Between pool parties and forced dictation sessions here in Bahrain, I’ve been following the NBA Free Agency hoopla this summer. And an interesting summer it has been. I concur with the seemingly unanimous assessment that Utah has come out on top of this process. They got solid players with some time left in them at reasonable prices–for both the team and the players.

Several teams have turned up worse than when they started. LA has two of them, but only one will be noticed. I’m not sure what the final call will be on the Clippers. They cleared cap room for Kobe, but lost that one. I’m sure they understood that was a strong possibility. At least they have room to acquire what talent is left–and they were unlikely to get strong talent before the Kobe talks anyway. The Lakers, well, that was an interesting view all around. Was that an implosion or an explosion we witnessed? Either way, they’re in a rebuilding mode now and stuck with what they have. What happens if Kobe is wearing an orange jumpsuit next year instead of a Lakers uniform? Were they smart enough to have a clause about that?

I think the Spurs did very well for themselves. There are some who say Manu Ginobili is over-rated, but I believe those folks will be surprised. Turk was a good player, and perhaps he got more money than he was worth, but he was a solid contributor to the Spurs organization, and he should do well with his new team. Bowen is back, Barry is added and brings skills the Spurs needed. There are a few more roster moves to be made, and it will be interesting to see how those pan out. I’ll be watching.