Gold Medal Game: Spain vs. USA

	USA beats  Argentina 101 - 81
	Wow! The United States had a tougher than expect fight against an Argentinean team that only had Manu for 6 minutes of action, eventually winning 101 - 81. Luis Scola had a great game for his nation, with 28 points, 11 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Carlos Delfino added 17 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals to the cause -- though his shooting percentages were inefficient (33.3 fg%, 30.0 3pt%) to say the least. The American side was, once again, a balanced attack that features 7 players in double figure scoring (Anthony 21, James 15, Wade 12, Bryant 12, Paul 12, Bosh 11, Howard 10). The USA team won the battle of the glass 43 to 32, but that was really it. Both teams shot in the mid 40s (Argentina 44.1%, USA 47.1%); and both teams had the same number of turn overs (Argentina 16, USA 15) -- the difference, though, was the surprising proficiency the Americans had at the three point line (they made 10 threes this game, while Argentina only made 6), and the fact that the free throw disparity was ridiculous. Argentina went to the FT line 16 times and made 15 of them. The United States went to the free throw line 36 times (and made 27 of them). I didn't watch the game, so I don't know how it went -- but the more aggressive team usually gets to the line more. The boxscore suggests that this team was the USA.
	Spain beats Lithuania 91 - 86
	The other game ended up being (to me at the very least) an upset victory by Spain over Lithuania. Sure, Spain has all of those high profile players, but Lithuania is (usually) a better team. (Lithuania is like the Detroit Pistons -- they are always at the final four stage, but hardly ever break through) Spain was up by 2 at the end of the 1st quarter. Then Lithuania was up by 2 at the half. Then Lithuania goes up by 4 at the end of three. Spain had a 4th quarter come back and ended up outscoring the Lithuanians by 9 to finish the game with the 91 - 86 win. The first thing that is interesting is that Spain wins by 5 points in a game where Lithuanian workhorse Linas Kleiza plays only 11 minutes and doesn't score at all. Why is this important? It is because in previous games this Olympics he had scored 13 (+ game winner), 22, 18, 12 and 15 points. He was a major cog for this team -- and despite his absence (due to an ejection early in the game), the Lithuanians were able to go into the 4th quarter with the lead.
	Spain was, of course, playing without Jose Calderon, so it should cancel out, right? (Except Spain is deeper at PG than Lithuania is behind Kleiza) Raul Lopez had 7 points, 3 assists and 2 steals for Spain, and Ricky Rubio had 4 points and 4 assists in Calderon's absence. Together they also totaled 8 rebounds -- not too shabby from your 2nd and 3rd string point guards. Aside from that, the usual suspects did their things (Pau Gasol had 19, Rudy Fernandez with 18, Sarunas Jasikevicius had 19 and 6 assists, and Simas Jasaitis had 19 points and 8 rebounds)

I fully expect Lithuania to win the Bronze now, especially how close they got to the Gold Medal game, this is a certainty if Manu can't play in that game. As for the big show, well, you have to think that the USA team will try to embarrass Spain a 2nd time on their way towards achieving International redemption.

Team Russia дерьмо кровать !!!

Game 1: 102 - 61

Greece (2-2) put an Olympic sized beat down on Angola (0-4) and really, Angola is not doing well in this tournament at all. The Greeks shot 58.7 % for the game, while Angola shot 39.1 %. Greece was only up by 1 after the first quarter, but scored 69 points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters -- which would have still beaten Angola by 8. Looking at the box score it was a very dominant showing by Greece -- made even more so by the fact that Angola elected to only play their bench guys significant minutes in this game. For example, Carlos Morais, one of the top scorers in the entire tournament, did not even play a single minute in this game.

Game 2: 95 - 80

According to Google.com, that means sh!t the bed in Russian. And that's exactly what Team Russia (1-3)did getting beat down by Australia (2-2) by 15. Things aren't looking good for Andrei and crew, as they have only 5 points to their names. If they advance they are going to have to face either the mighty United States team or Team Spain -- who may have some unfinished business to help motivate them.

