then Ben Wallace provides the team with everything that they needed in the paint.

Ben Wallace should also be a perfect complement for center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Big Z can focus on the offensive end while Wallace can focus on the defensive side. Plus, With Zydrunas Ilgaskas being able to step outside with a reliable midrange jumper and good passing abilities, that should allow Ben Wallace to get a couple offensive touches.

Veteran Joe Smith brings added depth to the Cleveland Cavaliers bench. His energy on defense should endear him to fans in the same way that Anderson Varejao does. In fact, the energy from Joe Smith, Anderson Varejao, and Ben Wallace could even become contagious for the other players on the team.

Wally Szczerbiak, who played college basketball in the state of Ohio, will be a great complement for LeBron James. His outside shooting abilities should clear more space for King James to operate in the lane. It also works the other way around as well as the defensive focus on LeBron James should allow for more open shots for Wally Szczerbiak.

For years, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been in search of a point guard. Delonte West could very well become that point guard that they’ve been looking for. When you play with someone like LeBron James, you need to be able to play off the ball. Delonte West came into the league as a combination guard, so he does have that ability. The franchise should be set for the next few years at the position thanks to the combination of Delonte West and Daniel Gibson.

For the Seattle Sonics 

The Seattle Sonics basically did the trade for salary cap purpose.

Wally Szczerbiak was making approximately $13 million. It’s a lot easier to trade several players with smaller contracts as opposed to trading a player with a huge contract. With the team focused on the future, moving the sharpshooter made sense.

Adrian Griffin and Ira Newble are both veterans with small expiring contracts. They’ll provide some defense for the rest of the season and then move on.

Donyell Marshall has an addition year on his contract after this season, but it wouldn’t be difficult at all for the Seattle Sonics to find a taker for the veteran bench scorer. They could also choose to buy him out, too, if they wanted.

Closing Thoughts

This seems to be the season for trades that work out for every team involved. This three way trade is no exception.

The San Antonio Spurs have strengthened their frontline by trading for Kurt Thomas.

The Trade

• The San Antonio Spurs receive forward Kurt Thomas.
• The Seattle Sonics receive guard Brent Barry, center Francisco Elson, and a 2009 1st round draft pick.

For the San Antonio Spurs

This trade is really simple for the San Antonio Spurs. It also makes a lot of sense. By trading for Kurt Thomas, the team has added more interior toughness.

At just 6′9″, 230 pounds, Kurt Thomas has been a good defender at the center position for the last decade. He rebounds, defends, and is fundamentally sound. Doesn’t that sound exactly like what head coach Gregg Popovich loves?

Kurt Thomas also fits the head coach’s vision in that he fits the team perfectly as a veteran leader. The San Antonio Spurs already have veteran leadership in Michael Finlay, Robert Horry, and Tim Duncan, but it never hurts to add more.

When you look at some of the top teams in the Western Conference, you see a lot of potent tandems at the power positions. Amare Stoudemire and Shaquille O’Neal. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur. David West and Tyson Chandler.

Having another solid interior defender like Kurt Thomas really helps Tim Duncan out a lot.

For the Seattle Sonics

Usually, general managers will make up some generic compliment in regards to the players coming in. However, the Seattle Sonics aren’t even hiding their reasoning for doing this trade.

There’s no need to. Everyone already knows.

They simply did this trade for the 1st round draft pick that the San Antonio Spurs were offering.

Brent Barry is a great role player, but he doesn’t fit in with the team’s youth movement. Francisco Elson is a serviceable center, but the Seattle Sonics already have plenty of young big men fighting for minutes.

Both players have expiring contracts. Neither one figure into the team’s long term plans. In fact, it wouldn’t be much of a shock if Brent Barry’s contract was bought out, and he ends up back on that San Antonio bench.

Closing Thoughts

A lot of casual fans are just brushing off this trade because it doesn’t involve a big name player, but don’t be too surprise to see this trade helping the San Antonio Spurs win another NBA championship.

The Seattle Sonics are shopping Kurt Thomas around in hopes of trading the veteran big man.

Youth Movement

It’s not official yet, but the signs are there. Kurt Thomas is able to read those signs pretty clearly, too.

The Seattle Sonics are making even more of a commitment towards youth.

Kurt Thomas has been in the league for a dozen years now. The majority of his teammates have yet to play 5 years.

He’s also 35 years old, which makes him about 8 years older than Nick Collison, 10 years older than Chris Wilcox, 13 years older than Robert Swift, and 14 years older than Johan Petro and Mouhamed Sene.

The franchise has absolutely no chance of making the playoffs this year. So, now would be the time to start giving as many minutes as possible to the young group of big men.

Courting Kurt

There appears to be several teams interesting in acquiring Kurt Thomas.

Can’t blame them. In Kurt Thomas, you have a veteran leader who can play power forward and center. He’s a superb rebounder and defender. Plus, he still has the ability to hit a few shots on offense.

Best of all, Kurt Thomas has an expiring $8 million contract.

