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2012 NBA Draft and Offseason Blog

Written by Paul Banks of the Washington Times, and David Kay of the The Sports Bank.
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2012 NBA Offseason Losers - July 21

Houston Rockets
Basically, everything general manager Daryl Morey has done this offseason revolved around the longshot of landing Dwight Howard via trade from Orlando, even though Houston is not one of Howard's desired destinations and there is no guarantee he would sign a long-term extension with the team. The Rockets even amnestied their best player, Luis Scola, rather than trying to trade him for some assets, simply so the team could clear about $30 million in cap space over the next three years.

On top of that, Houston gave a 3-year, $25 million contract to Omer Asik, who has career averages of 2.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Morey also bought into Linsanity - literally - by signing Jeremy Lin to a 3-year deal that will net him $14.8 million in 2014-15.

I didn't really love the Rockets' draft either. I'm not sold on Jeremy Lamb and picking Royce White and Terrence Jones now gives the team about five combo forwards on its roster. Houston has set itself up to have a ton of cap space for next summer and, potentially, three first-round draft picks, including the one landed from Toronto in exchange for Kyle Lowry.

Glass-half empty though; Morey doesn't exactly have a great track record recently with acquiring young assets. So now, the Rockets enter next season with a likely starting five of Asik, Patrick Patterson, Chandler Parsons, Kevin Martin and Lin, and is a massive loser in the offseason.

Indiana Pacers
Larry Bird's regime in Indiana was predicated around building the franchise through smart decisions, not overpaying free agents, and drafting wisely. Bird left, Kevin Pritchard took over as general manager, and that blueprint flew right out the window.

I understand the Pacers were backed into a corner and pretty much had to match the max offer sheet that the Blazers threw at Roy Hibbert. An amount of $58 million is a lot to give him for the next four seasons, but big men are constantly overpaid in the NBA - see: Omer Asik.

What didn't make any sense to me was trading a starting-caliber point guard, Darren Collison, to Dallas in a sign-and-trade deal for another center, Ian Mahinmi, just days after Indiania wasted its first-round pick on Miles Plumlee. That deal will net Mahinmi, who has averaged 4.4 points and 3.1 rebounds per game during his four year career, $16 million over the next four years. The Pacers did also add some smaller pieces to improve their depth in the backcourt, but I can't look past the moves they made to "bolster" their frontcourt.

Milwaukee Bucks
Perhaps nobody reaped the benefits of having a career year during his free agent season than Ersan Ilyasova. He had a terrific performance in 2011-12 and parlayed that into a 5-year, $45 million deal this summer.

That's a lot to pay Ilyasova, especially when just days before the Bucks drafted another power forward, John Henson. Ilyasova does give Milwaukee an effective stretch four, but now the team has a logjam at power forward which includes its lottery pick, who likely won't crack the rotation.

The Bucks also didn't do anything to improve the small forward position even though Carlos Delfino is a free agent. Therefore, they enter next season with some sort of rotation between Luc Richard Mbah a Moute - another defensive minded, offensively challenged, long forward -, Mike Dunleavy and second-year player Tobias Harris, who didn't show much during his rookie season.

With Monta Ellis holding a player option on the final year of his deal next summer and Brandon Jennings becoming a restricted free agent, Milwaukee needed to add better pieces around its explosive guard duo; I can't say the Bucks succeeded in improving as a basketball team. They did get a great second-round value in Doron Lamb, though and actually added a true center in Samuel Dalembert.

Fitz 06-18-2011 01:51 am xxx.xxx.xxx3.52 (total posts: 3)

Well the Tristan Thompson article is good.

The Hamilton Article has one mistake.In the 1st paragraph it says, "there are concerns about him about him being dialed in..." You put "about him" twice.

Walter 06-17-2011 01:52 am xxx.xxx.xxx4.88 (total posts: 10)

Haha thanks for that. I definitely won't hate you for it. It's hard to proofread at 2 am.

