Link: SI.com  - Heat to deal Jones for Walker in five-team trade

Big deals in the NBA hardly ever happen, the logistics involved in making all the salary numbers work and having all the teams walk away happy after a deal usually makes things very difficult.

Now that the moratorium on player movement has been lifted, all the trades and signings we've heard about over the last month are being comfirmed. Although we all heard of the deal that would have brought Jason Williams and James Posey to Miami, who knew this would have turned into the biggest trade in NBA history.

Five teams were involved and thirteen players. Antoine Walker (who has been on the Heat's rumoured interest list) goes to Miami along with Jason Williams and James Posey. This has to put the Heat up there with Cleveland as the most improved team this off season, ouch for the rest of the Eastern Conference. The Heat also got some smaller nuggets in this, Andre Emmett from Memphis and the draft rights to Roberto Duenas (yikes) from New Orleans.

The Memphis Grizzlies received a very good defender in Eddie Jones from the Heat, Raul Lopez to fill their point guard need.

The Utah Jazz received Greg Ostertag back, after leaving for one season when he signed with Sacramento and was aquired by Memphis in the Bonzi Wells deal.

The New Orleans Hornets receive Rasual Butler from the Heat and Kirk Snyder from the Jazz... man i'm having a hard time keeping this straight.

FInally, Boston received Curtis Borchardt, Qyntel Woods, Albert Miralles, Roberto Duenas and two second round picks.

If we analyze the trade in the traditional fashion, then the team with the best player wins the trade and that would be Miami.

The free agency season rollercoaster isn't quite over, it's just begun, but this is obviously the biggest bang we are going to hear.

I don't see any difference between the 2005 Heat and the 2004 Lakers, with three exceptions: A.) Shaq is a little more motivated; B.) everyone on the team likes each other; and C.) none of the Miami stars are flying back and forth to Colorado to defend themselves in a hearing for a potential rape trial. So why would they be more prone to beat the Pistons than the 2004 Lakers? Sure, this Pistons team doesn't have the same bench, and Rip Hamilton has been hit in the face so many times at this point, he's turning into Chuck Wepner. But other than Shaq, Wade, Damon Jones and Udonis Haslem, is there anyone on this Miami team who you would even call "mediocre"? Eddie Jones, Shandon Anderson, Keyon Dooling, Mike Doleac, Rasual Butler ... these guys wouldn't play for half the teams in the playoffs.

In fact, I think they have the worst starter in the playoffs (Jones) and the two worst bench players (Dooling and Anderson). That's unprecedented. Why do you think they kept bringing in washed-up veterans like Mourning, Laettner and Steve Smith? Watching them piece that bench together was like watching the scene in "Project Greenlight" where the producers tell John Gulager, "Yeah, Mark Wahlberg is out as Hero ... it looks like we're going with Eric Dane." In other words, we're screwed.

So here's where you say, "Well, Shaq and Wade can beat anyone by themselves, it will be just like Shaq and Kobe." Actually, that's not true. First, there's a difference between 2000 Shaq and 2005 Shaq -- he's not a guaranteed 35-15 in May and June anymore. Second, those Lakers teams wouldn't have beaten the 2000 Blazers, 2002 Kings and even the 2004 Spurs without significant contributions from Horry, Shaw, Fox, Fisher, Rice and Harper; we don't know anything about Jones and Haslem on that end. And third, Stan Van Gundy is no Phil Jackson -- Wade saved his butt in close games at least ten times during the course of the season. I just don't think they have the horses. Some time in the next 10 weeks, their season is going to come down to someone other than Shaq or Wade making a play ... and I don't see that play being made.

Tribal council in session [ESPN]