Team Articles

[Detroit Pistons]

post here
everyone try to write an off-season article

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[Detroit Pistons]

Detroit News:
What an off-season its been for the Detroit Pistons. Right after the pistons lost in the finals to the new orleans hornets detroit was put under new management. The new gm Mr. Joe Dumars(Owner) hired was known to be a young up and coming stud gm, there was a lot of hype surrounding him as he made a statement saying that the team would most likely be breaking up the starting 5 detroit has come to love over the years during the off-season. He then said, "Don't get me wrong, I love the the starting 5 we have assembled but we need to get some youth in here, we aren't rebuilding by any means but looking for some young studs to go along with a couple of the staring 5 we have right now. Chauncey, Rip, Tay, Sheed, and C-Webb have been one of the best starting 5's in the league for years, ever sense winning it all in 2004. Of course Chris wasn't on the team then, but he did a good job replacing ben. But all-in-all I and the Detroit Staff feel that we need a shake-up." The first big move of the off-season made by detroit was when they sent sent Tayshaun Prince and Antonio Mcdyess to the Bobcats for a young star in Andre Iguodala. Not only did they get the star player but also freed up a lot of cap space for Free Agency. Detroit was sad to see two of its most loyal players go but wished them the best of luck with there new team the Bobcats. Newly acquired starting sf Iguodala was quoted saying,"Wow this is unbelievable, I am finally playing for a championship contender, no offence to Charlotte but i cant put in to words how excited i am coming to detroit. With a starting lineup that will consist of Chauncey, Rip, Myself, Rasheed, and C-Webb we should be able to go to the top this season." But little did Iggy know detroit would have a few more tricks up its sleeve and get an even better starting 5 around him, but there first priority was to sign there two biggest FA's, Chauncey Billups and Chris Webber. They were able to do what they wanted to do and signed both for fairly reasonable prices. Both understood that detroit wanted to keep some cap space for FA to make the team even better and give them a great bench. Detroit before made some minor moves acquiring Aaron Affalo from the draft and Willie Green along with Quinton Ross from trades. They also traded away Robert Horry to free up cap space. During FA the pistons were quick to strike coming out and offering Desmond Mason who was one of the top FA in the pool this year a 4 year deal worth over 19 million dollars. After his agent thought about it he liked the offer and accepted, making Mason detroit's new 6th man. After that the pistons also made a offer to a great young player from Kentucky. That player would be Kelenna Azubuike who is looking like a future great player. They snagged him up by offering a 3 year deal worth 10 million dollars. And the last player that they got off the Free Agent market was Chuck Hayes, who became a backup forward along side Jason Maxiell who already has put his name on the map with the year he had last year with the pistons. Now you're probally thinking this team is set, there nothing more they could possibly do in one off-season but that wasn't the case. The pistons traded an Aging Chris Webber and Back-up pg Flip Murray to the San Antonio Spurs for a defensive Beast in Marcus Camby. The trade got Detroit buzzing about how good the new starting 5 was, but there was still one more deal that the new detroit gm had sitting in place for a while. In the move they sent Rip Hamilton and a 1st round pick in 2009 for a former Michigan State Spartan in Jason Richardson. Richardson was filled with joy when he heard he would be heading back home to Michigan. He said," Wow i never thought i would have a chance to come back to Michigan and play. This is Great, I'm still in awe of the news my agent just gave me. I cant wait to get playing with players such as Sheed and Chauncey along with Iggy and Marcus and help detroit get another championship." Folks take a look at this starting five, Playing at PG Chauncey Billups, along side him at the SG position Jason Richardson, Filling the 3-hole Andre Iguodala, Posting up at PF Rasheed Wallace, and last but not least the a threat every year for Defensive Player of the year Marcus Camby. And not only is the staring five great, but the bench is probally one of the best in the league just like the starting 5. Filled with players such as Desmond Mason, Jason Maxiell, Kelenna Azubuike, Willie Green, Chuck Hayes, Lindsay Hunter, Quinton Ross, and Aaron Affalo. This team is diffidently one of the front runners for the NBA finals. There big compition in the east looks to be Milwaukee and Orlando, and you know in the back of the heads if they make the Finals they are going to want New Orleans back in the finals setting up a rematch of the 06' finals and a shot at redemption. Also on a side note the pistons team is looking pretty good in the preseason tourney. In both games all 5 starters posted double digits in scoring. If they win there next game it looking like they will play the Bucks in the 2nd round. A match-up that looks like a preview of the ECF.

[hardballer1 - NYK]

good article

[Utah Jazz]

I was planning on doing it in the Utah fourm, but that's what the copy+paste is for.

[raps03 - TOR]

Mission Completed?

