Monday, July 03, 2006

And in other free agent news

I'm slow to comment on it here, but the big story before Ben Wallace jumping ship was Peja agreeing to a deal with the Hornets.

1) Boy, did the Artest implosion go badly for Bird. They waste two years on the guy and then trade him for a four-month Peja rental that gets them nowhere in the playoffs. By all accounts the Pacers had tuned out Carlisle well before the end of the season, Bird is pissed at half the team, and now he can't even work a sign-and-trade to get something from Stojakovic jumping ship. Ouch, babe.

2) Bird and Walsh's decision to only negotiate with West Conference teams-- on the assumption the Pacers would be a power in the playoffs and so would Artest's new 'mates-- sure looks like a poor one now. Think they'd rather go with that Ricky Davis/Marcus Banks/picks deal that was floating around?

3) Funny how having a great PG on your team makes you a whole lot more attractive to certain NBA free agents. How big a pull for Peja do you think was the upgrade from Anthony Johnson to Chris Paul? With Cedric Simmons, Hilton Armstrong, and now Peja NO/OK is becoming an interesting team.

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