30 Teams, 30 Days: Boston Draft Preview
Finding someone with the 58th pick isn't likely or necessary for the Celtics. If they keep it, they'll likely use it on a European prospect.
|  |
|
Protecting Red's Legacy
In defeat, Boston left a two-word challenge to whoever emerged from the East: Beat L.A.
|  |
|
Shh...Rondo Is The Big 'One' In Boston
Don't tell anyone, but Rajon Rondo is the best player on the defending-champion Boston Celtics right now.
|  |
|
The Importance Of Rajon Rondo
Last season, most analysts thought the Celtics couldn’t win a championship with a second-year point guard at the helm. This season, Boston’s repeat chances begin and end with Rajon Rondo.
| |
|
Deadline Looms Large For Celtics
Danny Ainge maintains that he doesn't feel the Celtics need to make any moves, but a few minor trades could increase Boston's chances of repeating.
|  |
|
Boston's Bench Not Up To Par
The Celtics are still a title contender, but it will be hard for them to repeat as NBA Champions without some additions to their bench.
| |
|
What Is The Celtics’ Salary Cap Situation?
An occasional theme on Celtics websites is pondering if and how the Cs could be players in the much-vaunted 2010 free agent market. Can the Cs get below the salary cap sufficiently to make a play for a superstar?
| |
|
Danny Ainge’s Dilemmas
Lost in the glow of the title there were some troubling signs with the Big Three last year that have continued into 2009.
| |
|
Ray Allen Finally Adjusts To The Shamrock
The adjustment period for Ray Allen was far longer than it was for Kevin Garnett, but he now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Garnett and Paul Pierce.
|  |
|
Rondo Leads Celtics In Romp Of Revenge
Rajon Rondo had the best game of his surging career on Wednesday night when the Celtics earned a measure of revenge against the Pacers.
| |
|
13 Draft Picks, Locating The Foundation Of The Celtics Dynasty
Everything being equal, teams that luck into the first pick in the draft when a superstar is on the horizon are going to be teams that contend for and win NBA titles. But how does that explain the Celtics?
| |
|
That 70s Show: Shining Light On The Most Underappreciated Team
Quick: Name all the teams in NBA history that over a five year period have won at least two NBA titles and have averaged more than 58 wins per year.
| |
|
Pre-Draft Summit: Boston Celtics
The Celtics are still celebrating their recent NBA Title victory, but decisions will still have to be made this Thursday.
|  |
|
Believe In The Celtics
What if I told you a last place team could trade away seven players for two players and win a championship that season; would you believe me?
|  |
|
How The Celtics Are Up 2-0
There are six main reasons why the Celtics have a 2-0 lead in the Finals and have proven so many pundits and analysts wrong.
| |
|
Computing The Finals
Andrew computed a bevy of statistics relating to the 2008 NBA playoffs, leading him to predict that the Celtics will go down in six games.
|  |
|
What If Boston Goes Down...
Maybe it was the green hue that has been sprinkled on the league this season, or Atlanta’s losing record, but there didn’t seem to be a matchup Boston couldn’t exploit before this seven-game relationship began.
| |
|
How To Beat Boston?
By playing fast and quick perimeter oriented basketball and getting down the floor before the Celtics can set up their defense, Atlanta is back in this series.
| |
|
Putting Doc In Perspective
The moral of Doc Rivers' 2007-2008 season is that GMs, owners, players and fans must be patient when evaluating coaches. The anti-Doc crowd has quieted their complaints as he his team became vastly more talented.
|  |
|
Frontloading The Cs Past The Garnett Era
Danny Ainge should attempt to frontload all long-term contracts between now and 2012. The idea should be to pay more now – even if it means luxury tax penalties – so as to be able to have a young core in place by 2012 and significant cap space for acquiring expense all-star caliber veteran talent.
| |
|
Frontloading: An Alternative Approach To NBA Contracts
With frontloading, the era of NBA teams having many mediocre or worse players with massive long-term contracts grown mountainous due to huge annual raises making them all but untradeable except as salary dumps will slowly fade into the past.
| |
|
Had Danny Stayed The Course: The Opportunity Cost Of Success
Danny Ainge has gone from wearing the second-largest Dunce Cap in the NBA to becoming president-for-life of the NBA’s Mensa chapter. This is all nonsense.
|  |
|
Who Is Scared Of Whom When The Celtics Play The Pistons?
