Poor Man's GM

An end to all this Melodrama

2011-02-22T14:34:00.000-08:00

The Knicks did it. They finally got Carmelo Anthony. And Chauncey Billups and Anthony Carter and Shelden Williams and Corey Brewer. Oh, and they get Renaldo Balkman back too. Who'd they get rid of? Well, finally Eddy Curry's fat contract, but also Anthony Randolph, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov, and Raymond Felton. Curry and Randolph go to Minnesota while the balance of the players end up in the Mile High City. On paper, it looks okay... I guess. Why then do I still have this bad taste in my mouth? Growing up in upstate New York sort of makes me a de facto Knicks fan, and frankly, I can't really say I like this trade, any of it.

Do I think Melo is a bad player? No. Do I think Melo won't help the Knicks? No. But to be honest, I don't see Melo making a big difference. Sure I can make this team on my Playstation, average 36 and 28 ppg respectively with Amar'e and Melo and then go undefeated and win championships, but this isn't a video game. The Knicks didn't really need Melo and Melo honestly didn't need the Knicks, from a pure basketball perspective (I know there are other factors). I could be proven wrong, maybe Melo will learn to pass, Billups and Amar'e run a super effective pick and roll, but instinctively, I want to flinch at this trigger happy trade. Yes, we've been talking about this the whole year, but I can't help but think the Knicks gunned it a little too fast on the green light. First, let's consider the pre-Melo Knicks:

PG - Raymond Felton, Toney Douglas
SG - Landry Fields, Bill Walker
SF - Danilo Gallinari, Shawne Williams
PF - Amar'e Stoudemire, Wilson Chandler
C - Ronny Turiaf, Timofey Mozgov

With Kelenna Azubuike still out with a bum knee, players like Bill Walker and Shawne Williams have stepped up admirably, so they've been getting by admirably. The Knicks were a decent team, but not one that could get over the top, so here's what happens after the trade:

PG - Chauncey Billups, Anthony Carter
SG - Landry Fields, Corey Brewer
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Shawne Williams
PF - Amar'e Stoudemire, Renaldo Balkman
C - Ronny Turiaf, Shelden Williams

While Melo is the obvious upgrade over Gallo, but Billups and Balkman are both steps down from Felton and Chandler respectively. Additionally, there's no guarantee that Brewer will be a more positive contributor than either Walker or Williams (who are both still on the team) or if he'll even play if/when Azubuike gets back. Furthermore, as productive as Shelden Williams has been, he's no center, and he won't compensate for the lack of defense provided by Melo and Amar'e.

Honestly, it's not that I don't think Amar'e and Melo won't work, but rather that it won't work as effectively as people might surmise. Both can score, but both require more isolation sets to do so. However, that being said, these are two of the most respected players offensively in the entire world. They have a decent core, but any core with Chauncey Billups as a major cog leaves the window very short, and frankly, even in his prime, I don't know Billups could've made up the difference that is between a Melo/Amar'e combination and the remaining elite teams of the league. Of course, Billups did say earlier that if he got traded he may retire, which may be a good thing for New York, not in the short term, but perhaps it means they can go after something they need in free agency. Frankly, all in all, New York got its big name, but is it going to put them over the top? Not really. Seriously though, Melo, prove me wrong. Please.

It finally happened...

2011-02-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

New York got Melo. It looked like this.

I'm still iffy, I'll give you my personal take a bit later.

Who needs Melo? Who does Melo need?

