| Around the League |
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| Written by Joe Willett | |
| Sunday, 27 July 2008 | |
 The NBA is the top basketball league in the world, for now. Players are starting to bolt for other countries. First, it was Brandon Jennings skipping college to go play internationally because of academic requirements. Next, Josh Childress of the Atlanta Hawks left the NBA to play basketball in Greece. Now, the Hawks are close to replacing the small forward with Maurice Evans. ESPN is reporting a deal is close to being completed where Evans would receive about $7.5 million over the next three years to become a member of the Atlanta Hawks. Evans scored about nine points a game last season and would be a nice fit for the sixth man role that Childress left behind when he went to play for Olympiakos in Greece. Sasha Vujacic is a Rich Man The Lakers made Vujacic an extremely nice offer for a man that spends most of the games starting on the bench. He reportedly signed a deal worth $15 million over three years. The move keeps Vujacic from making a move that has been done before by people like Josh Childress, and moving to play in Europe. Vujacic averaged just under nine points-a-game last season as part of the Lakers, then averaged 8.1 points a game in the playoffs including a playoff-high 20 point night. Monte Ellis Re-Signs with the Warriors Ellis has officially signed a $67 million deal that will keep him with the Warriors and officially make him the replacement for Baron Davis who left for the Clippers. Ellis made about $770 thousand last season, and will now be making about $11 million next season, which is one of the biggest raises in NBA history. Ellis will be moving over from the shooting guard position where he averaged just over 20 points-a-game and become the starting point guard in replacement of Davis. The new starting shooting guard is likely to be Stephen Jackson with Corey Maggette starting at small forward. Warriors Avoid Star Moving to Europe Andris Biedrins is likely about to sign a deal worth about $63 million over six years. The move has kept Biedrins from moving to Europe, where he has been seriously considering. The Warriors have been involved in an extremely busy offseason, and have said that keeping Biedrins was one of their top priorities in their plan to build around strong youth. Keeping Ellis was another part of that plan, and adding Maggette has also been part of the hectic offseason which has seen the Warriors roster change greatly.         Set as favorite Bookmark Comments
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