Wednesday night’s game against the Pistons is the first truly meaningful game the Celtics have played where both teams are legitimate NBA championship contenders since 1991.
| |
|
The Beantown Massacre
Rarely has a game had the twofold effect of displaying one team’s dominance and another’s incompetence. Thursday night’s Knicks/Celtics game was epic in a bizarre way, a clash of a superpower and a sloth.
|  |
|
Like A Video Game
Yes, it’s only been six games, and yes injuries are always a possibility. But it has been a dominant six games, and there is no reason the next 76 won’t be as dominant.
| |
|
Danny’s New Job Description
Danny Ainge’s job as GM now is two-fold. First, and most important, he has to assemble the parts to win a title now. As long as KG, Pierce and Ray Allen are in their prime that is the first order of business. If the Cs do not win a title in 2008, expect Danny to aggressively use both the MLE slot and the LLE slot to bring in veterans for a run next season. Second, Danny will continue to bring youth in to keep the team stocked in young talent.
| |
|
The Third Man: Danny Ainge Reprises A Classic
Most NBA champions also usually have a no. 2 guy who is a superstar or perennial all-star in his own right. The no. 2 guys over the past 28 years include Kobe Bryant, Scottie Pippen, Kevin McHale, Clyde Drexler, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among others. The Cs today with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce have a one-two punch that can hold its own with any team in the league. But Danny’s secret weapon, the reason why Kevin Garnett apparently relented and agreed to come to Boston, is his Third Man: Ray Allen.
| |
|
How Long Until The New Big Three Become The Old Medium Three?
A central concern for the Celtics in the coming years is how long Kevin Garnett, presently 31 years old, Ray Allen, presently 32 years old, and Paul Pierce, soon to turn 30 years old, can play at top efficiency, and then how long after that can they remain productive starters, albeit no longer at the top of their games.
| |
|
A Calculated Risk Based Upon The Iron Law Of NBA Championships
The genius of the KG trade is because it is a textbook application of the Iron Law of NBA championships, and the Iron Law of Contention. The Iron Law is simply this: to win an NBA championship the best player on a team has to be one of the five best players in the league and one of the two dozen or so best players of all time. The NBA is not a democracy.
|  |
|
Garnett, Allen, Pierce, And...
Clearly Boston is the most intriguing team in the East now. Who would pass up the opportunity to play with Garnett, Allen, and Pierce and compete for a championship? Heck, call them the G.A.P. Band. Fill in with the right background guys and they will form one funky group.
| |
|
Three-Quarters Full Or Three-Quarters Empty? The Celtics Surreal World
The optimistic way is to look at the Celtics roster and compare its talent level generically to those of other teams. Specifically, successful NBA teams tend to be successful because they have all-stars that lead them.
|  |
|
Summer League Analysis: Game 1, Vs. Portland
Boston came into the game as underdogs. Due to the dogs underneath for the Celtics, they simply outplayed Portland in the post. Boston used stingy defense against Martell Webster and their strength against Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge and company to cruise to the win.
|  |
|
Ball Of Confusion: Danny’s Strange Night
Could the Sonics get a high lottery pick and a 23 year old starting guard for Ray Allen from any other team in the league? No, hell no. Why did Boston pay so much then?
| |
|
Draft Day Wish List From Celtics Fan Chris Lehane
Democratic political strategist and lifelong Boston Celtics fan Christopher Lehane just gave RealGM his last-minute draft wish list.
| |
|
An Open Letter To Paul Pierce
NBA history is littered with teams that tried to short-circuit the building process through trading valuable assets for a veteran to provide instant improvement. It almost always fails, if the goal is to actually contend for a title.
| |
|
Has Danny Ainge Jumped The Shark?
It is clear the Cs are not close enough to having the talent to win a title that we can afford to trade off our very best young player and/or a lotto pick for a veteran and think we can contend. We need to be patient and wait to make our move in that direction.
|  |
|
30 Teams, 30 Days: Boston Draft Preview
If the C’s aren’t going to trade their pick, they should look to add size to their young, but smallish roster. They have a starting forward in Al Jefferson, but they have been lacking a center ever since the retirement of Robert Parish.
|  |
|
Danny's Worst Moves
Elrod Enchilada has probably been Danny Ainge’s strongest defender, or among them. He believes he has had a coherent strategy to build up the talent level of the team and he has been willing to exercise the necessary patience. He also believes, unlike Peter May, that the team he took over in 2003 had Paul Pierce and not much else.