2011-02-11T15:18:00.000-08:00

Amidst all the trade talk circling the player that is Carmelo Anthony, and regardless of what you have to say about the pundits who are circulating these stories, how you think Melo is handling the situation, how you think Masai Ujiri is handling the situation, if you think he will leave, if you think he will stay, regardless of all that, we've kind of been overlooking a pretty major question. There's not much doubt to me that Melo will ultimately get what he wants, or at the very least go into free agency and sign where he wants to play. So maybe this question is moot, but it's a legitimate question all the same: which team needs a player like Melo? or in converse, what kind of team does Melo need around him?
I'm probably not the most well-credentialed person to be doing this sort of breakdown, but I think we need to understand what kind of player Melo is first off before we can even determine what team he fits on and what team fits around him. Carmelo Anthony is a small forward standing at 6-8, weighing in at 238 lbs. In his 8th year playing in the NBA he is averaging 25 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.9 steals, 0.7 blocks, and 2.9 turnovers on 45.1% shooting. What's that tell us so far? He scores a lot, is a decent rebounder, doesn't really pass the ball, questionable on defense, and he has the ball in his hands for a lot of the game. Over his career he is averaging 24.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steal, 0.5 blocks, and 3.1 turnovers on 45.9% shooting per game. From the few opportunities I've had to watch Melo do his work, I can safely say, he is probably the most multi-faceted offensive threat in the entire NBA. Does that make him the best pure scorer? Maybe, maybe not, but I'm not here to argue that. My observations have shown me that Melo knows how to put the ball in the bucket. He is a premier back-to-the-basket, post-up player, he can shoot, his range extends well into 3 point territory, and he hits with enough accuracy that it's a shot you would want him to take, and a shot that defenses have to respect. He's a deadly face-up shooter as well as having the size and strength to finish strong at the rim. He may not be as freakishly athletic as LeBron James or Blake Griffin, but he's certainly one of the most, if not the most dangerous triple threat player in the league right now.

So, what do we know about Melo then? Well, we know he can score, he can get a lot of points, but he needs the ball in his hands to do so. So what kind of team works for Melo? One immediate analogous situation that comes to mind is the Iversonian Philadephia 76ers that got to the Finals under the coaching of Larry Brown in 2001. The one that featured the likes of Aaron McKie and Dikembe Mutombo, which needed a 51 point effort from Iverson in game 1 to kept from getting swept by the Shaq and Kobe Lakers. Well, historically, we know that the Iversonian model wasn't exactly the biggest success (though one could argue nothing was stopping the juggernaut that was the Lakers that season) it's worth considering what they had and working from there. I mean, outside of Iverson, we're looking at a veritable plethora of role players like Aaron McKie, Dikembe Mutumbo, Eric Snow, Raja Bell, George Lynch, Kevin Ollie, Todd MacCulloch, Tyrone Hill, Jumaine Jones, and Rodney Buford. Yeah, I know, I don't know who half these people are either, and I'm the guy writing this post. While we can speculate on how Iverson could've used some more help, it's hard to figure out exactly what kind of help you could've given Iverson considering that he needed the ball in his hands so frequently to be effective. Is Melo the same type of player? I'd like to think not, and that's partially simply because Melo has more physical tools he could use relative to the smaller Iverson. As we see from Melo's overall performance, he can score, and he can do so much more efficiently than Iverson can, the question of where Melo fits in now becomes what he else he brings to the table, which is hard to gauge.

Ultimately, I think Melo's niche, so to speak, boils down to this, he's somebody you can toss the ball to to score when the play breaks down. I don't know that you have draw up a huge number of plays for him, and he'll still find a way to score. It's hard not to knock Melo with all his other liabilities, defensively and the like, but it's hard to knock him hard when he does what he does (score) so well. I mean, scoring is half of the game (the other half being stopping the other team from scoring). So what kind of team do we need around Melo then? This part gets a little tricky because we've seen a lot of players playing around Melo, from Earl Boykins, to Andre Miller, to Marcus Camby, to Allen Iverson, and most recently we have Nene, Chauncey Billups, and Kenyon Martin. So what pieces fit around the piece that is Melo to make a successful basketball team? Well, first as we've established, Melo's role would simply be to get buckets. When Melo touches the ball, he's generally expected to put the ball in the bucket, that's pretty much it. Naturally, there's the stuff we sometimes take for granted, box out your man for the rebound, stay in front of him on defense, etc... but primarily, when the ball goes to Melo, he's going to put it (or try to put it) in the hole. Now let's try to do this position by position.

