Most recent basketball trades - wow

[Sports Gatherings]

With the NBA Draft hours away, teams have been making moves left and right involving some pretty big names.

Of course, it all started with this:
Milwaukee Bucks get: Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas
San Antonio Spurs get: Richard Jefferson

This is a great trade for the Spurs. With Parker, Duncan, Ginobili, and now Jefferson? C'mon that's almost unfair. Bowen lost his starting job last season and didn't get on the All-defensive team for the first time in 5 or 6 season and Thomas is a grizzly old veteran...key word being old. Jefferson is only 29 and stepped up big when Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut were injured. I don't foresee the Spurs pulling a Lakers a la 2003-2004 when the Lakers brought in every single non-championship-winning veteran and disappointed many fans. The favorite in the Western Conference has to be the Spurs now. As much of a Lakers fan as I am, c'mon now. Jefferson doesn't need the spotlight and can step up if needed. All the Bucks did was save some money.


Minnesota Timberwolves get: #5 overall pick in NBA Draft, Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila, Oleksiy Pecherov
Washington Wizards get: Randy Foye, Mike Miller

This move by the Wolves is purely to get a package deal to move up in the draft. The Wolves hold the #5,6, 18, and 28th selections in the 1st round, but want to move up to #2. Unfortunately it seems like the Wolves are refusing to package draft picks #5 and 6 together and unwilling to package #6 with Kevin Love.


Portland Trailblazers get: 22nd pick in NBA draft
Dallas Mavericks gets: #24 and 56 in NBA draft and worst of the Blazers 2nd round picks of 2010 nba draft

The Blazers moved up 2 spots in order to secure drafting Omri Casspi. If Casspi is unavailable, Nick Calathes out of Florida and Pittsburgh's DeJuan Blair are possibilities.


And of course the biggest one of them pending league approval:

Cleveland Cavaliers get: Shaquille O'Neal
Phoenix Suns get: Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic along with cash and 46th pick in NBA draft

This is obviously a rental agreement for Shaq as he has 1 year remaining on his contract, but for the Cavs, this is one final attempt for a championship with Lebron James before James decides on his future home for the next few years. With Shaq replacing Zyrdunas Ilgauskas in the middle, the Cavs have to be the favorites to win the Eastern Conference. Z couldn't stop Dwight Howard so this move is a brilliant one. Shaq and Kobe were dominant together and with Shaq playing All Star caliber basketball last season and LBJ continuing to improve in every single aspect of his game year to year, the Eastern Conf opponents are already getting nervous. Celtics vs Cavs with a healthy Garnett should be very interesting.

[XxHoodlumxX]

Thank god shaq is gone out of phx.....