| |
|
A Dissident Voice: The End Is Not Necessarily Near
Before the Celtics do anything drastic on the trade front, two criteria must be met. First, the Cs should make no trade involving the no. 5 pick overall of any of their good young players unless the deal puts the Cs in legitimate contention (55-60 wins) within two seasons. Second, if a trade cannot meet that first criterion, then it can only be made if it does not reduce our chances to become a contender down the road.
| |
|
Don't Believe The Hype: It Is Oden Or Durant Or Death
The difference between getting an Oden or Durant and the sort of solid guy who makes an occasional all-star team is the difference between Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins or LeBron James and Kirk Hinrich or Tim Duncan and Keith Van Horn or Magic Johnson and Bill Cartwright.
|  |
|
No Time To Panic: Where Do The Cs Kids Stand?
The Celtics are an extremely young team by any standard that has some very intriguing young talent. If this talent develops as it may, this looks to provide the foundation for what may become an excellent team down the road. Toss in a high number one pick and keep Paul Pierce healthy and the future may be coming sooner rather than later.
| |
|
Give Doc His Due
Since arriving in Boston, Doc Rivers has compiled a record of 100-135, with an Atlantic Division title in 2005, which ended in a first round loss the Pacers in seven games. Since that season the Celtics have enjoyed extended summer vacations, and disappointed fans. Who would have thought that to get people to come to a Celtics game they would have to hold post game concerts.
| |
|
Defining NBA Greatness
The NBA Superstar is unlike any other, in any other sport. In football, a superstar is truly at the mercy of his team. In baseball, a player takes but one-ninth of a teams at-bats, and covers only one region of a large playing surface. In some instances, players play only one of every five games, or participate only on offense or defense. In hockey, line shifts make for shorter playing stints, and players thus impact the game for less than half the game time. Basketball, more so than any other, is a superstar’s league.
| |
|
Why The League Should Be Seeing Green At The Draft
David Stern should help the Celtics out, and give them their Len Bias of 2007. The way I see it, I don’t think Big Country will mind too much if the Grizzlies didn’t get the number one pick. He’ll be content going to Oklahoma State games and driving his four wheelers.
| |
|
Why The Celtics Should Consider Keeping A Pat Hand In 07-08
What if the Celtics do not get Greg Oden or Kevin Durant? What if they pick 3-6. Maybe Boston should learn from the recent past and exercise patience. That was a quantity completely lacking in Rick Pitino; hence crazed and insane trades of players like Chauncey Billups and draft picks that became Shawn Marion for immediate relief in the form of Kenny Anderson and Vitaly Potapenko.
| |
|
Celtic Silver Lining: March Report
With Al Jefferson’s development, a healthy Paul Pierce next year, and an added player via the draft or trade, the Celtics look poised to finally break through the mediocrity of the past fifteen years.
| |
|
Anyong Haseyo, Boston Fans!
Life is bleak as a Celtic supporter at the present time. Dannt Ainge doesn't seem to be able to give Paul Pierce the quality help he needs to make Boston a success again. One of the saddest things is the fact that Ainge will now be banking on winning the Draft Lottery and landing Oden or Durant.
| |
|
Make The Trade Danny
Danny Ainge’s youth movement has not progressed as quickly as he had hoped. The Celtics are one of the worst teams in the league. They’ve suffered a losing streak over 10 games. Paul Pierce is still on the shelf with a leg injury, defensive–minded Tony Allen is out for the year with a torn ACL, and no one else on the roster has a pulse.
| |
|
This River’s Dry
There comes a time in every season where the coach takes heat for the demonstrated limitations of his team. Doc Rivers has faced his share of criticism in the past, some merited, and some not, but last night, Doc showed anyone willing to see it, that he is a woefully inadequate game strategist.
| |
|
The Celtics Give Boston Something To Talk About
It’s been a while since Boston, Massachusetts had something to talk about.
Specifically, it’s been since 2004, when the Boston Red Sox ended 80 years of heartache to claim the World Series title.
But as much as Boston is a baseball town, it also holds a special place in its heart for the Boston Celtics.
| |
|
RotoFreak.com: Boston Celtics Fantasy Preview
Paul Pierce no longer is a top-10 fantasy player; however, he's still one of the more attractive options in the 15 to 20th-pick range of drafts. Really, it's the consistency and ironman status that still puts Pierce in the class of fantasy superstars. And you can expect more of the same from Pierce this year.
| |
|
Celtics Starting Spots Up For Grabs
Danny Ainge has turned over half of his roster since the onset of last season, and all he has done is kept head coach Doc Rivers awake all night, trying to figure out which 12 guys are going to make his squad, and more importantly, which five guys will start.
|  |
|
Is A.I. The Answer In Boston?