The Point Guard -
Well, Melo isn't a horrible ball handler, but I wouldn't want him initiating the offense like say, LeBron James. I find this to be one of the more crucial positions playing next to someone like Melo. Ideally, I'd say you want someone who can break down the defense and set other players up, but typically looks to pass first. This player would likely be the second (or first, I guess depending on how you look at it) star of the team playing next to Melo. He may not score like Melo, but he essentially is the one in charge of punishing the other team for ignoring any one player and over focusing on Melo, that includes himself. Which means he has to be something of a scoring threat. This takes Rajon Rondo out of the picture, because while Rondo does fit most of the molds that we refer to, I personally don't find him to be a big enough scoring threat that asserts himself in the offense to really fit well next to Melo, most notably, because he has such a shaky jump shot. This also takes names like Deron Williams and Derrick Rose out of the question because they are asked to handle the ball much more and score in bunches. Chauncey Billups was supposed to be this man, but due to age he is now but a shadow of his former self (think 2004 NBA Finals). The two most ideal candidates that I can think of (and some of you might scoff at me for the obviousness of these picks) are Chris Paul and Steve Nash. Both are known to be distributors, but both also have the capability of putting up a lot of points in a hurry if you forget about them. Whether it be Melo himself, or the other 3 players on the court, Paul and Nash are experts at getting the ball in a position to score, getting the most out of his respective teammates, thanks to smart playmaking. With Nash, you naturally have to question him on defense, but that could perhaps be remedied, with the assumption that Melo is at the very least average defensively.

The Shooting Guard -
Naturally, if Melo is going to be scoring in bunches, your second wing player doesn't need to be able to score a ton. Primarily, this player would be your lock-down defender, be able to hit big shots, primarily three pointers, which is something the Nuggets have been getting from Arron Afflalo. Granted, it's hard nowadays to find the likes of Raja Bell circa 2006 (Raja Bell circa 2011 doesn't count), but someone like that is exactly the kind of player that you would need, even assuming Melo is halfway decent on defense. Other names that come to mind would be somebody like Martell Webster, or if you want a bigger name, Andre Iguodala, of course, this is assuming Iggy can live with the defensive specialist role and scoring less. Granted, I think a team with Melo is going to be much more perimeter oriented, just based on the skillset Melo brings to the table, but ultimately you're going to need a stopper on the outside, regardless of if he can score or not. At the very least, he should probably have a 3 point shot people respect. I'll stick with Webster for now since I can't really think of someone else I'd want as my shooting guard at the moment (DeShawn Stevenson?).

The Small Forward -
This is Melo, duh.

The Power Forward -
Personally, I see this guy as pretty much what we might call a "garbage" or hustle guy. Of course, naturally when I say something like "he's the garbage man of the team" you'd think of someone like Reggie Evans, and while he works, he's not exactly what I was thinking of. I'm thinking of that solid "glue" guy, who crashes the offensive glass, sets smart picks, gets most of his scores off put backs, and just in essence cleans up after everybody, the guy that does all the little things. Ideally, we can imagine the ideal fit of the defensive juggernaut that was Dennis Rodman, but we don't really even need to go that extreme. In today's league, the likes of players like Nick Collison or Udonis Haslem fit the mold quite well. You're not going to draw up your offense around them, but they'll figure out a way to contribute, almost on just hustle alone.

The Center -
This guy basically needs to be your defensive anchor. Whether or not he scores, he basically is the last line of defense when the perimeter guys get broken down. Dwight Howard would be ideal, but Tyson Chandler definitely works just as well, heck, even Samuel Dalembert (when his head's in the game) fits the mold as well. Basically, he needs to be enough of a shot-blocking presence to intimidate the other cutters, and a solid enough post defender to make life difficult for opposing bigs.