The Orlando Magic have reportedly already expressed interest in Kurt Thomas. They need a veteran big man next to Dwight Howard to do the dirty work. Head coach Stan Van Gundy has expressed quite a bit of displeasure with his star player’s inability to focus on defense and rebounding. Kurt Thomas just happens to specialize in those two fields.

Kurt Thomas would be a perfect addition for the Dallas Mavericks if they could find the pieces to make the trade happen. The team would be complete with an enforcer like Kurt Thomas on their frontline. He would bring the toughness that the team needs inside.

The Phoenix Suns, who Kurt Thomas played for prior to joining the Seattle Sonics, would also love to add the veteran big man to their rotation. With Kurt Thomas, Amare Stoudemire, and Shaquille O’Neal, the team would be able to compete inside with just about any team in the league.

Closing Thoughts

While this may not be as big as the blockbuster trades we’ve seen these past few days, it would definitely have an impact on the Western Conference playoff scene.

It is now official and Jason Kidd has been traded to the Dallas Mavericks. The new trade has a few changes in the numbers and players.

The Trade

• The Dallas Mavericks receive Jason Kidd, Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright
• The New Jersey Nets receive Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager, Keith Van Horn, $3 million and two future No. 1 draft picks.

The major change was the addition of Antoine Wright and Malik Allen in one trade. The other change was the addition of Keith Van Horn who was signed just for the traded and the removal of Devean George and Jerry Stackhouse. Stackhuse was supposed to be traded, released, and resigned but due to possible league blocking of this, he was removed from the new trade. Dallas will have to release Nick Fazekas to make room for Van Horn but should bring him back.

Sacramento Kings guard Mike Bibby has been traded to the Atlanta Hawks.

The Trade

The Atlanta Hawks made a trade with Sacramento Kings to add further fuel to their playoff chase this year.

• The Atlanta Hawks receive guard Mike Bibby.
• The Sacramento Kings receive guard Tyronn Lue, guard Anthony Johnson, forward Sheldon Williams, center Lorenzen Wright, and a 2nd round draft pick.

For the Atlanta Hawks

This move makes a lot of sense for the Atlanta Hawks.

The team is currently sitting at 9th in the Eastern Conference at the All Star break. Trading for an all star point guard in Mike Bibby should help them gain an advantage over the New Jersey Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers. The additional firepower that he brings should make things a lot easier for Joe Johnson.

With a little chemistry, Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson could form perhaps one of the most difficult backcourts to guard. Both players are capable of handling the ball and scoring. The versatility will make them extremely difficult to contain and key on.

Mike Bibby also brings some much needed leadership to a team whose core is relatively young.

The addition of Mike Bibby should also help out young guard Acie Law. The 11th overall draft pick out of the University of Texas A&M can be given more time to develop now that the Atlanta Hawks have a surefire starter in Mike Bibby. Plus, Acie Law can still be used in the same backcourt with Mike Bibby for stretches in the game.

For the Sacramento Kings

There’s no denying that the Sacramento Kings did this trade in order to clear some cap space.

Tyronn Lue has a $3.5 million contract. Anthony Johnson has $2.9 million. Lorenzen Wright has $3.2 million. All three contracts expire at the end of the season. That right there is more valuable than anything those three players can contribute.

Sheldon Williams doesn’t have an expiring contract this summer, but he does have something the other three players don’t have. He has potential. The 6′9″, 250 young big man from Duke still can develop into a solid starter for years to come in this league.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Kenny Thomas, Mikki Moore, and Brad Miller are all on the other side of 30. Sheldon Williams could form a potent inside combination with rookie Spencer Hawes, who still has a lot of developing to do.

Trading for Sheldon Williams also isn’t much of a financial risk for the Sacramento Kings. If they’re not satisfied with his development, then they scan simply choose not to resign him when his rookie contract comes to a close.

Closing Thoughts

This is another trade that sounds like it will benefit both teams.

The Atlanta Hawks get a veteran all-star guard to help in their chase for the playoffs, and the Sacramento Kings get a jump start on their rebuilding process.

The 2008 season brings a lot of change to starting pitching including some good pitchers moving to new teams and even a few aces going to greener pastures. Now that most of the free agents have been signed and it is only a few months from the start of the season, we will rank the top 5 starting pitcher rotation.

#5 The Atlanta Braves

The Braves have always have big name pitching and this year the role with 2 over 40+ in age pitchers. They don’t have the youngest starting pitchers but these veterans are all big time names that should be able to win with Atlanta improving on offense. The big three, Smoltz, Glavine, and Hudson should have a good year in a tough division. Chuck James seems to be improving and if the dark horse, Mike Hampton, can get back to where he was and stay healthy than the Braves will be a team to rival the Mets and Phillies.
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Fans in Dallas aren’t the only ones screaming at Devean George to sign off on the trade. Fans in New Jersey are also yelling at him to let the Dallas Mavericks send over Devin Harris.

The Trade in Limbo

The big talk in the sports world right now is the trade between the Dallas Mavericks and the New Jersey Nets that’s waiting to happen. Both organization are waiting for the following trade to be completed.