Australia D upped Russia pretty bad, forcing them into shooting 44.4% from the field and causing 16 turn overs. Andrew Bogut and C. J. Bruton both scored 22 for Australia, and won the game in the 1st quarter (27-16), Russia didn't get it going and faced an uphill climb from there. Holden had 20 points and 6 assists for Russia, and Viktor Khryapa finally showed up making all 6 of this three point attempts, while pulling down 9 boards and swatting 2 shots -- he led team Russia with 21. Andrei shot horribly, 1-10 in the game, he made all of his FTs this time around, and still managed 6 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block. If Russia can get their good players to play well in the same game, they can beat any team. So far it has not happened in this tournament. After this type of upset loss, I don't know if Russia can still get back on track.

Game 3: 86 - 73

Lithuania restored order to the universe by knocking Croatia down a bit, the Lithuanians are 4-0 in this tournament and are looking at the podium. Croatia is down to 2-2 and depending on how things turn out in the last of the round-robin stage, may not advance. Croatia was actually up by 4 going into the final quarter, but Lithuania won that handedly (28-11), and did so in a convincing fashion. Ukic, owned by the Toronto Raptors, led his team with 13 points but shot abysmally -- 38.5% (which was still better than what Andrei brought to the table the last two games). Zoran had 11 but only played 16 minutes for some reason. Croatia's torrid shooting from deep finally cooled down, as they went 5/17.

Lithuania's balanced attack continues to roll on, Mindaugas Lukauskis had 20, Kleiza had 18 and Simas Jasaitis had 12. Sarunas Jasikevicius has 6 assists. Lukauskis and Kleiza gave Croatia a taste of their own medicine, going a combined 7/10 from three.

Game 4: 97 - 82

Argentina (2-2) took care of business against Team Iran (0-4) by 15. "Who's your" Ehadadi continues to play well, having a 21 and 16 game. Team Captain MSNB shot poorly, as he was the focus of the Argentinean defense. Hamed Afagh nailed four threes on his way to 19 points. But really, it was the Manu show -- 32 points (71.4 % shooting), 4 threes, 4 assists, 3 boards and a steal and a block. Luis Scola added 20 points and 7 rebounds and 2 steals. Guys like Oberto, Delfino and Nocioni didn't even have to shoot more than 13 entire times because Manu took care of business early.

Game 5: 59 - 55

China (2-2) holds on to win against the German (1-3) team -- proving to the world that Germany is a paper tiger after all. This was a Yao Ming vs. Dirk Nowitzki battle. Dirk had 24 points and 17 rebounds. Yao had 25 and 11 -- but more importantly, the win. China was up by 10 after the end of one. Germany stormed back to hold a 4 point lead at half. China erased that lead with a 20-8 3rd quarter. In the end, Germany did not have enough to pull out the come from behind win, eventually losing by 5. Germany made all 13 of their free throws, and China went to the line 21 times. Hmmmmm. Chris Kaman had 10 and 12, but no one else really showed up for Germany. Yi Jianlian had 9 and 11 for China.

Game 6: 119 - 82

There really isn't much to say about this game . . . LeBron James had 18 / 5 / 8 / 4, and eight guys scored at least 10 points for the good guys. The United States won each quarter 31-22, 30-23, 25-18 and 33-19 and Spain managed to shoot 39.4% for the game. They also were hounded into 28 turn overs. I have a very hard time conceptualizing a way that this, so called, 'Redeem Team' loses this tournament.

Olympic Ball Previews: 2nd games

I need to re-evaluate how I was listing my games. (As seen in the last post which suggests that those 6 games were over 2 days --- which they were if you follow the rules suggested by Sir Sanford Fleming in terms of this hypothetical international date line) Now I'm just going to blog about it in a different way -- so behold: the preview for the 2nd games for each team!

Here are the games comin' up:

