http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news

Insane. Arenas to Orlando for Rashard Lewis.

The Magic just got awesome today. Incoming are Arenas, Richardson, and Hedo. That will help them out a lot.

Weird. Weird I say. What a cluster fyck of a deal.

Wiz, trade Gil for Lewis. Whatever. They are rebuilding. It's a lateral move but an anti-Miami move. Whatever it takes to beat Miami, me thinks.

Phoenix ships out JRich and Hedo for Pietrus, Vince and Gortat. I fear we may all be overestimating the big fella. I hope he plays well. If he ends up being Bogut lite (aout a quarter as good as the Manna - take that Roundhouse) it's probably a fine deal. They are going nowhere and need to rebuild, whether they want to or not. Pietrus is good for them but is stuck fighting for PT there with Childress, VC, Hill, etc.

Orlando wins, I think. My roommate here in Charlotte is saying they want to do a Jameer Nelson for Tyrus Thomas deal (Cats are trying to include Cap'n Jack). That would make that team ridiculous, but strangely built. As it is, Jameer, Gil, and JRich are going to likely get killed by teams like Miami and Boston. JRich is better than Vince though, ain't he? All in all, if they get better and have chance to beat Miami, I'm happy. Bass is going to get tick now. My kind of player.

Back to their defense, maybe I'm underestimating Gil, JRich, and Hedo. Can you imagine Hedo at PF TODAY against KG in the playoffs? It didn't work so well 2 years ago, much less now. SF? Pierce will hurt him. Lebron will hurt him.

Conversely, who can stop this team now? Awesome. Can't wait to see half of the Celtics vs. the Magic on Christmas. Whatever Celtics can suit up are going to be running all over the court trying to defend them.

Great time for a Wolves trade, eh?

J-Rich is better than VC, Gil is better than Jameer Nelson, and Hedo can't be any worse than Rashard Lewis so they upgraded at least 2 starting positions.

roundhouse wrote:
JRich is waaaaay better than VC, and I think Hedo is better than Rashard Lewis. Gil is probably equal to Nelson, but they didn't lose Nelson so that doesn't matter anyways.

I don't see how this could possibly hurt Orlando. Looks like a win to me no matter how you analyze it. Well, I guess except for the financial implications, but they did also get rid of Gortat's bad contract.

Hedo's contract is pretty painful but the final year is not fully guaranteed. Gortat's contract is large and has 3 more years after this one so that's nice to get rid of. Depending on what/if they trade Jameer Nelson for they could be back to even on contracts.

JA Adande has a godawful opinion article about these trades over at espn

roundhouse wrote:

Wow, what a fail article by JA Adande:

Epic Fail ESPN Article

Yeah, the Magic should have just easily traded for Carmelo instead. What happens when Melo doesn't resign with them? And what if the Nuggets didn't want any of Orlando's crappy contracts in the first place? And Orlando doesn't have 5 #1 picks like the Nyets do. And Carmelo only wants to play in New York. Terrible.

The Magic shouldn't trade Jameer given Arenas' and Jameer's own injury history. Though IF they want to dump him the Wolves should jump on that pronto if he can be had without give much up. He'd be a good trade piece later if Rubio does come and is ready to start.

pants wrote:
Yeah, they should definitely keep Jameer. Plus they can play Jameer and Arenas at the same time anyways.

If they DO trade Jameer, I'd gladly take him on the Wolves.

College Wolf wrote:
HAHA! Hyperlink title made me chuckle audibly.