Before the season started, all the top teams kept their rosters intact, yet made one significant signing.
LA Lakers – Signed Ron Artest
Cleveland Cavaliers – Signed Shaquille O’neal
Orlando Magic – Signed Vince Carter
San Antonio Spurs – Signed Richard Jefferson
Boston Celtics – Signed Rasheed Wallace
All these players are big name players who were once all stars on their own team at one point in their career, but they are all players who have hit their prime. All 5 of these players entered into a situation where they were no longer the best player on their team and no longer the focal point of the team’s offense. However, they are all still very good and effective players, and were brought in as the “last missing piece” to winning the championship.
These five players were brought in for all different reasons. Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson were signed to provide additional scoring to the Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs, respectively. The Cavs pretty much brought in Shaq as a body to play against Dwight Howard in the Eastern Conference Finals (so much for that decision). Ron Artest was brought into the LA Lakers for his lockdown defending, hustle, energy, and extremely streaking shooting. The Boston Celtics signed Rasheed Wallace to back up Kendrick Perkins and be a spark off the bench and to provide the team with good energy, defense, and rebounding.
From the beginning of the season, I had said that the team that brings in the player that fulfills his role the best will most likely win the championship. This is also under the assumption that the core pieces on the team play their best.
Take Shaq first. You can blame him for the Cav’s playoff failures. He actually played pretty decently in the playoffs. It was the rest of the core, Lebron James, Mo Williams, and co, that didnt play their best.
However, you could say the Vince Carter experiment in Orlando was a disaster. The entire team carried their weight, except for Vince Carter, who only averaged 13 pts/game against Boston, after averaging 18 against Atlanta and 15 against Charlotte. Carter’s emotional state was fragile in the Boston series and he just choked and couldnt provide the scoring that the Magic needed.
If you say the Vince Carter experiment was an disaster, then the Richard Jefferson experiment in San Antonio was the apocalypse. Here was a guy who averaged only 12 pts/game the entire season, even though he has a career mark of 17 pts/game. I actually thought Jefferson had the best chance of making the biggest difference. His entire career, Jefferson was always the primary scorer and had to shoulder most of the scoring burdens of his team. Here he was coming into a situation where he would play 4th fiddle to Duncan, Parker, and Ginobilli and that release of burden would enable to have the freedom to do what he wants. Boy was I wrong…
That leaves us with Rasheed Wallace and Ron Artest, two players who are best fulfilling their roles that they were brought in to do, and not surprisingly, we have the Boston Celtics and LA Lakers back in the NBA Finals once again.
Rasheed Wallace has been a very interesting pickup. Bill Simmons absolutely ripped him in a column last month, criticizing his lack of energy, dedication, heart…etc. But just like the rejuvenation of the entire team, Wallace has made a complete 180 in his attitude and play. He is providing very good minutes off the bench backing up Perkins, and is giving the team good energy. He’s also providing the team great streaky shooting, as seen by his 21 point outburst against Orlando, and a 17 point outburst against the Cavs. For some very strange reason, I believe he’s going to be play a very significant role in this upcoming series against the Lakers.
But out of all the offseason acquisitions across the league, I believe the signing of Ron Artest by the Los Angeles Lakers was the best pickup. There were huge expectations placed on him. Here he was coming to a team straight off a championship, replacing a guy, Trevor Ariza, who played a significant role on that team. If the Lakers dont win this year, people will look at him as the only change from last year and place the blame unfairly on him. However, Ron-Ron has come in and played well and consistent throughout the entire year, and has provided lockdown defense on numerous star opponents.
Then you have his amazing buzzer beating shot in game 5, which just goes to show his knowledge of the game, the situation, and his hustle off the boards.
and then he follows up that performance with a 25 point performance in game 6, including 4 of 7 from the 3 point line. It will be really fun to see what he does against Boston next week.
Of course, last year’s offseason transactions have nothing on this summer’s free agent field…which of course needs to be addressed in a completely different post 🙂
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