- Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: "The Magic's first order of business during this all-important offseason must be to do whatever is necessary to get rid of point guard Rafer Alston. You heard me. 'Skip to My Lou' must skip outta town if the Magic are to move forward with Jameer Nelson as the starting point guard and de facto leader of the team. Just call it addition by subtraction. This is not a knock on Alston; far from it. Magic GM Otis Smith's decision to make a deal for Alston when Nelson went down with a supposed season-ending shoulder injury was brilliant. And Coach Stan Van Gundy integrating Alston into the lineup was masterful. But as much as Alston meant in getting the Magic to the Finals this season, he must now be jettisoned if the Magic expect to make a return trip next year. This is not about ability; it's about stability. This is not about ability; it's about stability. It's not demoting Alston; it's about promoting harmony."
- Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: "The Lakers will officially close the books on their championship season with Wednesday's victory parade and a few days' worth of individual exit meetings, but one question won't be answered amid all the confetti and congratulations. What's next? The Lakers will experience a flurry of activity between now and mid-July, starting with the draft June 25, in which they have the 29th, 42nd and 59th picks. Then the real decisions begin with free agency. Kobe Bryant can terminate the last two years of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent July 1. Forwards Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza officially become unrestricted free agents that day, as does reserve guard Shannon Brown. The Lakers needed only five games to defeat the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals, and they are already favored by many oddsmakers to win it all again next season, but what will their roster look like when training camp begins in October? 'I think we could be in position to advance to the Finals for the next three, four years,' General Manager Mitch Kupchak said during the locker-room celebration after the Lakers' 15th championship. 'But this summer we'll have some free-agent issues we'll have to address.' "
- John Gonzalez The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Kobe Bryant won another title the other day. It was his fourth - same as Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal. That has to drive the haters mad. The Bryant bashers are legion and have been since he roamed the halls at Lower Merion. I went to a rival high school, and I remember my fellow students screaming ridiculous things at him while he punished our basketball team. They called him dumb and chanted 'SAT' even though he speaks Italian and reportedly did quite well on his college entrance exams. They said he was a "ball hog" and a 'loser,' then watched him crush the competition and lead Lower Merion to a state title. None of it made any sense. It didn't then, and it doesn't now. They seemed to hate him simply because they weren't him. Jealousy is such an ugly emotion."
- Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News: "Other than a second-round sweat against Houston, the Los Angeles Lakers steamrolled the Western Conference, then took care of the East's best in short order in the NBA Finals. The Lakers went 16-7 in their playoff run, never lost two in a row and, if you go back to the start of the 2008-09 season, never lost three in a row. That's called carving up the competition. It wasn't the 15-1 record the Lakers had in the 2001 playoffs. By no means are these Lakers dynasty material yet. But it was impressive stuff by Kobe Bryant and friends. So now what? Does the rest of the West cower at the thought of the Lakers keeping their still-young team together and becoming a threat for another title or maybe even a three-peat? Yeah, maybe. In talking with a respected Western Conference executive Monday about the destruction left by the Lakers, it became obvious that the rest of the West is in some deep water, looking for some sort of flotation device. Our West honcho said that many teams are going to be scratching their heads, knowing that they have to get better -- a lot better -- to beat the Lakers."
- Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: "The league's other 29 teams shouldn't count on a roster implosion, and Phil Jackson has proven he knows how to defend a championship. Has the Zen Master begun to dream of a fourth personal three-peat? Don't bet against it, but Jackson understands it isn't easy. The Rockets took his team to seven games in the Western semifinals, and that was after Yao Ming went down with a foot injury. Would the Rockets have won with a healthy Yao? Every title team understands it needs a little luck to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy. The Lakers know Yao's misfortune was their fortunate spin of the wheel. Point a telescope at the 2009-10 NBA landscape, and see there could be plenty of contenders, depending on how fortune and fate play out this summer."
- Bob Young of The Arizona Republic: "Through the years, the Suns have had their ups, and the Lakers have had their downs - when Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West retired, the end of Showtime, the Kobe-Shaq-Phil breakup. As recently as 2004-05, the Lakers missed the playoffs altogether as the Suns were cranking up the Steve Nash-D'Antoni machine. Twice, those Nash-and-Dash Suns eliminated the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Bryant even turned on his teammates and demanded to be traded. Just when it seemed it couldn't get uglier for the Lakers, they stole 'Too Slow' Gasol 16 months ago. Pau, just like that, the Lakers were on their way to back-to-back Finals appearances. And this year they did -- once again -- what the Suns have failed to accomplish in more than four decades of trying. They closed the deal."
