The Best and Worst Offseason Moves

This summer was certainly one of the most memorable off-seasons I can remember. With Kobe-Gate, MSG Follies and the revival of the Boston Celtics, the moves and non-moves made by many teams will resonate for years to come. Did Danny Ainge mortgage the Celtics' future to save his job? Did Kevin McHale do enough to guarantee himself another gig in Boston? Did the Lakers miss an opportunity to make themselves a top four team in the West? Did the Cavs do anything to suggest they were ready to make LeBron a fixture in the NBA Finals? Did the Magic pay too much for Rashard Lewis?

Here is my take on the smartest and dumbest moves made this summer:

Five dumbest

1. Miami Heat
Four seasons ago Shaquille O'Neal landed right in Pat Riley's lap. Best of all for Riley he didn't have to give up his team's best player to get him. Thanks to the gutless Dallas Mavericks (and a dumb foul by Manu Ginobli) Riley and Shaq rode the whirlwind that is Dwayne Wade to the franchise's first NBA crown. The Greasy One even managed to piece together a roster of role players who for a moment seemed to be the perfect compliment to D Wade and "The Big Fat Guy". Then, this past summer Riley decided to not resign the best three point shooter in the league Jason Kapono and let yeoman baller, James Posey slip away to another team in his conference. Who did Riley get to replace them? Why Smush Parker and Penny Hardaway of course. Although I'm not convinced that 'text-speech' is ready to replace the English language altogether, for Miami fans those moves certainly called for a WTF?!! What are Riley and the Heat getting for those brilliant decisions? 9 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds, while Posey and Kapono are both shooting over 50% from behind the arc for their respective teams. To their credit, the Heat did try to sign Charlie Bell. Unfortunately for Riley, the Bucks were not about to let a player leave their team and help another playoff contender in their own conference, like the Heat did.

2. Golden State Warrirors
So Nellie finally gets the type of players he really wants to run his madhouse system of basketball. That system calls for players to run, jack threes, look for ally-oop dunks from half court and play little to no defense. So what does he do on draft night? He trades one of the better three point shooters/dunkers in the game for a rookie who couldn't even get off the bench during crunch time for his college team. Baron Davis and Jason Richardson were the foundations for the Warriors as they were the two most dependable players night in and night out. Both also commanded the respect of other players in the league as well as the benefit of the doubt from NBA refs. Davis, Richardson, and Ellis with Stephen Jackson and Marco Barnelli coming off the bench meant that the Warriors essentially lost nothing when they went to their second unit. Rookie Brenden Wright is another Matt Barnes, only softer. Two weeks into the season the Warriors are yet to win a game. Brilliant.

3. Phoenix Suns
I know, I know, the Suns are 6-2 and leading their division right now. So what? The Suns can win 80 games this season ans it won't matter a bit if they run up on the Spurs in the post season again. Particularly because of one move they made which will haunt them come May. Letting Kurt Thomas go to Seattle for cash. Thomas will never be accused of being an offensive dynamo but what he did give the Suns was a big body to play against guys like Duncan, Diop, Yao or any other low post players opposing teams would throw at them. Thomas kept Amare Stoudamire from getting into foul trouble and to be honest he was a competent jump shooter within ten feet. But it gets worse, along with giving up Thomas, the Suns also gave up two first round draft picks. Unless they plan on having Grant Hill, their prized free agent acquisition d-up the opposing team's center, I don't see how they helped themselves.

4. Indiana Pacers
The Pacers are on this list not nearly as much for what they did during the off season but rather what they didn't do. What the Pacers did was sign Travis Diener and Kareem Rush what they didn't do was sign anyone that could really help their team. As this season progresses we will probably be forced to endure at least one more pouting session from Jermaine O'Neal who had suggested this summer that he would like a change of scenery. Specifically west coast scenery. I'd like to think that it was the Lakers that may have backed off any trade that would've sent either Lamar Odom and/or Andrew Bynum to Indy in exchange for O'Neal, but as O'neal himself pointed out, Pacer GM Larry Bird would certainly make any trades difficult by asking for too much. To be fair to the Lakers Odom and Bynum for O'Neal would've been too much because frankly, O'Neal is vastly overrated. Still he would've been much better playing alongside a player like Bryant who would've reduced O'Neal's expectation level and the Pacers really needed to move him and his contract if they  actually wanted to begin rebuilding. O'Neal is playing for his fourth head coach now and his beat season's came when he had Reggie Miller on the floor absorbing media and fan hounds. O'Neal is now looking for a way out and everyone knows it. So now they will get about half of his trade value when they move him (unless it's to the Knicks). Looking at the Pacers' roster you might actually believe they can compete in the Eastern Conference. But if that was really the case they would've kept Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington (who they craved sooooo badly three seasons ago). While Grainger is indeed an up and comer, this team has no heartbeat right now and bringing in Rush and Diener have done nothing to make Bird appear as though he has any plan for the near future.

5. Minnesota Timberwolves
I almost feel bad for putting Minnesota on this list because they actually got seven players for one in their blockbuster trade that sent Kevin Garnett to Boston. Unfortunately, McHale's crew makes the list because of all the players they got in the deal, Al Jefferson is the only one of any real consequence. That being said, at least their commitment to rebuilding was evident, which is why they did not do as badly as the Pacers who should have been looking to do more (see above). Minny should've moved KG last season and caught everyone off guard. That would've sent GM's scrambling to come up with a deal. Instead they held on to the Big Ticket a little too long and had difficulty getting a great player in return. Signing Juwan Howard would've made sense if they had kept Garnett. The only bright spot was drafting Corey Brewer who will be the type of blue collar player that can help a team with the intangibles. Still, consider the list of players they could've gotten Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Amare Stoudamire, Andrie Kirilenko for example and it seems as though McHale only wanted to trade Garnett to Boston. Sounds suspect to me (and to Larry Bird as well).

Next Blog: Five Best moves.