Let's take a look at what moves have been officially announced by the NBA teams on Wednesday when the transfer period was opened, while a few more days are expected in the next few days, especially for restricted and unrestricted free agents, as the team's timing expires to "match" offers submitted by other teams to their players. Jeremy Lin, Jason Terry, Roy Hibbert, Landry Fields, Eric Gordon, Nicholas Batum and Brook Lopez are the biggest names of them.
Brooklyn Nets, who moved to New York City and the brand new Barclays Center, want to show a remarkable set, much better than last year's 5, with the worst performance in the championship.
Their first concern was to reach an All Star (their efforts to bring Dwight Howard are still in progress) so that Deron Williams renews with the team. After the Atlanta Hawks exchange, Joe Johnson gave Anthony Morrow, Jordan Farmar (close to Efes), Jordan Williams, Johan Petro, and a first-round prankster for 2013. The two teams came out of this deal because the Nets took on a pro-class player while the Hawks managed to free up too much space in the salary cap (Johnson's contract predicted another 90 million until it expired) which would make them flexible for new transfers and the ability to make the maximum offer in the summer to a player who is free and comes from Atlanta. The name of this Dwight Howard.
Gerald Wallace's Brooklyn team renewed, and what's going to be with Brook Lopez and Chris Humphries will depend heavily on what will happen to Dwight Howard! But without it, and as long as they stay healthy, Nets are expected to be pretty much improved in the new year. Together with veteran Jerry Stackhouse he also signed the same route with Johnson but as a free and not an exchange process. They finally got Reggie Evans giving a future 2 tour picnic along with a trade exception to the Clippers.
Atlanta was relieved of another heavy contract, that of Marvin Williams (the new GM of the Danny Ferry team made many moves after his intake), sending him to Utah and bringing Devin Harris to his post. Another deal that seems to benefit both sides since the Hawks after deserting Kirk Hinrich desperately needed a point guard while the Jazz after the advent of Mo Williams (as we will see below) are covered in that position and at the same time they needed a small forward.
Mo Williams ended up with Jazz through a peculiar exchange involving three more teams. The Clippers (who acquired Lamar Odom in his attempt to "resurrect" his career by returning to the team from which he started), the Mavericks (they got the rights of Tadija Dragicevic and a trade exception) and the Rockets (they acquired the rights of Fulkan Aldemir). The Utah team with this move has a particularly dangerous player from the region at its disposal (Mo Williams has shown that he can make it to the lead in a leading team in the year that passed), Clippers in fact risk taking whether Odom's lottery would be a lot of disappointment as he competed in Dallas, while Mavericks with the trade exception gain an advantage in order to get a player, either this or the next transfer period.
Of the biggest names that have changed team so far, of course, it was Steve Nash. The Canadian and twice MVP champions moved to the Lakers versus 2 for the first round tournament of the first round and two second rounds that the Suns got. So he will have the chance to claim next to Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum (unless one of the last two leaves in case Dwight Howard comes in) a champion ring that is so much missing after 15 years in NBA.
10 assists, who have an average career span, will be able to find many recipients and greatly strengthen the Lakers team that they wanted to be helped especially at the playoffs position as Sessions used his choice of search option new group. The Phoenix team is in the process of rebuilding, so 4 extra options for upcoming tops will help to find "new blood".
Beyond the NBA's second worst team last year, Bobcats acquired Ben Gordon from Pistons and a future first-round playwright giving them Correy Maggette. In the face of Gordon they found a reliable shooter from the periphery (Charlotte was one of the worst teams in the three-point shootout last year) who helped play the role of the 6 player in particular, and have shown that they are interested in picking up as many options as possible tweets to strengthen with talented young players in the coming years. Detroit has the only benefit of this move that Maggette's contract expires at the end of the year (while Gordon has another two more years), so it will free up space on the salary cap to claim a big name.
