Like scheduling the All-Star Game in Las Vegas or introducing a sticky basketball, some NBA decisions seemed like really good ideas at the time.

A few personnel maneuvers for the 2008-2009 season were hailed as extremely prudent when they occurred, too. But through the opening month, we’re still waiting for the payoff on several relocation projects. The thud of reality seems to have attached itself to Elton Brand, Ron Artest, Baron Davis and a handful of other prominent names that have reached allegedly greener grass and watched it become a barren wasteland.

We’re here to examine some of these changes and offer explanations for why they may not be working or ways to make them work in the future. For the sake of providing a reasonable contrast from one season to the next, the NBA’s player-efficiency rankings have been employed; please note that these numbers can be skewed if a player is on the floor with a ball hog, for example, who makes it difficult for the player in question to make plays and seem efficient. But the efficiency rankings do seem superior to the plus-minus rankings, which often fail to include certain peripheral variables that artificially enhance or sabotage a player’s value.

Let’s begin with Brand, who’s considered an elite power forward and just the player needed to transform the peppy, young Philadelphia 76ers into a contender for Eastern Conference supremacy.

For starters, please note that the Sixers began last year’s playoff uprising after losing 42 regular-season games. This year, they’ve started on an even slower pace, winning just eight of their first 18 games.

Brand was supposed to be the low-post scoring option that would force opponents into double-team situations, creating cleaner looks for the Sixers’ mediocre legion of perimeter shooters. Since Kyle Korver was shipped off to Utah last year, Philly hasn’t exactly terrified foes with its shooting skill.

Unfortunately, Brand and prevailing bricklayers such as Andre Iguodala and Louis Williams have teamed up to create a double-whammy crisis.

With Elton knocking in just 46 percent of his field-goal tries (a number that looks even worse after factoring in put-backs and dunks), few double teams are necessary, making it tricky for the guards to have open looks. And Brand’s chilly start also is being created by more attention from defenses that disrespect his perimeter cronies.

Elton Brand hasn’t helped the Sixers close the gap on the Celtics. (Brian Babineau / Getty Images)

Either way, this marriage isn’t working out.

Brand, who ruptured his Achilles tendon and missed all but eight games of that final season with the Los Angeles Clippers, is a shaky 32nd in player efficiency just two seasons after finishing 11th.

Interestingly, the Sixers have increased their tempo by two possessions per 48 minutes this season, but offensive efficiency finds them 27th in the league.

Perhaps their new multi-millionaire would have a greater impact if they slowed down a bit and gave him more room to operate.

Davis, the point guard who was hired by the Clippers to join forces with Brand in a swell playoff run, is working with Marcus Camby instead.

Baron, who was the 22nd most-efficient player in the league during his final run with the Golden State Warriors, is just 58th this season. Fittingly, the Clips are a measly 3-14 after Mike Dunleavy’s severe roster shakeup, putting them in danger of failing to reach last year’s modest victory total of 23.

After flourishing in Don Nelson’s freewheeling system, Davis seems like a lousy fit in Dunleavy’s attempt at what passes in the NBA for structure (the Clipper tempo is about the same as last season). We can’t beat the drum for a major rally from Baron unless Dunleavy is canned and Donald Sterling hires Paul Westhead.

Camby has fallen from 24th to 25th in efficiency, but — aside from working for the Clips instead of the Denver Nuggets — he’s pretty much the same guy.

The Nuggets, who shipped Camby to Los Angeles in exchange for a bag of pencil shavings, went even bolder after this season began, shipping Allen Iverson and his expiring, $21 million contract to Detroit for Chauncey Billups.

NBA roundup

Tuesday’s action

• Pacers rally past Lakers, win at buzzer
• Wizards beat Nets with big 3rd quarter
• Blazers better than Knicks in 4th
• Pistons shut down Spurs in 2nd half
• Mavs storm back to beat Clippers
• Sixers surge in OT to knock off Bulls
• Billups ignites Nuggets rout of Raptors
• Martin returns but Kings fall to Jazz
  
  

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FOXSports.com analysis

• Rosen: Celtics looking like champs again
• Vecsey: Barkley right about LeBron
• Rosen: Blazers looking like contenders
• Galinsky: NBA Power Rankings



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Video

• Hill: Lakers will only get better



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Photos

• Celtics celebrate 17th title

Billups — and his ability to actually run an offense — has helped transform the shaky Nuggets into the Western Conference’s second-best (by winning percentage) team.

Iverson has joined a veteran Pistons cast and helped Rip Hamilton drop from 74th to 112th in efficiency. To demonstrate that he’s a team player, A.I. has gone from 15th in efficiency last season in Denver to irrelevant 75th this year.

If the Pistons continue to dream that Rodney Stuckey will become skilled at running their offense and delivering timely passes, the Iverson acquisition’s benefit may be limited to achieving whopping cap room at the end of the season. And that may make it a wonderful maneuver, after all.

One mover and shaker who made a name for himself on a single evening in Detroit is Ron Artest, who was dealt to the Houston Rockets by the Sacramento Kings. The tough and defensive-minded Artest was supposed to be the perfect playmate for wing hotshot Tracy McGrady and All-Star center Yao Ming.

But Artest, who has slipped from 40th to 105th in efficiency, is a player who slaughters the fluidity of an offense. Even with isolation candidates such as McGrady and Yao, any offense orchestrated by Coach Rick Adelman requires ball and player movement to succeed.

With Artest holding the ball, surveying options and making a lovely 34 percent of his field-goal tries, the 11-7 Rockets are 20th in offensive efficiency.

Not much can be done to change the ways of a movement-killer such as Artest, but there is hope that he’ll begin to shoot more accurately.

First-year Milwaukee Bucks forward Richard Jefferson has suffered an efficiency drop since arriving from New Jersey, but he and the entire operation would improve with Michael Redd (ankle) in the lineup.

Jermaine O’Neal showed up in Toronto to keep the Raptors around .500. His presence might mean more if the Raps didn’t acquire him by dealing point guard T.J. Ford, who’s been unable to usher a victory renaissance into Indianapolis.

James Posey’s first season in New Orleans was hoped to generate a championship vibe for the rising Hornets, but the high-priced role player has not done much to augment the sensational start of Chris Paul. Posey, who had clean looks generated by doubles on Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in Boston, must move with more precision so that Paul can find him after dribble penetration.

Corey Maggette left the Clippers for money available after the Davis departure from Golden State, and has become a less-efficient player for a 5-13 team that won 48 games last season. Corey’s arrival might have a better outcome if a quick-tempo team such as the Warriors had an actual floor leader (like Davis) to deliver the ball to the right place at the right time.

Right place at the right time is a theme that underscores the hardscrabble existence of these relocation projects.

But they all seemed like such brilliant ideas last summer.

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