Deal reached on new arena

City and county officials announced a deal to build a new arena, performing-arts center and renovated Citrus Bowl -- with a pared-down price tag, ensuring the Orlando Magic will keep playing downtown.

City, county announce deal on new facilities

Deal reached on new arena

In arena deal, mayors need to take control

Magic Rumor

As camp nears, speculation abounds about Vince Carter's future. Rumors persist that he might opt out of his Nets contract after this season and sign with Orlando, where he already owns a massive home. ... The reasons for moving to Orlando are numerous, beginning with the fact that Carter really wouldn't be moving. He already has family there. Orlando also has the allure of blossoming big man Dwight Howard and cap space. Then again, the Magic can't match the $16.3 million Carter already is due in 2007-08. "Orlando will have about $9.5million of cap room if they stay the way they are and they keep their big kid, Darko Milicic," Thorn said. "They'll have $9.5 million in cap room."

Howard BELIEVES in Magic

Forget what I said in regards to keeping the expectations low. Dwight's a young guy, but you got to love his attitude, along with the rest of his teammates. If any of his "talk" translates on the court, we might have a 1995 flashback with people saying: "why not us, why not now"?

FL Today: Howard Believes in Magic

Sentinel: Howard Predicts NBA Title

Catching Up With...Dwight Howard

NOTES: Coach Brian Hill says four of the starting jobs heading into camp will go to incumbents: Howard at center, Jameer Nelson at point guard, Tony Battie at power forward and Hedo Turkoglu at small forward. Returnee Keyon Dooling likely will be the shooting guard.

Magic hope they have right ingredients for playoff run

IS IT SOUP YET?

The last stand for Grant Hill

By: Brian Schmitz

Orlando Magic forward Grant Hill was on the road Wednesday morning, gladly battling rush-hour traffic. Yes, gladly.

While other motorists might have been impatient and cursing the gridlock, Hill was pleasantly excited to be able to get to work so early, even bumper to bumper.

He was heading to the Magic's practice court at RDV Sportsplex in Maitland, his injury-riddled career apparently revived once again.

Hill's destination was an indication that his offseason recovery from yet another physical ailment -- this time, a sports hernia that limited him to 21 games last season -- was on schedule.

He contends that rest and rehabilitation since March did the trick, allowing him to stiff-arm thoughts of retirement if more surgery had been his only option. He was pain-free by June and started to test-drive his once-sore abdominal area at full speed late last month in pick-up games.

So far, so healthy.

"I feel really good," Hill told the Sentinel, in his first extensive interview since the Magic's season ended in April.

"I've been playing some pick-up ball. I don't have any pain. I don't even think about it. I played against [New Jersey Nets forward] Vince Carter the other day, and although neither of us are in midseason form, I held my own.

"I've done things that if I tried to do them last year, I couldn't have done them. I'm ready to ramp it back up."

Hill was driving on I-4, but he also is at a metaphorical crossroads.

When he joins the Magic for the opening of training camp Oct. 3 in Jacksonville, he will begin the final year of his seven-year, $92.88 million contract.

The Magic anticipated that the additions of Hill and Tracy McGrady in the summer of 2000 would restore the franchise's glory lost in the post-Shaquille O'Neal era. But McGrady eventually was traded, and Hill was never healthy enough -- largely because of five surgeries on his left ankle -- to play a full season.

Hill was saluted for his 67-game comeback in 2004-05 and was voted by fans as a starter in the all-star game. Still, a sore shin ended that season prematurely. In all, he has played in just 135 of a possible 492 regular-season games for the Magic.

Hill, who turns 34 two days after camp opens, says he wants to keep playing as long as he can -- and the Magic say they want him back.

"That would be nice. I have roots here. I don't want to go anywhere else," Hill said. "I'd love to be part of things here, but this is the NBA. I've learned through the years that anything can happen."

For Hill, robbed of some prime years, the past six seasons have crawled by at an agonizing pace.

The stop-and-start injuries have been a mental strain, often leaving the athlete universally known for his cheery public demeanor depressed and broken behind closed doors.

"By no means has it been easy," he said. "That's life. You get knocked down, you get back up. A lot of other people out there got it worse than me.

"I haven't looked at it as my last year. I'm still trying to play. People say, 'Are you going to hang it up?' No. Shoot, I've come this far."

After five lost seasons, essentially, and a salary that has hamstrung the Magic, Hill realizes some fans might be welcoming his exit. "I understand people's frustrations," he said. "I've been frustrated, too."

Magic General Manager Otis Smith said Wednesday that the club's door will be open for Hill to re-sign.

Hill indicated last season that he would even play for the veteran's minimum -- a little over $1 million per season -- after his mammoth deal ends. But Smith said, given Hill's medical history, it was way too early to speculate about Hill's future.

"We've got to get Grant through the year," Smith said. "We'll figure it out as we go. I can't sit here in September and say what's going to happen. With Grant, it's one game at a time.