- Rick Noland of The Medina County Gazette: "At the trade deadline, when Cleveland reportedly was offering the same two players but the Suns wanted Wally Szczerbiak's expiring contract instead of Wallace, the deal at least made sense for Phoenix. Szczerbiak would now be off the books and the Suns would have rid themselves of the $20 million Shaquille O'Neal is due in 2009-10. Now, from Phoenix's perspective, a deal for Wallace and Pavlovic would basically mean taking on the whopping, expiring contract of a player with nothing left in the tank (Wallace) for the whopping, expiring contract of a player who still has something left (O'Neal). Sure, Wallace is threatening to retire and is open to a buyout, probably for about half the $14 million he's owed next season. Sure, only $1.5 million of Pavlovic's $4.95 million deal is guaranteed. Sure, the Suns could save about $10 million by trading O'Neal, buying out Wallace and cutting Pavlovic. But exactly how can Suns general manager Steve Kerr, a good friend of Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry, sell that approach in the Phoenix market? The simple answer is this: He can't."
- Sekou Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "I say this after having numerous conversations last summer and all season long with scouts and executives from teams around the league wondering just how good Josh Smith might be if he played in another system (no one has ever seen him anywhere but in a Hawks uniform). They won't have to wait much longer to get a look. My sources inform me that Smith is headed to Las Vegas next month to participate in the USA Select team's summer workout. He'll be working with the same elite team of young stars that Al Horford worked with last summer as they helped prepare the Olympic team for their gold medal march in Beijing. (Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Andre Iguodala, Rodney Stuckey, Kevin Martin and O.J. Mayo were some of the other young stars on that squad. Personally, I'd love to see Smith in that mix and see what kind of things he might do in that set up. Doesn't sound like the kind of cat I'd be trying to get rid of, but hey, it's not my call). Something tells me that any NBA team wondering what Smith looks like free from the backcourt dominated system the Hawks run will be sitting in that gym in Vegas next month taking some serious notes as well."
- Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press: "Bill Laimbeer wants to be an NBA coach. That's why he left the Shock on Monday three games into the season. And he will be an NBA coach some day in a league hungry for new coaching blood. But first Laimbeer must do the grunt work -- toiling as an NBA assistant coach, carrying the clipboard and re-learning the NBA game and its players. He wouldn't have left the Shock unless he was certain he had an NBA assistant's job waiting. Don't for a second think that Laimbeer made his move because he believes he has a chance at getting the job he desires most -- coach of the Pistons. There are genuine concerns regarding Michael Curry's future, but he isn't doomed to fail yet."
- Tim Buckley of the Deseret News: "An obviously frustrated Jerry Sloan is about two weeks behind his anticipated recovery schedule from knee-replacement surgery, a setback that on Monday he attributed largely to post-surgery blood clots. The longtime Jazz head coach had his long-troublesome right knee replaced on April 30. 'I'm doing okay,' he said after the team held a pair of pre-draft workout sessions. 'I'm not gonna say (the knee) feels pretty good. That's a different lifestyle, when you have a new knee put in, it seems to me like. 'It's been tough,' he added when asked about the recovery process. 'But that's what I expected. I didn't expect some of the things that came up in the process. That's the only problem.' Sloan said he was 'disappointed' by the unexpected complications. 'That's kind of slowed me down a little bit," he said of the potentially deadly blood clots, which typically form -- often in bedridden surgery patients -- when there is damage to the lining of a blood vessel. "But I'm fine otherwise.' Staying in the house for five weeks, Sloan said, was the most frustrating part of the whole ordeal."
- Marcus Thompson II of the Contra Costa Times: "Remember some seven months ago, when Anthony Randolph was drawing the ire of coach Don Nelson for his poor attitude and work ethic? That dude is long gone. Randolph -- who embodies much of the franchise's hopes -- has bought in to the adage that great players are made in the offseason. 'The good ones, that's how they become really, really good,' Warriors assistant coach Keith Smart said. 'They put aside everything else that is going on in their lives and focus on basketball and how they can develop. ... This is the time when you start to prepare to do even better than what you did last year, and he's doing that.' Randolph started doing cardio work and practicing his shooting while in Dallas with a goal of improving his midrange jumper. He's been in Oakland for about three weeks now, practically living at the Warriors facility. He works out three times a day -- morning, afternoon and evening -- part of which he does solo. In addition to his jumper, Randolph is working to get stronger, develop his footwork and improve his efficiency."
- Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: "If he's still there when the Pacers select at No. 13 nine days from now -- assuming, of course, they remain at No. 13 -- DeJuan Blair is my pick. He may not have the prototypical power forward height at 6-61/2, but he's got the wingspan of a pterodactyl (he's as wide as Roy Hibbert is tall at 7-2), he's strong, has good hands, he's an accomplished passer and he can rebound and play defense. More, though, he's got passion, a motor, an unmistakable don't-mess-with-me attitude."
- Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: "Former highly touted NBA lottery pick Nikoloz Tskitishvili's response was concise when a Grizzlies free-agent camp came to his attention. 'Why not?' said the 7-foot Georgian forward. The feeling was mutual. Tskitishvili, the fifth overall pick by Denver in the 2002 draft, ran the court Monday as one of the more intriguing athletes participating in the Grizzlies' second offseason workout with erstwhile NBA players and undrafted professional prospects. Why does taking a look at Tskitishvili make sense for the Grizzlies? The answer is simple. 'We figured why not take a shot?' Griz general manager Chris Wallace said after watching the session in FedExForum. 'Maybe there's something there.' "
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