The most persistent rumor of the off-season has to be Allen Iverson packing his bags and heading to Boston. It was the talk of the town leading up to and after the draft. Some even speculated that Boston was drafting for Philly or making trades in order to satisfy their demands. None of the rumors have come to fruition, but people still believe Boston is the frontrunner to land the services of A.I.
|  |
|
The Long Interregnum: The Celtics Entering Year IV AD (After Danny)
It has now been 20 years since their last title, 18 years since the Cs were legitimate contenders, and 13 years since we were a very good team. That was the summer Kevin McHale retired and Reggie Lewis died. (Oh, I know, some Celtics fans and beat sportswriters wax on about the greatness of the 49 win 2001-02 team, but with every passing day it is clear that that team was a fluke – an overachieving team with marginal talent and no potential for development that exploited what was then an extraordinarily weak Eastern Conference.
| |
|
Danny In The Spotlight: Here Comes The Draft
Danny Ainge on draft day is like Michael Jordan in the finals. It is his moment to shine. It is when he combines his natural talent with the hundreds of lonely hours watching prospects in games and in practices and makes decisions that will shape the future of the franchise for a decade. It is where he takes the talent of Leo Papile and Chris Wallace and merges it with his own judgment.
| |
|
The Danny Challenge: The C's Future And The Magnificent Seven
Let’s assess the progress of Boston's Magnificent Seven based upon this year’s performances, going from centers to point guards, bigs to smalls, with a twist at the end. My assumption is good health. Serious injuries of the kind that end or warp careers are not anticipated in the prognostications.
| |
|
Celtics To Make Parallel Pushes For A Playoff Berth And A Roster Lock
While Sportswriters, Commentators, and Bloggers galore have offered up their ideas about what the Celtic’s management should do—for example whether Danny Ainge should quietly encourage Doc Rivers to fold this season’s hand and become lottery bound, or that Ainge should maintain an identical roster next season—it seems that these questions most likely will be answered on the basketball court.
| |
|
Memo To Danny: Stand Pat This Off-Season
Over the past week, in a series of interviews, Doc, Danny & Paul have each prescribed the personnel needs of the C's for the coming off-season. Each wants to add veterans in general. Each wants to add a veteran back-up point guard. Ands each wants to add a veteran athletic 2 guard who can score coming off the bench. And there has been some talk about adding a veteran back-up big.
| |
|
Rebounding Celtics Rebound On West Coast Trip
If Boston intends to make a playoff push, they’ll have to form a team identity that is resilient enough to stand up for itself when their fans aren’t around to back them up. After all, the Celtics home record is a respectable 16-12.
|  |
|
Put The Pieces Around Poor Paul Pierce
While we’ll soon find out whether Pierce is even still in Boston come the February 23rd trading deadline, if he is, the pieces need to fall into place around him, and quickly. As the All Star game comes and goes, the Celtics are hard-pressed to gain some continuity on their team, some identity, and maybe in the process a prayer of winning on the road.
| |
|
Trigger Happy GM Does it Again
One can almost imagine old buddies, McHale and Ainge, as young whippersnappers, getting together with their basketball cards spread across the floor and swapping evens for the sake of having some fresh cards in this 7-player deal. What exactly does it do for Boston's playoff chances though?
| |
|
Doc Unleashes Two-Headed Monster
Last night Celtics' coach Doc River’s finally let his two-headed monster out of its cage. And no, I am not talking about the sometimes seemingly stat driven scoring duo of Paul Pierce and Ricky Davis — who get plenty of burn — but the inside tandem of Al Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins, tonight off the bench when it mattered against the T-Wolves and combining for 35 points, 14 boards, 4 blocks, and no turnovers.
| |
|
Despite Slow Start Celtics Get ‘A’ For Effort
Don’t let a 1-2 record deceive you, these 2005-06 Boston Celtics are no pushovers. In both losses the game came down to the last shot. Against Detroit it came down to a defensive slipup and a clutch jumper by Rip Hamilton. At Charlotte it came down to an open midrange jumper that Paul Pierce couldn’t hit as overtime wound down. It truly is discouraging to lose back to back close games, but there is hope for Celtics fans. Experts have given good reviews of the Celtics’ talent base but have given fair warning that developing young talent takes time and that this may be a lost season.