Fitz 06-16-2011 03:46 am xxx.xxx.xxx3.52 (total posts: 3)

Yea i understand. Gotta make that paper ha.

Btw, in the last paragraph of the Singleton article it needs to say, "never will BE a star". Right now its says, "never will a star".

I decided I'm gonna keep gonna keep correcting your articles until you start hating me

Walter 06-14-2011 01:28 am xxx.xxx.xxx4.88 (total posts: 10)

Haha definitely not my morals. It's what the advertisers and Google want, and since this is my main source of income, I have to do as they say.

Fitz 06-13-2011 02:17 pm xxx.xxx.xxx3.52 (total posts: 3)

Yea I figured it was probably just bad grammar on Liggins' part but I figured I would correct it just in case.

You cant say anything with a** in it or sh*t and a few others such as d*ck and so on and so forth. I understand if you have to do it because of advertisers and things like that, but I hope it's not because of your morals haha

Walter 06-13-2011 01:42 am xxx.xxx.xxx4.88 (total posts: 10)

Thanks, Fitz. I made some of the corrections.

Two of them were wrong though because that's how the quote was said. You should never fix the grammar in the quote if that's how the player said it.

What specific filter are you talking about?

Fitz 06-11-2011 11:55 pm xxx.xxx.xxx3.79 (total posts: 3)

*Hands instead of hand.

Haha i f'ed up while correcting your f ups. And you need to get rid of the bad language filter on here imo. It's annoying

Fitz 06-11-2011 11:52 pm xxx.xxx.xxx3.79 (total posts: 3)

Walt- Well the first sentence did say Every year i scratch at instead of scratch my head at, but i guess u just fixed that recently.

In the 3rd paragraph you say "the extremely talent bunch of recruits coming to Kentucky...". It should be TALENTED bunch

5th paragraph- "We had other guys who more highly recruited than me..." Should be "other guys who WERE more highly recruited than me"

7th paragraph- "but he never showed a consistency in attacking the basket." you need to take out the A.

8th paragraph- Hands instead of hands in " I didn't have the ball in my hand a lot"

I'm not trying to be a grammar nazi btw. Just trying to help out.

JimB 06-11-2011 09:13 am xxx.xxx.xxx1.14 (total posts: 1)

I believe he'll get drafted. His offense has improved year after year, he keeps improving his all around game and is reasonably athletic. I watched him play a lot at KY and his D is top notch. What team wouldn't want a wing player to come in off the bench and defend tirelessly and well, rebound, scrap for loose balls, and score if left open. He's the perfect player for that role, and a team first player as well. 2nd round to the Knicks or Celtics....

Walter 06-11-2011 01:15 am xxx.xxx.xxx4.88 (total posts: 10)

Where are the errors?

Fitz 06-10-2011 03:30 pm xxx.xxx.xxx3.79 (total posts: 3)

Walt, did you really edit this? Because there are still a ton of errors. If you ever want someone to proofread your stuff I'll be more than happy to. It's part of my job so I know what I'm doing. And trust me, you need it ha.

Walter 06-07-2011 01:28 am xxx.xxx.xxx4.88 (total posts: 10)

LOL nice pick-up, Jay. I didn't notice that when I edited it.

Jay 06-05-2011 02:51 am xxx.xxx.xxx.226 (total posts: 1)

Lol "an honest guy without an honest opinion,".
Was that a typo or just a hilarious flub by Morris?

nycsportzfan 05-28-2011 01:57 pm xxx.xxx.xxx7.20 (total posts: 1)

Faried Sucks??LOL ya, the all time college rebounder, really sucks..lol Good analysis, moron.

vbsiena 05-21-2011 09:48 am xxx.xxx.xxx9.94 (total posts: 2)

Faried sucks. A one trick pony who is on 6'6". Way to undersides for the 4. He's no Ben Wallace or Dennis Rodman. I don

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2012 NBA Draft and Offseason Blog

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