More Onhoops (Baker/Celts comment)

[Gregory Odegaard <grodeg@kalama.com>]

Pretty harsh on the postal dude.  

I am most curious about the inflated impressions of young players in these charade summer league games.  Hopefully this isn't also an issue in Boston (Griffith ?).  The Blazers were so hyped on dumping Rider that they banked there short-term future on a summer league "standout" who logged about 30 minutes last season one Bonzi Wells.  Now realize that Wells has all the "all-star" potential of the new 8 million dollar man in Portland, Jermaine O'neal, but all this expectation based on a glorified CBA/Y rec league tussle?  I trust the Blazers will do well getting Smith, as long as he can hold up, and inking my buddy Scrempf, to a cool deal, but to depend on one 20 year 3 season "veteran" and another 20 year old veteran of about one good game of playing time seams a bit presumptuous.  Good luck.  These moves are HOF though when you consider they dumped Rider and Jackson, who also complained big time behind the scenes last year (during the playoffs) about playing time, to get Det and Smith, both all time good guys.  Things should continue to be looking up in the Rose city on the PR front.  Now if they could figure out how to keep Greg Anthony and keep Damon happy next season, when GA earns all the quality minutes in crunch time by understanding the concept of Defense.  

Would someone remind me this is the Celtics list.

The goods:

Offseason 99 Tips Off with some Unbelievable Action! 

Well, so much for the Big Bang theory.

When Dr David Stern's evil spell that had prohibited teams from making trades or free agent moves for the past 5 weeks wore off last night, the NBA world was expecting a meteor shower of major deals and transactions. But instead, what happened? Nothing. Less than nothing. There were no trades, and no free agent heists - only one lousy player changed hands. Can you believe it? Maybe the league's GMs were too spooked from all those tampering allegations of a couple summers ago to have all their deals lined up at the starting gate waiting for the clock to tick over 12:01 am on Sunday 1st August 1999, but this time the NBA had said that "tempering" was allowed... And still nothing!

Let's run through the "deals" on today's massive merry-go-round of non-stop action and excitement...

Karl Malone became the winner in that "old age / exorbitant salary" bet he had with Patrick Ewing, thanks to the 4 year $67 million extension he signed early yesterday. This deal is great for the Mailman, the league and for us because it ensures his personally exclusive brand of outspoken dirty playoff failure basketball will continue well into the next millennium. The other good news is that with the Jazz now way over the sal cap for years to come, Malone will likely end his career playing for a useless ballclub, as all Utah's good young players will be forced away - Shandon Anderson about to be the first. The bad news? Well, even at age 40 in the year 2003 when the fully-bald Mailman will average 16.6 points, 7.2 boards and 2.1 assists, he'll still probably be voted the league's MVP.

New Jersey ensured their frontcourt is among the youngest, deepest and richest in league history by shelling out the billions to Keith Van Horn, and the millions to the NBA's resident Matt lookalike Jamie Feick, and then Jayson Williams started spreading rumors started that Charles Oakley will sign as a veteran free agent. Wow. Opposing teams will start wearing breastplates under their jerseys once they get a taste of these bruise brothers. Van Horn is a major talent, and worth every cent of the $74 million they gave him over the next 6 years - but whether Feick deserved his 6 year $15 mill deal won't be known for a while yet. For the record, our early guess is not bloody likely. Although now stacked with long-term talent, the Nets are already way over the cap, and when Kendall Gill baulks at every possibility of his inclusion in a trade rumor, it's gunna be tough to make any further moves to solidify the future of this franchise.

Among the busiest teams of the day, and that is a relative term, were the Phoenix Suns, who re-upped Clifford Robinson to a generous and much deserved contract, agreed to terms with lottery pick Shawn Marion, and then signed Toby Bailey and guess who, Oliver 360-pounds-in-a-pair-of-socks Miller to one year deals. Man. We thought Jerry Colangelo was a good judge of free agent talent, but maybe the fact Luc Longley was so hopeless for the team last year forced him to give the 6-10 center with a 7-4 wingspan and a 9-6 waistline another chance. The Bailey move is OK by us for a couple reasons. Firstly, the kid did a good job last season when he was pressed into service as the starting 2-guard in the absence of Rex Chapman, and secondly, he'll probably be backing up Nick Anderson in a couple months anyway, once the Magic eventually finalize that Penny Hardaway sign and trade deal.

