It's been quite the NBA offseason, this 2003.
Michael Jordan and John Stockton retired, LeBron James entered the league, Pat Riley stopped coaching, Larry Brown moved again and Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Antawn Jamison, Antoine Walker, Latrell Sprewell, Alonzo Mourning and Glenn Robinson changed addresses.
Looking at all the changes as the first week of the 2003-04 season wraps up, it seems fairly obvious that the rich got richer via offseason moves, a few teams made reasonable strides and a big chunk of the league's teams didn't get enough goodies to really help.
Here's a look at five up, five down. Five teams that probably had the best of an active summer and five that struggled.
That's not to say that all the moves will work. Already, injuries have done a number on several acquisitions. And who really knows whether a team like Dallas, which obtained enough firepower to score 140 a night, can play enough defense to make that kind of a score stand up game after game? But the Mavericks' moves appear impressive.
As do those by the Lakers and Minnesota.
Offseason moves are not necessarily barometers of where teams will finish. Some teams just needed tweaking and weren't terribly active over the summer. Others underwent overhauls and still may not have put themselves into contention.
Defending champ San Antonio made more subtle changes than others in the West but probably improved by going for depth. New Jersey, the defending Eastern Conference champion, bettered itself if Mourning can stay healthy.
Most experts say the Utah Jazz failed this summer and pick them to finish last in the NBA. Certainly, Utah didn't replace Malone and Stockton with equal parts. Even if Utah had been able to sign Elton Brand, Corey Maggette or Andre Miller from the Los Angeles Clippers or Jason Terry from Atlanta, it might not have made up for the loss of Malone to the Lakers and Stockton to his children.
However, draft choice Sasha Pavlovic has shown some promise, and Raja Bell seems a nice piece of the puzzle. Keon Clark can help some if he's healthy.
Roll them up with second-rounder Maurice Williams and free agent Michael Ruffin, and you don't have Stockton to Malone. You have starting over. Which is to be expected. The Jazz probably won't have a better record than their 47-35 of last season
But throw in the re-signing of an apparently much-improved Carlos Arroyo and factor in their 7-1 preseason record and opening-night win, and the Jazz can escape being in the Five Down category.
Cleveland can get a pass on this because it got James, though the Cavaliers are still expected to be lowly. The L.A. Clippers at least re-signed Brand and Maggette and hired Mike Dunleavy to coach, getting more done than usual, so they get a pass. Of course, they've hired good coaches before, but it seems like they put a little more effort into the players this time, even though Brand is out four-six weeks with a broken foot.
Atlanta, Golden State, Milwaukee, Seattle and Washington appear more like teams that didn't get enough done in the offseason.
Here are Five Up and Five Down, in alphabetical order.
Five Up:
DALLAS MAVERICKS: Probably the most active team in the offseason. Dallas signed Travis Best as a backup point guard. It got involved in multi-player trades with Golden State and Boston that brought in Jamison and Danny Fortson from the Warriors, and Walker and Tony Delk from the Celtics as the principals. Several other players were involved, and the Mavs got out from under Raef LaFrentz's smothering contract. This team is so loaded with buckets it asked Jamison, a career 20-point scorer, to come off the bench.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS: Certainly Kobe Bryant's legal woes and feud with Shaquille O'Neal cloud the crystal ball on L.A.'s success this season, but when Jazz free agent Malone agreed to take just $1.4 million a year to play for the Lakers so they could sign Milwaukee free agent Payton for almost three times that, the Lakers won the summer's free-agent lottery. They added aging backup Horace Grant, and drafted Luke Walton.
MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES: Another active team this summer, they traded for Sprewell from New York, and that makes them more impressive right away. Throw in center Ervin Johnson and guard Sam Cassell from Milwaukee and the signing of enigmatic free agent Michael Olowokandi from the Clippers, and they've given Kevin Garnett a fair amount of help. Perhaps this is the year they pass the "pesky" mantle to someone else.
NEW JERSEY NETS: Again, this is going out on a limb, the limb being Mourning's health, but if he can stay in games 25 minutes or so to block shots, rebound and kick off the fast break, the Nets will be stronger than they were with Dikembe Mutombo, who's moved on as a free agent to New York. Draft choice Zoran Planinic shows signs of being able to give Jason Kidd some relief at the point.
SAN ANTONIO SPURS: They signed Minnesota free-agent center Rasho Nesterovic to help make up for the retirement of David Robinson, and Robert Horry (free agent from Lakers), Ron Mercer (trade, Indiana) and Hedo Turkoglu (trade, Sacramento) should give the Spurs continued perimeter power. They signed free agent Anthony Carter from Miami to back Tony Parker.
Five Down:
ATLANTA HAWKS: The snail's-pace change in ownership finally happened just in time to keep the Jazz from signing away Terry, and they did sign free agent swingman Stephen Jackson from San Antonio. But the rest of the summer was a bit of a bust for a team that needed a lot of help. They signed former Jazz guard Jacque Vaughn and drafted BYU's Travis Hansen.
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: They made lots of changes, but putting together so many new players with the meat of the lineup gone — Jamison, Fortson, Earl Boykins and Gilbert Arenas — will be a challenge. A team that made a league-best jump in games won (plus-17) last season is almost starting over again. Nick Van Exel may or may not work out and had arthroscopic surgery two weeks ago. Jason Richardson, Erick Dampier, Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Troy Murphy are the core, surrounded by newcomers like Speedy Claxton, Calbert Cheaney and Cliff Robinson.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS: They picked up No. 8 overall draft pick T.J. Ford and traded with Minnesota for forward Joe Smith, both starters, but does that make up for losing Payton, Johnson and Cassell? Most prognosticators have the Bucks finishing near the bottom of the league, and it doesn't appear new coach Terry Porter will have enough guns.
SEATTLE SUPERSONICS: Top draft choice Nick Collison is out for the season with shoulder surgery, and the only other pickups are draftee Luke Ridnour and free-agent guard Antonio Daniels. The athletic team could use more playmaking and defense and probably didn't get it over the summer.
WASHINGTON WIZARDS: Arenas is the big pickup, but No. 10 overall draftee Jarvis Hayes, a guard-forward, is expected to contend for rookie honors. But they're young and make turnovers, and that may not change a lot. They still have a Jordan, but it's new coach Eddie Jordan.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com