Guess who's back?

So by now you know…the NBA is back baby! Well, not exactly…the new CBA does have to be ratified by the NBAPA still, but this is pretty much a done deal. When the NBA is adding games to the Christmas Day schedule, you know that smell in the air is optimism. In addition to Celtics/Knicks, Heat/Mavs, and Bulls/Lakers, we also now get Magic/Thunder (booyah baby!) and Warriors/Clippers. So what comes next? I’m glad you asked…because I’m here to help you out with that.

So first things first…a few items of note on the new CBA and the lockout’s ending. We are little past of the point of winners & losers in this whole deal - but for the sake of argument, let’s recap what has come before. Here are a few important links to help you get caught up on what the CBA means to the owners and the players.

Grantland Winners & Losers article

TrueHoop Winners & Losers article

New CBA Details article

Now that you’ve gotten caught up on the past (lockout news) and the present (new CBA details) what’s left…the future of course! Let’s spend a few minutes talking about the upcoming free agency period and current trade rumors. The links below will get you a list of free agents (both restricted and unrestricted) and keep in mind that there are still some cats who are locked into deals in China who WON’T be coming back until March 2012.

ESPN.com Free Agent Listing

Now, who are the big names on the market looking at trade rumors? The usual suspects of course…Chris Paul and Dwight Howard top this list. CP3 is looking for a deal to get him to the Knicks, even though his agent already acknowledges that CP3 knows that the Knickerbockers don’t have any trade assets to send back to Nawlins in trade for him. So why in the heck would NOLA do this deal? A more important question, heard recently on Dan LeBatard’s show “Highly Questionable” is this: how does the NBA, only recently removed from its lockout of the NBA players due to wha it referred to as “competitive balance issues” sanction a trade of a small market team’s best player to a HUGE market and still look itself in the mirror in the morning? Because, as we all remember, the NBA is the current owner of the Hornets after having taken the team into receivorship from the previous owner George Shinn. There is no way in the world the League can say it locked out the players over this very argument and then support the trade of CP3 ANYWHERE.

As for D12...looks like a lot of other team are going to be in the hunt for him. The Lakers and Nets are known to have assets that Orlando might actually want back for him in trade, but the real question is where does HE want to go. So far, he’s been mum on any requests for a trade, but you know dude is hurting. After getting punked by the Lakers in the Finals a few years ago and breaking up their team, the Magic haven’t sniffed the Finals since. And you get the feeling that the team wants to say they are competitive but how much have they really done to make the Magic a player in the East? And how many of the champs have come from the East in the last decade? 2? And both of them were 1 and done. Not repeating like the Lake Show has or doing they dynasty impression like the Spurs did. The East the Leastern Conference and everyone knows this. I smell a “Decision-like” dilemma coming for that team in Orlando. Which is terrible because I wouldn’t wish that LeBron thing to happen to anyone else ever again. The reality is more like something approaching what went down in Denver last year with Carmelo Anthony, with Dwight silently standing on the sidelines while his agent does all the “Dwight wants to be a Laker” talking. And the Magic brass doing their best Vin Diesel impressions working “fast and furious” to find a deal that makes sense, keeps them competitive, maybe (just maybe) sheds a few dollars, and gets slightly more than 50 cents on the dollar back for them in trade.

There’s going to be lots of NBA news to come…December 9th is a our next magic date…with the new CBA signed and locked in, the lockout ends (officially). Free agency begins, training camps open, and the craziness of the summer of the NBA gets compressed into a few short weeks. If you’re a fan of hoops (and if you’re reading this blog, you’d better be) this is going to be a very exciting and interesting couple of weeks.