Sure, this requires something of a perfect storm to throw together something that will work for everybody, but essentially, you'd be building a team predicated on mostly the offensive play called "pass Melo the ball" and secondly on "let your PG (Chris Paul or Steve Nash) be awesome". That more or less covers who (I think) Melo needs around him, now lets see if there are any teams that really fit that mold. Well, the first obvious thing is to look around to see who needs scoring. The most obvious answers are teams like the Bucks and Bobcats. The Bucks obviously are a pretty bad scoring team, and I think have some ideal pieces that would wok with Melo. Andrew Bogut is a premier center and Brandon Jennings is an up and coming point guard, though we must question whether or not he can be a facilitator that Melo would need. Ersan Ilyasova and Luc Mbah-a-Moute are serviceable at the power forward spot, and John Salmons, despite shooting so much, is pretty good defensively.

The one team I personally think fits Melo the best would be a team like the Hornets. Chris Paul is the point guard that Melo needs to play with, and Okafor is solid enough defensively to cover a lot of mistakes. Ariza is a solid perimeter defender and while West isn't ideal, he can be worked in as a part of the offense. Unfortunately, most players and GMs can't really afford to think like this, as Melo wants a big name city like Chicago or New York. However, both, as well as the latest Lakers rumor, are pretty bad fits for Melo. In New York, Amar'e pretty much serves the same role that Melo does, and while it's nice to have 2 all-world scorers on the squad, you'd have to think there'd be some give and take somewhere. On the Bulls, Rose needs the ball in his hands to be effective, Melo needs the ball in his hands to be effective, Boozer needs the ball in his hands to be effective, you do the math. On the Lakers, the triangle offense is all about ball movement, and Melo has kind of sticky fingers. Secondly, the only way I see this being effective, is if Kobe becomes more of a defensive specialist, which I don't see happening.

Do you think I'm crazy? Maybe I am, but I seriously see something like this making all the teams better. It's unfortunate that the Hornets don't really have the assets to trade for Melo, at least not in a way that I'd think Ujiri would go for.

The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 6

2011-01-12T11:55:00.000-08:00

Trade #1
Nuggets get: Stephen Jackson, Boris Diaw, Nazr Mohammed, Danilo Gallinari, and Eddy Curry's expiring contract
Knicks get: Carmelo Anthony, Al Harrington, Shaun Livingston
Grizzlies get: J.R. Smith, Wilson Chandler
Bobcats get: O.J. Mayo, Hamed Haddadi, Xavier Henry, Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike, and Kenyon Martin's expiring contract

Post-trade lineups:

Denver Nuggets:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - Stephen Jackson, Arron Afflalo
SF - Danilo Gallinari, Gary Forbes
PF - Boris Diaw, Shelden Williams, Renaldo Balkman
C - Nene Hilario, Chris Andersen, Nazr Mohammed

New York Knicks:
PG - Raymond Felton, Shaun Livingston, Toney Douglas
SG - Landry Fields, Bill Walker, Roger Mason
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Shawne Williams
PF - Al Harrington, Ronny Turiaf
C - Amar'e Stoudemire, Timofey Mozgov

Memphis Grizzlies:
PG - Mike Conley, Greivis Vasquez
SG - Wilson Chandler, J.R. Smith, Sam Young
SF - Rudy Gay, Tony Allen
PF - Zach Randolph, Darrell Arthur
C - Marc Gasol, Hasheem Thabeet

Charlotte Bobcats:
PG - D.J. Augustin, Sherron Collins
SG - O.J. Mayo, Gerald Henderson, Xavier Henry
SF - Gerald Wallace, Kelenna Azubuike
PF - Tyrus Thomas, Anthony Randolph
C - DeSagana Diop, Hamed Haddadi, Kwame Brown

Trade #2
Nuggets get: Derrick Favors, Troy Murphy, and Gerald Wallace
Nets get: Carmelo Anthony, Beno Udrih, and Jason Thompson
Bobcats get: Devin Harris, Al Harrington, and J.R. Smith
Kings get: Boris Diaw

Post-trade lineups:

