Ariza, Collison involved in four-team trade

Basketball Betting Lines

08/11/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Orleans Hornets, Indiana Pacers, Houston Rockets and New Jersey Nets have reportedly agreed on a trade that will change the homes of five players, including Trevor Ariza and Darren Collison.

The trade has been reported by multiple sources, including the Indianapolis Star and The Newark Star-Ledger.

Ariza, a forward who signed a five-year contract with Houston prior to last season, is heading to the Hornets, who sent point guard Collison to Indiana. Additionally, the Pacers also get forward James Posey from New Orleans while sending forward Troy Murphy to New Jersey. The Nets sent Courtney Lee to the Rockets.

The 25-year-old Ariza had his best statistical season in 2009-10, averaging 14.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 72 games for the Rockets. Despite his career-high averages, his shooting percentage was a career-low 39.4 percent, and he hit 33.4 percent of his three-point shots and 64.9 percent of his free throws.

Ariza was initially a second-round pick of the Knicks in 2004 and has spent time in New York, Orlando, Los Angeles with the Lakers and Houston, averaging 8.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 383 games -- 123 starts.

Collison, who turns 23 later this month, served as the backup to Chris Paul in his rookie season with the Hornets and the starter when Paul went down with a knee injury. The UCLA product, a first-round pick in 2009, averaged 12.4 points and 5.7 assists in 76 games last year, including 37 starts. He figures to slide in as the Pacers' starting point guard immediately.

Collison is still on his original rookie contract, which could run through 2013-14 if the team exercises its options and extends a qualifying offer in the final year.

Posey, a 33-year-old veteran who has won two NBA titles with Miami in 2006 and Boston in 2008, scored 5.2 points and pulled down 4.3 rebounds per game in 77 contests for New Orleans last season. In 11 seasons with Denver, Houston, Memphis, Miami, Boston and New Orleans, Posey has career per-game averages of 8.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in 815 contests.

Posey has two seasons left on his contract.

Murphy spent the last three-plus seasons with Indiana and has been one of the most versatile forwards in the league. In 2009-10, he averaged 14.6 points and 10.2 rebounds while shooting 38.4 percent from three-point range. A first- round pick of Golden State in 2001, Murphy has averaged 12.1 points and 8.6 rebounds in 621 games for the Warriors and Pacers over nine seasons, although he has appeared in 82 games just once -- his rookie campaign.

Murphy is in the final year of his contract.

Lee will suit up for his third team in three NBA seasons, having played with Orlando as a rookie in 2008-09 before participating with the Nets this past season. In 71 games for the Nets in 2009-10, Lee averaged 12.5 points, and he has a career 10.3 scoring averaged in 148 games.

Lee, like Collison, is on his rookie contract that extends to 2012-13 if the team exercises a 2011-12 option and extends a qualifying offer in 2012-13.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

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