"Hill's expiring contract might be attractive to teams looking for salary-cap room. Smith is adamant about not trading Hill in exchange for, say, a disgruntled star.

"I can't see that happening. He's an Orlando Magic as long as he wants to be an Orlando Magic," Smith said. "I'm a Grant Hill fan whether he plays 82 games or two games. I'd like him around our team for his leadership and the depth he provides.

"I'd rather have that than some disgruntled superstar. Grant's too valuable for me. To me, it would be like trading Dwight [Howard]."

To perhaps increase Hill's chances of playing a full season, Smith said Hill's workload will be monitored closely in camp. He added that rookie J.J. Redick, recovering from a herniated disk in his back, also will be restricted.

"It's not because Grant can't do it; physically, he's as good as I've ever seen him," Smith said. "We're not going to treat him like he's a place-kicker on a football team. We have to see where he's at [in preseason games], what we can rely on. But we have to be smart as it relates to Grant."

Said Hill, "If there's pain, there's a problem."

Hill, in something of a gamble, opted to try to repair his sports hernia this summer through nonsurgical means. He had surgery in an attempt to correct the problem before the start of last season, but continued to experience pain after he returned six weeks later. He shut it down in early March.

Vowing he would rather retire than subject his body to a seventh operation, Hill called upon noted Vancouver-based physiotherapist Alex McKechnie, a specialist in abdominal injuries.

Hill said he began working with McKechnie in late May in his intensive "Hard Core Strength Program." Hill said he spent so much time in Vancouver this summer "that I may have to pay taxes there."

McKechnie's techniques often require athletes to pull on rubber bands and mount balance boards, among other things, to promote flexibility and agility. He also thought Hill's hernia was brought on by his left ankle and addressed its range of motion.

"Some of the stuff Alex does sounds weird, the exercises . . . like having me balancing on one foot. But it's pretty amazing," Hill said. "It's nothing like I've ever done before. I thought to myself, 'Is this going to work?' It did."

If he stays healthy, Grant Hill plans to play on -- and happily battle more early-morning rush-hour traffic in Orlando next summer.

Freethrows in Bowling?

By: Craig Kwasniewski

Dwyane Wade even flops while bowling?
Hoping that Dick Bavetta's in the house, Wade flops while bowling. I guess he's looking for the 10th frame Bowling And-1. Sorry Wade, but Stern's not there to save you this time.




By : introvert316

I know it's all fun and games. I know it's for a good cause being that this was being done at Chris Paul's charity bowling event. But I'm sorry; this guy is the biggest hoe in the league. Everyone knows he flops. David Stern backs it and the officials who continue to call the BS as he talks about his "new NBA". In the meantime, all the TV analysts and NBA related types continue to shove down our throats that we're seeing "great basketball" and things we've never seen before. I guess it's true, I've never seen a guy less deserving put on the free throw line more than Wade. I thought it was bad when with Jordan, but at least Jordan was great. Jordan could do it all, he played on both ends, and he understood TEAM BASKETBALL. Wade is the complete opposite. He doesn't defend. He doesn't play team ball. He has no range beyond 15 feet. This guy scores half of his points from the free throw line night in and out. I mean really, am I watching the NBA, or the WWE? He makes the best floppers in the history of a league like Miller, Divac, Rodman, Laimbeer, look on the up and up. Ginobili is another guy that flops all the time, the difference between the two is that Ginobili doesn't sell merchandise like Wade does, so he doesn't get nearly as many phantom calls, because the league is trying their hardest to make Wade look like a "next Jordan" which is a total slap in the face to any basketball fan. This is wrong for me to say, but my only hope with this guy is that eventually one of these days one of his many falls will catch up with him and I won't have to listen to the crap about how this guy is such a warrior. Until he starts doing the majority of his scoring on the court, and not the free throw line, I won't buy into this guy being legit. He needs to learn the basics. He needs to play defense. He needs to play team basketball. And he's going to have to develop a shot beyond 15 feet before I'll buy it. There is also another Shaq factor; Wade should be thanking Shaq everyday for his fame, because if Shaq wasn't there, he'd be just another young "star" on the rise in the league. Rant over.

Offseason review: Rating the West from Mavs to Griz

By Marc Stein

Fear not, West types. It's your turn.
The natural follow-up to our review of Eastern Conference summer business is evaluating the offseason machinations for everyone in the West, starting with the surprising New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets and a level of activity (and success) no one saw coming.
The following is a team-by-team ranking for the Western Conference based on who has done the best summer shopping and tweaking. Just to be clear: These are offseason assessments, not my predicted order of finish for the coming season … and we obviously have to say that louder judging by the number of Detroit-based e-mails I received bemoaning the Pistons' No. 11 slot.
That means they had the 11th-best summer in the East, folks. (For the record, I'm not picking the Hornets to win the West, either.) Yet since some of my Michigan friends are clearly edgy, I'll spoil the suspense and tell you now that Detroit will indeed still be the second-highest Eastern team in the new season's first batch of Power Rankings.
Are we clear? Let's proceed:

