-The Oklahoma City Thunder made themselves a lot better when they traded Forwards Chris Wilcox and Joe Smith (and DeVon Hardin, for what it's worth) to the Hornets for Center Tyson Chandler. Chanlder, although underachieving this year, is still a monster on the boards and a defensive stopper. With consistent play from Kevin Durant, Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook, Chandler will revert back to his elite form of 2007.
The Thunder are just a few more players away from being a competitive in the Western Conference. Lately, they've improved greatly. They almost beat the 2nd place Hornets on Wednesday night.
-The Nets are very openly shopping Vince Carter. Trade talks with several Western Conference teams have surfaced.
The Rockets are said to be offering a combination of Tracy McGrady or Ron Artest, with Carl Landry, Shane Battier or Luther Head. Getting McGrady would be a horizontal step, if anything, for New Jersey. He is more injury prone than Carter. Artest would be a step up talent-wise, but he can never get along with anybody, no matter the situation (It's being said that Artest has had his differences with McGrady). I wouldn't put him on a young, talented team like the Nets. And none of those three role players will make a monumental difference.
Update: Rockets' Owner Leslie Alexander stated that McGrady will not be traded, so a trade would be a combination of the other four players.
San Antonio is offering Bruce Bowen, Fabricio Oberto and Roger Mason for Carter. Bowen is always great as a lockdown defender, but Mason cannot duplicate Carter's offense, nor can anyone else on the Nets.
The Portland Trailblazers have put Sergio Rodriguez, Travis Outlaw and the widely coveted Raef Lafrentz on the table. Unless New Jersey is planning on some huge offseason signing, this is a no-go.
And the Dallas Mavericks have offered their star forward Josh Howard. This makes the most sense. Howard is younger and could be more productive than Carter, at this point. But I don't know why Dallas would make another move that would send one of their brightest, youngest stars away for a veteran who is over the hill. Remember the last time they did that? But I'll keep my mouth shut. I want to see this trade happen.
Tune into The Sportswire this Thursday at 9pm EST on WCWP to get the first reactions to the fallout from the NBA Trade Deadline.
Until then, keep it tuned to WCWP Sports.
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--Max Caster
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