GLAD TO BE HERE ...

… Now show me which way to go.

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How happy were Pau Gasol and other midseason movers who suddenly found themselves playing in games that matter? For the most part very, but as long as we're on the subject …

The news alert on TV was succinct: LAKERS ACQUIRE PAU GASOL. From the perspective of the subject, though, it was also laughably incomplete. It would have taken a two-hour special to fully capture the whiplash aftereffects of going from Graceland to Hollywood, not to mention from a team trudging toward the lottery to one sprinting after a title. On second thought, two hours wouldn't have done it.

In fact, three months later, the challenge of acclimation continues. "I'm struggling with my routine right now," Gasol says after climbing into the backseat of a shiny black Denali for a rush-hour crawl to the Riviera Country Club. This evening's meet-and-greet dinner and auction, a mandatory team function, has pushed a seven-hour photo shoot with Banco Popular, the largest bank of Hispanic origin in the United States, to the next day.

"The distance from one place to another is the biggest difference," he says. "Catch a little traffic, and your driving time doubles. In Memphis, I lived two minutes from the arena. Two hundred yards. And it was two minutes only because there were three traffic lights. Without those, I could've been there in 30 seconds."

Don't underestimate the impact of a change of pace. An NBA player's equilibrium during the frantic chaos of a game is forged on the numbing predictability of the other 21 ^1/2 hours of the day. And the bigger the star and the greater the pressure, the more mundane his downtime needs to be. A disruption in the regular course of things can have huge repercussions. Off-court issues become on-court distractions and a shot is missed, a pass bobbled, a rotation blown. And this time of year, any misstep can be the difference between one more round and summer vacation.

So Gasol, who was traded once before (the Hawks sent the then-20-year-old Spanish league stud to the Grizzlies in a 2001 draft-night trade), smirks at the notion that learning the Lakers' triangle offense would be anywhere close to the worst of his worries. "That's all about reading the defense and reacting, and I'm a pretty good reader," says the guy who prefers novels to video games. "But I haven't read any books that help get you through an NBA trade situation."

He did spend a fair amount of time at first scouring flight schedules. As Hollywood celebrated the Feb. 1 deal that shipped off out-of-favor Kwame Brown (plus promising rookie guard Javaris Crittenton, the draft rights to Pau's brother Marc and two future first-round picks), Gasol zigzagged the country. Five hours after being told he was moving, he was on a plane to LA to have his sore back examined. The next day, he jetted back east to meet his new teammates, in Washington to play the Wizards, before heading to Memphis to grab a few belongings. Then it was off to New Jersey to help the Lakers battle the Nets. That's 5,575 miles on a bad back—all commercial—in 72 hours, which makes a 24-point, 12-rebound debut in the Meadowlands only more impressive. (It may also explain why he went flat the next night in a loss to the Hawks.)

With the Lakers on the road for 11 of Gasol's first 15 games, it was March before he could even think about house hunting. But that's just when a severely sprained left ankle further derailed his pursuit of a place as quiet as his Memphis loft, the one with 20-foot ceilings, to which he could retreat between shootaround and tip-off for a nap and dish of pesto pasta. Instead, cooped up in a hotel for six weeks—buried among clothes and unpacked boxes while sleeping diagonally in an undersized bed—Gasol had lots of time to memorize the Cheesecake Factory menu. He got so fed up, he walked to a furnished-apartment complex, ready to rent, only to turn around when he had to duck through the entrance. Eventually he rented the spacious Marina del Rey apartment he currently calls home while the South Bay beach condo he bought is being remodeled. But his custom-made bed is still in his old place because if his seven-foot brother, Marc, decides to play for the Grizzlies next season, he'll need it.

Also staying in Memphis for now: Grizz guard Juan Carlos Navarro, Gasol's best friend since childhood, and Gasol's parents, Agusti and Marisa, and youngest brother, Adria, who have lived with or near him since he was a rookie and who have always been there to offer postgame consolation. "Family is important to him, so it has to be hard," says Navarro. "For me, it's hard to have him leave, because my English is not that good."

Lakers guard Derek Fisher has found his new teammate to be focused despite all the distractions. "Right from the beginning, you could see he knew he could do something here," Fisher says. The biggest on-court adjustment, though, is still to come, when fellow big man Andrew Bynum returns. Gasol already knows what that means: "I'll have to move to forward and away from the paint."

