Wild Wild West
February 21, 2008
The NBA's western conference has exploded with trades over the past few weeks. Five of the top six teams have made major moves to improve their roster, with only the conference leading New Orleans Hornets standing put.
Shaquille Oneal mad his debut for the Phoenix Suns today, at home against one of his former teams, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Phoenix traded away versatile forward, Shawn Marion for Shaquille Oneal. Los Angeles gave up Kwame Brown and change to secure Pau Gasol from Memphis. Dallas sent Devin Harris and others to New Jersey to get their hands on aging point guard marvel, Jason Kidd. And today even the rock solid San Antonio Spurs gave up Brent Barry and center Fransisco Elson to get a low post defender in Kurt Thomas.
What is with all this activity in the West. They're all re-tooling to deal with the emergence of Kobe Bryant's Lakers according to many sports writers.
By acquiring Pau Gasol, Trevor Ariza and Derek Fisher this season to join Bryant, Lamar Odom and the emerging star Andrew Bynum the Lakers have gone from early round playoff fodder to a legitimate title contender in just one season.
Veteran Coach Phil Jackson may never have had such a deep and talented roster at his disposable, and he has won 9 titles...
Sportsbook.com have the Lakers as favorite to come out of the west at 3-2. Shaq's Suns are close behind at 5-2 followed by the dark horse Spurs and Mavs at 4-1.
Current conference leaders, the New Orleans Hornets are offering very good value at 10-1! Have they been watching the season so far over at Sportsbook.com ?
Our tip is not to write off the Spurs just yet. They dominated the playoffs last season and have added veterans Kurt Thomas and Damon Stoudamire to their core group of players, only losing Brent Barry, whose role has been taken by Udoka and will not be missed.
The Spurs still have Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli. They will be a force to be reckoned as we lead into the playoffs.
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