• Lithuania (1-0) vs. Iran (0-1) [11.08.08 -- 9:00 PM EST]: I really want to like the Iranian team. They have heart and they have class. They aren't bad guys, they are guys who just want to play ball and represent their country. One of their best players recently died in a car accident (his brother is the star of their squad, Mohammad Samad Nikkhah Bahrami), and that's gotta totally suck. They are a quick, fast team that is very Golden State-like in that they live by the long ball and die by it too. Their stamina and depth are in question, and will not be able to handle the assassin like tenacity and cold blooded decision making ability of Lithuania. It wouldn't surprise me to see Ramunas Siskauskas or Sarunas Jasikevicius totally own the Iranians. They may have to put Linas Kleiza (hero of game 1) on Hamed 'Who's your daddy?' Ehadadi who is very long and very fast for a bigman. Lithuania should win this game going away.
• Russia (1-0) vs. Croatia (1-0) [11.08.08 -- 11:15 PM EST]: These two teams have a recent history of good games. Croatia is the (obviously) more talented offensive squad, while Team Russia is all about their shifting zone defense. If you haven't seen Russia play let me explain why what they do is effective. They are all long and quick. The whole point of the defense is to get a hand on passes and make deflections that result in steals for their side, and turn overs for the other team. Getting a steal (hypothetically) every 4th or 5th time on defense doesn't seem like much in a 100 possession game -- but Russia slows it down and grinds it out so it makes it that much more important to handle the ball (kinda like those "Czar of the Telestrator" Mike Fratello led Cleveland teams during the 1993-1994 to 1998-1999 seasons).  The last time that these two teams played for anything that mattered, Russia won 83-70 (11.09.07), and a motivated Russian squad took care of business in the 4th quarter in a very tight game. Hopefully history repeats itself and Russia wins.
• Germany (1-0) vs. Greece (0-1) [12.08.08 -- 2:30 AM EST]: Germany powered their way through a shrimpy Angolan team (tallest guys are 6'7) thanks to their two 7' NBA stars. They didn't play against Greece in the 2007 EuroBasket 07 tournament, but they will face a very hungry and humiliated Greek team that sports six guys who are at least 6'9. It is early, but you don't want to get too down in the preliminary rounds, so I implore the coaching staff to release the kraken Sofoklis Schortsianitis (aka. Baby Shaq) upon the bigger German squad. Greece should come back strong and win this game due to their above average guard and forward play. I'm still shocked at how badly Spain beat them down.
• Spain (1-0) vs. China (0-1) [12.08.08 -- 4:45 AM EST]: Things just don't get easier for Team China. Yao vs. Pau is fun. But Yao vs. Pau, Jose, Rudy, Ricky, Jorge and Marc is just not good TV. Yi better step it up, otherwise Nets fans (and China) are going to start getting worried. There's more to being a good player than being the best 24 year old 21 year old. The Spanish Armada continues to destroy all within its path.
• USA (1-0) vs. Angola (0-1) [12.08.08 -- 8:00 AM EST]: Maybe guys like Tay-Tay and Booz can get off the bench for this one? USA wins this one, by a lot.
• Argentina (0-1) vs. Australia (0-1) [12.08.08 -- 10:15 AM EST]: At the end of this game, one team will still remain winless. That team will most likely be Australia. For some reason the Aussie's went away from their only NBA guy and suffered a loss to Croatia. Argentina lost a highly contest match to Lithuania on a buzzer beater. They are going to come out and quickly establish they they are for real. Manu, Noce' and Carlos are just too dynamic for the Aussie guards.

Men's Olympic Basketball -- Day 1 + 2

USA 101 - China 70

Pretty much everyone saw this coming, you know, the redeem team coming out and winning despite showing some flaws. All that really needs to be said is that the final score was USA 101 - China 70. The United States had 54 bench points, and if it wasn't for an early three point barrage by the Chinese, this game would have been over much before halftime. The Americans shot 54.3% from the field, had a +3 rebounding margin, +5 on assists, made the Chinese turn it over 18 times and won steals 14 to 2. Yi, particularly, played like ass when it counted. Yao Ming can't do it all by himself. LeBron had 18/6/3/1/3, and was pretty much a beast. Dwyane Wade (off the bench) "was unstoppable" (KOGOD, via Deadspin), and had 19,0,2,2,0 off of perfect shooting (5-5 fg, 7-7 ft). Both bench point guards (Chris Paul and Deron Williams) clearly outplayed Jason Kidd. Kidd played only 13 minutes, but managed to have zero assists and 3 turn overs. He also added 2 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block. He did not take a shot and did not score. Deron had 9 points (3-7, 1-3, 2-2), 4 rebounds, and 1 assist. Chris had 3 points, 3 rebounds, and 6 assists.