|  |
|
Dealing From The Top Of The Deck: The Top 52 Celtics Of All-Time
So ss the 2005-06 season is upon us, it is a good moment to reflect upon the extraordinary history of the Boston Celtics. Elrod Enchilada has compiled the following list of the 52 best players in Celtics history, plus one joker. To qualify for consideration, a player had to be on the Celtics for four full seasons.
| |
|
Aingish Into English
Danny Ainge has made several statements this off-season as to the status of his allegedly disgruntled star Paul Pierce. With only two options, trade or keep, Ainge has been rather tight-lipped with his words. However, in a recent Boston Herald article, Danny Ainge made some interesting statements, albeit covertly. To truly understand these statements, we must understand and analyze the context, and "translate" them from "Ainge-speak" to "Ainge-meaning".
| |
|
Nice Work if You Can Get It: Doc's Rotation Dilemma
Figuring out who will make the 15 man roster is small potatoes compared to the major dilemma Doc Rivers faces in the 05-06 season: determining a viable rotation that puts the best team on the floor and also gets the necessary minutes to young players that deserve and need playing time to develop.
|  |
|
In Defense Of Dickau
Dan Dickau is the latest to join Danny Ainge's Celtics squad. Will the Washington native sink of swim in a Boston uniform? Jared Cantin analyzes Dickau's 2004 numbers to try and answer that very question.
|  |
|
Celtics Still Building Champions
It has been nearly twenty years since the Celtics hoisted number sixteen to the rafters, but fear not C's fans, the Celtics are still building champions.
| |
|
Danny Not Done Dealing?
The Boston Celtics were given an early Christmas present when the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) implemented the “Allen Houston” rule. The Celtics would be wise to apply this rule to Raef LaFrentz's bloated contract.
|  |
|
Talking Trades In Boston
While other teams have made aggressive moves, Boston GM Danny Ainge has stood pat, and not moved any players. The only acquisition has been the mediocre signing of Brian Scalabrine. Like Ryan Bennett has stated many times before Boston really needs to rebuild. Some of the players that Bostonians are looking to, to be big time players in the future, haven’t convinced him yet.
|  |
|
Got The Coin For Toine? Antoine Walker Destinations
With a lot of the Boston Celtics’ off-season rumours focusing on the Celtics’ plans for Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker has quietly been involved in a few rumours. Most notably with Houston, New York and now Sacramento.
| |
|
Update On Celtics’ Off-Season
In the beautiful words of Karen Carpenter, “We’ve only just begun” the off-season, but rumours are aplenty. Rumours of potential Antoine Walker suitors, Gary Payton suitors and Paul Pierce destinations have been in abundance across Internet message boards and chat rooms.
| |
|
Celtics’ Draft Makes Others Green With Envy
Hang on, I shouldn’t be saying oh no, my Boston Celtics have picked Gerald Green; this is great! Green is said to be a lot like Tracy McGrady, well goodbye Paul Pierce. At pick 50, the Celtics nabbed Ryan Gomes from Providence. Gomes is a great addition and should be able to step inot 10-15 minutes per game straight away.
|  |
|
Another Great Ainge Draft?
Ryan Bennett suggests a Boston draft night trade of Paul Pierce can create one of the best young teams in the NBA, a team that can get the Celtics back to the dominance they enjoyed from the 80's on back.
| |
|
Paul Pierce Trade Checker Destinations
It is almost inevitable that Pierce gets traded, especially after his prima donna playoff performance against the Pacers. Here are the offers that the Celtics are likely to get. This does not mean that this will be accepted; it is the opinion of this author and his trusty sidekick, RealGM’s trade checker. After each trade, Ryan Bennett has rated the likelihood of the trade occurring, according to both team’s wishes.
| |
|
Does Ainge Have Another Ace Up His Sleeve For This Year's Draft?
Just two short seasons ago, Boston was strapped with three max players, an aging group of vets, little depth, and multiple unsuccessful draft prospects. No longer are those days, because while the success has come slightly less, there is hope for this team. We are young. How young? The youngest team in the playoffs kind of young.
| |
|
The Fate Of The Celtics Franchise: Keep Antoine Or Not
During the summer of '05 Danny Ainge will be faced with a choice to make. Let's call this the question. The great question of these Boston Celtics. Do we keep Antoine Walker? Complicated is the answer and in this game of chess we call personnel moves, Ainge has three options: Let Antoine walk, work out a sign-and-trade with Antoine or re-sign him.
