The new CBA by Tigercub

So, DeMar DeRozan signed his name under his first NBA contract and we have our Pizza-man in T-Dot, also. We knew that already, but how we got Hedo is another thing. Bryan Colangelo with help of other executives created rather complicated deal. Like 'I didn't sleep 5 nights in a row, to figure it out' complicated deal. It includes 4 teams and basically looks like that:

Raptors get Hedo Turkoglu, Antoine Wright, Devean George and bunch of salary cap exceptions.

Mavericks get Kris Humphries, Shawn Marion and Nathan Jawai.

Grizzlies get our second round pick, dollars and Jerry Stackhouse.

Magic get dollars and trade exception.

Why make it so complicated, when BC could have offered Hedo a contract, saving himself some sleepless nights? I'll give you the clue: it's not because we wanted Wright and George so hard. The answer lies in the magical word 'exception'. Yeah, this is what we were losing by just signing Hedo Turkoglu. But the CBA is obviously written by somebody who loves the word 'loopholes'. Before you understand it, the new CBA comes and it starts allover again. We're waiting for another ankle breaking set of rules in 2011. Why not make it simple and honor the players of 2000's in the same time, by this understandable and straight-forward set of exceptions:

The Anderson Varejao exception. Salary: the yearly income of an average wig producer.

The Eddy Curry exception. Salary: the yearly income of your local McDonalds restaurant.

The Allen Iverson exception. Salary: yearly number of sold benches.

The Ron Artest exception. Salary: the number of sold out rap albums by a player in discussion.

The Kevin Garnet exception. Salary: yearly income of an ear-plug store.

The Glen Davis exception. Salary: number of yearly sold Pampers packs.

The Baron Davis exception. Salary: money made by the movie '300' in the first month.

The LeBron James exception. Salary: yearly income of a local video store.

The Nuggets exception. Salary: the average price of tattooing a whole basketball team (coaches, trainers, execs included).

The list can go on and on. It doesn't use the complicated language of lawyers. But it still lets you spend more than you're allowed. Like when you're a girl using your husbands Master Card.

Free Agency Day 1 - The Motown Experiment

Remember Deeetroit Basketball? The solid team that used to go to conference finals every year and won one championship in that stretch? What have happened to them?

It seems that they after they lost Ben Wallace, the team was still really good, but they couldn't make it to the 'ship. So, the Pistons GM decided to make an experiment - he swapped Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson. My first thought was - Pistons will really rock now. Man, how wrong I was. We all know, how it worked. Pistons turned into below .500 team and exited the playoffs in the first round, not winning a single game. Who was punished for that? The head coach Michael Curry paid for his inability to fit in the square peg of AI into round hole of Detroit Pistons. He just got fired.



They failure of a bad answer to Detroit question didn't discourage Dumars from making yet another bold moves. Iverson is not coming back, Rasheed Wallace neither. Instead of this, Pistons on the first day of the free agency offered 5-year long contracts to Charlie Villanueva (40 mln) and Ben Gordon (58 mln). Does Ben Gordon really fit into the concept of Deeetroit Basketball? I don't think so. But maybe a huge change is coming. Or yet another coach will be fired.

Asides from Motown, not much going on in the Free Agency Day 1. Quentin Richardson had to change his jersey yet again in the span of few days, being sent to LA Clippers in exchange with Zach Randolph.
Raptors still didn't get anything going yet, although they are trying to do the shopping. The names include: Hedo Turkoglu, David Lee and Linas Kleiza. Turk & Kleiza are small forwards, which is what we need, but why are putting yet another big man (Lee) in that equation? Only time will tell, how it ends.

NBA Free Agency for Dummies

Here's the list of some NBA free agents 2009, described in short Twitter-like fashion and non-scientific language. The order is random.

Marcin Gortat - Polish Hammer, he can block the King in the name of Polish Democracy.

Glen Davis - known for crying, and killing little boys after shooting a winning shot.

Anderson Varejao - man, he flops.

Chris Andersen - his blocks are as colorful as his tats.

Linas Kleiza - having him won't hurt you when Melo is hurt.

Wally Szczerbiak - his abilities of playing ball are only a little better than your abilities to spell his name.

Eddie House - he'll defend you so much that you'll want to slap him.

Nate Robinson - don't be cheated by his size, he can dunk.

David Lee - Mr Double-Double, he makes sure to follow every shot he misses.

Grant Hill - aging like a good wine, still capable of giving you a kick on some nights.

Mike Bibby - his 3pointer looks way better than his tats.

Trevor Ariza - Mr Hustle, he follows every loose ball and steals inbound passes.

Allen Iverson - best crossover in the league, but is he the answer?

Shawn Marion - as ugly as his shot looks, it usually goes in.

Jason Kidd - triple-double for me please.

Hedo Turkoglu - he can both dribble and shoot really well.

Rasheed Wallace - big mouth and big shot.

Ron Artest - fantastic defender and entertainer, he's been in the stands before.

Lamar Odom - good force on the team providing he gets his candies.

Ben Gordon - you will love and hate him multiple times on each possession.

Carlos Boozer - power forward with a power.