Photographed by unknown, FIBA.com

Boozer (or Betrayal Skull Dude, according to the Cleveland Plan Dealer's interpretation of Chinese  nicknames for NBA players) played 8 mins (2nd least of all Americans to Tayshaun Prince) and managed to get 5 points, 3 boards, 1 assist and 1 steal in that time (shooting 1-2, and 3-4 from the ft line). Michael Redd was great off the bench and hit a lot of threes -- something the Americans will need a lot of, as the rest of the teams are going to zone against the USA.

USA faces Angola on next, and China fights for their lives against Spain -- both on Tuesday.

Russia 71 - Iran 49

The Russian team (that won the FIBA Europe tournament, even beating Spain on their homecourt in the finals) is a good team. They are a good team because they control the tempo of the game and really slow it down and play super defense. After the 1st quarter it was Russia 24 - Iran 5. They only won by 22 points, but they (like the Americans) shot 50% while holding the other team in the 30% range. Russia had a +12 turn over mark, had +9 more steals and did it on defense. We've seen this Iranian team before, and know that they aren't at full strength. They are fast and can catch fire from deep (like the Golden State Warriors, in that regard), they did manage to hurt the Russian zone by shooting 43.8% from deep. (Something the Americans would not be able to do, methinks) That Hamed Ehadadi guy had 9/8/2/1/2 in 34 minutes of action. Mohammad Samad Nikkhah Bahrami did his Iverson impersonation and had 16 points off of 16 shots. This is the Russian defense displaying their ability to play other teams' tendencies against themselves. Andrei Kirilenko did his all around point forward thing by getting 15 (5-7, 1-2, 4-5), 5, 0 assists (surprising!), 1 steal and 3 blocks. Viktor Khryapa and Sergei Monya had bad games, but American born point guard John Robert Holden (or as ESPN thinks, "Kholden") had 19 points, 3 boards, 3 assists and 5 steals.

Photographed by unknown, FIBA.com

Russia faces off Croatia next, while Iran faces the Lithuanian team -- both on Monday

Lithuania 79 - Argentina 75

Manu goes down! Linas Kleiza hit the game winner in this game, making a shot but leaving the Argentines enough time to respond -- but they botched the play while Ginobli (totally out of character) complained to the refs. "It was not a difficult shot . . . I was able to knock it down," (Linas Kleiza,via FIBA.com webpage) said after the game. The NBA players for the losing team all had solid games: Luis Scola had 10 and 6, Andres Nocioni had 15 and 9, Fabricio Oberto had 9 and 11, and Manu had 19 (but he and Noce went a combined 2-14 from downtown). Recently departed Carlos Delfino had 13, 6, 2 and 3 off the bench. Yet they still lost as Ramunas Siskauskas, Robertas Javtokas, Sarunas Jasikevicius (also 8 dimes), Kleiza and Marijonas Petravicius all had 10 or more points in a balanced attack. The Lithuanians (as some Americans have not completely blocked out) are a great outside shooting team and almost shot better from three than they did overall: 40% 3pt to 43.1% fg !!!

Photographed by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Lithuania looks to go 2-0 when they play Iran (on Monday), while Argentina faces Australia on Tuesday

Spain 81 - Greece 66

Beatdown city, Beijing, China. This game was supposed to be as entertaining as the Lithuania vs. Argentina game, though this was quite one-sided as Spain exploded in the 3rd quarter to solidify a 16 point lead heading into the 4th. Hardwood Paroxysm took the time to LiveBlog this game, and you can read it here. Spain is just too talented for the Gestalt approach that Greece brings (maybe they need Kosta Koufos after all?), as Pau Gasol, Jose Manuel Calderon, Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro and alternate stars Raul Lopez, Marc Gasol and Jorge Garbajosa are all capable of playing excellent ball. Spain is both big (Marc Gasol), talented (Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro), fast (Jose Manuel Calderon, Ricky Rubio) or really athletic (Rudy Fernandez). In fact, Spain may be the 2nd best team (on paper) in the entire Olympics. The game would have been much closer had Greece not shot 11-24 from the Free Throw line, or alternatively, if Spain didn't shoot 22-25 from the stripe. I don't even need to go over the stats for this one. Needless to say, Vasileios Spanoulis, Dimitrious Diamantidis, Konstantinos Tsartsaris, and Antonios Fotsis need to regroup and play their style of ball -- ball that has been very successful in previous years.

