7/25 ESPN Insider- East is still Least (and find out who was involved in the Brad Miller deal !!!!)

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Why the East is still least
By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Send an Email to Chad Ford Friday, July 25
Updated: July 25
9:04 AM ET


While five teams in the West are busy building all-star teams, Jason Kidd is trying to build a dynasty of his own in the most unlikely of places -- the Eastern Conference.


Kidd turned down a $90 million-plus offer from the Spurs to re-sign this summer with the Nets amid whispers that he was scared of the competition in the West.

"I wouldn't have been scared to go to the West," Kidd said in his press conference Thursday. "Nobody scares me."

Over the past two seasons, the Nets have played a total of 10 NBA Finals games. They've won only two of them.

This year he expects that to change. Kidd says he believes that with a young core of Richard Jefferson and Kenyon Martin, the Nets play his style of basketball.

"There's no better place. I feel my game fits and also my personality and everything else," Kidd said. "I just want to be on a winning team. There's no better way than to be a part of something you started [building] from the ground, to see it building at the end and to sit back and say. 'You know what? We accomplished something here.' "

Alonzo Mourning
Center
New Jersey Nets
Profile


2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS
GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
- - - - - -



It also won't hurt if the guy Kidd's bringing along for the ride, Alonzo Mourning, ends up returning to his old form.

"It's a high risk, but sometimes you've got to put yourself out there to roll the dice," Kidd said. "I felt adding a piece like Zo could help us in the sense of it's somebody who has the same goal, and that's to win a championship. He's not here trying to get a new contract or trying to make the most money."

With a lineup of Kidd, Kerry Kittles, Jefferson, Martin and Mourning, the Nets clearly are the team to beat in the East again.

"They beat up on everyone in the East last season -- and that was without Zo," one rival GM told Insider. "If he's healthy, I think they have a great shot of giving the teams in the West a run. If he isn't -- and that's a big if -- I believe the East will be wide open again."

Wide open is one way to look at it. The other is downright mediocrity. With the exception of the Nets and Pistons -- very few teams in the East have made the upgrades it's going to take to make a run at the title.

Juwan Howard
Power Forward
Orlando Magic
Profile


2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS
GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
77 18.4 7.6 3.0 .450 .803



The Magic added Juwan Howard, but without a star center or point guard, the team will still be lacking. The Sixers, Knicks and Hawks basically just shuffled around unwanted players in the last few days. The Pacers lost Brad Miller and Ron Mercer and have only Scot Pollard to show for it. The Celtics' big free-agent move was to re-sign Walter McCarty. The Hornets' big splash was Sean Rooks. The Raptors trumped them a bit by landing free-agent studs Jerome Moiso, Milt Palacio and Mengke Bateer. The Bulls' big addition was a 60-year-old Scottie Pippen.

Several cellar dwellers did get better. The Cavs will be much improved with LeBron James running the show. So will the Wizards with Gilbert Arenas at the helm. A few teams, however, may have actually gotten worse. The Bucks stripped their roster of their best four players in the matter of a year, and the Heat, unless they land Lamar Odom, struck out in free agency despite the fact that they have a legend of a coach and play in one of the premier free-agent destinations -- South Florida.

How do they rank against one another? Insider breaks it down:

Also see: How the West will be won

1. New Jersey Nets
Projected record: 55-27
Biggest additions: Alonzo Mourning, Zoran Planinic
Biggest subtractions: Anthony Johnson, Eddie Jordan
The skinny: If Mourning is healthy, and if Martin and Jefferson keep up the learning curve, the Nets will be tougher than ever. Their big weakness last year was in the middle. If Zo can give them 25 minutes a night of solid defense in the paint, they'll be very tough to beat. Planinic is the sleeper. He played well enough in the summer league to prompt one Nets assistant coach to predict that he could get major minutes in the back ourt alongside Kidd. The other big issue is the loss of Jordan. He was the architect of the Nets' run-and-gun offense and also played mediator between Kidd and head coach Byron Scott. Kidd reiterated on Thursday that there is no rift between him and Scott -- but one may develop if the Nets don't hire an assistant who can keep Kidd happy.

2. Detroit Pistons
Projected record: 53-29
Biggest additions: Larry Brown, Darko Milicic, Elden Campbell
Biggest subtractions: Jon Barry?
The skinny: Good things are bound to happen when you hire a Hall of Fame-caliber coach and add the No. 2 pick in the draft. The Pistons are on a roll of good fortune and the Nets appear to be the only team in the East that can slow them down right now. If the deal for Campbell goes down as expected (one Pistons official thought the signing would happen today) -- the Pistons will have four 7-footers and Ben Wallace to anchor their front line. Throw in the dynamic threesome of Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince and the deepest bench in the East and this could be the year that the Pistons break through to the Finals.