Thats was the question surrounding this off season. Would the new GM of the raptors get the job done to make a playoff team? Who would he add? Well all i can say as a new writter that the Toronto Raptors should be a top contender in the East. The thing that really sucks for the raptors was the the 76ers made some amazing moves to make there team a whole much better, and same with the New Jersey Nets.

"It wasnt what i was expecting for these teams to do. I new 76ers would do something, but no that much!. Same with the Nets, there team is amazing now, from the team they had from last year to this year it is amazing!!!!!" said the gm of the raptors

The New Jersey nets added Star Players like Starbury, Ben Gordon, Josh Howard , Andres Nocioni and one of the best Centers in the game today Mehmet Okur. With thoese 5 additions, the Nets are on there way to the playoffs for sure. On the other hand look what the 76ers have done to there team. The 76ers added The best Power Foward in the game today Kevin Garnett, picked up Hakim Warrick, and Josh Smith. Thoese pick ups where amazing, and i heard they where very close on getting Camby and Bibby which would of killed the East, but lucky for the raptors, they did not get them.

"Im not being mean or anything to the Knicks and Boston, but there re-bulding, and we need to win these games vs them. If we can not win games that we should win, there will be some chnages in the in season. I want my team to be in the playoffs not matter what!!!" said the Gm of the raptors

The Toronto Raptors where making some noise before the Draft had started. The raptors made there very first trade in the young off season, as they picked Star Young Point Gaurd Krik Hinrich from the bulls. The raptors traded alot for this PG who did not have a good season in Atlanta, avg only 13 points per game. The raptors traded away Jorge Garbajosa, Joey Graham, Juan Dixon and there 7th pick in the 07 draft which became Yi Jianlian. This is what the raports gm had to say to this trade

"It might of been stupid to trade for another PG, when we have three already, but when i picked up Hinrich, T.J Ford new he wanted to be traded. Hinrich could of played SG, but we wanted him in PG. The pick that we traded which was the 7th pick, and become Yi Jianlian , i new it would be him. My reason for trading the pick was, where was he going to play? I already have a beast thats 7 foot, and is playing Center Andrea Bargnani. So there was no need for him. So it worked out just fine for me and my team"

That wasnt all of it, the Raptors now had a problem, Which PG would start teh games, Ford or Hinirch, well about a week later, the raptors and Rockets where in trade talks with Corey Maggette coming over to the raptors for T.J Ford and First rounder in 08. The raptors had already traded one first rounder, and now another one, the question in Toronto was, why are we giving up young players?? The raptors gm repsond

"First rounder in 08, well if my team does good, do u think that pick will help this team at all? The Raptors are trying to win this season, and i will do what ever it takes. By adding Maggette to this team, its just made my Small Foawrd position so much better. I am happy that T.J ford can play somewhere eles, but i am really happy to see i am 2 for 2 before the off season starts, since i already picked up two key players"

So right now the Raptors picked up two key players for a great season, picked up young pg Kirk Hinrich, Picked up Vet Corey Maggette and was trying to do more. The Raptors had a great Starting lineup, but the question was, will the raptors get some help in the bench?

The Raptors started to think about Petterson coming back to Toronto. Yes he could of sign somewhere eles to play, but the Raptors wanted Petterson to come off the bench to help the team. The raptors took about 3 days to lock up Petterson to a 4 year deal worth 18 million. The Raptors now were happy to see number 24 coming back, but they needed more help down the road.

Then the Raptors at Off season Fa, went out and got them selfs some help down the bench, picking up Jason Kapono from the heat, but from FA, picking up Bo Outlaw for help in Center / Power Foward, and Shammond Williams. The Raptors got a big help in the gaurd position by picking up Jumaine Jones. Also to top it all off the raptors made a three way deal to pick up SG/SF Carlos Delfino for a 2nd rounder.

+ + + +

"That was a dam steal, yes it was, Jumaine Jones for 2 million for 2 years, wow, i am happy to see him in Toronto, and hope he can help us down the road to be a great team. He is just want this team need to win games. These players might not be known to alot of peple around the NBA, but i have been watching, and there great players. The two FA i really like is Jumaine Jones and Jason Kapono" said the raptors gm

The Toronto Raptors having a great Starting lineup coming into the season. At the Center role, there giving it to Andrea Bargnani, At the PF role, there giving it Star/ Captain Chris Bosh, at Small foward, coery Maggette, at SG, is still a question, either Petterson or Parker and in Point Gaurd, Kirk Hinrich.

The season is coming very soon, and the raptors can not wait, the Fans have been waitting for years for something big to happen, and now it has happen. All we hope now is that the raptors can make the playoffs and try there best to go as far as possible. " Lets just hope that this season is the best season ever in raptors hisotry" said the gm of the raptors

[Los Angeles Clippers]

Well, I only made one deal this offseason...made most of my moves last year. So here's my short article.

