Andy Natalie's Philadelphia 76ers friend's fan blogs

Hedo Turkoglu is now a Toronto Raptor.  Suddenly, Toronto looks like a playoff team again.  With a core of Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, Jose Calderon, Demar DeRozan, and Hedo Turkoglu, they could make some noise in the east.  They can definitely grab a 7 or 8 seed, with potential to probably get into the 5-6 range.  Turkoglu was just the playmaker they needed to relieve pressure off of Calderon.  Jose no longer is needed to handle the ball all of the time.  Toronto's bench could use a little work, though.  Right now, they don't have one reliable bench player.

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Well, the Lakers and Rockets essentially swapped players.  For all intents and purposes, Ron Artest and Trevor Ariza are basically the same player, and bring the same skills to the table.  Sure, Ariza's younger, but neither LA or Houston got better from these free agent pick ups.  Both teams are in the same boat.  Both guys are good defensive small forwards who can shoot, and will take on the toughest perimeter assignment.  Ariza has more upside, so Houston has to be happy with that.  Overall, not much was accomplished from all of this.

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Detroit just agreed to deals with Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva.  They now have a log jam of guards.  They're probably going to have to trade Richard Hamilton.  You can't have Hamilton, Stuckey, and Gordon.  You just can't.  One of them will be unhappy.  Hamilton seems like the likely guy to be moved.

I think signing these 2 guys helps Detroit, but not a lot.  Right now, Detroit is a playoff team.  But probably in the 6-8 seed range.  Detroit's nowhere near the level of Cleveland, Orlando, or Boston.  

Why is LA letting Ariza go?  He's a lot younger than Odom and still has upside, yet they seem to be choosing Odom over Ariza.  You've got to pay both of them what they want, because losing one of them is going to hurt their chances of repeating as champs.  Ariza's only getting better.  Odom's slowly starting to decline.   

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The Vince Carter Trade:  Ok, getting Vince Carter is good.  But losing Courtney Lee and forcing Turkoglu out of town as a result of it isn't good.  I would rather have Lee and Turkoglu than Carter.  So, to me, Orlando is now worse.  This is a downgrade.  New Jersey's still not a very good team.

The Richard Jefferson Trade:  Plain and simple, this was a steal for the Spurs.  They got younger, and now have 4 guys who can fill it up.  The Spurs are very close to being able to win another title.  They need to add one more quality center.  They don't have enough height on their roster right now.  The Bucks just wanted to save money.

The Shaq Trade:  Great trade for the Cavs.  Shaq can slow down Dwight Howard if the Cavs meet the Magic again in the playoffs.  Shaq can get a bucket on his own, and take pressure off LeBron.  Shaq even still commands a double team, at times.  There's no serious commitment to Shaq either, because he only has 1 year left on his deal.  Awesome trade for Cleveland.  The Suns also just wanted to save money.

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