| |
|
This Ain’t No Summer of Love: Danny Ainge’s Moment of Truth
Two-thirds of the way through the Celtics 2004-05 season, serious fans had a quiet confidence about the team. The team was a .500 team, true, but it was chock full of talented young players. If only a couple of them panned out as quality starters the team would be on solid footing.
| |
|
Pierce Nearly Joins Boston Infamy
Bill Buckner was an overtime away from having company in Boston sports-lore. Paul Pierce displaying the second largest choke in Boston history, nearly sent the Celtics home for the Summer.
| |
|
Celtics Roll In ATL, Prepare For Philly
Can you really have a “showdown” with a sub-.500 team? That’s the question the Celtics will try and answer tomorrow when they host the 76ers in Boston.
| |
|
Celtics Try to Rebound
Paul Pierce and the Celtics are trying to get back on track.
| |
|
Celtics ready to take show on the road
The Celtics play the Rockets friday night in Houston to kick off a three game road trip.
| |
|
Celtics Squeeze Past Defending Champs
The Celtics defeated the Pistons in Boston Friday night in double overtime.
| |
|
Fan Article: Why I Love The Celtics
In a perfect world the Boston Celtics would win the NBA Championship every year.
| |
|
Hold Off On The Swagger
Can the Celtics compete in the Eastern Conference?
| |
|
Trade Deadline Poker
With the all-star break and the trade deadline quickly approaching, the Celtics find themselves at a crossroads.
| |
|
Ainge Ascendant: From Dark Ages to Renaissance?
It is difficult to write with too much authority on an era that is not yet two seasons old. But what we can do is judge Ainge by his vision, compare that vision to his predecessors, and then make a tentative evaluation of his execution of the vision.
| |
|
Putting Ainge in Context II: Trudging Through the Dark Ages
This week we move from Celtics Empire to the Dark Ages, as we evaluate the various efforts of the Cs to rebuild in the years following the 1986 championship to the hiring of Danny Ainge in 2003.
| |
|
Jefferson and Pierce Pace Celtics
| |
|
Putting Ainge in Context: Red Auerbach and Empire Building
| |
|
NBA Rort
| |
|
Jason Ouellette
| |
|
Wallace, Celtics take Huge Gamble
| |
|
Young Celtics Show their Stuff
| |
|
A Grande Old Time
| |
|
Offseason To Do List
| |
|
Welcome to the Jungle
| |
|
The Green Renaissance
| |
|
The Little Guys
| |
|
Celtics on the right side of this blowout
| |
|
Celts almost blow a Golden Opportunity
| |
|
Big Ben Dominates Boards, C’s Drop Second Straight
| |
|
Red hot Celtics burn down Nets
| |
|
How Sweep it is
| |
|
Shellacking of the Finest
| |
|
Uhhhhh!
| |
|
Celtics woes rest with Anderson
| |
|
Celtophiles of the world-
| |
|
Celtophiles-
| |
|
Celtics a different team with new found Veteran Leadership
| |
|
Eric Maynor is an increasingly rare four-year, small college rookie. He sat down with RealGM to discuss how his first few weeks of NBA life has gone and what he has learned from Deron Williams and Jerry Sloan.
LeBron James already plays for a perennial underdog in Cleveland, but moving to the Clippers would allow him to do so in a huge market and with a core that will immediately compete for championships while also having an encouraging long term outlook.
The Heat have been plagued by inconsistencies, making it difficult to determine how good they really are this season.
After a week that included wins against Denver and Boston, people around the league are starting to get the feeling that this Hawks team might be better than initially thought.
After losing their first three games of the season, Indiana has rattled off four consecutive victories with their defense being surprisingly as strong as their offense. 
The Warriors unloaded Stephen Jackson before he cratered his trade value and now Don Nelson gets to use a simplified rotation as they try to turnaround their season.
For a team that has every reason to question the direction of the franchise, the New Orleans Hornets are actually saying all the right things.
Arron Afflalo spoke to RealGM about how he is making the most of his new opportunity with the Denver Nuggets.
The 08-09 Blazers transitioned into a young, perennial playoff team and they will need to prove themselves to be a fringe championship contender this season before competing for that distinction in earnest during the 10-11 season.
The Washington Wizards are probably the toughest team to predict in the NBA this season, but we saw good indicators despite a rough night against Atlanta. 
The Lakers have the best team in the NBA by a fairly wide margin and are the prohibitive favorites to repeat. Phil Jackson's toughest job will be to keep a team this good interested for the 100+ games they'll play this season.