Golden St. Warriors
Rob Mahoney: Upside and Motor

LA Clippers
ClipperSteve: Clips Nation

LA Lakers
Kurt: Forum Blue & Gold
Josh Tucker: Respect Kobe
Trevor Smith: HoopsAddict

Phoenix Suns
Phoenix Stan: Bright Side of the Sun

Sacramento Kings
Tom Ziller: Sactown Royalty

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com

• Ginobili To Have Surgery – The Spurs did not want Manu to play in the Olympics.  He played.  He hurt himself.  He’s going to be out six weeks after getting surgery done.  So should Manu have sat?  I don’t think so.  If you consider he got hurt on such minimal contact, he was bound to get hurt in the pre-season or early in the regular season so the timing actually works in the Spurs favor.  Manu’s not going to miss much game action and the Spurs don’t seem to mind that Tim Duncan doesn’t wake up until March anyways so Manu should be no different.  Don’t be surprised to see the Spurs hovering around .500 for a while though.
• Monta Ellis Out 3 Months – Sorry, Warriors, fans.  Not a good summer for you.  First, Baron Davis bolts for the Clippers of all teams and now your most exciting player is out.  At least you got Corey Maggette, though.  If he can carry the load for a while and you get some guys to step up, you could still be in playoff contention when Ellis returns.
• Grizzlies Sign Hamed Haddadi – Haddadi will be the first Iranian player in the NBA.  He did well in Beijing, but some scouts don’t think he’s ready.  The competition in the Iranian league is, well, softer than a marshmallow so we’ll take a wait-and-see approach on this guy.  Just don’t expect the next Yao Ming.

Don’t hold your breath, September won’t be much more exciting.

By the way, it’s never to early to sign up for fantasy basketball.  Click here to sign up.

So, the Clippers, in their ongoing misery, manage to add Baron Davis and get the fanbase excited and then proceed to lose Corey Maggette and Elton Brand. And, now they tie their money up with an aging player? The sad thing is this is par for the course for the Clippers.

On the other side of the spectrum, the New Orleans Hornets are having a great free agency. They signed Chris Paul to an extension which basically guarantees the playoffs for the foreseeable future and they just picked up James Posey who was so important to the Celtics title run. So, the team that was 2nd in the West, just behind the Lakers with youth on their side, now picks up a championship level defender. The Lakers will have Andrew Bynum back next season, but it will be hard not to pick the Hornets to come out of the West. The Hornets definitely will be in the discussion when you talk about Western Conference contenders.

Re-signing with Washington would be the easy thing to do. Arenas has said he wants to stay in DC and just wanted to “test the market”, but plenty a player have “tested the market” and found a better contract elsewhere. Arenas has stated repeatedly he will only come back if the Wizards also re-sign Antawn Jamison this off-season and they just did re-sign Jamison for four more years so the odds look good for Washington. “He said he’d take less money if they got me, and they got me,” Jamison said. “So I think everything will get worked out with Gilbert.”

The Lakers and Clippers have also been reportedly interested in Arenas at one time or another, but both situations don’t seem likely anymore. The Lakers would have to make some pretty big changes to make the money available for Arenas which they are unlikely to want to do considering they are coming off a Finals appearance. The Clippers, on the other hand, would want to work a sign-and-trade most likely involving Elton Brand, but now that the Wizards have re-signed Jamison, Washington is in a much better position to win in Gilbert’s eyes. Don’t hold your breath, LA fans.

Where do you think Agent Zero will wind up?