NBA Musical Chairs - Part 2 of 3

This is the second part of my series discussing the biggest offseason moves in the NBA over the past few weeks. This section will be focused on the major re-signings, since sometimes locking up what you already have is the best way to improve.

Andrew Bogut re-signs with Bucks:
I haven't seen Bogut play much, so I can't comment on what I've seen of him, but his numbers are solid and on the rise, Bogut is a good young big, even if he falls a bit short of the expectations that come with being drafted No. 1 overall. I personally feel that a five-year extension worth up to $72.5 million (with incentives) might be a bit much, but the Bucks DID avoid giving him a max contract, and I guess a solid young big is hard to come by in this league.

Antawn Jamison re-signs with Wizards:
Jamison is an elite shooter in the NBA, especially given his size, and it was good of Washington to lock up one of their key pieces. However...

Gilbert Arenas re-signs with Wizards (max contract):
I love Gilbert Arenas, and he's the most popular man in Washington (certainly more than any of its politicians...). That said, he's coming off a major injury which forced him to sit out most of last season. Additionally, the Wizards seemed to play better without Gilbert in the lineup last season, which could be due to the fact that he tends to dominate the Wizards' offense when he's on the floor taking a huge number of shots with relatively few assists. If it is the case that Gilbert's high-scoring, shoot-first tendencies do actually hurt the team's capabilities, then I feel like signing Agent Zero to a maximum $111 million contract was a huge mistake on the part of the Wizards and will keep them trapped at this middling level for years to come.

Chris Paul re-signs with Hornets/Deron Williams re-signs with Jazz/Jose Calderon re-signs with Raptors:
I grouped all three of these signings together because in each these teams recognized the talent and poise of these excellent young point guards and made the decision to lock up these young stars with an extension to prevent them from heading to bigger markets, at least for a few years. It's good to see that none of these players signed a max contract (including Chris Paul who is easily one of the best 5 players in the league), hopefully this signals that teams are looking to be more responsible when it comes to signing their young players to multi-year deals early in their careers.

I'll be examining some of the big trades of this offseason in my next post, coming up right after this.