all this stuff

[mberry@journalink.com (Mark Berry)]

          A few things:

          The Nuggets absolutely gave McDyess away. Five first-round
          picks from Cleveland and Phoenix? Worthless. Those will be
          mid-rounders, which, as we all know too well, can produce
          the occasional nice player (Eric Williams), but usually
          amount to over-priced roster-fillers (Dee Brown, Acie Earl).

          Phoenix not only got McDyess, they still are in position to
          sign another top free agent next summer. They can't sign
          McDyess until the summer. They will have a truckload of
          money under the cap. They will sign another free agent
          (Stackhouse maybe?) to big bucks, then sign McDyess to
          whatever he wants (the Bird clause), and have a pretty
          exciting nucleus with Kidd, McDyess and Free Agent X, along
          with Ced Ceballos, Steve Nash, or whoever they get in trade
          for those guys. Great move for them. And they only had to
          give up Person, Dumas and a couple draft picks? Not bad.

          Cleveland is working on an exciting, athletic roster. A
          lineup of B. Knight, Bob Sura/Derek Anderson, Shawn Kemp and
          Vitaly Potapenko/Zydrunas Ilgauskas may not win right away,
          but two years from now, could make noise.

          Garnett's contract is outrageous, but don't blame him or the
          T-Wolves. He asked for market value and they paid market
          value. If he becomes the player most expect him to, then it
          will be money well-spent. But just imagine when the contract
          is up in six years. He'll be 26 years old and in the prime
          of his career. How much will he be worth then?

          Anyway, looking forward to the season...

          Mark