FanHouse Acie Law

There was a lot of activity in the NBA this week, and we're not just talking about the draft. Some of the NBA's big names and better teams were in on it.

Here's a quick look at the trades that went down and what they mean:

The Deal: Phoenix sends Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland for Sasha Pavlovic, Ben Wallace, a second-round pick in 2010 and cash.

The Thinking: The Cavaliers get an aging O'Neal, with the hope that he can have a productive year playing alongside LeBron James. The only way this trade is a success is if the Cavaliers are the 2009-10 NBA champions. For the Suns, trading O'Neal means that they are beyond tinkering and are leaning toward turning over the personnel of a team that missed the playoffs last season.

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Jamal Crawford finally has the opportunity to compete with a playoff-caliber team; the oft-traveled guard landed in Atlanta on Thursday in a three-player trade, with Acie Law and Speedy Claxton headed to Golden State.

When reached by FanHouse, Crawford was thrilled about the chance to return to the Eastern Conference and play with a club that has advanced to the playoffs the past two seasons. Crawford said he signed an agreement that he would not opt out of the final two years of his contract, as was his option by June 30.

"This is what I've been searching for, I didn't think it would happen like this or this fast but I am excited," said Crawford, who has played 597 games with no playoff appearances. "My agents called me [Wednesday] and said it was close and it was Atlanta. I was just ecstatic. They are an up-and-coming team, and I want to see if I fit in there."

Warriors coach Don Nelson made it clear to Jamal Crawford late in the season that if Crawford didn't exercise his early termination option, the Warriors would look to move him.

Apparently, Crawford isn't going to walk away from the $19 million left on his contract, because the Warriors are in fact looking to move him. According to ESPN.com, the Warriors and Hawks are close to a deal that will send Crawford to Atlanta for Speedy Claxton and Acie Law.

A Hawks source has confirmed to FanHouse, though, that the trade is still in the discussion stages and no deal has been struck.

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The Atlanta Hawks are considered one of the NBA's rising teams, as evidenced by consecutive playoff appearances for the first time in 10 years. The Hawks, however, were easily swept in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who spent four games exposing Atlanta's numerous flaws and weaknesses. The Hawks are approaching a critical time for their franchise, with Mike Bibby a free agent and third-year forward and former lottery pick Marvin Williams seemingly without a role.

Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins, the team's vice president of basketball, said the Hawks need two key components to challenge, Boston, Orlando and Cleveland for Eastern Conference supremacy.

Ten-thousand dollars. That's a lot of money. You don't want to bet that amount either, unless you've got a really, really, really sure thing/stone-cold lock type of bet going. Or you're an NBA superstar who enjoys following the Cowboys. Acie Law IV is the latter. And, based on his Yardbarker blog, he just bet one of his boys 10 large that Dallas is going to the Super Bowl next year.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. IndyStar.com: Shaquille O'Neal, so happy to be back home in New Jersey that he's ... stealing candy bars?

2. South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Shawn Marion, feeling like a caged animal.

3. SI.com: Good Interview with Scott Foster, the other (innocent!) referee whose name kept coming up in the Tim Donaghy scandal.

4. Toronto Star: Do not mention the "stupidity" of the Chris Bosh 2010 free agency to Raps' coach Sam Mitchell.

5. Deseret News: Carlos Boozer "hasn't decided" if he'll opt out this summer. What? You don't believe Boozer when he's talking about his contract?

6. AlanaG.com: A hilarious tale of a trip to the voting booth, which has been taken a little too seriously by at least one other site. (Oh, and it's NBA-related because of the video of Acie Law voting, I guess.)

Thanks to the good folks in the Phoenix Suns' communications department, I was courtside for the team's pre-season opener against the Hawks. Being the first game of the pre-season, it was mostly just local media in attendance, who apparently had no interest in Hawks' coach Mike Woodson's post-game remarks. When he came out of the locker room, it was just me, esteemed writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sekou Smith, and a media rep for the Suns that were waiting for him. Needless to say, it was the perfect opportunity to ask the coach a few questions about the game (and frankly, it would have been weird if I didn't.) Here are coach Woodson's (very brief) post-game comments:

Brett Edwards: You left Marvin [Williams] out there longer than usual, were you just trying to get him more work?

Mike Woodson: I was trying to get him more work, and I knew I wasn't going to play Joe [Johnson] and [Mike] Bibby many minutes, so, you gotta have one of those guys on the floor, Marvin, or Josh Smith to go along with the new guys. But Mo [Maurice Evans], Mo would have taken up seven or eight minute that Marvin got coming down the stretch probably, if he hadn't gotten hurt.

BE: What happened to Mo?

MW: He got an elbow (points to above his eye), he needed to get some stitches.

BE: The first half it seemed like you guys took a lot of outside shots, which maybe lead to the low field goal percentage?

MW: Which I don't like.

BE: Yeah, did you talk to them about that at halftime?

Crystal Ballin' takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 28th NBA Draft.

The Pistons are at a crossroads. With just one NBA title to show after five trips to the Conference Finals, they're now one of the league's oldest teams in a division with two of the league's up-and-coming-est teams (the Bulls and Cavs).

To re-tool on the fly and preserve their place among the league's true contenders, the team needs to get younger and more athletic -- and soon. Fortunately, they have two first-round picks: the 15th (courtesy of the Magic) as well as the 27th.

Needs: Pretty much everything but power forward. The team hasn't had a legitimate backup point guard in years, and considering there's at least a chance Chauncey Billups leaves, they might be in need of a starter. Following the Carlos Delfino trade, the team could use a swingman to backup Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince -- though there's always a chance Joe Dumars plans to address that need via free agency (Grant Hill? Morris Peterson?).

Oh, and a starting center would be nice, considering Chris Webber isn't expected to return and the only other option currently on the roster is Nazr Mohammed.

The Bulls' biggest offseason goal has to be finding a scoring power forward to start next to Ben Wallace, but it's not surprising that a secondary goal appears to be getting bigger in the backcourt. Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon are both 6 feet 3 inches, and Chris Duhon, often the first guard off the bench, stands just 6 foot 1.

Their size wasn't a big issue over the course of the regular season, but it certainly seemed to play a factor in the postseason once the Bulls were pitted against the Pistons, whose combination of Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton was both bigger and stronger.

According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, the Bulls worked out Acie Law (pictured, 6 feet 3 1/2) and Javaris Crittenton (6 feet 4 3/4) on Thursday. Both of those two players are point guards. Does that mean that Hinrich might be included in offseason trade talks? I think that's a stretch -- for a contending team like Chicago, they're probably more interested in adding a third guard to their rotation, to push Thabo Sefolosha and perhaps flat-out replace Duhon.

Bear in mind, though, that most mock drafts suggest it'd be a bit of a reach for the Bulls to use their No. 9 pick on either Law or Crittenton. That doesn't mean that won't be interested in acquiring another draft pick, perhaps in a deal involving Duhon and his expiring contract.

Previously at FanHouse:
Could the Bulls Trade Ben Gordon to the Bulls?