Photographed by unknown, FIBA.com

 Spain faces China, while Greece will have their hands full with Germany, both on Tuesday

Croatia 97 - Australia 82

Some may suggest that the Boomers awful start (down 14 - 21 after one) killed them, in an otherwise really close game. I, rather, point to the fact that their 2nd quarter showing (down 17 to 26) was much worse. It's going to be hard for Australia to beat any team -- let alone teams that are better than they are, like Croatia -- when their best player (Andrew Bogut) only shoots the ball three times, and finishes with 10 points, 1 rebound and no blocks. The Aussie's still shot 50.8 fg% for the game, but need to learn to play defense -- Croatia worked the ball for good shots and ended up shooting 66.7 fg% for the game, and even shot 12-16 (75.0%) from three. That's never going to get it done. Croatia is a strong squad -- and didn't even bring all of their best players to this tournament. In fact, there are no NBA guys on this team (as Gordan Giricek isn't even asked to play for them, and Zoran Planinic is no longer playing for the shitty US dollar). There will be enough time to say good things about the play of Zoran, Roko-Leni Ukic and Marko Banic during the rest of the games -- lets focus on the bench. Nikola Prkacin (16 points, 5-5 and 6-7), Marko Tomasovic (12 points, 4-6, 4-4 from three) (aka. Marko Tomas) and Kresimir Loncar (10 points, 10 rebounds, 1 three) really brought it for Croatia, and arguably, played better than the three best Aussie starters.

Photographed by unknown, FIBA.com

Croatia faces Russia on Monday, Australia will tip off against the Argentines on Tuesday

Germany 95 - Angola 66

While Angola held tough in the first quarter, Germany exploded for 29 points in the 2nd, and the rout was on. The German twin towers had 24 (Chris Kaman) and 23 (Dirk Nowitzki) respectively. The Rhinelanders were just too big for the quick, but smaller Angolans -- Jan-Hendrik Jagla came of Germany's bench to have collect half as many rebounds (11) as the Angola had all game (22) ... and he did so in only 18 minutes. Germany displayed a very efficient attack (58.6 fg%, 55.0 3pt%), but one wonders just how well they would perform against a larger club (like China or Russia), or a more talented one (like Spain, Argentina or the United States). For Angola, only Eduardo Mingas (think Gilbert Arenas, but shorter) shot above 50%, as he finished with 24 points. The rest of the starters for the FIBA Africa champions shot 5 for 25 combined. That's not going to get it done. I fully expect Olimpio Cipriano, Milton Barros, Joaquim Gomes, Armando Costa and Carlos Morais to play better in the next game. Well, I actually don't. They will play the United States in the next game. Poor poor Angola still hasn't recovered from the abuse Barkley gave them.

Photographed by unknown, FIBA.com

Germany faces off against a hungry Greek squad, while Angola gets to tangle with the USA on Tuesday

Standings!

Group A		Wins	Losses	Points		Group B		Wins	Losses	Points
	Croatia	1	0	2			Germany	1	0	2
	Lithuania	1	0	2			Spain	1	0	2
	Russia	1	0	2			USA	1	0	2
	Iran	0	1	1			Angola	0	1	1
	Argentina	0	1	1			Greece	0	1	1
	Australia	0	1	1			China	0	1	1

Top 5 Moves of the Summer (...so far...)

While the NBA has not been rocked by some four team, 16 player trade this off-season moves have been made which have changed the landscape of the league. October is just around the corner, 8 weeks away, and much can still happen. The market value for players has been relatively set by the offers and contracts signed by players like Elton Brand, Luol Deng, Baron Davis and so forth. There are a handful of interesting free agents left (Josh Smith, Andrei Iguodala, Ben Gordon, J.R. Smith and so forth), but with the NBA draft finished and most teams approaching luxury tax, the majority of moves will occur via trades. That said, what are some of the 5 top moves of the summer?

