Human Victory Cigar

Courtesy of mikhail1973 @ www.pistonsforum.com

Season 2006/2007

Record 33-49

The team didn’t have a single player who would’ve played in at least 80 games. Sean May can’t get any luck with injuries at all. But injuries are a part of NBA long grueling season, and Charlotte will have to deal with them. From the individual players perspective it was a mixed bag. Okafor and Wallace had good seasons and played solid defensively (11th and 7th during the vote for the defensive player of the year). During the final third of the season Walter Herrmann finally showed why he is in the league. However, the development of Raymond Felton lags somewhat behind Chris Paul and Deron Williams so far. When the three were drafted analysts opinions on their potential varied a lot. At the same time Paul started out like rocket, Williams joined him in his second season, but Felton is now falling behind. Also, looks like Morrison is grasping the concept that NBA is not a college playground and that you have to perform at the high level all the time to earn minutes. Hopefully, he understand that the college theatrics will not get him anywhere and that NBA already has plenty of that. He needs to consistently produce if he wants to remain in the rotation.

Offseason

Draft

Team drafted Brandan Wright, who was shipped to Golden State in Jason Richardson trade.

Key Trades

Jason Richardson from Golden State joined the team in a trade. He is strong, gifted, and entertaining (if not always consistent) swingman. He will definitely make the team stronger; Bobcats never had a player of his caliber. He is very diverse on offense. He can take the defender off the dribble, can take it to the hole and finish, and he loves the turnaround jumpers, which are virtually impossible to defend. Sometimes he falls in love with those jumpers too much and when they don’t fall he seems to struggle. He is also one of the better fast break finishers in the NBA. Richardson and Wallace are going to create many mismatches running on the opposite side of the court. Team also took on Richarson’s hefty salary which could make it difficult for the team to go after the free agents in the future.

Free agent Brevin Knight, who played for the team, signed with LA Clippers. His loss may be significant since the Bobcats are a very young team and Knight was an experienced leader and so-called floor general.

Offseason grade: B

Season 2007/2008

Team has a new coach and a new player who, I assume, is going to try to fill a role of a leader. Therefore the game that team is playing should change. How will it change? I think they are going to be more entertaining, and they will run more. But other than that it is hard to assertain since Sam Vincent is a new figure in the NBA and a virtual unknown as a coach.

The team is very young. They have no adequate backup for Felton. And he’s still too inconsistent (38% field goal percentage and averages about 3 turnovers per game along with 7 assists).

Richardson-Wallace-Okafor should be one of the best rebounding trios in the NBA and they should be good defensively.

Even with Richardson trade and emergence of Wallace, this team is still built around Okafor. He’s still one of the best rebounders and shot-blockers in the NBA. He doesn’t turn the ball over much and is very effective in the paint and around the basket. If he can remain injury-free, he could probably compete with likes of Dwight Howard for the title of the best young forward/center in the NBA.

The team has a very interesting bench with three different but effective swingmen – Morrison, Carroll, and Anderson. Anderson is more experienced, Morrison is more passionate. Herrmann and May are great around the basket. Either one could become a starter which will move Okafor to center.

Player to watch: Walter Herrmann

Looked awesome at the finish of the regular season. According to 82games.com Herrmann-Felton was the most effective duo on the team. Their games complement each other’s – one is playing under the basket, while the other attacks from the mid- to long-range.

Bottom Line

40+ wins if the team can remain healthy (which is a big question mark given their injury history).

Playoffs – maybe
Championship - no

Courtesy of mikhail1973 @ www.pistonsforum.com

Season 2006/2007

Record 44-36

2006/2007 was a difficult one for Heat. The year began and ended with a loss to the Bulls team. And if the season opening loss to Chicago was categorized as somewhat of a sensation, the final four losses, a sweep in the first round of the playoffs, didn’t surprise many. Throughout the season many teams stopped being afraid of the champions. There were quite a few reasons for that. O’Neal struggled finishing 30-minute games, Wade couldn’t get healthy, even Riley spent some time at the hospital. However, the defining event for the team wasn’t necessarily that season. The offseason really put things in perspective. If previously players wanted to join O’Neal’s team and often agreed to lower salaries in order to compete for the championships, this time they are jumping like rats from the sinking ship.

Offseason

Draft

Jason Smith and Stanko Barac

Barac is tall (7’1”), young, and very raw center. In his Adriatic league he averaged 13 pts and 7 rbs in 27 minutes per game. He has a consistent jumper and a decent for his size range. But he is not physically ready to battle NBA players. He could have joined the Heat at some point later in his career, but was traded to the Pacers and signed a 3-year deal with the European club.