Denver Nuggets:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - Arron Afflalo, Gary Forbes
SF - Gerald Wallace, Renaldo Balkman
PF - Troy Murphy, Derrick Favors, Kenyon Martin, Shelden Williams
C - Nene Hilario, Chris Andersen

New Jersey Nets:
PG - Beno Udrih, Jordan Farmar
SG - Anthony Morrow, Sasha Vujacic, Ben Uzoh
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Travis Outlaw, Stephen Graham
PF - Jason Thompson, Kris Humphries
C - Brook Lopez, Johan Petro

Charlotte Bobcats:
PG - Devin Harris, D.J. Augustin, Shaun Livingston
SG - J.R. Smith, Gerald Henderson
SF - Stephen Jackson, Dominic McGuire
PF - Al Harrington, Tyrus Thomas
C - Nazr Mohammed, Kwame Brown, DeSagana Diop

Sacramento Kings:
PG - Tyreke Evans, Pooh Jeter
SG - Francisco Garcia, Luther Head
SF - Omri Casspi, Donte Green
PF - Boris Diaw, Carl Landry, Hassan Whiteside, Darnell Jackson
C - DeMarcus Cousins, Samuel Dalembert

The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 5

2010-12-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

Trade #1:

Denver gets: Jeff Green, James Harden, Stephen Jackson, DeSagana Diop, Matt Carroll, and Julian Wright's trade exception
New Orleans gets: Carmelo Anthony, Arron Afflalo, Boris Diaw
Oklahoma City gets: David West
Charlotte gets: Chauncey Billups, Marcus Thornton, Trevor Ariza, and $9M Peja Stojakovic's trade exception

Post trade rosters:

Denver Nuggets:
PG - Ty Lawson, Anthony Carter
SG - Stephen Jackson, James Harden, J.R. Smith
SF - Jeff Green, Gary Forbes
PF - Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington
C - Nene Hilario, Chris Andersen, DeSagana Diop

New Orleans Hornets:
PG - Chris Paul, Jarrett Jack
SG - Marco Belinelli, Willie Green, Arron Afflalo
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Quincy Pondexter
PF - Boris Diaw, Jason Smith, Pops Mensah-Bonsu
C - Emeka Okafor, Aaron Gray

Oklahoma City Thunder:
PG - Russell Westbrook, Eric Maynor
SG - Thabo Sefolosha, Daequan Cook
SF - Kevin Durant, Morris Peterson
PF - David West, Nick Collison, D.J. White
C - Serge Ibaka, Nenad Kristic, Byron Mullens

Charlotte Bobcats:
PG - Chauncey Billups, D.J. Augustin, Shaun Livingston
SG - Trevor Ariza, Marcus Thornton, Gerald Henderson
SF - Gerald Wallace, Dominic McGuire
PF - Tyrus Thomas, Edjuardo Najera
C - Nazr Mohammed, Kwame Brown

Trade #2:
Denver gets: Kevin Love, Martell Webster, Robin Lopez, and Earl Clark
Minnesota gets: O.J Mayo, Hedo Turkoglu
Phoenix gets: Carmelo Anthony
Memphis gets: Grant Hill

Post trade rosters:

Denver Nuggets:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - Arron Afflalo, J.R. Smith
SF - Martell Webster, Gary Forbes
PF - Kevin Love, Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington
C - Nene Hilario, Robin Lopez, Chris Andersen

Minnesota Timberwolves:
PG - Johnny Flynn, Luke Ridnour, Sebastian Telfair
SG - O.J. Mayo, Wes Johnson
SF - Hedo Turkoglu, Corey Brewer
PF - Michael Beasley, Anthony Tolliver
C - Darko Milicic, Nikola Pekovic, Kosta Koufos

Phoenix Suns:
PG - Steve Nash, Goran Dragic
SG - Jason Richardson, Josh Childress
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Jared Dudley, Gani Lawai
PF - Hakim Warrick, Earl Barron
C - Channing Frye, Garrett Siler