1. NEW ORLEANS/OKLAHOMA CITY HORNETS
The greatest summer in Hornets history? OK, OK. There obviously isn't a backlog of happy summers to compare with this one. Yet that's precisely why their maneuvering was so stunning. Spending like George Shinn has never spent before, they were the talk of the league in July and suddenly look like legit playoff material.
Now did the Hornets overpay Peja Stojakovic? At $62.6 million over five years, most certainly. But just like the Bulls with Ben Wallace, New Orleans/Oklahoma City can handle the over-the-top commitment to Peja, trading for Tyson Chandler and maybe even guaranteeing $17 million over three years to Bobby Jackson at 33.
I have to laugh when I hear folks say that the Hornets (who also signed Byron Scott to a contract extension) wasted their cap room on marginal upgrades. Huh? First of all, Stojakovic is the first marquee free agent from another team who has ever shown an interest in the Hornets' cap room. What were they saving it for? Second … New Orleans is projected to have some cap room next summer as well. If this wasn't a one-summer hobby, Shinn could actually have more in store.

2. DALLAS MAVERICKS
June was as torturous as it gets, but the Mavs had quite a July. Without a lot to work with when it came to tweaking the roster, they managed to turn their mid-level exception and one trade asset who had fallen out of favor with coach Avery Johnson -- swingman Marquis Daniels -- into four players who can help them: Austin Croshere, Anthony Johnson, Devean George and ex-Mav Greg Buckner. They came out deeper than they would've been had they landed Mike James.
They also re-signed Jason Terry without any trouble and are likely to have Dirk Nowitzki's signature on a three-year contract extension by the start of training camp. Negotiations on Josh Howard's extension have been predictably slow, but the Mavs achieved almost everything they could have wished for since blowing that 2-0 lead in the Finals to Miami. Now to see if the three months they've had to grieve and rebound from the deepest of disappointments were sufficient.

3. SAN ANTONIO SPURS
I heard this one a bunch when Nazr Mohammed signed with Detroit after Rasho Nesterovic had been traded to Toronto: What are the Spurs going to do now? Answer: What they always seem to do. Instead of matching the offer Mohammed got from the Pistons, San Antonio hatched a wiser plan, splitting its mid-level exception on a couple of restricted free agents and coming away with two younger, more athletic bigs: Francisco Elson and Jackie Butler.
With a coach like Gregg Popovich and a mentor like Tim Duncan, you have to figure at least one of the new centers will develop into a dependable member of Pop's rotation, which is probably all the Spurs need given their increasing reliance on smaller lineups in the playoffs. It's less certain that fellow newcomers Matt Bonner, Eric Williams and Jacque Vaughn will make a significant impact, but file this away: Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are the only Spurs under contract two seasons from now, meaning they'll soon have a chance to reload yet again.

4. LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
Sam Cassell, after all the panic, was re-signed for two more years. Vladimir Radmanovic bolted to the other locker room at Staples Center but was quickly replaced by another long-limbed shooter in Tim Thomas. Corey Maggette is still here, too, when many presumed Donald Sterling would not bring back Cassell or spend on Radmanovic or Thomas without dumping Maggette's salary first.
The Clips, in other words, have confounded the skeptics again. Call it a very good summer. Not a great summer, which only could've happened had they signed Mike Dunleavy to a contract extension. Sterling is taking a needless risk with his coach if that doesn't happen soon, but it's impossible to quibble otherwise. The best team this franchise has seen for three decades, going all the way back to the glory days of my Buffalo Braves, went one round farther in the playoffs than the Lakers and will be back almost intact.

5. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
I think you already know where I stand on these guys. Derek Fisher leaving is the only significant roster change, after several Warriors admitted they were expecting an overhaul, but Chris Mullin still managed to make his team eight to 10 wins better.
At least that's the bump I expect from Don Nelson's return as coach, similar to what Phil Jackson's return did for last season's Lakers, which is why I'm betting on the Warriors to halt the league's longest playoff drought even without a drastic personnel makeover. Don't get me wrong. I realize these guys have plenty of holes and obviously won't be getting better defensively under the new coach. But there's talent in the Bay Area, far more talent than Nelson started with in Dallas and plenty of pieces to mix and match with lineups and run, run, run. As Nellie himself said the other day: "There's a lot of positives here and many of them happen to be smaller players."

6. HOUSTON ROCKETS
You know me. There's no way Bruce Bowen would have been left off my Team USA. But I'm a big Shane Battier guy, too, which means I would have had both of them on my Japan roster -- sayonara, Antawn Jamison or Brad Miller -- and which should explain why I loved Houston's draft-day deal for Battier, even if it meant sacrificing the high promise of Rudy Gay.
Battier's a glue guy and a winner and the Rockets need all the dirty work he does. Of course, Houston needs good health more than anything after Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming only played in 31 games together last season.
So it's probably wise not to get too worked up about the newcomers until we see how sturdy T-Mac and Yao are, even if we're talking about one of the league's most coveted role players, that Greek guard everyone knows about now (Vassilis Spanoulis), and my favorite American rookie (sharpshooting Steve Novak).