Last year's improved player of the year, Ryan Anderson, moved to Hornets with Orlando's team taking over Gustavo Ayon. No matter how strange it may be, Magic benefited from this exchange as they could not come to an agreement with Anderson to renew his contract so they at least got something to give him and especially to the center that could be left empty if he finally left the "known unknown". The New Orleans team on the side of Anthony Davis got a player who can compete as a power forward but is distinguished by its long-standing goal and is expected to open corridors to the two Davis and Rivers rookies.
the Hornets to release space had earlier sent Emeka Okafor along with Trevor Ariza to the Wizards, taking 46's number of drums and Rashard Lewis, but he then bought the contract leaving him free (to end up with Heat after all). In fact, with this move, Hornets sent a message that Rivers and Davis will be the basis on which they will rely for years to come, and should be considered key from this year (not that there was any doubt, especially for the 1 number this year ). On the other hand, the youthful team of the capital is boosted by two remarkable players whose experience will be very useful without losing something essential as Lewis despite his heavy contract never offered the expected.
With these moves, Hornets can now refresh with Eric Gordon to "match" the offer they made, giving Phoenix Suns the highest payoff and creating a very talented youthful ensemble. With the same logic they also sent Jarrett Jack to the Warriors through a triple exchange in which Dorell Wright reached Sixers while the Hornets acquired Edin Bavcic's rights from the Philadelphia team.
Another team that is trying to free up space on the salary cap (and maybe Dwight Howard's claim) is also the Rockets. The Houston team before the twilight process sent Samuel Dalembert to Milwaukee and the 14 of the Draft to take John Leuer, John Brockman, Shaun Livingston and the 12 number in exchange for Chase Budinger, acquiring the 18 number of the tweaks from Minnesota Timberwolves. But their moves did not end there as they gave Kyle Lowry's debut last season to Toronto, getting another one of the next year's choice for the next year, while they also sent Marcus Camby to Knicks instead of Toney Douglas, Josh Harrelson and Jerome Jordan .
In exchanges completed in the last 24 hour, the Mavericks seem particularly strengthened by two moves they have made. First of all, Chris Kaman was free (another player who did not belong to the new Hornets team), exercising the amnesty clause and leaving Brendan Haywood until now, while in exchange with Pacers they got Darren Collison and his Dahntay Jones giving them Ian Mahinmi.
For players who had been released from their previous teams, Ray Allen (like Rashard Lewis) signed to Heat, Jamal Crawford to Clippers, Jerryd Bayless to Grizzlies, and Gerald Green to Pacers.
Tim Duncan with Boris Diaw for Spurs, Gerald Wallace with Deron Williams and Brook Lopez (who apparently will eventually remain in the group after the news that Magic stops talks about Howard throwing weight in finding a new coach) with Nets, while Blake Griffin did so by signing a new rich contract with Clippers. The same route (the renewal was followed by Hickson with Portland and Garnett with the Celtics.
For Thunder, the Thunderbirds have acquired the Thabeet (unknown even though the 2 number of 2009 by the Grizzlies), and Detroit signed with Vyacheslav Kravtsov from Ukraine that went well enough last year Summer league with the Celtics jersey.
Finally, the official announcement is expected to finalize Jason Terry's deal with the Boston Celtics. The two sides have given their hands over 2 weeks but somehow unknown because they have not been announced since yesterday that they opened the "window" of transcripts, and Goran Dragic and Michael Beasley with Suns, Nick Young with Sixers, Lou Williams with the Hawks, Kirk Hinrich with the Bulls and many others.
Still many fronts remain open, many discussions are in progress and since they are still more than 4 months until the start of the regular season. Also several teams will practice the term amnesty as it is the last year that allowed this. The last team that made it was Sixers who so released Elton Brand, who looked at many teams and the NBA did not have many good players left in place.
Certainly some names will not be mentioned above but since there are many more. Let's wait for the next few days to see first which of the rookies and players under test stand out in the summer leagues of both Orlando and Las Vegas, which starts at the end of the week.