Memphis Grizzlies:
PG - Mike Conley, Greivis Vasquez
SG - Tony Allen, Xavier Henry, Sam Young
SF - Rudy Gay, Grant Hill
PF - Zach Randolph, Darrell Arthur
C - Marc Gasol, Hasheem Thabeet, Hamed Haddadi

Trade #3:
Denver gets: O.J. Mayo, Hedo Turkoglu, Spencer Hawes, Grant Hill, Robin Lopez
Philadelphia gets: Carmelo Anthony
Phoenix gets: Zach Randolph
Memphis gets: Andre Iguodala, J.R. Smith

Post trade rosters:

Denver Nuggets:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - O.J. Mayo, Arron Afflalo
SF - Hedo Turkoglu, Gary Forbes
PF - Nene Hilario, Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington, Shelden Williams
C - Spencer Hawes, Chris Andersen

Philadelphia 76ers:
PG - Jrue Holiday, Louis Williams
SG - Evan Turner, Jodie Meeks
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Andres Nocioni, Jason Kapono
PF - Elton Brand, Thaddeus Young, Darius Songaila
C - Marresse Speights, Tony Battie

Phoenix Suns:
PG - Steve Nash, Goran Dragic
SG - Jason Richardson, Josh Childress
SF - Jared Dudley, Earl Clark, Gani Lawai
PF - Zach Randolph, Hakim Warrick
C - Channing Frye, Earl Barron, Garrett Siler

Memphis Grizzlies:
PG - Mike Conley, Greivis Vasquez
SG - Andre Iguodala, J.R. Smith, Sam Young
SF - Rudy Gay, Tony Allen
PF - Darrell Arthur, DeMarr Carroll
C - Marc Gasol, Hasheem Thabeet, Hamed Haddadi

Trade #4:
Denver gets: Thaddeus Young, DeSagana Diop, Anthony Parker, J.J. Hickson, Jamario Moon
Cleveland gets: Andre Iguodala, Matt Carroll
Charlotte gets: Mo Williams
Philadelphia gets: Carmelo Anthony

Post trade rosters:

Denver Nuggets:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - Arron Afflalo, J.R. Smith
SF - Jamario Moon, Thaddeus Young, Gary Forbes
PF - J.J. Hickson, Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington
C - Nene Hilario, Chris Andersen

Cleveland Cavaliers:
PG - Ramon Sessions, Daniel Gibson
SG - Andre Iguodala, Christian Eyenga, Manny Harris
SF - Antawn Jamison, Joey Graham, Jawad Williams
PF - Anderson Varejao, Leon Powe, Samardo Samuels
C - Ryan Hollins

Charlotte Bobcats:
PG - Mo Williams, D.J. Augustin, Shaun Livingston
SG - Stephen Jackson, Gerald Henderson
SF - Gerald Wallace, Dominic McGuire
PF - Boris Diaw, Tyrus Thomas, Edjuardo Najera
C - Nazr Mohammed, Kwame Brown

Philadelphia 76ers:
PG - Jrue Holiday, Louis Williams
SG - Evan Turner, Jodie Meeks
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Andres Nocioni, Jason Kapono
PF - Elton Brand, Marresse Speights, Darius Songaila
C - Spencer Hawes, Tony Battie

Trade #5:
Denver gets: Marcin Gortat, Brandon Bass, Martell Webster, Corey Brewer, Nick Young
Orlando gets: Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith
Minnesota gets: Gilbert Arenas, Mickael Pietrus
Washington gets: Rashard Lewis

Post trade rosters:

Denver Nuggets:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - Arron Afflalo, Nick Young
SF - Martell Webster, Corey Brewer, Gary Forbes
PF - Nene Hilario, Brandon Bass, Al Harrington
C - Marcin Gortat, Chris Andersen

Orlando Magic:
PG - Jameer Nelson, Chris Duhon, Jason Williams
SG - Vince Carter, J.J. Redick, J.R. Smith
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Quentin Richardson
PF - Kevin Love, Ryan Anderson
C - Dwight Howard, Daniel Orton