1. Elton Brand leaves the Clippers and goes to the Sixers: First of all, this basically destroyed the Clippers, they will continue to suck for a while. Getting Baron Davis is nice; it's nice that they traded for Camby and gave up nothing for him; and it's nice that they got Ricky Buckets . . . but Philly is just so much better right now with Andre Miller, Elton Brand, Samuel Dalembert and most likely Iggy. The Sixers have to be considered a top 6 team in the Eastern Conference right now. Brand will probably be an All-Star in the East this season as well. Great move for him, even if it splits up the really cool idea of him and Baron in Hollywood making movies together.
2. The European Evasion: NBA players are leaving the NBA to go play in Europe. When guys like Arvydas Sabonis or Sarunas Jasikevicius do it, no one really cares. When an American born kid like Josh Childress bolts everyone gets upset -- if for nothing else but the fact that Free Agents can now use real or imagined contract offers to use as leverage when negotiating contracts with NBA clubs. Other players who leave (or at least flirt with leaving) this off-season are Nenad Krstic, Sasha Vujacic, Primoz Brezec, Carlos Delfino, Jorge Garbajosa, Carl Landry, Jason Williams, Delonte West and others. Matt Moore postulates about a possible reaction by the NBA to this, methinks that this may come up in the next NBA Player's Association / NBA Team Owners meeting and a few tweaks of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) may occur. Let's not forget that plenty of NBA stars stole some money in Europe after their playing days in the NBA were done (like Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen and Dominique Wilkins . . . not to mention European guys like Sabonis or Vlade). Why can't mid-level NBA talent choose to go where the money is? They can, and apparently are!
3. Golden State and Chris Mullin over-react to losing Baron Davis: First of all, they enlist some help from the Department of Redundancy Department and end up signing another swingman in Corey Maggette (what happens to Steven Jackson?); then they throw bags and bags of money at Andris Biedrins; they steal Rony Turiaf from the LA Lakers and then make a small move for Marcus Williams. All of this is still < Baron Davis. I take great pleasure in seeing this team do poorly, and love how all of their bandwagoning fans will be quiet on the Internet again. (Note: Not all "Dubs" fans are bandwagoners, but a large vocal majority of them that were loud during the 2006-2007 Playoffs were, deal with it.) At least they'll always have that one Baron Davis dunk over Andrei Kirilenko to keep themselves warm . . . oh wait! He's not even theirs anymore, he belongs to Clippers fans now. Well, now the Warriors are screwed money wise, just like they were when they paid Troy Murphy and Adonal Foyle tons of money a few seasons ago.
4. T-Mac and Yao get a Tru Warrier: Easily the Rockets have been one of the worst playoff performing franchises that regularly get in the playoffs in recent memory. In the 11 years from the 1997-1998 season to this last one (2007-2008) they have been outed in the first round 6 times. They didn't make the playoff at all the other 5 times. While T-Mac gets a lot of the blame for this, I really thing the issue is Yao Ming's inability to be a big game player. Now they get some help by adding Ron Artest for the low low price of Bobby Jackson and some garbage. Artest is an expressive individual who probably can be the best player on this team on any given night. Houston is a lot more dangerous now. This is big news for a team that's had a top 4 record in the Western Conference the last two seasons. I also appreciate how he and Yao are having a verbal fight over the phone and Internet already. This is the omega trade for high risk/high reward.
5. Brooklyn New Jersey keeps making moves for LeBron in 2010: LeBron James is quite a catch. He would be the best player in this new NBA to be put in a large media market. Eventually the Nets franchise will move to Brooklyn, and the New York market is huge. LeBron becomes a free agent in 2010. Noted scandal rags have suggested that LeBron signing with the Nets really depends on who the Nets have on their team at that point. A quick look at their salary situation strongly points to a loss of swingmen on contract at the end of the 2009-2010 season, at the price of nearly $13 million dollars. Another issue to mull over for LeBron is the whole China market issue. Yi Jianlian is now a Net, and he's the only other guy in the NBA who is from China. The Milwaukee Bucks even focused part of their 2008 NBA Draft strategy on this point by drafting a guy who grew up in China and Taiwan and HK. Too bad for them, Yi is gone. LeBron could make a ton of cash if he was on the same team as Yi. He knows this. LeBron wants to be the richest man in the world -- if he wants to really be that guy, he's not going to do that in Cleveland. Let's not even bring up the whole Jay-Z thing . . .

Time will tell if these moves will improve their teams, or elicit other reactionary changes in the landscape (like the whole slew of trades that occurred in the Western Conference last season -- Kover, Kidd, Gasol, Shaq, etc). Regardless if they are good moves, they do make for a much changed landscape in the NBA. Philly is good again, Houston may finally make it out of the first round, Golden State is crap again and the Nets are making moves.