Key Trades

Left: Jason Kappono, Eddie Jones, and James Posey
Signed: Smush Parker and Anfernee Hardaway

Parker is one of the weaker point guards in the league. And although he’s very athletic, he is nowhere the shooter that Kappono was and can’t read the game as well. He won’t have much to bring to the table.
Chances are slim that we’ll see anything reminding us about the 90’s from Penny. Although I have to admit that he is very cerebral player (seeing the court, intuition, and outside-the-box thinking) and maybe he has something left. Hopefully Riles can put his skills to good use. It would be disappointing if Penny will retire without showing a spark at the end. Maybe he and Shaq can recreate some of the early magic.

Missed on: Mikael Pietrus, Steve Francis, Charlie Bell, Moe Williams, and others

Offseason grade: F

Season 2007/2008

D-Wade and Shaq are still able to keep the team respectable. Thanks to this duo, the team won’t become the laughing stock of the NBA. They will probably struggle during the long road trips where the leaders will be absent due to health issues or fouls. Heat will pay dearly for all of their inability to bring help in the offseason. Team needs to have some depth behind D-Wade and Shaq. They need a shooter, and D-Wade needs an adequate backup to spell him during the games in order to keep him fresher and off the DL. Team has nothing of this nature to offer at this point.

There is a positive. Heat is one of the few (Spurs and Pistons) teams in the NBA that play smart offense. This is going to be the biggest advantage of this team – team play and ball control. It was all made possible mainly by Shaq. Energetic Haslem and Wade are usually adequate on defense.

Teams main issues are Shaq’s age (science has no way of helping at this point), Wade’s injury (medicine is a lot closer to the solution on this one) and their bench.

Note of importance

Dorell Wright. Is he another high-flyer or a future superstar? Besides being gifted athletically he showed outstanding behavior on the court. He consistently gets better and doesn’t hold the ball too long.

Bottom Line

3rd-6th seed in the conference. Could miss the playoffs completely if any health issues arise for Shaq or Wade

Playoffs – yes (see above)
Championship - no

Courtesy of mikhail1973 @ www.pistonsforum.com

Season 2006/2007

Record 30-52

The team fought injuries and a weak offensive game throughout the season. As a result the team finished 26th in assists, 28th in field goal percentage, dead last in 3-point shooting percentage. There were a couple of disappointing performances by the players. Speedy Claxton had the worst season of his career and Shelden Williams couldn’t find his game. The team ended the season last in their division.

Offseason

Draft

Team that was overloaded with swingmen needed to strengthen Center and Point Guard positions in the worst way possible.

Al Horford
With their first pick Hawks selected a strong PF/C from Florida. Big, with solid half-hook shot, Horford came from the Florida team that played a game based on two principles – defense and team basketball (4 players averaged 10-13 points per game). Players from those teams usually take one of the two routes with their new teams. Some get more playing time, more opportunities and their careers take off. The others get lost in the shuffle. By the looks of it Horford should go up.

Verdict: poor man’s Dwight Howard

Acie Law
This playmaker created a name playing for Texas. In 4 years he spent there he managed to improve his shot, and stood out with his team thinking and floor vision. For a rookie he is dependable and very stable, and most of the time very solid defensively. Could he become a Hawks starting PG his first year? Possibly, but most likely not. However, it looks like that in a year or two the Hawks will have a full-fledged point guard whose name won’t be Ty Lue.

Verdict: solid pick at the 11th spot

Key Trades

Esteban Batista’s example will give a clear understanding of why Atlanta has been a bottom-feeder since 1999 and haven’t won even half of its games in any season during this time. South American forward was a bench warmer for the team (13 games 1.5 points per game) and hadn’t had many chances to crack the rotation. However, as soon as he showed his game playing for the national team, many NBA teams jumped at the opportunity to sign him. In the end he signed with Boston. During these moments all you can do is to think back to Boris Diaw, a player whom the team didn’t see as a viable option. It is really difficult not to notice a guy who being 6’8” tall has better ball handling and decision-making skills than half of the NBA’s point guards.

Offseason Grade: B

Season 2007/2008

Atlanta has two offensive aces – Josh Smith and Joe Johnson. Smith is a slasher who won’t shy contact when things matter the most, and relies on his physical strength around the basket. Johnson relies more on his jump shot.

