So tell me, how has your summer been?
Have you been keeping busy? Spending too much time on vacation? Spending too much time in the unrelenting heat? Spending too much money on Brian Scalabrine?
There are many different ways to spend the summertime. Just look at the NBA. Some teams spent their time and money efficiently to improve the state of their franchises. Others have made some decisions over the course of the offseason that have made their team's outlook for next year's campaign a lot less sunny.
In case you've been lying around on the beach all summer, I offer you three NBA teams that got better over the past three months and three that got worse.
Teams That Improved
Indiana Pacers
The Pacers put together an inspired effort last year en route to a 44-win season. This offseason, the team added one of the most NBA-ready players in the draft (Danny Granger), the most sought-after European import (Sarunas Jasikevicius), and welcomed back a former all-star and NBA Defensive Player of the Year (Ron Artest).
This year's team is even deeper than the one that led the league in wins two seasons ago. Indiana's second unit, consisting of the aforementioned Jasikevicius and Granger alongside the vastly underappreciated Fred Jones, the immensely talented, but oft-injured Jonathan Bender, and second-year center David Harrison (who punished No. 1 Draft Pick Andrew Bogut in summer league play), is better put together than some teams' starting fives (see: New Orleans, Charlotte).
If Reggie Miller ever had this much talent around him during his illustrious career, there's no doubt he would have retired with a championship on his resume. The Pacers entered the 2005 offseason with minimal salary cap flexibility and a mid-round draft pick and still were able to make significant improvements. Watch out, Miami and Detroit. There might be a new beast of the Eastern Conference in 2006.
Miami Heat
Heat brass had enough fortitude to make substantial changes to a roster that was one game away from reaching the NBA Finals. The chemistry between four offensive-minded players (Jason Williams, Dwyane Wade, Antoine Walker, and Shaquille O'Neal) seems destined to be volatile at times. However, this year's reincarnation of the Heat has a great deal more firepower than last year's squad, and Pat Riley added four new weapons at a miniscule cost. Williams, Walker, defensive specialist James Posey, and late-round steal Wayne Simien are definite upgrades over the role players the team had to relinquish (Eddie Jones and Rasual Butler) over the summer.
If all of the players that Riles brought in can play together, the former Coach of the Year might be in line for some new hardware, in the form of an Executive of the Year award and a NBA championship trophy. If the pieces don't fit, the Heat in Miami might drive him out of the front office and back into coaching. My best guess is that if White Chocolate doesn't melt — that is, if the Heat's new point guard continues to keep his assist-to-turnover ratio above the 3-1 threshold — then the team should to no worse than a repeat trip to the conference finals.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Mark it down. For the first time in LeBron James' career, his team will be playoff-bound. Even though the team was unable to land Michael Redd or Ray Allen, the Cavs still ended up with two impact free agents to fill out a formidable starting five in Cleveland. If a Larry Hughes/LeBron James backcourt can share point guard duties well enough to get open three-pointers for the newly-acquired Donyell Marshall, uncontested dunks for Drew Gooden, and post-up opportunities for the recently-retained Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the Cavs will be able to claim one of the East's best starting units.
If Hughes was able to thrive alongside Gilbert Arenas in Washington last season, there shouldn't be any reason Cleveland's prized pickup shouldn't continue to develop with King James as his wingman. The Cavs should find themselves in competition for the Eastern Conferences fourth seed after a much-needed strong offseason. If the team fails to live up to expectations, the franchise shouldn't expect LeBron's reign in Cleveland to last much longer.
Teams That Worsened
Phoenix Suns
It may have been out of the Suns' hands that Joe Johnson decided he rather call Atlanta home. However, Boris Diaw and future draft picks are not going to help a team that was on the cusp of a championship last year to pull through in 2006. By the time the Suns develop their two upcoming first-rounders from the Hawks, league MVP Steve Nash will be on his way to retirement. The Suns would have been best off standing pat in the offseason. With a healthy Johnson in last year's playoffs, the Suns might have had enough to get past the Spurs. If they could have held on to him and added another piece, I don't see why they wouldn't have had the same opportunity this upcoming season.
In defense of the Suns' front office, the team did make an attempt to add some role players into the fray. Raja Bell and Kurt Thomas are nice additions, but neither of them are going to help Phoenix to keep putting up 110 points a night next season. Perhaps Bell and Thomas might play some D, but I can't imagine that Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire will stop fast-breaking enough to join them on the other end of the court. I would be surprised to see the next year's Suns up as high as they were during the 2004-2005.
Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks will win more games than they did last year, but I still think the acquisitions they made will make their "team" worse. Atlanta brought in more talent without addressing the glaring needs on their roster. Last year, the team already had too many swingmen — Al Harrington, Josh Smith, and Josh Childress were all tailor-made to play the three, but not of them were great fits at the two or four spot. And none of them had the capabilities to play the point guard or center position at all (and for that matter, no one on the Hawks really did).
So what did Atlanta do? They drafted Marvin Williams, a player that fits the same mold as Harrington, Smith, and Childress, and Salim Stoudemire, a point guard prospect that played his entire collegiate career as a shooting guard. In free agency, they went and got one of the best players available, Joe Johnson, another player who is more comfortable playing two guard or small forward than floor general. In an offseason in which the Hawks had a higher draft pick and more free agent dollars to spend than almost any other team in the NBA, it seems inexcusable that the team still is lacking a real point guard, power forward, or center. There's no way Atlanta will make the playoffs when the team has more swingers than a '70s disco club.
Los Angeles Lakers
Is Kwame Brown the cure for the "Curse of the Shaq-bino?" He's not, and the player they traded away for him has a much brighter future (former UConn stud Caron Butler). The only other major move made by LA was to draft high school center Andrew Bynum with the 10th selection when there were better players on the board still available (Granger and Gerald Green, to name a few). Like Brown, Bynum has a lot of potential — a lot of potential to drive Phil Jackson back out of the coaching business. If Jackson sticks around for a whil, he might be able to mold the Lakers back into contenders. But that's far from a guarantee.
If the Zen Master is able to take this year's Lakers back to the playoffs, he should be rewarded for one of the best coaching jobs of his career. If Kobe Bryant can make this team overachieve, then maybe we can start talking about him in the same breath as His Airness again. Good luck, Kobe and Phil, you're going to need it.
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