7. DENVER NUGGETS
It was a good summer for Carmelo Anthony's rep and a busy one back in Denver, where a pretty limited reserve of assets (Ruben Patterson, Howard Eisley and a couple second-round picks) didn't stop the Nuggets from acquiring two Smiths who should contribute: Joe Smith and J.R. Smith.
Of greater significance, Denver owner Stan Kroenke finally ended the tug of war in his divided front office by promoting Mark Warkentien and hiring Rex Chapman to share the duties vacated by Kiki Vandeweghe, while also giving Bret Bearup an overdue official role after all the whispers about Bearup wielding more sway than Vandeweghe. Yet plenty of work remains for the new team of decision-makers, with the Nuggets still in dire need of dependable shooting and having been foiled in their attempts to move Kenyon Martin. K-Mart might be back on speaking terms with George Karl, but that's as far as it goes. Rest assured he wants to play elsewhere and that the Nuggets, having spent so much ($60 million) to bring Nene back, want to oblige Martin.

8. MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
As an unabashed Mike James fan, I'm naturally moved to applaud the team that beat out Dallas and Houston to get one of the league's great motor mouths. Minnesota has a zillion guards, true, but no one with James' edge and swagger. Kevin McHale is hoping (OK, praying) that James can replicate some of the gusto Sam Cassell gave Kevin Garnett in the Wolves' best-ever season in 2003-04.
McHale actually added two guards who can score -- don't forget rookie Randy Foye -- and those are the best kind to put next to the unselfish KG. However … none of the above offsets the reality that the Wolves have serious, serious issues in the frontcourt and precious few assets to get Garnett some rebounding and defensive help. Even if it goes small and deploys KG as a crunch-time center, a role he doesn't enjoy, Minnesota sorely needs another quality big to compete in the West.

9. PHOENIX SUNS
After some big summer scores -- Steve Nash two years ago, Boris Diaw and Raja Bell last summer -- this wasn't the hottest July in the desert. The Suns' fast-escalating payroll forced them to let playoff hero Tim Thomas walk, and in the greater indignity, John Salmons chose Toronto over Phoenix in free agency before making a U-turn out of Canada to sign with Sacramento.
I actually see fallback signing Marcus Banks as a better fit than Salmons -- and Jumaine Jones, Eric Piatkowski and Sean Marks are good bargain newcomers -- but the real debate naturally involves the Suns' marquee addition: Amare Stoudemire. Mike D'Antoni sounds more realistic than most about the bumps ahead when he noted this week that the inevitable ups and downs on Amare's comeback trail can lead to "some hard patches" and even "wreck a team" in the worst-case scenario. Of course, that didn't stop the ever-confident D'Antoni from talking championship in the same conversation with the Arizona Republic … and doesn't change the fact that any team in this league would gladly take its chances with Amare at 80 percent. It's simply too soon to know if the ups will outnumber the downs, which is why Phoenix is down here.

10. LOS ANGELES LAKERS
The Lakers need as many shooters as they can find to flank Kobe Bryant and got a proven bomber when they lured Vladimir Radmanovic away from their co-tenants at Staples Center. They also added a rotation player on draft night (Maurice Evans) in exchange for a second-round pick. That's the good news.
The flip side is that using their full mid-level exception on Radmanovic, after clinging to future cap space until now, amounts to an admission that L.A.'s dreams of signing a marquee free agent to pair with Bryant and Lamar Odom were just that. That was the original plan after Shaquille O'Neal was exiled to Miami, but the Lakers have finally conceded that they'll have to rebuild piece by piece and keep looking for trade gambles, as I've maintained they would since Shaq left, while also sweating out some nagging unknowns. No. 1: Will Kobe be ready to model his new No. 24 on opening night after minor knee surgery? No. 2: Will there be growth, or a hangover, from the 3-1 blown lead in the Phoenix series?

11. UTAH JAZZ
The Jazz are (sort of) like Orlando in the East. They're hoping that they didn't need to change too much after a 9-4 finishing kick in which Deron Williams played extensively alongside four forwards: Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Matt Harpring.
So they re-signed Harpring and reserve center Jarron Collins, took on some salary by trading for the championship savvy of Derek Fisher and convinced themselves that those last 13 games were an accurate reflection of the squad's capabilities at full strength. It's definitely dicey to buy in, after a hard-to-believe three straight seasons out of the playoffs for Jerry Sloan and given that such late-season surges are often misleading. (Orlando's, by comparison, at least covered one-fourth of the season.)
But it would be easier to share the optimism if you could promise that the Jazz will have good health, which regularly eludes Boozer, Harpring and the multi-talented Russian with the NBA's most progressive marriage.

