In the days leading up to the draft, there were three major trades each of them involved big names changing teams. There were also two minor trades that involved some semi-big names moving. First, San Antonio acquired Richard Jefferson from Milwaukee for Bruce Bowen, Fabricio Oberto, and Kurt Thomas. Second, Golden State traded Jamal Crawford to Atlanta for Acie Law and Speedy Claxton. Third, the Wizards acquired Mike Miller and Randy Foye from Minnesota in exchange for the 5th pick in the NBA draft, Etan Thomas, Darius Songalia, and Oleksiy Pecherov. Fourth, Orlando traded Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston, and Tony Battie to the Nets for Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson. And lastly, Phoenix sent Shaq to Cleveland for Ben Wallace and Sasah Pavlolic. Here is a closer look at those trades and we’ll discuss whether or not each team got an even deal.

Spurs get RJ; Bucks get Bruce Bruce, Fabulous Fabricio, and Dirty Kurt

This was San Antonio wheeling and dealing again to hush all the doubters and put themselves right back into title contention. They picked up a three that has not won a ring yet and paired him with an already dangerous core in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and GINOBILIIIIIII!!!!! (thank you Sir Charles). The Spurs gave up marginal talent for RJ.

The bucks picked up some bigs and a “defensive stopper” that are all past their prime (RJ is not really in his prime either, but he’s better than all of them). Some times I don’t understand teams giving away a gem for a high quantity of scrubs. Its never a win-win situation when that happens. Its not even like the Bucks traded for some young guys with potential, it was all players at the end of their careers.

Warriors get Acie Law and Speedy Claxton; Hawks get Jamal Crawford

The warriors are probably the eventual winners in this trade. Although neither team got much better in this deal. The Hawks probably don’t have the money to re-sign Mike Bibby and trading for Jamal Crawford was a move to get another perimiter scorer that can shoot from distance and finish around the basket (for the longest time, my Heat were torched by Jamal Crawford when we played the Knicks, he would average about 30 points a game against my team, but I digress).

Golden State picked up some quick (no pun intended) guards to add to their backcourt. The reason I think they will be the better team from this trade is that I think those guards fit well in Nelly’s system. Crawford is clearly a temporary fix, he is getting older while Law is a second year player with plenty of potential to grow (not so much Claxton).

Wizards get Skinny and Randy Foye; Minnesota gets 5th pick, Etan Thomas, Oleksiy Pecherov, and Darius Songalia

CAUTION: More Minnesota Hating to persist. After seeing what the T-Wolves did with their draft picks and thinking about how they will mess it up, it is clear that the Wiz won this trade. Washington is slowly looking like they are going to be a great team next year. Their starting five will be: Hibachi, Skinny, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, and Brendan Haywood; their backups will be Nick Young, Javelle McGee, and Randy Foye. This team will make the playoffs and be a pretty impressive group.

Washington picked up some quality talent, and got to dump a bunch of old role players and the fifth pick (which Minnesota screwed up). Since Ricky Rubio isn’t going to play for Minnesota, the T-Wolves essentially got no starting quality players in this trade…and gave up 2 starting quality players.

Magic get Vinsanity and Ryan Anderson; Nets get Skip To My Lou, Courtney Lee, and Battie Boy

This is another trade where one team gets better now and the other team gets better later. The Magic needed to make a move so they wouldn’t be left short handed when Hedo Turkoglu leaves town. Bringing in Vince Carter assures that Hedo won’t be back because the Magic have now moved into the tax bracket above the luxury tax thanks to Vinsanity’s gargantuan contract (what is it like 10 years, $45 billion? Somewhere in that range?). They won’t be able to pay Hedo what he wants. This doesn’t necessarily make Orlando much better. He is essentially the same type of player as Turkoglu, with a little more athleticism, and much smaller cohones. Unless Boston stays the same, and stays healthly, I still think the Magic can get back to the finals. Dwight Howard will only get better.

The Nets get a great young talent in Courtney Lee and a solid backup point guard in Rafer Alston. They will be better off down the road, once all their young talent matures.

Cavs get the Big Tradebait; Suns get Sashouldn’t be in the NBA and Big Ben Wallace

Big Aristotle, Big Shaqtus, Big Laryngitis (during all-star break), and now the Big Tradebait….because teams keep trading for him, thinking he will bring them a title. Now be careful because some bias talk is about to emerge. The Heat was the last stop Shaq had where trading for him brought in a title. Now, Shaq was a big part of that ’ship, he demanded attention in the paint, and got the other teams to rack up fouls. But lets not forget, Dwyane Wade averaged near 35 points a game in the finals to win it all. He was unstopable. Shaq was just a second option on that team, Wade was the floor leader. Another thing that helped the Heat was the fact that they were filled with veterans, there were no rookies that couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of playing in the finals.

After the Heat broke down that team, they traded Shaq to the Suns for Shawn Marion. The Suns believed this was the last piece of the puzzle to winning it all…..they got beat 4-1 by the Spurs in the first round. Now that the Suns have realized that their window has closed and Shaq is not good enough to win them a title, Cleveland thinks all of a sudden Shaq can get them over the hump. Don’t get me wrong, Lebron is a Superstar, he goes to the rim like a Mack Truck mixed with a crab dribbling. But the rest of Cleveland Travaliers lacks talent. Mo Williams is overachieving thanks to Lebron as well as the rest of the team. With Shaq, they get a slightly quicker and slightly more productive version of Zydrunas Illgauskas. I think, like the Orlando trade, the Cavs don’t improve too much, just marginally.

The Suns trading Shaq is an admission that they were wrong to trade for him in the first place. Based on the players they got, they clearly traded for cap space. Had they not traded for Shaq and just let Marion walk this summer, they would have freed up $17 million instead of about the $7 million they will clear IF Ben Wallace decides to retire and they can buy his contract out. The Suns didn’t accomplish much here, but then again, neither did the Cavs.

Related posts:

1. NBA Rumors: Miami Ready to Contend?
2. NBA Draft: More Thoughts
3. NBA Draft: Minnesota Misses the Point, San Antonio Steals Some Studs
4. NBA Draft Diary – 2009
5. NBA Free Agency: Off and Running (UPDATED…..again)