Why we're fascinated with the offseason

ESPN's The Sports Guy wrote recently that the NBA is, frankly, screwed. The NBA Finals were boring, the league's biggest star choked on its biggest stage, and the biggest dynasty since Jordan's Bulls is as fun to watch as C-SPAN.

Enter the offseason, where we can dream about Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, landing Kevin Garnett in a trade or, if you're a Pacers fan, getting rid of Jamaal Tinsley.

TSG had a point, as we've seen over the past week as four of the NBA's top 20 players (Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce and Jermaine O'Neal) either asked for trades, reiterated their trade demands or all but conceded that they'd on their way out of town.

But when you think about it, there's nothing really interesting about what's going on. It's a bunch of rumors that'll never happen - the trades you hear about are the ones that'll fall through; the only ones that actually happen come out of nowhere.

Do you really think four NBA teams can agree to a deal involving three All-Stars? Or three teams can agree on a trade involving two All-Stars and a ton of first round picks? No way.

So why do we get swept up in these rumors?

For starters, there's not much else to do. We're in the dreaded lull in the sports world no football, no basketball, no Olympics, hell, not even the World Cup. We're left with the WNBA, the MLS and guys running around a diamond in sausage costumes.

But we're still stuck in the 24-hour sports cycle on ESPN. We have to talk about something, and given the choice between Bengals getting arrested, guys hitting a ball with a wooden stick and possible NBA trades, I'll take the NBA every time.

The other thing NBA rumors have is that they can interest anyone because every team has something to gain. No one aside from Spurs fans (but honestly, who likes the Spurs?) is happy with the results of last year, so they have an incentive to improve - which is what the next three months are all about.

So visions of KG and Kobe are dancing in my head. Which, I suppose, is better than thinking about the Indiana Fever or the Milwaukee Brewers.

On a programming note, I'll be liveblogging the NBA Draft tomorrow when it starts at 7 ET (6 CT). And, just so I have it in writing, a couple quick predictions:

1. No way the Blazers pass on Oden. Dominant big men are too hard to come by and too important (seven of the last eight NBA titles have been won by a team with either Tim Duncan or Shaq) for Portland to ignore. Durant's good - he'll probably even be the better pro - but there are plenty of Durants in the NBA already: Vince Carter, Kobe, McGrady, Shawn Marion and LeBron James, to name a few.

2. The Pacers make a deal and somehow get in the draft.

3. The Hawks take Al Horford with the third pick but try to deal it later. Either way, Horford is a bust.

4. Kansas' Julian Wright slips into the late teens before a team eagerly snaps him up. Analysts call it the steal of the draft.

5. No Oklahoma player is drafted. Sorry, JamesOn.

6. Kobe stays put. So does KG. And Pierce. And Amare.