It will be a much easier commute.

WAS IT WORTH IT?
During Andrew Bynum's extended absence, the only way the Lakers—who finished strong with eight wins in their last 10—stayed afloat was by riding the inside play of Gasol. And he proved to be a legit No. 2 scorer who will kill opponents who pay too much attention to Kobe.

-Ric Bucher

ATLANTA
Glad to be here … now do what I say.
Behind in the fourth quarter. That was once folding time in Atlanta. But on April 2, the newest Hawk in the huddle, the one who had once battled Shaq and Kobe in May, let it be known that 11 minutes is an eternity. "Stay composed," Mike Bibby told his teammates, as the scoreboard read Raptors 95, Hawks 80. "They're going to let us back in the game."

Ten minutes 59 seconds later, Bibby was drilling a three to force OT. Three minutes 55 seconds after that, he hit another to put his team ahead for good. In the two months since Bibby arrived from Sacramento, he has emerged as the leader the Hawks have lacked since Deke, Mookie and Steve Smith ran the locker room … oh, like a generation ago. It's no coincidence Atlanta made the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

Bibby, unlike his fellow starters, is well-acquainted with the postseason. Joe Johnson, the only other member of the group to have lived a playoff game, had just finished his rookie season when Bibby torched the Lakers in that famous 2002 Western Conference final. Josh Smith, Marvin Williams and Al Horford were all 15 or 16—and rooting for LA. Though each remembers the series vividly, none of them understood its significance until Bibby came on board.

"After we got Mike, we played the Lakers, and when they introduced him as part of the starting lineup, I'd never heard anybody get booed so bad," Williams says. "I asked Mike what it was about and he said it was because of the playoffs. That's when it clicked."

With Bibby running the show, a lot more is clicking these days. "A few months ago," Johnson says, "if we were down 15 in the fourth, it'd be over. Mike has made
us believe."

-Chris Broussard

WAS IT WORTH IT?
The Hawks needed a closer, and they got one. Before the trade, they were 7—10 in OT and games decided by five points or less. After Bibby arrived, the record in tight squeezes was 47mdash;1.

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DALLAS
Glad to be here … but this isn't what I expected
Reunions are often happy occasions, but dark clouds rolled into Dallas shortly after Jason Kidd's Feb. 19 return. Before his arrival, the Mavericks were 9–5 against the seven Western clubs that eventually made the playoffs; with Kidd, they were just 3–9 against those same foes—not exactly a boost to plans for a mid-June parade. On the plus side, though, Dallas is a much livelier place, on and off the floor, than it was during the 1994-95 season, when Kidd, the second overall pick in the draft, first took the town
by storm on his way to co-Rookie of the Year honors.

"Start with the people in the arena," Kidd says. "It's packed every night. Last time, we could hardly get anybody to come watch us play. The Dallas Cowboys were the only game in town. What Mark Cuban has done is remarkable."

And it's not just the level of play that's been elevated; the style of living has made big strides too. "To my knowledge, where I'm living now didn't even exist when I was here before," the future Hall of Famer continues. "You never went downtown. Our practice site was out near Plano, and the airport we used was out there too, so that's where everybody lived. Now I live five minutes from the arena—if I catch all the lights, it's three—and there are all kinds of places to eat on my way home after the game."

-R.B.

WAS IT WORTH IT?
The new guy was blamed for Big D's late woes and poor seed. Yes, seven of the 13 Kidd-led L's were by four points or less. But shouldn't Kidd be the difference-maker in close ones?

UTAH
Glad to be here … now where am I supposed to sleep?
When the Jazz traded for Kyle Korver, on Dec. 29, they put him up in the stately Grand America hotel in downtown SLC. Unfortunately, he got a little too comfortable …

"I had a nice suite with a living room and a kitchen. I'm not real organized, though, so it got kind of messy. I had some friends FedEx my clothes from Philadelphia, and I just lived out of the boxes they were sent in. Luckily there was maid service. There's something to be said for someone cleaning your room every day and putting a chocolate on your pillow every night.

"The agreement I'd made with the team was for them to pay for 90 days. At least that's what I had in my head. So I hadn't even begun to look for a place the night it occurred to me that the deal might have been for only 45 days. When I looked at a calendar, I quickly realized that day was the 45th day. I had to be out right away! I thought about staying, but when I found out it was $300 a night, I decided to find someplace else. I called some friends I'd met at church, and their parents had a condo downtown they weren't using. They let me crash there for three weeks. I finally got my own place—last month."

