Ira Winderman

The balance of power has not shifted with the first winds of free agency. It has grown more concentrated.

The best have gotten better. The champion has risen to another level.

And everyone else seemingly is relegated to playing for scraps.

The start of the NBA's free-agency period hardly has sparked hope in depressed outposts. Instead — somewhat remarkably in a salary-cap league — the balance of power has become further concentrated.

In landing Ron Artest, the Lakers have an even stronger starting lineup than the unit that strutted out of Amway Arena last month with the Larry O'Brien Trophy. L.A. finished atop the West last season. That isn't changing, no matter what the rest of the conference does this offseason.

The runner-up Magic added a touch of Vinsanity, with its low-cost pickup of Vince Carter. As for last season's next-best in the East, the Cavaliers have bulked up with Shaquille O'Neal and the Celtics added a proven winner, if also whiner, in Rasheed Wallace.

The Cavaliers, Celtics and Magic finished 1-2-3 in the East last season; at this stage of the summer game, it is difficult to identify anyone who stands out as a No. 4.

This, of course, is not what is supposed to happen. The salary cap is supposed to even the playing field, as it does in the NFL, with that league's annual group of playoff party crashers.

The difference is the NBA also has a dollar-for-dollar luxury tax on excessive payroll. And that, in these difficult economic times, has created a divide of the haves and the have-nots.

• The Nets needed to sell off Vince Carter's contract, so the Magic profited in that transaction.
• The Suns couldn't afford another season of Shaq, so the Cavaliers went bulk shopping.
• While others weighed risking the full mid-level exception on Rasheed, but the Celtics barely blinked.
• In the West, the Lakers and the Spurs put aside the two-for-one penalty of the tax and added Artest and Richard Jefferson, respectively, with Jefferson essentially handed to San Antonio in a tax dump by the Bucks. From there, the Spurs took on the salary of Antonio McDyess.

In fact, outside of those elite three in the East and the top two in the West, no one else truly has made a quantum leap this offseason.

Slideshow   Wheeling and dealing A look at key players who have signed or are still waiting to sign during the opening weeks of NBA free agency. NBCSports.com

Sure the Pistons added Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. But does that even get Detroit into the playoffs? With the losses of Wallace, Allen Iverson and McDyess, it could be argued as a case of subtraction by addition.

And while Hedo Turkoglu will offer more to the Raptors than Shawn Marion, the reality is that he replaces Marion rather than augments him, and that comes after the Raptors' salary dump with Jason Kapono. As with Detroit, can Toronto automatically be pegged as a contender, considering we're talking nothing more than Turkoglu, Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, Jose Calderon and a shooting guard to be named later?

Factor in the Mavericks, who made it to the second round last season, and just about every team that won 50 games has gotten better.

Indeed, Dallas has made significant strides with the addition of Marion. He could get back to being his roadrunner self while playing alongside Jason Kidd. In keeping Kidd and extending an offer sheet to Marcin Gortat, the Mavericks may well give new life to Dirk Nowitzki.

Even Houston, amid the free-agent loss of Artest, regrouped with the signing of Trevor Ariza and the cap relief extended by the league in the wake of Yao Ming's potential season- or career-ending injury.

The only members of the 50-plus club not to make strides at the start of free agency are the Trail Blazers and Nuggets. Denver, of course, got everything it wanted at the start of last season, with the acquisition of Chauncey Billups, while Portland retains enough workable cap leverage to still make a significant move.

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