Notes from the Off-Season

By Adonal Foyle, with Chris Navalta

It was a very interesting offseason for me. I was fortunate to get my contract situation out of the way relatively quickly and smoothly and thus go directly to training. But you know me, I always have to keep up with the news, whether it's around the world or in the basketball world. The league had some interesting things happen over the summer. Here are my top five headlines that stood out this year...

1. Warriors Facelift
The Warriors organization has gone through a whole transformation. With the addition of Chris Mullin and Rod Higgins, I think what you see is a change in attitude. Coach Montgomery has been wonderful - coming in without trying to say that he knows everything right off the bat. He's made it clear that he wants to learn and get everyone on the same page. The players are made up of young guys blended with some veteran leadership. Combining all these factors, I think, makes for a very, very good team.

2. The Addition of the Charlotte Bobcats
Every time the NBA gets bigger, it's better because that means more job opportunities for everyone – from the players to the coaches to the front office. I'm always in favor of that. At the end of the day, Charlotte really needed a team. And now, they're getting that. So, I'm very excited for the city of Charlotte and what is going on over there. The league is continuing to grow, which shows that it is still a very profitable business. And you have to appreciate that.

3. The Continuation of the Lakers Soap Opera
Right now, I'm in the middle of reading Phil Jackson's new book, The Last Season. With that, along with hearing a little bit of Shaq's rap, (plus the fact that Derek Fisher is now on my team), it looks like it is now Kobe Bryant's team. At the end of the day, these are all great players. They were a great team together, but we never knew what was going on there because we weren't on that team. We were always on the outside looking in. The best thing I can say now is that I am very excited that they are no longer the dominant team in the Pacific Division. With Shaq out of the West, the division has opened up and it will be a running West again. I think every team in the West benefited from it.

4. The Free Agent Market
This year's free agents featured a young core of guys. And what this summer's market showed was a changing-of-the-guard type of free agent pool. It also showed the business from the teams' perspective as well. When you have a shortage of people, teams need to make movements to increase their competitiveness. That's what they're going to do. And it doesn't matter what the players' names are, as long as they are people who can play their position and be effective for their team.

5. The Carlos Boozer Situation
Of course, one player in particular was able to max out his worth this off-season: Carlos Boozer. That was more of an ethics move. He was given the opportunity to make serious money to play a game he loves, and Carlos took the most secure route to guarantee his future for a long period of time. Would I have done it that way? Probably not. But I think business is business. And when you do something like that, there are risks. As much as I feel for Cleveland, a guy has to do what is best for him and his family.

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