Kobe Bryant announced, among other things, that he didn’t force Shaq out and that he would like a trade.

Now the trade rumors are going to start swirling. Can Minnesota get him to play along side Kevin Garnett? Can “plug in your home team (that isn’t the Denver Nuggets)” get him?

With all the rumors, though, the trade announcement might not really mean much, though.

Here’s why… Read the rest of this entry »

Al Harrington was re-signed by the Atlanta Hawks and traded to the Indiana Pacers for a first round draft pick. This trade caps off a relatively ho-hum offseason, where Jermaine O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Carlos Boozer, and Allen Iverson were supposed to be changing zipcodes, but didn’t.

In the big scheme of things, is this trade going to impact the Atlanta Hawks or the Indiana Pacers?

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It looks like Al Harrington may be firing his agent, if reports are to be believed. If that’s the case it may be the end of August before any team acquires the best free agent left on the market. (That’s pretty bad when the best free agent to talk about is Al Harrington.)

That doesn’t mean that no team is doing anything however. It just means that no team is picking up anybody more than sturdy backups to fill out their team.

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The first few days of the official day that NBA free agents could be approached for verbal agreements began with a flurry of activity, some calls beginning as early as the 12:01 a.m. starting time.

The actually signing of those verbal offers into a binding agreement, however, has been rather less exciting, in spite of the fact that some reported trades depended on various signings of free agents.

Among the free agents expected to sign with new teams include Ben Wallace and Peja Stojakovic.

After the higher profile free agents sign, most of the remaining players are expected to be signed for all or portions of the mid-level exception, which is just over $5 million.

The Atlanta Hawks have tried playing with Joe Johnson at the point.  They have refused for the last two years to draft a point guard to allow him to slide over to his natural position at shooting guard.

Now they have signed Speedy Claxton to play alongside Johnson.

I think this is a good move for Atlanta.  Claxton isn’t great, but he sure is a lot better than forcing Joe Johnson to play a position which deminishes his capacity to play to his strengths.  Atlanta’s back court is a lot stronger for the move.

If they could manage to keep Al Harrington, they would have a decent chance to win half of their games.  That would be a miracle for the Hawks.

Unfortunately, that isn’t very likely as Harrington is rumored to be heading back to Indiana to play alongside his friend Jermaine O’Neal.