12. SACRAMENTO KINGS
Bonzi Wells has been pilloried for his decision to turn down Sacramento's $7-million-a-season offer and understandably so. Word is he wanted $10 million annually and he's not going to come close to recouping any of that money anytime soon.
But Bonzi isn't the only loser here. For all his ills, Wells was Sacto's playoff difference-maker, abusing mighty San Antonio inside and giving the Kings what suddenly seemed like a three-man core to build on alongside Mike Bibby and the mercurial Ron Artest. There was also a decent chance he would have continued to be the good Bonzi with the Kings, since Wells was super-tight with the late Bill Musselman and thus eager to play for Eric Musselman and give the new coach some momentum from the start.
I certainly can't blame Geoff Petrie for refusing to offer Wells more than $35-ish million over five years, but I suspect Wells (with prodding from Artest, who loves him) eventually would have taken it. The Kings will naturally counter by saying they couldn't wait around to find out, but Salmons -- another non-shooter who lacks Bonzi's power-game gifts -- doesn't move me as a $25 million Wells replacement.

13. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
The list of teams that absolutely, positively have no hope of making the playoffs in the West only goes one deep … and it's the Blazers. Yet at a time when simply snagging a No. 8 seed is so tough -- don't forget Garnett has missed the playoffs for two seasons running -- maybe plunging deeper into a youth movement isn't the worst thing. The Blazers undoubtedly believe at least a few of the kiddies will develop into players -- LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy are merely the newest additions to a long line of first-rounders -- and that perhaps the West landscape might have changed by the time they do.
Of course, asking for more patience from long-suffering Blazer Maniacs is more than pushing it, especially since speculation that owner Paul Allen would prefer to be in Seattle won't seem to go away. For that matter, neither will the two vets who continue to turn fans off: Darius Miles and Zach Randolph.

14. SEATTLE SUPERSONICS
The Sonics could have guaranteed themselves a favorable review here by offering a one-year guarantee to second-round pick Yotam Halperin, who's almost considered family at Stein Line HQ. But angry as I am that it hasn't happened yet -- an appropriate mood with so many Sonics fans fearing their team is headed to Oklahoma City at season's end -- I can't totally dismiss the Sonics' summer.
You figured they weren't going to spend any significant money this offseason because A) they've been non-spenders for years and B) the club, as we now know, was in the process of being sold when the free-agent buzzer sounded. Yet Seattle still managed to retain its top free agent, re-signing Chris Wilcox to a three-year deal worth $24 million, and resisted the urge to cut costs further by, say, shipping out Rashard Lewis. So it looks like the Sonics will at least field a decent team for the angry diehards in what could be their farewell to the Emerald City.

15. MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES
Let's face it. The West is so brutally deep (again), with at least 13 teams that can claim to have visions of the postseason, that injuries will inevitably decide who makes and misses the playoffs.
But the Grizzlies don't need me to tell them. They already know Pau Gasol's foot injury from the World Championship, which threatens to keep him sidelined until December and could prevent him from hitting peak form for who knows how long after that, is a killer. Rudy Gay would have to be spectacular from the start to lift the gloom … and none of the draft experts touting him as the potential star of the 2006 draft is projecting that sort of instant impact. The Grizz were a great story last season, but Pau's plight is bound to put them at the top of most Who's Gonna Slip lists in the West.
The consolation: Memphis will be on the short list of teams with cap room in July 2007, so next summer should be, well, worlds better

Offseason review: Rating the East from Heat to Sixers

By Marc Stein

Add an unofficial conference championship to the shiny gold trophy they won in June.
That's right. The Miami Heat had the best summer of any team in the East.
Better, even, than the Chicago Bulls had.
Just by getting Pat Riley's commitment to coach another year -- and with an assist from the Bulls, who weakened the Heat's chief rivals by signing away Ben Wallace -- Miami will begin the new season as a heavy favorite to get back to the NBA Finals. It doesn't matter that a clutch of East teams were far more active than the Heat this offseason. No move will have a bigger impact on the title race than Riley's decision to come back to the bench.
With training camps scheduled to open in a little more than two weeks, it's a good time to review everyone's summer dealings. The following is a 1-15, team-by-team ranking of the Eastern Conference based on who has done the best business. (Just to be clear: These are offseason assessments, not predicted order of finish for the coming season.)

1. MIAMI HEAT
Who says you have to bring in new blood to have a big summer? The Heat eventually will need a healthy dose of youth and athleticism around Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal, but that's a longer-term issue. This was a momentous offseason even without significant changes.
First, Wade signed a contract extension. Then, Alonzo Mourning agreed to play another season when he had every reason to retire. Then Riley, who had even greater justification to go out on a championship high after suffering through nearly two decades without winning a ring, heeded his players' pleas to come back at 61. Good thing, too, because the Heat wouldn't feel nearly as hot about their repeat chances with any other coach. Believe it.

