Ok, so free agency is heating up: we've got Baron Davis in L.A. for some time now, and now Elton Brand has decided to move on to Philadelphia of all places. This is an amazing bit of news for all the people who suddenly were happy that Baron + Brand = relevance for the Clippers, because guess what? Baron + nobody = 11th best West team. They're not better than any of last year's playoff teams, I don't think Baron's loss hurts the Warriors as much as it helps the Clippers, especially since they've added another scoring piece in Corey Maggette (so they're not passing them), and Portland is set to be awesome. That's ten teams ahead of L.A. Too bad, so sad.

Meanwhile, though, Philly is looking rosy. They were already the seven seed out East last year, and Brand is an awesome player. I think this pushes them past Washington, although I don't know how much higher they'll go: Jermaine O'Neal + Chris Bosh is pretty awesome in Toronto, Lebron is still a Cavalier, Orlando should come back some, but I don't know if it'll be 12 games worth (plus they've added Mickael Pietrus), and Detroit and Boston should remain the class of the conference.