Brett Pollakoff Posts

Bloggers knee-jerking on the phone + roundtable style = RoundCast.

One of the biggest moves of this free agent season went down on Thursday, when it was learned that Ron Artest will be heading to the Lakers. Matt Moore and I break down what is effectively going to be L.A. trading Trevor Ariza for Artest, as it was also announced that Ariza agreed to a deal with the Rockets.

After plenty of Artest talk, we also review some of the other deals that have gone down, and ponder the fates of some other would-be contenders like the Cavaliers, Pistons, Magic, and Celtics.

Free agent talk at it's finest, after the jump.

The Cavaliers traded for Shaquille O'Neal a week ago, but his introductory press conference didn't happen until Thursday afternoon. And for the most part, it was worth the wait. As we've come to expect when Shaq gets in front of a microphone, there were plenty of interesting and entertaining quotes that came out of his first meeting with the Cleveland media.

Shaq kicked things off by flashing the picture to your right, claiming that when he received the initial call from Cavs' GM Danny Ferry, he had to Google him, and when he did, this was the one of the first things to pop up.

Nice way to break the ice, Big Fella. Here are some more highlights from Shaq's first official day as a Cavalier.

As if Cleveland wasn't already a focal point of the NBA universe, it may be reaching a whole new level of crazy. A brand of crazy NBA fans only know as ... Ron Artest.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer was the first to report on the possibility, but even coming from super-reliable Brian Windhorst, it was still just your run of the mill free agency rumor; a possibility to keep an eye on.

That was until Artest decided to fan the flames a bit by informing the world that his days in Houston were over -- via his Twitter page, naturally.

Well, that was fast. Free agents can't officially sign with new teams until July 8, but that doesn't mean they can't make verbal commitments before then. And so, after Joe Dumars had both Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva in town to discuss the possibility of joining his team, it appears that he was able to convince them both to agree to terms with the Detroit Pistons.

The deal is said to be in the neighborhood of five years and $55 million for Gordon, and the one for Villanueva is for five years and $35 million.

While there are plenty of NBA followers out there who don't think that Gordon plus Villanueva will turn out to be all that great for the Pistons in terms of a full-fledged rebuilding, it is possible that these two could pay dividends in the more immediate future.

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It's July 1st, which means the free-agent season has officially begun in the NBA. While some teams have made legitimate and official contact with players, there are some others where rumors and speculation continue to be all we have in trying to figure out what may be on their minds.

Not every rumor deserves our attention, but a couple that popped up Wednesday regarding the Lakers' Lamar Odom seem to make so little sense, that they need to be, at the very least, touched upon.

Kobe Bryant could have opted out of the final two years of his contract on Tuesday, which would have made him an unrestricted free agent. But since Bryant has no intentions of playing anywhere else, the only reason he would have done so would have been to secure a brand new, max deal with the Lakers.

Bryant decided not to terminate his contract, but fear not: he'll still be just fine financially. Kobe will make in the neighborhood of $23M next season, and the L.A. Times is reporting that he'll likely sign a three-year extension on his current deal sometime this summer.

The Cavaliers are going all out to try to win a championship next season, before LeBron James can even think about becoming an unrestricted free agent in the magical, mystical summer of 2010. They've already traded for Shaquille O'Neal, and are rumored to have interest in the services of the recently freed Charlie Villanueva.

The team's heavy activity this summer would lead you to believe that minutes on the court will be in short supply for Anderson Varejao in the coming season. And that might be a big reason why he opted out of a contract which would have paid him $6.2M, when it's pretty unlikely that any team would offer him much more than that once he hit the open market.

The news out of Detroit is that the Pistons have decided to part ways with their head coach of this past season, Michael Curry. The move was an obvious if unexpected one, as Curry made some huge mistakes in his first year in charge -- including alienating the team's number one star, Rip Hamilton, with the way he handled the Allen Iverson situation.

The deal that sent Shaquille O'Neal to the Cavaliers last week had been rumored since the trade deadline back in February, so it wasn't exactly a huge surprise. But had Shaq gone to another team -- like, say, the Portland Trail Blazers -- that would have been a pretty shocking development, mainly because we hadn't heard even a whisper of that being a possibility.

Apparently, though, the Blazers were indeed in talks with the Suns to bring O'Neal to Portland. This semi-bombshell comes from Shaq himself, who also says that the talks came to an end once he informed Steve Kerr he wasn't interested in being sent to the Blazers.

For those of you in Cleveland anxious to get your hands on some official Shaquille O'Neal Cavaliers gear, the wait is over.

The team has confirmed that Shaq will wear the number 33, and of course, replica jerseys are already available for purchase.

O'Neal hasn't worn 33 at all in the pros, however it was the number he used both in high school and during his college days at LSU. Shaq has been No. 32 for the majority of his professional career -- save for his time with the Lakers from 1997-2004, when he wore No. 34 for the purple and gold.