2. CHICAGO BULLS
Did the Bulls overpay by committing $60 million to Wallace over the next four seasons? Of course. Yet as we've said numerous times, overpaying is the only way to persuade a good player to leave a good situation. The Bulls, furthermore, can handle the expense because they needed a title-tested veteran and because the outlay -- for all the concern about Wallace's offensive limitations -- doesn't immediately take away John Paxson's flexibility to keep improving the roster. Paxson eventually must address the Bulls' lack of dependable scorers, but he still has several trade chips to keep tweaking and should even have some decent cap room to burn next summer.
In the short term, meanwhile, Wallace and fellow newcomer P.J. Brown will lend size and savvy to complement the Bulls' young drive-and-kick stalwarts. As one GM told me recently: "Imagine what kind of [coaching] job Scott Skiles will do now that he actually has a couple bigs."

3. INDIANA PACERS
Donnie Walsh has always been good. But you know the saying: Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good ... and this summer was that time. New Orleans/Oklahoma City could have signed Peja Stojakovic outright, leaving Indy with no compensation for the sharpshooter who replaced Ron Artest in January. The Hornets instead consented -- for a mere cash payment of roughly $250,000 -- to absorb Stojakovic via sign-and-trade, creating the trade exception that (eventually) enabled the Pacers to reacquire Al Harrington for a bargain $35.3 million over four years.
Without that fortuitous trade exception, Indy had no shot at Harrington. With it, Indy became the only team Atlanta wanted to work with on a sign-and-trade because it enabled the Hawks to move Harrington without taking back any salary. Without that trade exception, Indy's summer is a disaster. With the Hornets willing to help keep Harrington away from Golden State, either to help their own playoff odds or to spite Baron Davis, Harrington's return reenergizes Jermaine O'Neal more than Indiana's other 10 new faces combined.

4. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
What's better than winning a championship? For the Cavs, it's getting LeBron James' signature on a contract extension. That alone made it a celebratory offseason in Cleveland, even if James signed for only three extra years as opposed to the maximum five ... and even though Cleveland lacks the financial flexibility to chase more glamorous free-agent help for LBJ than Scot Pollard and David Wesley.
The flip side to the glee, of course, is that pretty much everyone signed by the Cavs in their summer of 2005 spending spree -- Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones and Zydrunas Ilgauskas -- faces an uncertain future with the club because Cleveland is pressed right against the luxury-tax threshold. The Cavs are thus forced to trade their way into roster upgrades between now and LeBron's free-agent summer of 2010, meaning everyone not named James is at risk for possible relocation.

5. MILWAUKEE BUCKS
The two big Bucks questions: Where would Jamaal Magloire finally go? And how much would Team USA miss Michael Redd's shooting? The answers: Portland and a lot. In the biggest nonsurprise of the offseason, Milwaukee finally parted with Magloire, choosing to ship him to the Blazers for two reserves with favorable contracts: Steve Blake and Brian Skinner. The surprise is that Milwaukee actually made two bigger trades to sandwich the Magloire move.
The follow-up trade sent Joe Smith to Denver for Ruben Patterson. But the biggie came just moments before the free-agent buzzer sounded July 1, sending T.J. Ford to Toronto for Charlie Villanueva in a widely praised small-for-big swap that (A) established Andrew Bogut as the unquestioned starting center, (B) anointed Bogut and Villanueva as the frontcourt of the future and (C) guaranteed a favorable summer report card.

6. TORONTO RAPTORS
The best word to describe the first Bryan Colangelo offseason in Toronto? Decisive. Colangelo knew exactly how he wanted to remake the Raptors and did it quickly, bringing in nine new players. Five of them (No. 1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani, swingman Jorge Garbajosa, Maccabi Tel Aviv star Anthony Parker, veteran center Rasho Nesterovic and 2005 second-round selection Uros Slokar) were either born in Europe or starred there, with Colangelo convinced that players accustomed to more cosmopolitan surroundings will adapt better to Canada than young Americans would.
Will it work?
I definitely wouldn't expect a playoff berth in Year 1, after so many changes and given the inevitable struggles awaiting the NBA newcomers, but the plan already has won Chris Bosh over. The Raps' franchise forward signed a three-year contract extension in July and actually applauded that risky big-for-small trade because Ford is one of his best friends.

7. BOSTON CELTICS
The good news: Paul Pierce was signed to a three-year contract extension that will keep him off next summer's free-agent market. The better news: Danny Ainge didn't pull a Brian Scalabrine and needlessly bestow $15 million over five years to a marginal reserve.
Ainge also just locked up Stein Line favorite Kendrick Perkins on reasonable extension terms ... and I'll even sanction the notion that Theo Ratliff occasionally might provide a much-needed defensive presence. But let's not get carried away.
Even after Ainge acquired Rajon Rondo's draft rights and traded for Sebastian Telfair to join holdover point guard Delonte West, not much has changed for the Celts. They still have a slew of interesting youngsters around Pierce, but we've been saying that for a while now. Unless a few of them graduate from interesting to something, starting with Al Jefferson, it won't be long before the Pierce trade chatter fires up again.

