Trades Trades Trades

Well its that time of the season again, trading time, and as of 2pm today, a handful of teams and players have reached agreements, reshaping many organizations. In my opinion, last season's trades were more surprising to me, as with the aid of twitter and other such networking sites, almost every deal was leaked days prior to them actually being publicly finalized, however, let us still run through the changes, shall we? (Note: though many small trades were made as well, and any new player to a team will affect it in some way, I am only going to cover the five big ones. Please don't be offended.)

Starting with my heart and soul, the Chicago Bulls, I am very sad to say they have let go of both John Salmons and Tyrus Thomas, two of my favorite players. Everyone knows that the Bulls are trying to acquire a superstar free agent this summer, with Dwyane Wade being at the top of their list, so it is understanding why they would want to get rid of more costly players, but personally I will miss them dearly and appreciate all that they have done for the team. John Salmons, who did not even play in last night's match up against the New York Knicks, will be heading to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Joe Alexander and Hakim Warrick while Tyrus Thomas will make his way to the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for Flip Murray, Acie Law and a first-round draft pick. Personally I feel as though perhaps the Bulls are putting all their eggs in one basket and/or getting ahead of themselves in trading off two players, key players who have done a lot for their team off the bench, in hopes of landing a big name this summer, however, I am assuming that the organization has a little more insight than I do into the liklihood of attaining who they want, so what is done is done, and I hope it works out for them. I will miss both of those guys dearly though and wish them nothing but the best. I know little about Acie Law or Hakim Warrick (though I am told him and Tyrus Thomas have many similar attributes) but have always liked Flip Murray and have heard good things about Joe Alexander so I will remain as positive as I can. With two guards and two forwards the Bulls should be ok though, as long as shooting is not a problem for any of the newly gained players of course. Derrick Rose may now be putting up a ton of numbers but a team should never rely on just one player, no matter how good they are.

Moving on to other teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers were involved in a three team trade with the Washington Wizards and the Los Angeles Clippers, landing them Antwan Jamison from the Wizards and Sebastian Telfair from the Clippers. The Washington Wizards then walked away with Al Thorton from the Clippers along with Zydrunas Ilgauskas and the rights to Emir Preldzic from the Cavs, and a first-round draft pick, leaving the last team, the Los Angeles Clippers with Drew Gooden, who came from the Dallas Mavricks. This trade is a bit confusing and as a whole I'm not sure who came out the best or the worst but I have to say I'm actually really excited to see how Jamison fits in with the Cavs because even though he is coming from a sub-par team, he is one hell of a player, and I think he will fit in nicely with Lebron James as well as Shaq. Apparently the Cavs are just getting stronger and stronger with time...thank God I like them.

The Dallas Mavericks, also involved, ended up with Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, DeShawn Stevenson, sending Josh Howard, James Singleton, Quinton Ross to the Washington Wizards. Personally I don't see any of this as too surprising seeing as the Wizards suffered a tremendous blow after the Gilbert Arenas scandal and as Mavs owner Mark Cuban expressed his concern with Josh Howard's injuries time and time again this season. I will admit that since Agent 0 was removed from the Wizards I have yet to watch a single game of theirs, as well as not knowing too much about the traded Mavs players, however, from what I can see on a superficial level, this looks pretty well balanced.

The Clippers, aside from gaining Drew Gooden and losing Al Thorton, were also involved in another deal, getting Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake (as well as cash) from the Portland Trail Blazers and sending out Marcus Camby. With the Blazers being the most injury impacted team this season and Camby being quite vocal about his unhappiness with the Clippers, this too seems like a good trade. Hopefully Outlaw and Blake will work well with Baron Davis, the ringleader of the Clippers, and Camby will be happier in Portalnd.

The last big trade that happened today was one involving Tracy McGrady, a player who almost every team seemed to want despite his age and the fact that he has been out of commission for some time now. T-Mac, first acquired by Sacramento, will end up with the New York Knicks along with Sergio Rodriguez causing the Knicks to send Larry Hughes (whom all of you probably know by now, I love, and is not given nearly enough attention in my opinion) to the Sacramento Kings, and Jared Jeffries and Jordan Hill to the Houston Rockets. The Rockets then send Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey to Kings, getting Kevin Martin in return, also ending up with a first-round pick from the Knicks. I think T-Mac will do pretty well in New York, especially because at this point the Knicks don't have much to lose, but I wonder how much tick any of the Knickerbockers will get in Houston. As I mentioned above, teams should really play Larry Hughes more though, because despite his sometimes bad-ass attitude, the man has skill, so hopefully he won't be taken for granted yet again. Not knowing much about Carl Landry or Joey Dorsey, I can't really comment on the future of the Kings, but I feel as though no matter who is around him, Tyreke Evans will take care of it all.

So will the Bulls end up with a "big name" in the summer? Will Jamison fit in with the Cavs? Will T-Mac be able to get back into the game after all his time off? Only time will tell. Its time for all the teams to go hard though because in a blink of an eye its Playoff time and in the end only one team will win it all.