Tradewinds...

There's been a rare 4-team trade that is going down today between New Orleans, Houston, Toronto & Indiana. Check the story here. Hornets get swingman Trevor Ariza from Houston, sending backup PG Darren Collison & James Posey (and the much desired expiring contract)to the Pacers. Houston gets Courtney Lee from the Nets who in turn receive PF Troy Murphy from Indiana. To top it off, in a seperate deal NO sends disappointing swingman Julian Wright to Toronto for sharpeshooter Marco Belinelli. Got all that? Good.

Now let's look at the moves. The Hornets are obviously trying to appease CP3 with their transactions. Ariza is in his prime, plays solid defense and is athletic on the wing. Belinelli can stretch the defense when he's on the court. I think they lost a valuable asset to their bench in dealing Collison, who filled in admirably when Paul was sidelined most of the season. marcus Thornton can play a little PG but not at the level of Collison. Let's see if these moves are enough to keep CP3 quiet. The verdict is still out on that, in my opinion.

Indiana gets the starting PG they have been looking for all off-season, while saving some money by dealing Troy Murphy and aquiring Posey's expiring contract. I don't think anyone was sold on 2nd round rookie playing point guard next season. Nice work, Larry Legend. Houston basically saves some money by moving Ariza and picking up Courtney Lee. Lee is a nice wing defender and can also score when given the opportunity. Trading Ariza also frees up more shots for Kevin Martin as he & Ariza played similar styles (with Martin being a much better option). The Nets got... well they got a player to replace Yi Jianlian. Hell, they gave Jordan Farmar a 3-year deal this off-season. They give up some defense for more offense with Murphy. I guess they're going for only 60 losses next season.

Looks like every team came out a winner, with the exception of the Hornets. Only a matter of time before CP3 gets tired of Ariza's erratic jumpers and horrible shot selection. I can't wait to see that Paul, Anthony & Amar'e combination in Madison Square Garden real soon...

-ALR