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Superman has landed!

The Dwightmare is finally over. Let’s all breathe a sigh of relief……

For those of you who missed the big news last night, here is the breakdown of the trade.

It appears Orlando wants to rip its roster down to the studs and emulate the Oklahoma City model — after all, new general manager Rob Hennigan came from the Thunder — and perhaps the Magic can pull it off. Now all they have to do is select an all-time great and two other All-Stars in the next three drafts, and they’ll be all set to emulate the Thunder.

Lakers forward Pau Gasol had been in and out of talks, before ultimately being excluded. People are going to complain that he was a necessary piece for Orlando to get “fair value”, but it would have been totally counter productive to the Magic’s cause. Taking on the 32 year old Spaniard with a 2 year, $40 million contract isn’t how you rebuild.

While it was a foregone conclusion that the Magic weren’t going to receive equal value, getting this package seems pretty weak. I don’t know specifically what deals the Magic were presented with, but it seems like they could have done better. We know they could have overpaid Brook Lopez,  and received Marshon Brooks, Kris Humphries and 4 draft picks from the Nets, but that team wasn’t making it out of the first round of the playoffs without some serious help. Could they have taken on a plethora of raw unproven talent and cap relief from the Rockets? Probably…but still, complete rebuilding project for the next two years.

In the meantime, I guess a few proven vets with cap friendly contracts, basically 4 first round draft picks when you factor in the rookie Harkless, and a bunch of salary cap relief was enough.  After 12 hours to process the deal, I’m still left scratching my head, and so is the rest of the NBA.

Grade: C-

Let’s talk about what this means for the other teams in the deal.

Philadelphia 76′ers

Suddenly, the Sixers have a building block in the middle, and it didn’t even cost them that much. Iguodala is a heck of a player and will be missed, but the other assets they relinquished were expendable. And even though Richardson is on a bad contract, he isn’t exactly dead weight — especially with a big man to draw double-teams.

Doug Collins is a damn good coach, and is probably the only guy left in the NBA who can turn Bynum from the head case he is, into the All NBA Center he can be. There is the uncertainty that this may be a one year rental, and Andrew may bolt somewhere else in next year as a free agent, but  there’s no way Philly couldn’t do this deal. When you’re one of the other 26 teams in the league, you have to take chances on elite players when they come. The Sixers are taking a calculated gamble, and it should pay off. Their worst-case scenario is they get one year of Bynum and drop Iguodala’s contract.

Grade: A-

Denver Nuggets

I really like this deal for the Nuggets. Iguodala is an absolute beast of a defender on the wing, something the Nugg’s are sorely missing.He should be the perfect complement for Danilo Gallinari, and his transition play will only be more terrifying surrounded by all that speed in Denver. Ty Lawson, Iggy, Gallinari, Kenneth Faried, and JaVale McGee. That is a young, tough, and fast team that could shock a lot of people and do some damage come playoff time.

The only little dark spot is that they helped the Lakers get Howard. Um, that’s gonna be a problem. But Denver got better, too, and did so while actually improving its cap position, since Iguodala has only two years left on his deal. The Nuggets wriggle out of about $23 million in future money, and put themselves in position to be a cap team in 2014 if this doesn’t work.

Grade: B+/A-

Los Angeles Lakers

Holy hell, it’s good to be the Lakers. But does it really surprise you? Somehow, the Lakers ALWAYS get the big man they want. It started with Mikan, they traded for Wilt, traded for Kareem, Signed Shaq, and now trading glorified scrap metal for the premier center in the league? How do they do it? Mitch Kupchak, I would love to be standing in your shoes today.

Process this: Pau Gasol is the fourth option. The Lakers are running the pick-and-roll with Nash and Howard, Gasol lifting for the midrange J, and oh yea, this guy named Kobe lurking on the weak side? Good luck defending that.

It leaves the Lakers with a bit of a Miami in 2010-11 scenario, in which the pieces don’t quite fit and they have to figure out how to make them mesh. As it was with Miami, having pieces such as these means it probably doesn’t matter.

Mike Brown, pick up the phone and call Eric Spolestra and ask for advice on how to handle your head going on the chopping block every time you lose a game.

There really isn’t a whole lot to say. Look at the first 6 players in that rotation. Bryant, Howard, Nash, Gasol, World Peace, Jamison. That looks like Showtime 2.0 to me. Wow…just wow.

Grade: A++++

Pretty funny how everybody won big in this trade, EXCEPT Orlando.

If the deal becomes official, Howard would face his former team for the first time in Los Angeles on Dec. 2. His return to Orlando would come Mar. 12. I’m sure Dwight can look forward to one hell of a reception when those starting line-ups are announced.

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