Contact basketball is prevalent among the Hawks youngsters. Extra efforts quite often turns into additional fouls on defense and turnovers on offense for Mike Woodson’s team. However, this is the style and the character of this team. As long as the likes of Gasol and Stojakovic are in the league, the difference in skills can be successfully minimized by playing aggressively throughout the game.

What does Atlanta lack? An intelligent leader. A point guard on the offense. They are decent defending one-on-one but lack team defense. And, with all the youngsters, they need experience.

Under the rim the Hawks have Zaza Pachulia who averages 12 rebounds per 48 minutes. He is playing a much bigger role for the Atlanta team after not getting regular playing time in Milwaukee. He needs to be more effective offensively and more careful defensively and he could move up on the list of the NBA centers to the “above average” level.

Team’s management has said many nice things about Joe Johnson. But the question remains – can he make the team competitive and can Atlanta be molded into a TEAM with Joe on board. Individually, his career as a player could be peaking or close to it. Now he needs to get the others involved more, and take over the games in the 4th quarter. He needs to become the team leader.

Note of importance

Josh Smith is one of the noticeable players in the NBA. He has really long arms and well-developed defensive instinct along the lines of Kirilenko and Artest. His thunderous dunks can get the fans on their feet. On the weak side, he only shoots 43% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc. He also turns the ball over quite often. His relationship with Woodson could use improvement as well. During the summer time he worked on improving his post up and back to the basket game. He had a great teacher – Hakeem Olajuwon. How it will play out during the season remains to be seen.

Bottom Line

35-40 wins is probably the ceiling for this team.

Playoffs – no
Championship - no

At the end of the 2005-2006 season three Pistons were in my list of the league’s twenty most underpaid players. (Salary relative to statistical performance, see the Rating Players section below for details of the methodology used.) Ben Wallace was the fourth most underpaid player, Tayshaun Prince the ninth, and Chauncey Billups the thirteenth most underpaid player in the league.

Wallace

In the first season of his new contract with the Chicago Bulls, Ben Wallace appeared in 77 games for a cool sixteen million dollars. Last season Ben’s production justified a salary just under fourteen million. So did Ben get better and did the Bulls get their sixteen million dollar man? Not so much. Based on the 2006/2007 regular season Ben should have earned around eleven million, a good step down from the performance that earned him the big deal, but pretty much in line with what the Pistons offered. Score one for Joe D.

Prince

Last season Tay was still on his rookie contract and performed well over that level with a salary nearly seven million dollars below what his performance would suggest was fair. This year two things happened. First, Prince got some more money with a new contract starting at $7.9 million, and two, he dropped his game a bit, going from a season total of 2,153 sprocket points down to 1,962. That’s still nothing to sneeze at, and translates to a performance justified salary of $8.4 million. Score another one for Joe D.

Billups

Last season Mr. Big Shot performed at a level that should have earned him nearly $12.4 million. This season was not quite so impressive – a level of performance that would justify a salary only around nine million. Missed games due to injuries account for some of the decline though and if we were to project Billups’ performance to a full 82 game season his performance justified salary would go up to around $10.5 million (still not exactly what one might hope for in a contract year). CB’s reported new gig averaging $11.5 million (starting at $10.0) for your years looks right in line. Hat trick for Joe D.

Rating Players
To determine how much a player should earn based on his performance I first compute the number of sprocket points by player for the 2006/2007 regular season. Sprocket points are a weighted composite of a large set of basketball statistics. Then I sum sprocket points and salaries across all players and divide the totals to create the league average price paid per sprocket point. With this average value I can determine how much a player should have earned if each were paid solely based on performance.

In the tables which follow you’ll see these columns…

1. Player name
2. Team
3. Games played during the 2006/2007 regular season
4. Salary – the player’s 2006/2007 salary paid
5. For Games Played
1. Fair Salary – how much the player should earn solely based on performance
2. Gap – the difference between the performance justified salary and the actual
6. Projected to 82 Games
1. Fair Salary – how much the player would have earned based solely on performance and assuming he played in all 82 games, taking out the impact of injuries.
2. Gap – the difference between the performance justified 82 game salary and the actual

By this method, the list of most underpaid players in the league is headed by Josh Smith from the Atlanta Hawks. If performance alone determined player salaries, Smith would have earned in excess of ten million dollars this past season, closer to twelve million had he appeared in all 82 Hawks games. He’s a steal at $1.5 million. Note that Lebron James big new contract doesn’t kick in until next year when he will earn $12.5 million. Even at that level LBJ is still a bargain. If nothing else, this list proves yet again the value of drafting well and making hay while players are still on their rookie contracts.