The Clippers have not yet been able to complete a trade to send out Cuttino Mobley this offseason, but did make a trade that will help the team a lot in the coming years. The Clippers sent their two 2nd round picks to the Lakers for their 1st round pick in this years draft, the 25th pick in the draft. With the 25th pick, the Clipps selected Rudy Fernandez, a 22 year old guard who recently won FIBA's European Player of the Year over Andrea Bargnani, among the other great players now in Europe.

The team had plenty of players before the trade happened, and could not have been happier with the outcome of the deal.

Look for more moves throughout the season as the GM looks to finish off his rebuilding project.

And don't forget, 4 1st round picks in the upcoming draft!

[Washington Wizards]

The Wizards made great deals this off-season. Deals that made the team more complete!

It all started with the three way trade talks between the Wizards, Philly and Orlando. Eventually the original plan wasn't finalized since Philly backed out. So Orlando and the Wizards were left. Since Orlando was very desperate in losing salary to resign VC they offered us a deal we couldn't resist, trading our star Jamison was hard but the offer was simply great! Saying goodbye to Jamison and Stevenson... the Wizards welcomed Nene, Battier, Barry and Dooling.

Now the only thing left was for us to get our much needed C. Dooling who was only a Wizard for a few days, was offered with Thomas to the Bobcats for their C Dalembert. The Wizards had no problems in this trade because the Bobcats really wanted to get rid of Dalambert because they had too many C's.

In addition to these new players the Wizards also signed rookies Law and McGuire. For sure they will be great help from the bench.

One more thing. The Wizards is not yet contented, so watch out for more trades this upcoming season!

To the other teams... watchout for the Wizard's new faces Nene, Battier, Barry, Dalembert, Law and McGuire!

[Dallas Mavericks]

The offseason for the dallas mavericks had a lot of ups and downs.

It was difficult for the mavericks getting a solid line up for thier starting lineup. Losing starting SG jerry stackhouse, austin croshere and kevin willis in free agency our bench was no more and left but young semi-unexperienced players.

Even eric dampier was a problem for the mavericks due to his high salary that is in the range of 10 mill, with the way he play he is not worth of the money he gets. It was very difficult for the mavericks to get dampier out of thier roster, trying to trade him was a very hard move. No one liked eric dampier for trade. So i have no choice but to retain him as a maverick. All he can do is share his experience and show the young talent of the mavericks how to be better players. And due to his old age, the mavericks put desagana diop as thier starting C because of his youth and potential.

Another thing is, the mavericks had a hard time dealing with trade offers with different teams. Most of the offer was good, but i have no idea why they did not like the maverick's proposal. But the only trade that I made for the offseason is, the TMAC for j. howard and nolcioni. The mavericks was to backout the trade but the GM saw the impact of tmac in thier roster, joined with MVP candidate dirk nowitzki and soon to shine PG devean harris.





Right now were looking to trade tmac for depth. To improve our starting five. It will be a long challenging season for the mavericks since teams in the west are stepping up. watch out for what will the dallas mavericks do as soon as the season starts

[Atlanta Hawks]

I'll do one and just replace this post once my computer stops freezing.

[Atlanta Hawks]

Future is Bright

Atlanta (AP) - With the regular season only two days away the coaching staff and front office of the Atlanta Hawks are busy evaluating the talent on the current roster and inquiring about players on their team's trade block. Even thought the Hawks GM has stated the roster is set you never know with what many around the league refer to as a better version of Trader Bob.

Since the early offseason flurry of trading away the face of the franchise (Josh Smith) and the apparent point guard of the future (Kirk Hinrich) there have been some less flashy moves but nonetheless important to the success of this team. First there are the two trades. Juan Dixon was traded for Hilton Armstrong and the 39th pick of the 2007 NBA Legends Draft. The Charlotte Bobcats got the higher rated player and a solid bench player but Armstrong has a great future if given time. He is on the long list of young, cheap, and full of potential players this Hawks GM has added to this roster. His playing time will be sparse this year unless there are injuries but the Hawks GM was quoted as saying, "Mr. Armstrong will be a great asset to this team. We expect big things of him in the future and for him to continue to improve his game. While he may not get the minutes he wants this year he will be a big part of our team in the years to come." The other part of this trade was the 2nd round pick. That pick was used to select Reyshawn Terry out of the University of North Carolina. Terry will be used little this season (unless there are injuries) but will be in the plans for the future. He is more of a defensive player with a decent offensive game but looks passive at the times he needs to be aggressive. The coaching staff will work vigorously with him over the year to get him ready for his role next year.

