The Detroit Pistons finished under .500 last season and only made the playoffs due to the complete and utter lack of depth in the Eastern Conference. To put the East's weakness in perspective, only the top three seeds in the East would have even qualified for the playoffs in the far superior West. However, the Pistons appear to believe that they are only a few moves away from recreating the "magic" that occurred in 2005 when they combined with the San Antonio Spurs to form the most boring NBA Finals ever seen. It seemed impossible with a roster that contained such studs as Kwame Brown and Walter Hermann. Their core players are all over the hill with the exception of Rodney Stuckey who I believe to be wildly overrated. He averaged under 5 assists per game last season. That puts him only .3 assists per game ahead of Sebastian Telfair who has never been noted for his passing ability. Also, his assist to turnover ratio was 2.24 which was tied for 41st in the league. Those don't look like starting point guard numbers to me. However, with all the aforementioned weaknesses, the Detroit Pistons thought of themselves as contenders and signed two "marquee" free agents in Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon. The only problem with this is that neither will be able to bring Detroit to the front of the East. For example, even with these two acquisitions the Pistons still only have one player in the top 50 of John Hollinger's PER rating, Charlie Villanueva at 47th. When you compare this to Cleveland (LeBron James at No. 1), Orlando (Dwight Howard at No. 4 and Jameer Nelson at No. 21), and Boston (Kevin Garnett at No. 18 and Rajon Rondo at No. 37), you can see that the Pistons will be playing for, at best, the fourth seed in the East.
The polar opposite of the Pistons' acquisitions was the signing of Ron Artest by the Los Angeles Lakers. This was yet another brilliant move by the Lakers' GM, Mitch Kupchak. Not only does he acquire a replacement for Trevor Ariza, he improves on Ariza considerably. Artest averaged 8.2 points per game more than Ariza last season, about a rebound per game more, and 1.5 assists per game more. In fact, he is statistically superior to Ariza in almost every category especially 3-point percentage. Last year Artest shot 39.9% from 3 placing him T-13th in the league among players who took at least three hundred threes. This is in total opposition to Ariza's 31.9 percentage from downtown which was worse than both Brian Cardinal and Zach Randolph's three point percentage. Another important factor in Artest's game is his stellar defense. He has been known to shut Kobe down consistently and even has a bit of a budding rivalry with him. I believe that this will actually help the Lakers' abilities. With Artest spurring Kobe on to new level and Kobe not having to go against Artest when LA plays Houston, the Lakers will be a much improved team. One final factor which made the Artest signing so shrewd was that they signed him to a 3 year deal which pays him about $6 million a year. This is a salary cut from the 7.4 million that he was payed last year.
Strangely, it appears that many GM's were more interested in Ariza than Artest this off season. Artest was courted only by the Lakers, Cavs, and Rockets, while Ariza was pursued by the Rockets, Lakers, Clippers, Cavs, Raptors, and Blazers. Also, the team that eventually won the Ariza lottery, the Rockets, paid more for Ariza, $33 million over 5 years, than the Lakers did for Artest. There are a few possible reasons for this. Obviously, some teams still have worries over Artest's occasionally inflammatory personality after the "Malice at the Palace". However, the more likely reason is that teams in the NBA and most of the other major sports appear to prefer young unproven players with potential to consistent veterans. I think that this is a terrible idea. I don't understand why you would rather have players with the potential to be good as opposed to players who you already know are good. It's almost as if these GM's aren't thinking.
Speaking of not thinking, I absolutely hate the new "Unthink" KFC commercials. They are merely embarrassing themselves by pandering to the lowest common denominator of the American people. People who have been swayed by this commercial apparently believe that KFC is the right choice for them if they do the opposite of think. In fact, when you do think about what you're eating for one second, KFC knows that you will not choose their product, (unless you're Michael Jackson who has made some notoriously bad decisions). I also think it's strange that some of these commercials involve people choosing grilled chicken over fried chicken. THE NAME OF THE RESTAURANT IS KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN. UNLESS THEY CHANGE THE NAME, FRIED CHICKEN MUST BE THE HIGHLIGHT. I much prefer the commercials that they show here in Connecticut for a clothing store named Syms. They merely show a man purchasing a suit and display their motto: "An educated consumer is our best customer". There's no pressure, but if you are smart you will buy from them.
The Toronto Raptors showed the savvy of Syms this off season with their trade for Hedo Turkoglu. In case everyone forgot, Turkoglu was one of the top five clutch shooters in the playoffs this season. He was also a tough match up for most of the teams that the Magic played this June since there are not many 6' 10" players who can guard an accomplished perimeter player. Although some believe that the Raptors are acquiring Turkoglu at the peak of his value, he actually shot 44 points worse from three this year and scored 2.7 less points per game. The only problem with this signing is that the Raptors gave Turkoglu a 5 year contract. At most Turkoglu has three years left, and not at $10 million a year. When Artest is being paid barely over the mid level exception, Turkoglu should not get $10 million. The strangest thing about the story is that Turkoglu's wife convinced him to sign with Toronto because it was more "cosmopolitan" than Portland. If she wanted to live in a more international city, she could live there during the season. Also, Turkoglu is the second biggest wimp that I have ever heard of. He earns the money so he chooses where he plays. It is as simple as that.
It is impossible to express how grateful I am for Mark Cuban's stupidity. The Knicks were about to jeopardize some of their valuable 2010 cap space on a player who couldn't push the Knicks out of the lottery this coming season. Kidd was only a valuable player on the Mavericks last year because he didn't have to carry the load. He could focus on being a second banana and only had to shoot the 3 when he was wide open. As a result, his 3 point percentage jumped 50 points from his last season in Jersey to last year. However, since the Knicks do not have anywhere near the talent level of last year's Mavs, Kidd would have to revert to his Jersey days. His 3 point percentage would sink and the Knicks would lose a couple million dollars.
With Odom and Iverson still free agents and Carlos Boozer rumored to be on the trading block, the NBA off season still has many twists and turns to go. However, a few teams have shown that your June can be decided in early July.
That's all for today's issue of "Sports: The Most Important Thing Ever."
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Good work Joe, just one thing. i think hedo was signed, not traded
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