Don't blink

"Life moves pretty fast. (If) you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it"

-- Ferris Bueller

This quote has never been truer than this past week in the NBA. Wheeling and dealing and the NBA Draft have left teams on the bubble with a whole new look. While it will not be possible to pass judgment on most of the draft picks for a couple of years, the trades that preceded and followed the draft have been both ingenious and somewhat confusing.

The festivities began with two teams desperately searching for a winning formula -- the Atlanta Hawks and the Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies. The Hawks traded their third pick in the first round, Forward/Center Pao Gasol from Barcelona, to the Grizzlies for Shareef Abdur-Rahim. This makes sense for the Grizzlies who will need some excitement once the novelty of basketball in Tennessee wears off. Gasol, a 7-foot-tall power forward, has all the skills that one would expect from a smaller player. He has the ability to play facing the basket like a small forward, but can also rebound and bang down underneath like a typical power forward. He showcased his talents in leading his Real Madrid team to the European league championship. Couple that with the Grizzlies later trade with the Sacramento Kings for Jason Williams and Nick Anderson, giving up Mike Bibby and Brent Price, and you have the possibility of excitement in Memphis -- even if they don't win much.

The sad fact is that the Grizzlies just don't have enough talent to be very competitive. Next year's team will fail to part from the disappointment the franchise has experienced since coming into the league with the Toronto Raptors in 1995. In their six seasons as part of the NBA, the Grizzlies have an astonishing .220 winning percentage. They've given up two of their top three scorers from last year in Abdur-Rahim and Bibby. The only difference now is that with these trades, and the drafting of Duke standout Shane Battier, there's hope -- albeit a glimmer.

That brings us to the Sacramento Kings trading of Jason Williams and Nick Anderson. The Kings, desperately scared of losing free agent Chris Webber, showed a commitment to improving probably as a message to the coveted power forward. Williams as a point guard was erratic, and his relationship with head coach Rick Adelman deteriorated while his minutes dropped. As a showman, there are few that are better at giving fans something to always keep their eyes on. However, Sacramento desperately wants to win and being in the same division as the Los Angeles Lakers makes things that much harder. Mike Bibby comes to a team where he can instantly be an upgrade at the point guard position. The Kings get a ball handler who improves their Assist-To-Turnover ratio by 1.6 points. If they are going to beat the Lakers, they need two things: to be able to control the ball, and Chris Webber. One out of two isn't bad.

Draft day brought one of the more puzzling trades. The Chicago Bulls sent Elton Brand to the Los Angeles Clippers for the rights to high school product Tyson Chandler. Brand, the team's first draft pick in the post-Jordan era, was easily the Bulls best player. He averaged 20.1 points per game and 10.1 rebounds on a team that finished 15-67. Later in the draft, the Bulls acquired another high school draftee in Eddy Curry. Although Curry is being labeled a "baby Shaq," these two players will not be ready to contribute for at least a year or two. The Bulls are now going through their second youth movement since the departure of Michael Jordan after the 1997-98 season.

That puts most of the focus on Ron Mercer and Ron Artest, two players who have not yet shown that they are ready to lead in the NBA. The two averaged 19.7 and 11.9 points per game, respectively, but Artest shot only 40 percent from the field. He shot the same percentage from the three-point line, so his shot selection needs to drastically improve for the Bulls to show any kind of improvement.

While the Bulls go backward, the Clippers have come to the forefront among "middle-of-the-road" teams. The addition of Brand gives them a presence in the post and will complement small forward Lamar Odom nicely. The Clippers are young -- their average age is 25.6 -- and athletic, which should mean an improvement on last year's 31-51 record. If all the planets align just right, this team may even be an eight seed, even in the loaded Western Conference. One thing's for sure, the Staples Center will be full of excitement regardless of who is the actual home team this year.

The trading frenzy came to a head on Thursday when the Phoenix Suns sent Jason Kidd to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Stephon Marbury. This trade is along the lines of the Jason Williams-Mike Bibby trade in that it could be good for both sides. The Suns get an amazing all-around point guard in Marbury, while the Nets get the distributor they needed to feed their other emerging stars like Kenyon Martin and Keith Van Horn.

Marbury can penetrate and draw double teams, which should benefit players like Tom Gugliotta, Rodney Rogers, and Shawn Marion. Add Anfernee Hardaway to the mix, and the Suns may be a force to be reckoned with. However, they face the same trouble as everyone else in the West -- how do you compete with the Lakers and Shaquille O'Neal. The Suns lack a solid big man in the middle to put them over the top, but Marbury will keep things interesting all year.

Kidd is the prototypical point guard. He also is a better defender than Marbury, averaging almost one steal more per game. He is a perennial league leader in assists, and his 4.42 Assist-to-Turnover ratio is outstanding. Look for second year player Kenyon Martin to be the new focal point of the offense next year, with Keith Van Horn also carrying the load. They averaged 12 and 17 points per game, respectively, in injury shortened seasons. With Kidd bringing the ball up, those numbers figure to improve. The Nets gave up scoring for the total package in Kidd, and they will reap the benefits next year. Providing everyone stays healthy, this 26-56 team last year, is another team that could sneak into the playoffs next year-especially in the watered-down Eastern Conference.

For the most part, teams looking for something more than what they've got were successful. The only exception is the enigmatic Bulls GM Jerry Krause. After the end of the Jordan era, the man seems intent on presenting himself with new challenges. He needlessly dismantled the team after Michael retired, preferring to rebuild from the ground up. Now he has the team going in the wrong direction, and any success is way off on the horizon. The only question is how long will owner Jerry Reinsdorf be patient? For the sake of the Bulls and their fans, hopefully not too long.