3. Indiana Pacers
Projected record: 48-34
Biggest additions: Scot Pollard, Anthony Johnson
Biggest subtractions: Brad Miller, Ron Mercer
The skinny: Pacers fans are up in arms over the loss of Miller and Mercer for Pollard. Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh is pleading for patience. In all likelihood, the Pacers aren't done tinkering. New GM Larry Bird really wants another point guard and may be willing to give up Jamaal Tinsley to get it done. The Pacers did pick up Danny Ferry and his $4.5 million non-guaranteed salary in the trade. Package that with Tinsley and it could land them a veteran like Eric Snow or Charlie Ward. Even if that doesn't happen, the glass still appears to be half full in Indy. Jermaine O'Neal, Al Harrington and Ron Artest form a solid nucleus. The team believes that this is Jonathan Bender's breakout year and plans on playing him at the four and moving O'Neal to the five when they aren't playing the dominant centers in the NBA. Pollard may not be Miller on the offensive end, but he is a better defender and rebounder. With so many offensive weapons to choose from, the Pacers don't really need Pollard to score.

4. New Orleans Hornets
Projected record: 48-34
Biggest additions: Sean Rooks, David West
Biggest subtractions: Jerome Moiso, Kenny Anderson?
The skinny: For the second straight year, Hornets owner George Shinn shocked the NBA by re-signing one of his own players. Last summer it was Baron Davis. This summer it was P.J. Brown. Put Brown and Davis together with Jamal Mashburn and Jamaal Magloire and the Hornets still have one of the best inside-outside threats in the league. The two keys for the Hornets this season will be health and coaching. They can't afford to lose Davis and Mashburn for long stretches again. On the coaching side, Tim Floyd now replaces Paul Silas. Can he keep the momentum going? Silas is one of the most underrated coaches in the league. Floyd believes the same thing about himself after a miserable stint with the Terri-Bulls. Can he get the same effort out of his team that Silas did? If he can't the Hornets will slide.

5. Orlando Magic
Projected record: 46-36
Biggest additions: Juwan Howard, Reece Gaines, Tyronn Lue, Zaur Pachulia
Biggest subtractions: Darrell Armstrong, Jacque Vaughn, Shawn Kemp?
The skinny: Another year, another season without Grant Hill. The Magic appear to have had it with Hill's annual comeback attempt and tried to push him into a box this summer when they applied for the league's medical exception. It was denied after league doctors determined that there was a chance that Hill could play this season. Fat chance. While medically that may be true, it appears the Magic have no intention of letting that happen. Hill probably won't play again until the Magic are sure that the odds are in their favor. That's why they ran out and landed Howard. Like Hill, Howard has the personality to fit into the Magic's system without disrupting Tracy McGrady's dominance. Howard's a nice pick-up, but what does that do to Drew Gooden? Gooden struggled in Memphis when the team moved him to small forward and flourished in Orlando when he played power forward. Howard's no longer quick enough to play the three and neither player has the size to really play the five on a consistent basis. Point guard is also an issue. First-round pick Gaines struggled in the summer league and Lue is too small to play major minutes. Pachulia may be the wild card in all of this. He dominated at times in the summer league and could be the answer, down the road, for the Magic in the middle.

The Best of the Rest: After the top five, the rest of the East is wash. The Sixers will still be in the mix somewhere. The addition of Glenn Robinson will give them plenty of scoring, but Kenny Thomas and Marc Jackson don't make the strongest of front lines. Chemistry will also be an issue. How well Allen Iverson responds to Robinson and new head coach Randy Ayers will be the deciding factor.

The Celtics live and die by Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker. The news all summer has swirled around rumored Walker trades. But the Celtics may be cooling their heels. Walker has been religiously working out with Michael Jordan's trainer, Tim Grover. One Celtics official told Insider that he's lost so much weight he resembles the Antoine Walker we saw at Kentucky. Put him with an improving Kedrick Brown, quick as lightning rookie point guard Marcus Banks and a recovering Vin Baker and the Celtics should at least be able to hold serve.

It appears that there aren't many Keith Van Horn fans out there right now, but that's really irrelevant. The Knicks will be a playoff team this year if Antonio McDyess is healthy and returns to form. If he doesn't, it seems doubtful that the team will be able ride Allan Houston, Van Horn and Mike Sweetney to an eight seed. The Raptors will also be in the hunt as long as Vince Carter and Antonio Davis remain healthy.