On the other end of the scale are some familiar faces. By a substantial margin, Shaquille O’Neal was the most overpaid player in the NBA last season, out-earning his production on the court by well over fifteen million dollars. Even if we control for the forty-two games Shaq missed due to injury and general malaise, he is still the most overpaid NBA player. Only twenty-one other players made more money ($15 million plus) than Shaq stole. No one last year in the league was worth twenty million.

Across the entire list, only Yao Ming performed at a level sufficient to justify his salary had he managed to drag his fragile butt out onto the court for the full season. If he had played 82 games, at the level which he played in 48, Yao would have earned every penny of his $12.5 million. (Continued)

Looking at This Season - Tin Men

From about the two thirds mark of the regular season, every nationally televised Pistons game began with a discussion of bench development. The Pistons were playing the bench more, were sacrificing regular season wins for player development that would help them in the post season. After hearing it and reading it a few dozen times, we even began to believe it. And a cursory look at the data even supports the argument.

Top Six Players (counting Webber and Mohammed as one player in 2007)
84.1% of team minutes in 2006 / 72.9% of team minutes in 2007

Top Four Plus McDyess (excluding the center position)
68.9% of team minutes in 2006 / 62.6% of team minutes in 2007

This means that beyond McDyess, in the average game there were twenty-seven additional minutes to be divided up across the bench in 2007 than in 2006. So far, so good. But, the key is how often this average bench-developing game happened.

Of the possible 410 regular season player/games (five positions times 82 games) in 2006, Billups, Hamilton, Prince, Wallace, and McDyess appeared in 405. No one missed more than two games. However, injuries and suspensions took their toll in 2007 and this same group played only in 384 of the possible 410 player/games. Only Prince and McDyess played in them all, with Billups missing fifteen and Hamilton and Wallace both missing seven.

The effect of this increase in games missed by the top players is that the bench played more – that is, they started a number of games – Murray started eighteen, Maxiell eight, etc. To a large extent, these starts explain the overall increase in minutes played by the bench. If we look at average minutes per game played, the story reverses. When they played, Prince, Hamilton, and Billups all played more minutes per game in 2007 than in 2006. McDyess didn’t change and Wallace played three fewer minutes per game.

So yes, the bench played more of the team’s minutes, but the starters really didn’t get any more consistent rest. When the starters played they often played more minutes than last year. This means that the situations in which the bench players logged a lot of their minutes ended up being unlike the situations in which they would be asked to play in the playoffs. Experience is experience, no doubt, but having individual bench players tossed into the starting rotation does nothing to develop the play of bench players with other bench players. On the bench only Delfino got consistent playing time across the course of the season. However, when the playoffs came around those minutes were cut in half to 8.4 per game.

The net effect is the worst of all possible worlds. The starters got some time off, but it was concentrated and not consistent over the course of the season so they did not enter the playoffs any more well rested. And the bench got more minutes, but many of them were in situations different from those in which they would play come playoff time.

Looking at the Iron Men Across Five Seasons

Since 1980 five teams have played in at least five conference finals in a row.

1. 1984 – 1988 Boston Celtics
2. 1987 – 1991 Detroit Pistons
3. 1989 - 1993 Chicago Bulls
4. 1982 – 1989 Los Angeles Lakers
5. 2003 – 2007 Detroit Pistons

It is fairly safe to assume that the players who played all five years for their teams had the opportunity to play the most games of any players in the history of the league (at least since 1980). They at least played through the conference finals and many of them played in two or more finals series during the five year span. (For the Lakers who went to the conference finals for more than five years in a row I’ve selected the single continuous five year span for each player in which he played the most minutes.) The players who come to the top of this list are the true iron men of the NBA.

Among players with more than ten thousand minutes in the regular season across their individual five year spans, Michael Jordan leads the way as the ultimate iron man. Bird averaged more minutes per game, but played in fewer games. Laimbeer played in more games, but averaged a lot fewer minutes. For the Pistons’ Bad Boys, Laimbeer, Thomas, Dumars, Rodman, and Johnson all played more than ten thousand minutes, particularly interesting when you consider that Rodman and Johnson were bench players for several or all of those seasons.