-C.B.

WAS IT WORTH IT?
Utah was hitting 34.6% of its threes and making 3.7 a night in the 32 games before it acquired Korver. After? Both the team's long-range touch (38.3%) and its makes (5.8) took sharp upturns.

BOSTON
Glad to be here … and don't worry, I won't get in the way.
Before the season, the question in Beantown was: "Can Rajon Rondo handle the Big Three?" Sixty-six wins later the answer is clear. Except now there's a new concern: "Can Rondo handle the playoffs?" Most watchers think the 22-year-old point will be okay, but that didn't stop the Celtics from acquiring insurance, 15-year-vet Sam Cassell. "Everybody thinks he's going to be the weak link, but he'll be strong," says Cassell, who is 38 and heading into this season had played in 115 playoff games. Still, Rondo must have had some things to tell the new guy about the team.
"Tell him? He's teaching me," says the second-year man. "He's played with all these guys. He's teaching me to be patient and how the playoffs are about drawing fouls and getting in the bonus early." Of course Cassell is mentoring. His 115 playoff games are 115 more than Rondo has. Then again, he does come from a very different time.

-Otto Strong

Playoff Debut: April 29, 1994
Atop Billboard Hot 100: "Bump N' Grind," R. Kelly
Weekend Box Office No. 1: No Escape
Top TV Show: Seinfeld
Average Gas Price (gallon of regular): $1.04

Presently: April 20, 2008
Atop Billboard Hot 100: "Bleeding Love," Leona Lewis
Weekend Box Office No. 1: Prom Night
Top TV Show: American Idol
Average Gas Price (gallon of regular): $3.35

WAS IT WORTH IT?
As a sub, Cassell doesn't play much with the Big Three. And that might be for the best: His bread and butter is the pick-and-roll, and Boston doesn't run it much.

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PHOENIX
Glad to be here … have I got a surprise for you.
He's been Shaq-Fu, Shaq Diesel, the Big Aristotle and the Big Cactus. What about the Big Nostradamus? Shaqstradamus?

Back in early February, Shaq sat before reporters, cameramen and a nation of mostly bewildered viewers and dropped one prediction after another. And although the 36-year-old seer seemed shaky after his new squad lost six of his first nine games, wins in seven of his last 10 saw his prophecies come true, one by one.

He did make Amaré (left) better (boosting his ppg from 23.3 to 28.5). He did rebound like the Shaq of old (from 7.8 pg with Miami to 10.6). And the running Suns didn't slow at all (they still scored 110 ppg). In fact, Phoenix shot better than ever, up to 51.1% from 49.5%, once Shaq hit town. But if the Big Prophet is going to be perfect, he still has to make good on one final pledge: delivering ring No. 1 for
the Suns.

-C.B.

WAS IT WORTH IT?
Shaq is a weapon who was stockpiled to battle one team: the Spurs. And the Suns did take both regular-season posttrade meets. But now it counts.

CLEVELAND
Glad to he here … where can I get a cup of coffee?
The Cavs brought in more new guys at the trade deadline than any other playoff team. Some of them had an easier time with the move than others.

Ben Wallace
"Being here in Cleveland has actually helped my routine. The traffic in Chicago killed me on gamedays; you never knew how long it would take to get to the United Center. The Bulls got me a hotel room so I could just stay downtown between shootaround and the game, but that didn't work. The first time I woke up after my nap and called room service to order a pregame meal, they told me they were closed. Room service, closed?"

Wally Szczerbiak
"I finally got my car, a blue Cayenne Turbo, shipped from Seattle. What a relief to get out of my rental. Having my navigation system again is huge."

Joe Smith
"I'm a big Subway and Starbucks guy. When I was with the Bulls, both were right around the corner. I had a routine: venti vanilla latte on the way to practice or shootaround, and a Cold Cut Trio on the way home for lunch. There is nothing like that here. I live five minutes from the arena, but I feel like I'm
in the middle of nowhere."

-R.B.

WAS IT WORTH IT?
The fresh blood was welcomed, but trying to work so many guys into a nine-man rotation so late in the season would have been tough enough without all the injuries that disrupted chemistry.

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