The rest of the East could be labeled the young and the restless. The Bulls appear to be the most ready to make the leap this year. If Jamal Crawford, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry continue their development, veterans like Jalen Rose, Scottie Pippen and Donyell Marshall should be able to give them a shot at an eighth seed. The Wizards will go as far as young players like Kwame Brown, Gilbert Arenas and Jarvis Hayes take them. Jerry Stackhouse can only do so much. LeBron James should lead the Cavs back to respectability but it will take huge years by Darius Miles and Carlos Boozer to push them into the playoffs.

The Hawks, Heat and Bucks should all battle for last place. The Hawks basically conceded the battle when they shipped Robinson to Philly for cap room. The Heat added another nice young player in Dwyane Wade, but unless they land Odom, they're still a couple of players away from being a contender. The Bucks have a nice young nucleus with T. J. Ford, Michael Redd, Desmond Mason and Tim Thomas, but the firing of coach George Karl was a pretty clear sign that the team knows it will be in the throes of rebuilding for a while.

Around the league

The Mavs may not be getting into the Western Conference trading frenzy after all. Owner Mark Cuban denied a report in Thursday's New York Daily News that claimed that the Mavs were talking with the Knicks about a Raef LaFrentz-for-Kurt Thomas/Charlie Ward swap.

.The Indianapolis Star reported that the Mavs and Pacers did talk about a Brad Miller/Jamaal Tinsley-for-Steve Nash/Shawn Bradley swap, but the deal never materialized.

Does that mean the Mavs are going to sit things out this summer? Coach Don Nelson said he's been working tirelessly trying to make something happen. "I don't think people should confuse lack of action for lack of effort," Nelson told the Fort Worth Star Telegram. "We've been burning the candle at both ends while burning up the phone lines. We felt like in a lot of these [potential trades and free agent signings] that you put yourself in good positions and you hope luck is with you. But for every [Steve] Nash trade that you do, there's 10 others that look just as good and feel just as good, but for whatever reason it just doesn't take."


The Mavs aren't the only team having problems convincing free agents to come play for them. The Jazz are in the same boat. If the Clippers match Utah's offer sheet for Corey Maggette next week, the team will be left holding around $20 million in cap room with no free agents to show for it.

The team isn't giving up, however. While there aren't any free agents the team is locked onto, trades aren't out of the question. In fact, it may be the best way for the Jazz to acquire talent. If top free agents are reluctant to come to Utah because of stereotypes or a wariness to fill John Stockton and Karl Malone's shoes, the best plan may be to trade for guys who are already locked up. A number of teams are desperately trying to get further under the cap and would be more than willing to send a player in a long-term deal for salary-cap relief in return.

"The biggest thing that we can do is, in an orderly process, try and evaluate," GM Kevin O'Connor told the Salt Lake Tribune, "whether it's a sign-and-trade, whether it's a straight trade, whether it's . . . having other teams look at us as somebody who can take a player from them."

Antoine Walker
Forward
Boston Celtics
Profile


2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS
GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
78 20.1 7.2 4.8 .388 .615



While the Jazz aren't tipping their hand on who that may be, there are a number of players on the market the Jazz could grab. Among the most prominent? Boston's Antoine Walker, Atlanta's Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Theo Ratliff, Golden State's Antawn Jamison, Miami's Eddie Jones, Indiana's Austin Croshere and Detroit's Cliff Robinson and Corliss Williamson.

It appears that the Rockets will not match the Grizzlies' offer for restricted free agent James Posey. The Houston Chronicle reported on Friday that the team had come to terms with Eric Piatkowski on a three-year, $8 million deal. He'll come at half the price of Posey and allow the Rockets to replace him without incurring the luxury tax.

That's good news for the Grizzlies, who are seriously concerned about the long-term future of Michael Dickerson. Jerry West told Insider on Thursday that his goal is to get the Grizzlies two players deep at every position. "We just need to keep adding more talent here and Posey gives us something that we really don't have," West said in a phone interview from California. "If the Rockets don't match I believe we're now two deep at every position but center and we're still trying to address that."

West wouldn't divulge who the team is targeting, but it's clear that he believes it needs to add another center to help out Lorenzen Wright. Whatever the Grizzlies do, it will have to be via trade at this point. Posey will take up the team's full mid-level exception and the team used its $1.5 million exception last year on Gordan Giricek. Besides, the team already has 16 players on its roster with guaranteed contracts, assuming the Rockets don't match Posey.

The Grizzlies do have trade bait and it isn't Wright or Stromile Swift. ("We're trying to add size, not give it away," West said.) Both Wesley Person ($7.7 million this season) and Brevin Knight ($5 million this season) are in the last year of their contracts. A team trying to clear cap for 2004 might be willing to take those players off the Grizzlies' hands and give up a big man in return