In the top five, between Jordan, Bird, Pippen, Hamilton, and Johnson (Magic), who sticks out? Rip is a fine player, a consistent player, perhaps even a unique player particularly given how the game is played today, but is he a guy who is so valuable that he needs to be on the court as much as his cohorts in the top five? Sorry Rip, but I suspect that with fewer minutes you would be more effective, not less.

Likewise, between Worthy, Thomas, Billups, Dumars, and Abdul-Jabbar, is Chauncey really of a skill level sufficient to demand quite that much court time? And let’s not even mention Prince, who manages more than ten thousand minutes across the current Pistons five year run despite playing in the fewest number of games than anyone on the list (tied with McHale), and only averaging ten MPG across 42 games his rookie season (the first of the five years).

Prince’s playing time sticks out even more when we look at the four consecutive seasons with the most minutes within the five year conference finals runs of each team. Again, Prince is a fine player, a guy who does a lot of things on the court, including, as we’ve seen over the past two years, disappearing in the conference finals. Perhaps he just isn’t a guy who should have the fifth highest average minutes per game of any player over four seasons since 1980.

The runs some of these players made clearly indicate that it is possible, given incredible preparation, monumental physical stamina, and a lot of luck with injuries, to play an extraordinary number of minutes. Both Jordan and Bird averaged more than thirty-eight minutes a game over five long seasons with deep playoff runs. However, despite the wonders of mango extract, perhaps this course isn’t the best route to multiple championships if your name happens to be Billups, Hamilton, or Prince.

With the Pistons season coming to an abrupt end, fans are in the streets, shouting for change.

Fire the coach. Release/trade players.

Here is a quick and dirty primer on the Pistons current roster, contracts and salaries and what this means going forward to next season. So before you propose trading Jason Maxiell and Flip Murray for KG, you might want to check this out.

At Pistonsforum.com, we have an up-to-date contract listing for this season.

The listing is from information gathered by Sports Illustrated and despite the fact it may read differently than other salary websites, does conform to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and should be considered to be a very reputable source for information.

I have tried to keep this information as general and accurate as possible, which isn’t always easy considering the many loopholes and nuances of the NBA’s CBA. As always, I recommend that fans should use a trade checker (such as at RealGM or ESPN) and/or consult the Collective Bargaining Agreement FAQ. If you still have questions, I am happy to help readers find answers. Just post at PistonsForum.com or comment on this post here at HumanVictoryCigar. If you aren’t a member, you are welcome to register.

Unrestricted Free Agents

• Dale Davis
• Chris Webber

Unrestricted Free Agents are players that the Pistons are able to sign or simply let go. Their contracts are up and the franchise is under no obligation to bring them back however they can do so if they choose. This requires the player’s approval when signing a new contract.

Dale Davis is an Early Bird Free Agent under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Pistons can sign him for the minimum $1.2 million up to $6.1 million. A minimum contract can be for one year, any larger deal must be for at least 2 years and no longer than 5 years with 10.5% raises.

Chris Webber is Non-Bird Exception player. The Pistons can offer him a minimum contract or a minimum contract with a 20% raise (based off of one year of service in Detroit). The Pistons will also have the Mid-Level Exception and can use this to sign Webber for the League average salary, projected in 2007/8 to be between $5.5 and $6 million to start. The Pistons can only use the Mid-Level Exception once this offseason and may want to reserve it for a free agent.

Restricted Free Agents

Alex Acker and Amir Johnson

Alex Acker spent the last season playing with Piraeus Olympiacos of Greece in the Euroleague. He is rumoured to have a second year option that would pay him more than Detroit can offer, as well as provide starter minutes to build his value for his next contract. European contracts can also feature free lodging, lower taxes and other fringe benefits that are not allowed under the NBA CBA. As much as he might be able to help the team as a slashing shooting guard, the team would have to commit to him in a significant manner. With at least 3 incoming draft picks, this does not seem likely on a team which will be investing money into developing more prospects.

Amir Johnson will be a restricted free agent until he is able to re-sign in Detroit. I have no doubt that the Pistons will match any incoming offers for his services, and can do so as he is an Early Bird Free Agent and falls under the so-called Gilbert Arenas provision of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Johnson has shown tremendous upside and the patience to wait for his opportunity. Look for a deal signed this summer that will establish him as an important piece of the franchise.

Players with Player initiated options

All player options must be taken no later than July 1st. These players are in the driver’s seat with their contracts. The team must negotiate a trade, or cut them and take a hit against the salary cap to remove them if they take their options.

Ronald Dupree - One year option for the 2007/8 season.

Flip Murray - One year option for the 2007/8 season.

