Real Free Agent Splash? The Bucks.

Lost amid all this big three talk in the NBA free agency period is the toiling of one executive, John Hammond of the Milwaukee Bucks. Most of the teams in that sweepstakes will come away empty-handed anyway. Hammond, a former assistant GM under Joe "build without superstars" Dumars with the Detroit Pistons, has made several heady moves this off-season that put the Bucks in good position to make the playoffs again in his second year on the job.

When John Salmons opted out of his contract, I thought the Bucks were done. With Salmons they went 22-8 last year and moved up down the stretch to sure up the 6th seed in the east. But today Hammond was able to re-sign John Salmons to a 5 year, $39 million deal. Along with his other low cost, low profile moves, Hammond will give the Bucks a balanced roster, albeit short on star power, much like his former boss Dumars did in Detroit. I like the Corey Maggette trade because it gives them another proven wing scorer who will take pressure off of Salmons and Brandon Jennings. Drew Gooden gives them a solid rebounding presence and he is a decent defender, which I know from his days with the Cavs.

I would imagine their starting five will be Jennings at the point, Maggette and Salmons on the wings, Gooden at power forward, and Andrew Bogut at center. The Bucks were a pretty good defensive team under coach Scott Skiles last year, but they lacked scoring punch. Adding Maggette and a solid rebounder in Gooden should help. John Hammond has done a great job developing a team that is very complimentary with the cast-offs of other teams. I think Joe Dumars would be proud. Dumars made similar acquisitions of journeymen players, Chaucey Billups and Rasheed Wallace. He turned them into a well balanced team that contended for years, and they actually won the title in 2004.

It's hard to say how good the Bucks can be this year, especially considering that the Eastern Conference is so up in the air with the big three still out there unsigned. I think I can comfortably predict that they will again make the Playoffs, which I honestly didn't feel good about before the re-signing of Salmons. In fact, despite the "star power" of the Joe Johnson signing, I think they could conceivably leapfrog the Hawks next year in the standings.

The Clippers and Wizards' motives in the Jamison trade

You asked for it 'Stache, so I'm giving it to you.

The Clippers got involved in the Jamison trade to dump salaries and position themselves as major players in the big 2010 free agent market. The Clippers know they aren't going anywhere this season, so they've been making moves to clear cap space. They recently sent Marcus Camby and his expiring contract (who they wouldn't have resigned) to Portland for point guard Steve Blake, injured small forward Travis Outlaw, and $3 million. Both Blake and Outlaw have expiring contracts and it is unclear if L.A. will resign either of them or let their money come off the books. Outlaw is a quality small forward, which L.A. will need next season so there's a chance that he will be resigned.

With the Jamison trade, the Clippers ridded themselves of both Al Thornton's $2.8 million salary and Sebastian Telfair's expiring contract, which had a player option of $2.7 million for next season. Losing Telfair's contract is huge for L.A., because that's $2.7 million less that they probably would have had to pay. This leaves the Clippers with just four players under contract next season with Baron Davis at PG, Eric Gordon at SG, injured #1 pick Blake Griffin at PF, and center Chris Kaman, who just made his first All-Star appearance replacing the injured Brandon Roy. This could be an appealing roster for a big free agent like LeBron James or Dwyane Wade, but let's face it, the Clippers aren't getting either of them. The Grizzlies' Rudy Gay might fit in well though, as small forward is the one position they lack in. Regardless, they have a solid foundation and a great deal of flexibility.

Drew Gooden (who's played on just about every NBA team in the past few years) will probably be bought out by L.A. and wind up on yet another team.

As for the Wizards, Gilbert Arenas' season-long suspension for bringing guns in the locker room has forced them to break the team up and start fresh. It will probably be a long rebuilding process, but it had to be done. It started with trading Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson to Dallas for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton, and Quinton Ross.

Sending the 33 year-old Antawn Jamison to the Cavs was basically a favor to Jamison, who was a consistent contributor and stand-up guy during his time with Washington. There's a good chance Big Z will end up being bought out and resigned by the Cavs, so the Wizards should have tried to get more than just Al Thornton, Josh Howard, and change for everything they gave up. But they had to move on. They will now have enough cap space to sign a free agent to a max contract, but I doubt anyone is eager to head to Washington right now.

Thornton has shown upside but seems like he isn't much of a game changer. Josh Howard was an All-Star not but a few years ago, but he has become inconsistent as of late. He has also had off-court issues that made him fall out of favor with the Mavs, such as admitting he smoked weed in the offseason and making a comment on video about not celebrating the Star-Spangled Banner because he's black.

Now the Wizards biggest priority is trying to void Gilbert Arenas' absurdly huge contract. If Arenas is sentenced to prison time it might help them get it done, but a team has never voided a contract so it remains a long shot.

There's definitely a lot more to it than all of this, but I've already been writing posts that are too long for Dank Game's half-assed standards. Writing about trades is too much work.

Does that help, 'Stache?