• Dallas Mavericks receive guard Devin Harris, guard Maurice Ager, guard Jerry Stackhouse, forward Devean George, center DeSagana Diop, $3 million in cash, and 2 future first round draft picks.
• New Jersey Nets receive guard Jason Kidd, guard Antoine Wright, and forward Malik Allen.

The trade, however, has been held up thanks to a little known clause in Devean George’s contract that allows him to veto any trade involving him.

Net Gain

While the majority of the sports world has been focused on how much the Dallas Mavericks improve with the addition of Jason Kidd, we’re going to take a look at how much this trade benefits the New Jersey Nets.

On paper, it looks bad for the New Jersey Nets. They’re losing an all-star point guard.

However, if you dig deeper, you’ll see that the team is trading away a player that doesn’t want to be in the organization any more. It’s also an organization that has very little chance of winning a championship.

The best move for both Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets was to trade away the talented and versatile guard to another team.

It was time to rebuild.

And what do you always look for when you rebuild? Young players and expiring contracts.

The package that the Dallas Mavericks came up with fulfilled both of those wishes.

Diving in With Devin

Devin Harris is only 24 years old right now, but you can already tell that he has it in him to become a perennial all-star.

The 5th overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, Devin Harris is one of the quickest players in the league. In fact, you could probably draw a pretty good crowd to a foot race between San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker and him.

He’s already viewed as one of the best defensive guards in the league. Some even call him the best defender at his position.

And he’s still improving.

With that in mind, the New Jersey Nets would do well to rebuild their franchise around him and forward Richard Jefferson. The two could form as potent of a combination as Dwayne Wade and Shawn Marion could down in Miami.

The Foundation is Set

The New Jersey Nets wouldn’t just have two pieces to build around. The roster already has a couple of young players that can still develop into good players. Plus, the trade with the Dallas Mavericks could also bring in some other pieces as well.

First of all, let’s take a look at the pieces that will end up boarding a plane with Devin Harris to New Jersey.

Maurice Ager can still become a good swingman in this league. He just needs more playing time. That was difficult to come by on a team where he was behind Eddie Jones, Jason Terry, Josh Howard, and Jerry Stackhouse on the depth chart.

DeSagana Diop might not become an all-star center in this league, but he can become a solid center for the New Jersey Nets.

He can join a big man rotation with 7 footer Nenad Krstic, who happens to only be 24. Sean Williams and Josh Boone could round out a nice rotation.

Devin Harris and Maurice Ager join a backcourt that already consist of Marcus Willams, a 23 year old guard from Connecticut.

They might not win a lot of games at the start, but they are nice pieces to build around.

Closing Thoughts

For the sake of both franchises, this trade needs to happen.

The NCAA is losing a lot of face by giving Kelvin Sampson and the Indiana Hoosiers college basketball program a tiny slap on the wrist for breaking rules and then breaking them again. Coach Kelvin Sampson was already suspended from recruiting for one year from May 24, 2006, to May 25, 2007 for violations in his stint at Oklahoma and didn’t care for that and kept violating rules and bans.

This was Sampsons response before he took the Indiana job “It is a little bit embarrassing to stand up here and be asked about NCAA violations, but you also have to realize we’re human and we make mistakes. I made a mistake but we’ve corrected it and moved forward.” Look coach, you cheat, you don’t make mistakes. You break rules and overlook them and when your caught, you make petty excuses. Well I guess in the end you have a good recruiting class which is all that counts for you and athletic director Rick Greenspan.

Violations

• Called recruits even under sanctions for prior violations ( He called recruits even though he as banned)
• Contacted 9 potential recruits by “at least 25 telephone calls” (The NCAA has limits on how many times you can contact recruits)
• He broke sanctions and lied to NCAA investigators

Penalties

• Sampson loses a $500,000 bonus for 2007-2008
• Team loses one scholarship for 2008-2009 season
• Assistant Rob Senderoff banned for one year from off campus recruiting and making recruiting phone calls. He also gets no bonus or salary increase for the next year.

This is a sorry excuse for penalties when the Hoosiers already got some of the top players in the recruiting class. It makes me laugh that they are banning another assistant from recruiting by phone. Hello NCAA Sampson was banned from that and that didn’t stop him. This is what is wrong with a lot of sports these days. People just want to win so much that sometimes breaking the rules is ok because the ends results is a winning team. They need to make harsher penalties. Capital punishment in sports sounds great to me. Lets say the Hoosiers are not allowed to play in the post season. That’s capital punishment and should teach the athletic director at Indiana that he should be more than disappoint ed.

It seems like the Jason Kidd trade that was supposed to happen today is now on hold because of Devean George. His contract has something called “early Bird rights” which allows him to veto the trade. No he does not have a no trade clause because he is good. Are you kidding. He has one because of some NBA technical contract thing for players in second year of contract. Don’t know exact details and don’t care about him anyway. So the Kidd trade to Dallas might not even happen which means Cleveland and Lebron still have a chance. Freaking Devean George. First he doesn’t contribute much now he holds trades back. We will keep everyone posted.