The Sixers mortgaged tomorrow for today by signing guess what - yes, their own free agents - Eric Snow and George Lynch, to a 7 year $29 mill pact and a $3 year $8 mill deal respectively. In doing so, Philly not only kept Snow away from the sticky fingers of Glen Grunwald's Toronto Raptors, but effectively killed off the teams' chances of competing in the rush to sign either Rodney Rogers or Detlef Schrempf and thereby get their much needed scoring forward. Sixers GM Billy King was so happy he retained the final pieces of the team's 2nd round playoff exit roster that he even went to far as to say that a sign-and-swap deal was out of the question. It certainly will be - who else would spend almost $40 million on a pair of players who, combined, don't even average 17 points per game?

The Trail Blazers will be busy this offseason, but not just yet. That 2-guard swap with the Hawks is only minutes away from going ahead, and although we question the Blazers' need to pull the rug from under Rider and Jackson, who performed very well last season right the way until their disaster against the Spurs in the Conference Finals. Still, it'd be good enough for us, but maybe the longer term security of Steve Smith's remaining 4 years 36m contract serves the team better in the long run. Rider is in the final year of his contract, and Jackson, who's had more clubs than Tiger Woods, has 2 only years left at 3 million. If this deal does go through, this would suggest that more moves are coming from the Hawks in the seasons to come. Portland, however, are making their decisions now. The Blazers are in the lead in the Detlef Schrempf sweepstakes, after he rejected the Sonics' offer reported to be worth only $1 million. And after shopping himself all around the league, Jermaine "I'll be an All-Star in 2 years" O'Neal will re-up, for 3 years $25 million, by which time he'll presumably be the 2000/2001 Finals MVP.

Seattle are obviously hoarding all their available cap space in an effort to get Vin Baker to stay. Baker wants to leave, to Boston specifically but anywhere would do really, but the Sonics have thrown a massive 7 year $83 million offer sheet to entice him to remain in the rain. Reluctantly, Baker is going to do so - the only sticking point is how much of this money is going to be tied into weight and incentive clauses. Based on the way he played last season, we'd suggest around $81 million or so.

Toronto are in a quandary with Charles Okay. He doesn't really want to stay, the money issue (turning down a 3 year $16 million deal - demanding an average of $8.5 mill per) is just an excuse to get signed and swapped if he can't escape as a pure Free Agent. The whole league knows he'd be willing to play for the $2 million exemption, or less, on a team he likes (ie: Lakers, Miami, Houston, New York), and it'd definitely be best if the Raptors got rid of him one way or another. The Dinos are better served saving their C$. After getting rebuffed by Snow, Toronto have upped their FA offer to Terrell Brandon to $55 million over 6 years, but still it appears it's not enough. Brandon is, yep, you guessed it, going to re-sign with the TWolves. Canada can't really be that bad, can it?

At least something went right for the Raptors today - the Antonio Davis deal finally went through. Indiana coach Larry Bird, after his team formally gained the presence of Jonathan Bender to play alongside of Al Harrington in the frontcourt, immediately stated his preference for "an established forward/center" who can score and play D. Correct us if we're wrong, but didn't they just give one of those up?

And finally, to the most pointless signings of a whole day of free agent disappointment... More pointless than Karl Malone's "my mom told me..." speech after earning twice the league's salary cap, more feeble than New Jersey shelling out $15 million on a guy who helped them finish with the 2nd worst in the Eastern Conference, more lame than Philly breaking the bank on a point guard who's name isn't Iverson, more embarrassing than Phoenix having to use the words "NBA Player" and "Oliver Miller" in the same sentence... Detroit. Really. First, they stunned the league by whisking one of the games' most versatile and soughtafter free agents out from under everyone's nose, and then they topped it off by re-inking a 2-time NBA Champion to a single year deal, with the wink-wink, nudge-nudge promise of more to come down the line.

Oh, didn't we mention who these future members of Dream Team XI were? Sorry, our mistake. We should have mentioned Michael Curry (5 years, $12 million) and Jud Buechler (3 mill) earlier. Yeah, it definitely was one of those days...