Around the time all the hoopla over Dwight Howard signing with the Rockets finally died down, the Celtics and Nets finalized their blockbuster trade and things got wacky again. Tears were shed and memories were re-lived when Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were officially introduced as members of the Brooklyn Nets, providing a summer’s worth of noteworthy NBA stars changing teams.
Howard, Pierce and Garnett were hardly the only players who found new homes this offseason, though. Somewhat under the radar, standouts like Josh Smith, Andrew Bynum and Al Jefferson signed big contracts with new teams, while Jrue Holiday, Andre Iguodala and Eric Bledsoe were traded. By the time the regular season dawns, quite a few teams will look a bit different than when we last saw them in April, May or June. Not every player will leave his former city on such good terms and with as many as memories as Pierce did in Boston, of course.
Keeping in mind that there is plenty of time for more changes to occur, let’s take a look at the best players to switch teams this summer.