Chicago are buggered this year thanks to the Rose injury. Top 4 in the East will be Miami, Boston, Philly & Indy.

Rose will be back for the playoffs. Still a great defensive team without him as they proved last year. Losing Asik will affect them slightly. Shaq agrees anyhow. That's good enough for me.

McRoberts went to Orlando didn't he?

And Hill went to the Clippers?

Signing Jamison before the trade was huge for the Lakers, gives their second unit a huge boost which would have been their weakness behind that awesome starting unit.

Big question for the Lakers will be how unselfish is Kobe going to be?

Nash will make plays for everybody if he's given the keys, but if it becomes Kobe throwing random shots from everywhere on the court like he did for spells this season, they will really struggle to make it happen.

Do you think they'll try and get rid of Gasol?

Jordan Hill is a great second unit guy. McRoberts is gone, I didn't know he'd been added to trade. Jamison will play the four with the talented Ebanks playing the three. Still a very strong second unit. Oh, and we signed Jodie Meeks who is a great 3 point shooter and above average defensive player.

Howard
Gasol
Artest
Bryant
Nash

Hill
Jamison
Ebanks
Meeks
Blake

Sacre
Odom-Johnson
Morris

Gasol won't get traded either Roddy , watching Pau run the pick n roll with Nash will be awesome. I did think they would try though, he was part of one of the rumoured packages for Dwight as the Lakers were hoping to get rid of the 38.5 he's owed over the next two years,

Apologies fella, forgot about Jordan Hill. Has he re-signed yet? Thought he was heading to T'Wolves at one point. I don't rate Ebanks though, or Blake. I suppose the thing is you could still just effectively split your starting unit in half and play them with scrubs and you'd still win most games.


Do not understand why Orlando did this though, the Brooklyn trade that was offered got them better young players, as well as 4 1st round DP. Think they just did it to spite Dwight.

I'm going to give you something to look out for, I may be wrong but I will put it out there. There is no way that Dwight Howard will sign an extension with the lakers, I think you will already know why as he will be looking for the 5 year max deal which he can only sign as a free agent and resign with his current team, so expect him to hit free agency like D-Will did and return to LA. he will then be hitting his next free agency period at age 31 when he should be able to command another max deal(teams typically don't give max deals to players over this age). Andrew Bynum is a different story, he won't hit free agency and will only want a 4 year deal and not the max Dwight will be looking for. The reason why you ask? It's because if he were to sign the five year max deal it would take him past the 31 years old marker thus preventing him from getting a second max contract, so by signing the four year deal he would hit free agency before age 31 and before the CBA can be collectively bargained again, he would have also accumulated more service in the league giving him a better max deal. Now you're wondering why he hasn't signed an extension straight away? Right, the reason he hasn't yet signed one with the Sixers is because he has to be there for 6 months before signing the extension, the reason he didn't sign the extension with the Lakers is because had he done so then the Lakers would not have been able to trade him for six months. It work's the other way.

I hope that make's sense.

Fantasy being done again this year?

That trade right there is the exact reason why the Thunder will stay relevant for as long as Presti is the GM.

Kevin Martin is good, not as good as Harden, but he's good. Jeremy Lamb has the potential to be great (Imo).

Add in 2 firsts and a second, and that's an awesome deal for a player who was the 3rd best on your team.

Not too sure, you know. Harden is a beast and he was always reliable to change a game for them. Martin isn't a great player, he's an erratic shooter who'll play off Durant and Westbrook well, but won't play as well as Harden. Harden was a creator, a potential superstar. The only reason he's gone is because they probably can't fit him under the cap (Durant, Perkins, Ibaka and Westbrook are all earners).

I like Lamb, I can see what they like about him, he's long and smooth and could work out a good but different player to Harden. He's long and slim and he won't make plays like Harden, but he could work out a better defender and a better fit for the Thunder. We'll see, but I don't like Kevin Martin, especially as they already have Thabo to start. IMO, it won't be long before Martin is traded.

Perhaps, I can see your point about Martin. I think Lamb is the real gem in the deal.

At worst Martin will score 15 ppg this year and leave at the end, freeing up some cap space for them.

There was no way they could resign Harden imo, even at the 13mil a year deal they were looking they'd have been totally hamstrung for the foreseeable future.

Lamb could be a good player, but come on, he scraped into the lottery of a draft with only one superstar. Yes, he probably dropped a few places lower than his ability suggested, but Harden is easily looking like the second best player from the 2009 draft, easily the best guard and a likely all star throughout his career. The Thunder would have been better trying to get rid of Perkins and doing whatever it took to tie down Harden. They're still a good side, but Durant will now have to step into a playmaking role, he'll have to pass the ball more and I'm still not convinced he can take over a game in that playmaking sense. Westbrook can't do it, IMO the player that would have been their go-to player for creating plays in the clutch would have been Harden this season. Durant would have took the shots but Harden would have been setting up the play.

Westbrook is a good player but his greatest weakness remains his lack of natural playmaking ability. His numbers are great, his effort is great but he can often cause more harm than good with his selfish style of play. Harden added the balance needed between Durant and Westbrook, for me the Thunder have lost an awful lot.

I'll put my neck on the line, and probably be wrong, but I think Harden was so successful because he wasn't ever the no. 1 target for the defence. You saw what happened when Miami targeted him in the playoffs.

Of course, but his numbers speak for themselves. His skill set is fantastic and he still has huge room for improvement. He isn't a lights out athlete but he's such a skilled player. He was easily the best '6' in the league and he's easily one of the best SGs. Bearing in mind he still has 10+ years left in his career, I can see him easily being a regular all star throughout his career and easily a franchise player.

But he ain't gonna be a "6" in Houston. He's gonna start, and be the number 1 option.