8. ORLANDO MAGIC
The Magic have been quiet lately, but that's fairly understandable. February's ambitious trade swoop for Darko Milicic -- and the knowledge that they'll be major free-agent players next summer, with Vince Carter believed to be their top target -- explains any recent silence. Strong play at the World Championship by Dwight Howard, Carlos Arroyo and Milicic, furthermore, makes it a productive summer for the Magic even though they didn't make any significant roster upgrades ... and even though we can't forget last summer's Fran Vazquez fiasco.
Now to see whether last season's 16-6 finish, with Jameer Nelson at the controls, actually means something. We'll also find out whether the Dukies old and young, Grant Hill and J.J. Redick, can add anything to that promising young nucleus. (One warning, though: Orlando is going to seriously regret not signing Milicic to an extension this summer. The way he's progressing, Darko's price is bound to keep rising.)

9. WASHINGTON WIZARDS
On the surface, it looks as though the Wiz absorbed a significant free-agent defection for the second successive offseason.
On this scorecard, they've responded to Jared Jeffries' exit smartly, reminiscent of their counter to Hughes' big-money move to Cleveland. The Wiz decided they were better off replacing Hughes with two more affordable players (Caron Butler and Antonio Daniels) and have swung a similar two-for-one by using some of the money earmarked for Jeffries to bring in forward Darius Songaila (a good fit for Eddie Jordan's offense) and swingman DeShawn Stevenson.
They also extended Jordan's contract and, in perhaps the biggest development, should benefit from a Team USA snub that figures to have Gilbert Arenas starting the season at his chip-on-the-shoulder best. The Wiz still have to get bigger up front and drastically improve their defense -- chores that likely will require some creative (and lucky) trading -- but I see a better team than the one that lost three playoff games to the Cavs at the buzzer.

10. NEW YORK KNICKS
Knicks fans who blame Isiah Thomas for everything can't lose now. Larry Brown's ouster and Isiah's, uh, promotion to team president/coach will either spark a drastic improvement in the standings or lead to Thomas' dismissal at season's end. What a deal.
The growing consensus seems to be that Thomas can indeed coax a playoff-contending 40 wins out of these misfits by playing a lot of guards and going up-tempo. That's still the way I'm betting, too, figuring that Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis are so desperate to spruce up their reputations that they'll find a way to coexist. For 82 games, anyway.
(As for the only roster newcomer of note: New York definitely didn't need to add Jeffries to a group already teeming with swingmen, given that Thomas also just drafted Renaldo Balkman, but what's a little more payroll overkill for a better defender than anyone else on the books?)

11. DETROIT PISTONS
I'd love to join the Better Off Without Ben chorus. But I can't. If the Pistons still had Milicic, perhaps. If the Pistons had signed Bonzi Wells as their Wallace replacement instead of Nazr Mohammed, maybe. But they don't and they couldn't, thanks to an unlikely chain of events.
The Pistons knew it eventually would be too expensive to re-sign Milicic and Wallace but only consented to trading Darko in February because they believed Big Ben was staying. Yet worse, in my view, was to follow Wallace's exodus: The Pistons quickly signed Mohammed as Big Ben's replacement, only for Wells -- a free agent they loved -- to fall unexpectedly into Mohammed's price range. When Sacramento withdrew its $7 million-a-season offer, Wells was suddenly available for the $5.2 million midlevel exception. But by then, Detroit's emergency fund was gone, robbing the Pistons of an ideal addition to their new 'Sheed-at-center plans.

12. NEW JERSEY NETS
They haven't done a lot, but they weren't expected to. Bringing back Clifford Robinson, after Uncle Cliffy's drug suspension in the playoffs, shows just how limited the Nets' flexibility is. They simply won't be able to do anything drastic to the roster unless Rod Thorn decides to move Richard Jefferson, and I concur with Thorn's sense that it's not quite time to break up the three-man core of Jason Kidd, Carter and R.J.
So I can understand why the Nets went for pedestrian tweaks, such as signing Eddie House and trading for Mikki Moore, while maintaining hope that Nenad Krstic continues to develop and that rookie center Mile Ilic (another Serbian big man) and rookie point guard Marcus Williams (to lessen the toll on Kidd) have a bigger-than-expected impact.

13. CHARLOTTE BOBCATS
If you're itching to see what Michael Jordan does in his reincarnation as a chief of staff, you'll have to be patient.
The Bobcats continue to spend as little as they have to, preferring to focus on the development of their youngsters as opposed to splashing out on a so-so class of free agents. The immediate goal is integrating Adam Morrison and Argentinean forward Walter Herrmann with Raymond Felton, Gerald Wallace and a back-from-injury Emeka Okafor.
And then next summer (assuming he sticks that long) is when we'll get a better read on MJ's ability to get penurious owner Bob Johnson to finally spend. Jordan keeps saying he can and the 2007 free-agent pool is much deeper, with whispers already circulating about the Bobs joining Orlando in the free-agent chase for another UNC high flier of some renown: Vince Carter.

