Damnnn, the Rockets apparantley got Ron Artest for at least Bobby Jackson's expiring, a 1st, some other details like if they took back Kenny Thomas's bad contract or if the Kings got Donte Green or something, haven't been revealed. If TMac doesn't get out of the first round now...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5914062.html

I actually think getting pretty much nothing back might be good for the Kings. If they took the Howard/Bass deal they'd probably end up around in the 10th-14th pick range again for the next couple years. They're better off being terrible.

Lots of talk of a Sacramento-Chicago deal now, something like Miller and Salmons for Nocioni, Noah and a 1st or something. Chicago getting Miller would work because he's an 11 mil expiring in the 2010 year, and Chicago, being such a sexy market for a big name FA, which is only added to with Rose, Deng, Gordon as young studs to play with, could probably add an Amare or Bosh or something and be contenders.

I think the Kings also realize that with everyone having capspace that year, nobody will want to play in Sacramento. So they might as well try to get assets for Miller now and then maybe look towards a signing in a later year with less competition.

Finally, Rockets did something. Assuming they keep Battier, that's going to be one tough lineup trying to score on, and Artest is a much better offensive player.

If only the Rockets will learn how to score, they'd make it farther than the first round easy.

The schedule was released not that long ago

http://www.nba.com/news/schedule_080806.html

National TV rundown:


Cleveland getting twice as many as New Orleans = Denver even got more.

Opening game is Cleveland vs Boston.

Portland starts with 16 of 24 on the road. Nice welcome for Oden. San Antonio has an 11 of 12/14 of 18 road stretch in January-ish too.

5 games on Christmas (Magic vs Hornets, Suns vs Spurs, Celtics vs Lakers, Washington vs Cleveland, Dallas vs Portland)

Memphis offered Josh Smith a 5 year/58 mil offer sheet, if he accepts it Atlanta has 7 days to match. I think they will, but it's too bad, Conley/Mayo/Gay/Smith/Gasol would've been a pretty awesome young group for the Griz... they deserve to get off the mat. It'd also totally change the complexion of the Gasol heist.

Atlanta matched it

Sixers sign Iguodala to a 6 year 80 mil contract, or 13 mil+ per year. Awful contract IMO... I would've gaven Iggy 10 mil at best.

edit - I guess it's one of those 72 mil guaranteed + incentives, though I still think it's too much at 72

Also apparantley there's a deal pretty close to being done where Cleveland would get Mo Williams in a 3 way trade with Milwaukee and Oklahoma City, the Bucks would get Luke Ridnour and OKC would get Joe Smith's expiring contract.

^ Done deal, Cleveland gets Mo Williams, Milwaukee gets Luke Ridnour plus Damon Jones and Adrian Griffin's expirings adding up to about 6.1 mil, OKC gets Joe Smith and Desmond Mason, 10.1 mil of expirings.

No shit; Mo Williams is money. He could be the guy LeBron needed.

I doubt LBJ can win even with Mo Williams. But its the best deal done by cavs.

Still favorites are celts, lakers and spurs. rockets should be the dark horse with ron artest. But they have been a dark horse for a while and they have not even crossed 1st round.

The Cavs gave us the best fight of any team in the playoffs; hell LA was the easiest

LeBron with somebody with talent will be tough to beat; James is far and away the best player in the league anybody who says otherwise is kidding themslves; bball is the ultimate team sport and yet 1 man is beating 5. Unreal.

celts made heavy weather of beating hawks. That does not make hawks elite. Just that celts were very tentative in playoffs and peaked with ECF.

Lakers on the other hand peaked too early and were awful during finals. Still they should have won game 3 and were leading during game 1 as well. I think they are getting the best boost with bynum coming back. Cant wait for Bynum/Gasol/Odom/Bryant/Fisher tandem on court.

Problem with players with LBJ is that they tend to regress playing with him. Larry Hughes was very good in his last year at wizards but played awful with LBJ. Infact I cant think of any veteren who played their best with LBJ. Mo williams IMO regressed after signing a fat contract.

At least having Mo Will will get some point guard duties off LeBron's back. Good move by the Cavs, and Milwaukee, actually. If Ramon Sessions is as good as the late season indicated, losing Mo Will can only allow him to develop more into a great PG.

They better keep West at 2 guard. That backcourt would be solid.

Even though it would've been nice if a member of the Celtics had particpated in the Olympics, what happened to Ginobili reminds me that it's probably best that none of them are on the team. Hopefully Ginobili is okay, but from what I've been reading it doesn't look too good.

I hope he never plays again. He's an ass.

Then again I'm not a Suns fan and have nothing against the Spurs. If I were, I'd probably be in the same boat as you.

Yeah, I am a fan of only Knicks, and I just wish painful death to every other player not playing for them.

And probably sometimes when they do play for them.

Now that the Olympics is over, am I the only one salivating for this season to start? I serioulsy cannot wait to see my team shine, given the depth of talent it has.

A starting lineup of:

PG - Steve Blake - steady veteran who rarely makes mistakes
SG - Brandon Roy - 'nuf said
SF - Martell Webster - stretches the floor and has crazy athleticism
PF - LaMarcus Aldridge - will no longer demand double teams as often thanks to...
C - Greg Oden - hell yes! especially if he's half as good as the hype indicates

Then, a bench of:

Jerryd Bayless - arguably the best player in the summer league, which may not say a lot, but I'm confident
Rudy Fernandez - those who saw the Spain-USA gold medal game would know what he's capable of competing against the best of the best
Travis Outlaw - amazing scorer off the bench who's quite clutch
Channing Frye - a 6'11" jump shooter who can rebound
Joel Pryzbilla - crazy rebounder and above average paint defender

yeahhhh, I think everyone is envious at Portland at this point. Especially us (the Raptors). We would've had Oden if the "can't draft out of high school" rule didn't come into effect the year we got #1, and Alderidge and Roy were the two players we should've picked with that #1 when it did. I'm gonna cry if those 3 win like 5 titles in the next 10 years.

Thank god they're in the West where they can win 55 games and not make the playoffs.

OKC logo maybe/probably leaked:

http://nbaokc.blogspot.com/2008/08/huge-logo-leak.html