NBA Bric-a-Brac

Looking back over a coupla pre-draft trades.

Bulls get Spencer Dinwiddie, Pistons get Cameron Bairstow. Not sure I see the need for this deal for either team: neither played much before, neither will play much next season and the contracts are identical. Guess the Bulls thought they needed depth at at the guard spot. The only thing I got out of this trade: Dinwiddie is black and Bairstow is white, I could've sworn it was the other way around.

Pacers get Jeff Teague, Jazz get George Hill, Hawks get the #12 pick. Teague is a more free wheeling PG than Hill, I suppose the Pacers preferred a pass-first PG who gets to the basket as opposed to a pass-first PG who looks to shot 3's. The Jazz get a wily veteran on a one-year deal to guide Dante Exum back from injury instead of another rookie, which is an odd choice for a team that builds on draft picks rather than free agents. I figured the Hawks would move Teague but I figured they'd be looking for a vet instead of a rookie; and who are they looking at with that pick: maybe Jakob Peotl or Wade Baldwin or Dejonte Murray, are they looking for size or shooting (I assume they're aiming at Mike Conley as their new PG). The Jazz and Pacers are just taking one year flyers while the Hawks get younger and cheaper (though they've traded away their last two 1st round picks).

Knicks get Derrick Rose, Justin Holiday and a 2017 2nd rd pick, Bulls get Robin Lopez, Jose Calderon, and Jerian Grant. The Knicks get one year of whatever Derrick Rose has to offer (I suspect he'll have a good but not great year) and the chance to develop a young scorer in Holiday. The Bulls get a reasonably priced center (to replace Noah and Gasol, I assume), a veteran PG (wouldn't be surprised to see the Bulls trade him again this summer) and a young PG (that I think has pretty good upside). I guess this is a good deal: the Knicks get a year of trumpeting their new star and trying to get into the post-season while the Bulls move on from the face of their franchise in the first step of their makeover (the Bulls are clearly tearing it all down and starting over), which had to happen some time.

Lebron James announced he has no intention of leaving Cleveland, Richard Jefferson un-retired. Dude, the idea that Lebron would leave Cleveland is utterly absurd to me--did anyone ever think George Steinbrenner would leave the Yankees to be the GM of the Brewers? No, that's stupid. Likewise, I don't care how many 'insider sources' you got, if you think Lebron is going to Miami or the Clippers then someone needs to take away your Twitter account. Lebron runs that team, he gets as much money as the law allows and a say in every decision on and off the court, why would he leave that? For Lebron to leave would be--yeah, I'll say it--the biggest mistake of his career. As for Jefferson, who retired immediately following Game Seven, he must have reconsidered the idea of leaving the game when someone pointed out to him that he can still make $10m or more next year to do what he's always done. But I'm sure he spent those three days of retirement getting drunk and feeling pretty good about himself, so he got a taste of how good retirement will be one o' these days.