Minnesota Timberwolves:
PG - Johnny Flynn, Luke Ridnour, Sebastian Telfair
SG - Gilbert Arenas, Wayne Ellington
SF - Mickael Pietrus, Wes Johnson
PF - Michael Beasley, Anthony Tolliver
C - Darko Milicic, Nikola Pekovic, Kosta Koufos

Washington Wizards:
PG - John Wall
SG - Kirk Hinrich, Alonzo Gee, Cartier Martin
SF - Rashard Lewis, Josh Howard, Al Thornton
PF - Andray Blatche, Yi Jianlian
C - JeVale McGee, Hilton Armstrong, Trevor Booker

Playing Like a Super Star: It's not just in the numbers

2010-11-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

You knew I would get to this eventually. I just had to, there's so much to write about here. Really. The Miami Heat are now 10-8 after a much needed win against a dismal Washington Wizard's squad. 10-8. That puts them smack between Chicago (9-6) and Indiana (8-7), 5th overall in the Eastern Conference, which is exactly where they were last season 5th in the Easter Conference. We're talking about a team that replaced Dorrell Wright, Michael Beasley, Quentin Richardson, and Jermaine O'Neal with LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Mike Miller, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Okay, so Miller has yet to play a game, Haslem is out for the season, but really? This is the team we were itching to break the 1996 Chicago Bulls' 72-10 record? I mean, sure they can win 63 of the next 64 and do that... Seriously though.

You can gripe all you want about how Miami doesn't have that defensive minded point guard they need (read: George Hill), how they don't have a real center that can live off of crashing the boards (read: Tyson Chandler), etc... What does it ultimately come down to though? The Miami Heat aren't a good team. Don't get me wrong, they are a team with awesome players, this is the makings of some broken roster on some version of an NBA basketball game or another, but the difference between reality and the video game is that you can't "manufacture" team play. If I know specifically what crossover leads me to an easy dunk, and I can hit cutters with anybody, sure, I'll average 10 assists a piece for both LeBron and Wade, heck, I'll have Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller averaging 20 points a game each. Chris Bosh will average 25 ppg on 80% shooting. I can do that all on a video game. So far though, as we've seen, the lineup of random PG, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, random C isn't working, but it should, right?

Outside of Chris Bosh (who's really just put up a lot of flashy numbers on a really bad team), no one can deny the mercurial talents that are Dwayne Wade and LeBron James. They've consistently led mediocre teams into the playoffs year after year, and in 2006 (with the help of Shaq) Wade got a ring, and in 2007 James stunned the world by taking a less-than-mediocre Cavaliers (when Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden are your 2nd and 3rd leading scorers you are less than mediocre) to the Finals. So you figure, when you put the perennial All-Star starting SG, SF, and PF together on one team you get awesomeness right? I mean, it sort of worked with Boston, right? or maybe we were just expecting awesomeness to just by bringing three awesome players together? Well, look at how Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson ended up. Sure they both averaged 25 ppg but Denver was still a pretty dismal team.

I think because of how good these players are, and how bad of a team they were on, and how far they took those bad teams (that and the fact that those teams, save maybe the 2006 Miami Heat, arguably, were never good with these players), we often overlook what it takes for a star of any caliber to help his team succeed. The same scrutiny that Kobe Bryant endured sharing a starting lineup with Smush Parker and Chris Mihm. In order for the Heat to succeed, they can't be just doing whatever it is they've been doing, i.e. chuck LeBron James/Dwayne Wade the ball and hope something good comes out of it. Certainly not having any confidence in Mario Chalmers/Carlos Arroyo/Zydrunas Ilgauskas/Joel Anthony doesn't help, but frankly, they need more of an option than "give the best player on the floor the ball". While Phil Jackson has been gifted with stellar talent like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, why do his teams win? Because Kobe/Michael "taking over" is more of a last resort than primary plan of attack. We can argue all we want about both LeBron and Wade needing the ball in his hands to be effective, but at the end of the day 2 points is 2 points right? It shouldn't matter if it's LeBron James or James Jones that scores 30 so long as Miami comes out with the win, right? That's they're job as basketball players, to win. We all believe that Wade and LeBron are a better pair than Iverson and Melo, why? Because we still think Wade and LeBron do more than just score, and they've shown that they can (albeit in flashes, because they've been asked to score so much).