14. ATLANTA HAWKS
Billy Knight bashing is one of the NBA's most popular pastimes, but the Hawks actually have added a few players who might make them marginally better. Speedy Claxton is a legit NBA point guard; Lorenzen Wright was signed to back up Zaza Pachulia; and No. 5 overall pick Shelden Williams joins the Hawks' long line of frontcourt lottery picks.
You certainly can't call it a great summer, especially after the Hawks decided they didn't want anything more than a future first-round pick for Harrington, but at least it wasn't as nightmarish as last summer. That's when Knight bypassed Chris Paul in the draft -- you might have heard here once or twice that Paul wanted Atlanta to take him -- and happily banished Boris Diaw to Phoenix in the Joe Johnson trade ... only for Diaw to blossom into a multipositional wonder the Hawks never knew they had.

15. PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
It has been what you might call a Seinfeldian summer in Philly. A summer, in other words, about nothing. How else to describe what the Sixers have done to change a team environment that, when we last saw them, couldn't have been more toxic.
Philly has consummated zero trades and signed zero free agents -- unless you count Alan Henderson -- amid suspicions that Allen Iverson was yanked off the trading block only because the team is now up for sale. It can't be too surprising that a team has gone quiet on the personnel front while looking for new ownership, but the inactivity means Iverson, after bracing himself for a new start, soon must return to work knowing he was shopped harder than he ever has been shopped before.
Nearly getting traded to Detroit in 2000 sparked Iverson into an MVP-worthy fury in the 2000-01 season, but you're expecting a ton if you think he'll respond like that again. Don't forget that those Sixers had an idyllic blend of role players to bring out Iverson's best. These Sixers, remember, don't like each other, can't guard anyone and are coming back with the same group that ended last season so unhappily.

Nelson pulls Magic together

-We've already mentioned this a little bit as it was mentioned on a blog on the Magic site. Today it was published in the Sentinel by Tim Povtak, and there are a few more details and quotes. It was all good news, and creates further reason to be excited for the upcoming season. It's hard not to appreciate Jameer and this Magic team. Hopefully the bonding and chemistry will translate into a lot of wins next year. One things for sure, no Magic team has been as prepared going into a season as this one.

Jameer Nelson didn't wait for training camp next month to start asserting himself as the leader of the Orlando Magic.

Nelson may have played only two NBA seasons and still could be facing a battle for the starting point-guard role, but that didn't stop him from gathering his teammates this summer for a weeklong training/bonding session in Philadelphia, near his hometown of Chester, Pa.

"I feel like I'm the leader of this team, and I should act like it,'' Nelson said last week from Pennsylvania. "My whole purpose was to make sure we continue building on the way we finished last season. I always thought in college, you became a better team if the guys really understand and enjoy each other, develop a chemistry. We can do that with the Magic.''

Although three of the Magic's key players -- Dwight Howard, Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo -- were in Japan at the FIBA World Championship, Nelson still managed to have eight teammates in Philadelphia for the week.

He set up their schedules and paid for everything. They played basketball, lifted weights, ran on the track, even had coaches from the five Philadelphia-area colleges help with training sessions. It was working with a dual purpose.

Together, they all went to restaurants, bowling, to a movie, even to play paintball. Nelson made sure the Magic guys stuck together.

"This wasn't a boot camp. We worked hard, but we had fun, too. It went really well. It's going to help when things get tough at times,'' Nelson said. "I'm not going to try and predict the future of this team, but I know now we're headed in the right direction.''

Nelson started slowly last season, missing 20 games in the middle with a sprained foot, but he finished strong, just like the Magic when they won 16 of their last 22 games.

As a starter, he averaged 16 points and 5.8 assists.

It was no coincidence that he didn't emerge as a leader until Steve Francis was traded in February.

"We had absolutely nothing to do with putting it [the week in Philadelphia] together, although I was invited to come watch one day,'' Magic General Manager Otis Smith said. "That's what made it so unusual. This kind of thing doesn't normally happen in the league. It was all driven and put together by Jameer. He is so focused right now, it's scary.''

The 5-foot-10 Nelson has bulked up to 200 pounds, and he'll arrive in camp in the best condition of his life. He will open training camp with the first unit, but Arroyo -- who played exceptionally well with the Puerto Rican national team at the World Championship -- will try to unseat him.

Together, they should provide the Magic with an outstanding 1-2 punch at point guard.

"There were things we saw in Jameer at Saint Joe's [where he played four years] -- leadership things -- that really weren't able to flourish in Orlando until recently,'' Smith said. "And I love what I'm seeing.''

Upset special: Greece stuns U.S. in FIBA semis

Co-captains King James, Melo, and Wade are apart of the newly assembled program for U.S. Basketball. The end results were pretty much the same as the disappointment continues for United States Basketball.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/wbc2006/news/story?id=2568543

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