AFC Offseason Burning Questions

NBA Trade Deadline Winners and Losers Over the years, the NBA has gotten the reputation as a league afraid of major trades. In baseball, we've seen headliners like Randy Johnson moved at the deadline and there are so many deadline deals in the NHL every year it is tough to keep them all straight. The NBA, well, not so much. This year's biggest deadline deal was one that didn't even happen. Let's take a look at a few teams that improved and a few that look worse for wear.

 

Winners:

Orlando

Bad news from Orlando just a few weeks ago, the Magic's promising season looked to be headed south thanks to an untimely injury to former St. Joe's guard Jameer Nelson, but the Magic front office stepped up and swung a deal for the Rockets Rafer Alston. Now, no one is going to confuse Alston's game for Nelson's, especially since Nelson is turning into a far better pro player than many expected, but it does help stem the flow of blood and with the kind of season that Dwight Howard is having, it will be enough to keep things rolling in O-Town.

New York

The Knicks sent a whole bunch of players out of town for what amounts to a selection of expiring contracts. This is, of course, good for two reasons. The fewer of Isiah Thomas' players that are on that roster, the better, and the Knicks continue to work towards clearing as much cap room as humanly possible for a possible run at LeBron James and a host of other potential 2010 free agents. How would you like to be a Knicks season ticket holder this year or next? The team's actual governing philosophy is to stink as much as possible over the next two years to clear as much cap space as possible for a season two years down the road. Simply incredible the NBA front office is letting this happen.

 

Losers:

New Orleans

Yikes. What happens when you try to trade one of your best players for no other reason other than money, only to have the opposing owner make up a fake failed physical so they don't get saddled with his contract either? That's exactly what happened in New Orleans when a perfectly healthy Tyson Chandler was sent to the new fangled Oklahoma City Thunder, only to have him returned with postage due. Of course, the Hornets front office was more than happy in their press release to take Chandler back, but that team's future is in serious doubt. If ESPN personality Bill Simmons is right and the coming financial apocalypse is coming, you can bet the Hornets will be the first team sending up the white flag.

Phoenix

Although Phoenix stood pat on the trade deadline, they apparently were shopping one of their best players, again, strictly for financial reasons, only to have all trades fall through and then learn that the guy they were trying to trade is now out for the rest of the year. It seems sometimes that if the Phoenix Suns and Amare Stoudemire didn't have bad luck, they wouldn't have any luck at all. They struggle most of the season under new coach Terry Porter, fire him, hire anew coach and score an ungodly amount of points over the first few games only to lose Amare. Worst of all, even if Phoenix had known about the injury to Stoudemire, they likely wouldn't have moved to replace him because of the team's weak financial standing. It is a tough time to be a basketball fan in the desert.

 

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