Antonio McDyess - One year option for the 2007/8 season.

Chauncey Billups - Has an early termination option but for all intents and purposes to this post, is the same as a player option.

Ronald Dupree is likely to return, if only because his lack of playing time has not increased his value around the league and the option year is guaranteed.

Flip Murray is in a similar position to Dupree, with less playing time than the previous year he was a free agent. Strategically, Murray might be wise to take his option to see how the Chauncey Billups negotiations work out. With a strong showing next year, he would be able to get more money on the free agent market in 2008/9 either from Detroit or another team.

Antonio McDyess is slated to earn $6.3 million next year. I see him taking the option because he won’t get more in free agency and based on his performance will not lose any value in 2008/9 when he would become a free agent again. The man has at least one more contract in him if he choses to play longer or one well paying year if he choses to retire after this deal.

Chauncey Billups will take his early termination option without a doubt. There is too much risk at his age of playing out the remaining year on his deal and possibly losing a lot of future earnings in the event of injury. Billups will be looking for a nice raise and a lot more years of guaranteed money, however the teams who can afford to pay him more than he makes now are not very good. This puts the Pistons in the driver’s seat, as Billups’ agent (Andy Miller) will have to find a better offer than Detroit’s to have a position to negotiate from.

A sign & trade is a possibility if a Western Conference team is hot for Billups and Joe Dumars can get a variety of player assets, disposable contracts and draft picks in return. However, a S&T is difficult to pull off for a franchise as cost conscious as the Pistons. Joe Dumars will not accept garbage in return for moving an All-Star unless his back is up against the wall (Grant Hill). Perhaps he can get lucky again (Ben Wallace) if that is the case.

It has been rumoured that Lindsey Hunter has an option in 2007/8 to opt out of his contract and join the Pistons front office in some capacity. If this is true then it is highly likely Hunter will make the move away from the court given his age, effectiveness and the recent diet pill fiasco.

Players with Team initiated options

Will Blalock - Rookie point guard, has a minimum contract option for next year. Unless the Pistons have absolutely zero belief in any upside for this player, he will be back simply because he is 1) cheap and 2) already indoctrinated into the Pistons culture.

Jason Maxiell - Has an option for year 3 of his 4 year rookie deal. This is pretty much a no-brainer that the Pistons will take this option, because like Blalock he is very affordable and has Pistons DNA, and unlike Blalock, the Pistons know he has a lot of upside.

Stuff to remember

There are rumours floating around about Zach Randolph coming to Detroit and likely more players will be added to that list. Any player who is currently under contract to another team, must be acquired in a trade. Trades must be very close dollar to dollar and please keep in mind that no other GM wants lesser players from the Pistons for their superstar. So rule out KG right now even though Kevin McHale might be the worst GM in basketball.

You have to give something(s) up to get something in return. Big trades are never an easy process to complete.

A little bonus coverage to follow. This is the list of Pistons and their agents as best as I could discover. You will see some of these agent names in the news over the offseason so I have listed other players they also represent.

Player - Agent (other players represented by same agent)

Chauncey Billups - Andy Miller (Antonio McDyess, Kevin Garnett, Carlos Delfino)

Rip Hamilton - Leon Rose (LeBron James, Allen Iverson, Luol Deng)

Tayshaun Prince - Bill Duffy (Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Mike James)

Rasheed Wallace - Bill Strickland (Brevin Knight, Malik Allen)

Chris Webber - Aaron Goodwin (Dwight Howard, Gary Payton, Jamal Crawford)

Antonio McDyess - Andy Miller (Chauncey Billups, Kevin Garnett, Carlos Delfino)

Ronald “Flip” Murray - Thad Foucher (Eddie Griffin)

Lindsey Hunter - Mark Bartelstein (Ronald Dupree, Ron Artest, Antoine Walker)

Carlos Delfino - Andy Miller (Antonio McDyess, Kevin Garnett, Chauncey Billups)

Jason Maxiell - Richard Katz (Daniel Horton, Jose Berea, Vladimir Radmanovic)

Dale Davis - Chubby Wells (none known)

Nazr Mohammed - Mike Higgins (Louis Amundson, Marcus Banks, Tony Allen)

Amir Johnson - Arn Tellum (Ben Wallace, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O’Neal)

Will Blalock - Charles Bonsignore (near as I can tell, he’s a real estate agent in Ventura, California)

Ronald Dupree - Mark Bartelstein (Lindsey Hunter, Ron Artest, Antoine Walker)

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