Peja is signing as a FREE AGENT, not being traded.
http://www.hoops.com.au/sa/i.cfm/forumlist/7768/
And Big Ben won't be traded, unless it's a sign and trade, as he is also a FREE AGENT.

Tim Thomas has apparently signed with Clippers.

Vlade Radmonovic from the Clippers to the Lakers. Should be a decent front line for the lake show....Odom, Radmonovic and perennial underachiever Kwame Brown. Start these three with Parker and KB8...

With Thomas gone have they pulled Marion out of trade talks?

Is Ron Artest a Free Agent, if not was that a bad Trade for the Pacers? Did they really get anything more from Peja for half a season.

And now we shall all say KB24 hmm?

The NOOK Hornets are making heaps of moves.

Along with picking up Stoj, the Hornets have just signed Bobby Jackson. I'm guessing that they'll trade Speedy now. With the addition of these two (Stoj and Jax), plus the two 1st rounders, and the continual improvement of CP3 and David West, the vet experience of PJ the Hornets are looking good.

If they can get a decent SG/SF scorer (JR Smith ain't the answer) then the Hornets could be tough.


The Pistons have offered a four-year deal worth approximately $48 million to Wallace in Detroit. And the Chicago Bulls , who sent coach Scott Skiles and vice president of basketball John Paxson to Detroit, have started bidding at closer to $52 million for four seasons.

Nene resigned with the Nugs for $60 million over 6. A pretty good deal for both parties.

Piatkowski Signs With Suns for $2.4 million over 2.

What about AI is he staying or going.

DB5...I like the Vlade pick up for the Lakers. The Lakers haven't had a good outside shooter since, well, Byron Scott? Glen Rice forgot how to shoot on his way to LA (and never really seemed to remember either) and even in the championship years the Lakers had inconsitent shooting wing players like Fox, Horry & George. The only thing the Lakers had close to a shooter was Fisher.

Vlade will spread the floor that little more for Kobe and it should push Odom back to the 4 spot for good, where he belongs. Hopefully Kwame plays like he did in the final 6-8 weeks of the season for all of 2006-07, but I'm not holding my breath. The Lakers picking up Maurice Evans is not too shabby for a back up for Kobe. If nothing else, at least the Lakers will have some athletism at the 2 spot behind Kobe for the first time ever.

Chris Mihm may well be traded, perhaps for a point guard that will be push Parker out of the starting lineup.

These moves will hardly set the Lakers world on fire, but it is all progress.

None of these signings can actually take place until July 12th. Until ink is on paper, nothing is definite, although the following looks fairly certain:

- Pedrag Stojakovic has declined his player option from Indiana, and agreed to terms with New Orleans/Oklahoma

- Bobby Jackson has agreed to terms with New Orleans/Oklahoma

- Tim Thomas has agreed to terms with the Los Angeles Clippers

- Sam Cassell has agreed to re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers

- Vladimir Radmanovic has agreed to terms with the Los Angeles Lakers

- Eric Piatkowski has agreed to terms with Phoenix

- Nene has agreed to re-sign with Denver

- Jason Terry has agreed to re-sign with Dallas

Just a thing for Laker fans to remember: Vladimir Radmanovic is known for one thing - consistent inconsistency. So be prepared for some frustration at times. If he decides to focus (and rebound), he'll be great.

All other rumours are just that at this stage - rumours. A couple of things to remember:
- Ben Wallace, Al Harrington, Speedy Claxton, Nazr Mohammed, Joel Przybilla, Devean George, Chucky Atkins and Bonzi Wells are all unrestricted free agent, able to sign with any team
- Chris Wilcox is a restricted free agent, so Seattle choose to match any offer he gets
- Mike James is yet to officially decline his player option with Toronto
- Allen Iverson is still contracted to Philadelphia
- Shawn Marion is still contracted to Phoenix
- Jamaal Magloire is still contracted to Milwaukee
- Jalen Rose, Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis are all still contracted to New York

Jasmine, i reckon Lamar would be better at the 3, playing the point forward role, and using Vlade to stretch the defences a bit more so Brown/Mihm can have plenty of room in the post to TRY and do their thing....They can then play with Evans and KB24 (good call DJ) in the backcourt...bit like the Bulls 91-93 lineups.....

Speedy Claxton is on his way to the Hawks, which is a good move for them IMO, though at $24m for 4 years, perhaps they overpaid a tad. I don't know that he'll command a start role, but wouldn't be surprised to see him play 20-25 mins a game with JJ so he can play the 2 spot.

And $60m over 6 years for Nene? That's a LOT of money for a guy who hasn't played in 12 months & who is still just a bundle of potential. They can't pony up that much money to have him back up K-Mart, so I suspect he'll be heading out of town.

DB5...I agree with you about Lamar, in theory. I had the same hopes for him in the triangle that you mentioned. However, he simply seems to play his best basketball at the 4 spot. At the 3, he creates a positive mismatch at the offensive end but a negative one at the defensive end as he is too slow to defend the quick 3's. His playmaking doesn't seem to be limited when he plays more on the block.

Additionally, he seems to actually look to shoot far more at the 4 spot and doesn't tend to disappear in the triangle as much as he does in the 3. The Lakers are a far bettter team when Odom is aggressive and he is far more aggresive at the 4.

Just my thoughts.

good thoughts as well Jasmine... i guess we will see in a few months...also Derek Fisher talking with the Jazz.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2508742

Big Ben goes to the Bulls.

Not so sure this is a great move for the Bulls. The majority of the cap space they'd created is now tied up in Ben Wallace for the next 4 years & I'm not sure he makes them an elite level team. They'll be a 50+ win side, for sure, but a team challenging for a title? I'm not so sure. They now have 3 athletic, offensively limited 4/5 men in Tyrus Thomas, Chandler & Wallace. Who is scoring in the low post for them?

Having said that, someone has to progress from the East, and without Wallace, I don't see it being the Pistons. The Heat obviously would start favourite, but they still need to stitch up GP, Mourning & Riley before they're even as good as they were last season.

All of which means things are opening up quite nicely for the Cavs. If Hughes can stay fit, Shannon Brown provides a spark off the bench and LBJ keeps improving, I see them as being a contender to take out the East.

I actually think this makes the East weaker, if that's possible via a personnel move within the conference. I'd say they now have 1 elite team (Heat) 3 very good teams (Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland) and some good teams (Indiana, Washington, New Jersey).

I've created a new topic as this is reasonably big news. I'm duping Hoop Addict's comment over there too to kickstart the thread.