The other trade could be a big one. The Hawks traded their 2nd round pick in the 2007 NBA Legends draft to the San Antonio Spurs for GF Francisco Garcia. Garcia is still young, cheap, and has improved every year in the league. He could be that 6th man that the Hawks GM is looking for to give his team a spark off the bench. Garcia is good enough to start so if there are any long term injuries to either Andray Blatche or Brewer he could step in and be effective. The Spurs used that pick on Marcus Slaughter who has the potential to be a role player. Even though there were only two trades since the early season flurry the Hawks GM didn't stop there.

The 2007 NBA Legends Draft will prove to be a important part any wins and championships the Hawks attain from here on out. With the 3rd overall pick the Hawks GM selected Al Horford. Horford, simply put, is a beast. He can play center, power forward, and small forward and be productive at all three. He already can back defenders down in the post but he does need to work on his jump shot. His defense if vastly ahead of his offensive game and that will be key to a young, developing team such as the Hawks. He also brings leadership from his experiences at the University of Florida. Winning back-to-back National Championships can only help right the ship and end the losing ways of the Hawks franchise. Horford will be teamed with Yi Jianlian. Yi was selected with the 7th overall pick and provides size, athleticism, and outside shooting to the power forward position. His post game needs work but with his ability to knock down jump shots will help stretch the defense especially since the other team needs to put another big man on him. He will be able to open up the lane for the slashers (Blatche and Ronnie Brewer) on this team. Yi is very young and is a China import so he might not have been tested as much as the Hawks coaching staff will have liked but he will be starting at power forward for the significant future.

The Hawks also had three 2nd round picks. Point guard Petteri Koponen, the aforementioned small forward Reyshawn Terry, and power forward Carl Landry. Koponen and Landry will be given a long look during this rebuilding year. Both bring different skills to the table and both can be contributors in the future but on an already crowded roster that will have to wait until next year at least. Koponen is a Euro import and could be a good backup point guard given time. Landry has the size and inside presence any team could use but it will take time to develop before he is ready to get playing time.

With the draft over the Hawks GM concentrated on free agency. There were multiple players the GM looked at and contacted but in the end he settled on point guard Maurice Williams. He's only 24 and has improved every year he's been in the NBA. Last year was his career year and continued improvement will bump him into the upper echelon of point guards. It cost the Hawks a large portion of their cap room with a guaranteed $55,000,000 over 5 years. This deal could bump up the timetable on the Hawks resurgence. Mo has shown he can handle the point and lead a team for an entire season and he can shine on a team without an established scorer. This is his team for a long time even though Louis Williams is still seen as the point guard of the future. Williams will be given plenty of time even with this signing and the Hawks GM sees a possible starting backcourt of both Williams'.

The early, not yet finalized, opening day starters are:

C - Al Horford
PF - Yi Jianlian
SF - Andray Blatche
SG - Ronnie Brewer
PG - Maurice Williams

Blatche is the most intriguing. He has always been projected as a small forward and with his size and abounding athleticism could be a huge matchup problem for other teams. With the only proven NBA player Maurice Williams, this team will have a lot of growing to do if they want to compete this year and even next year. We will all be waiting and watching for this team to become a title contender in the loaded West.

[New Orleans Hornets]

HORNETS OFFSEASON

This offseason isnt like the offseason the Hornets had a year before when the Hornets GM traded technically the whole team to have players such as Vince Carter and Tracy Mcgrady play for them in some part of the season who were also eventually traded to form a team which might be considered one of the best defensive teams in the league which eventually ended with the team winning the very 1st NBA LEGENDS Championship, but this off-season is totally different. The Hornets stopped focusing on trading for superstars and started focusing on their bench.

The defending champs have a projected 18 players on the roster as of right now including all the original players from the championship team. With half of the team's bench getting older the hornets are now focusing on adding more youth to the team to ensure their success for the future. The signing of Dermarr Johnson helps the team with a spark of scoring off the bench who has proven to do so during the ongoing preseason tourney. The addition of Austin Croshere adds depth to the front court and will most likely be the one to give experience to other big men such as the promising Craig Smith who has proven to step up when injuries to Duncan or Big Ben occur. Hassan Adams a player that has proven to play along quick opponents was also signed to provide quickness and speed off the bench that neither Jim Jackson nor Shandon Anderson can provide.

A lot of players have to step up to make the initial cut before the preseason tourney ends and they have a lot to prove to show whether they could compete with the top teams in the league especially with the western conference filling up with a lot of powerhouse teams with Utah, Seattle, the Lakers, Portland, Dallas and also the Hornets' Western Conference rival the Phoenix Suns. But that doesnt mean the Eastern Conference does'nt have powerhouse teams of its own with Detroit adding youth to their Lineup and New Jersey and Milwaukee making a total makeover of their teams, there is no doubt it is going to be a very tough year for the Hornets to reach The Finals.

It will be a long road ahead for the Hornets so that is why they are looking for players who are able to condition themselves and be at a competitive state as the Hornets are to be able to win with them