Where am I going with all this? First, the Heat need to understand what they are good at. Does this mean moving without the ball? Gasp! What a novel idea? Ball movement? Who would've thought! Between LeBron and Wade there are enough handles where it shouldn't matter who the PG is. If neither one wants those duties then you have to be willing to work within the system you have and not just hang around the triple threat zone waiting for your turn to go off. Ultimately what it boils down to is this, as good as you are, as the star of your team, you're not going to win if you don't make your teammates better. It's an intangible that's hard to measure or sometimes even point to, but ultimately, your team, your system, which is based around your star, has to make your other players play better than they would otherwise. Sure Erik Spoelstra is doing his job in trying to motivate the team, but the person who ultimately does that is the best player on the team. A lot of people criticize LeBron James for passing the ball to Donyell Marshall at the end of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2007, I don't, it was the right decision at the time. That's what role players are there for, to fill a role, what the star does, is make their jobs easier for them. Kelly Dwyer called LeBron out saying that if he's not going to get the bulk of the offensive possessions then he should be shutting down the opposition, hitting the glass harder, etc... and I completely agree.

The Miami Heat can totally get away with winning by just having better players on their roster, but until their stars get the rest of the team to step it up by example, just being awesome (on paper) is only going to get you so far, and that certainly isn't far enough to win a championship. What do all these great championship stars have in common? They lead by example. Kobe Bryant will get in your face and basketball you to death, Tim Duncan lets Pop do that, and if Timmy's gonna get railed by the coach that means nobody's safe, because if the best PF of all time is going to listen to his coach, you figure everyone else should listen to him too, and right there I've accounted for 9 championships in the past 11 years. Miami, you can sit on your laurels and just be a collection of awesome players, or you can have (one of) your stars emerge as a driving force that pushes the team to greatness. It's more than just basketball, it's more than just the stats, the numbers are nice, but the rings are nicer.

The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 4

2010-11-17T14:27:00.000-08:00

Still going:

I'll just post ideas and maybe analyze later:

Again, this is just speculation, I have no basis for this.

Trade #1
Denver gets: Andre Iguodala, Anthony Randolph, Nazr Mohammed, Eddy Curry's expiring contract
Philadelphia gets: Gerald Wallace, Danilo Gallinari
New York gets: Carmelo Anthony
Charlotte gets: Chauncey Billups, Wilson Chandler

Post trade rosters:
Denver:
PG - Ty Lawson, Anthony Carter
SG - Arron Afflalo, J.R. Smith
SF - Andre Iguodala, Gary Forbes, Renaldo Balkman
PF - Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington, Shelden Williams
C - Nene Hilario, Chris Andersen, Nazr Mohammed

Philadelphia:
PG - Jrue Holiday, Louis Williams
SG - Evan Turner, Jason Kapono, Jodie Meeks
SF- Gerald Wallace, Danilo Gallinari, Andres Nocioni
PF - Elton Brand, Thaddeus Young
C - Spencer Hawes, Marresse Speights

New York:
PG - Raymond Felton, Toney Douglas
SG - Landry Fields, Bill Walker, Roger Mason, Andy Rautins
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Kelenna Azubuike
PF - Amar'e Stoudemire, Shawne Williams
C - Timofey Mozgov, Ronny Turiaf

Charlotte:
PG - Chauncey Billups, D.J. Augustin, Shaun Livingston
SG - Stephen Jackson, Gerald Henderson
SF - Wilson Chandler, Dominic McGuire
PF - Boris Diaw, Tyrus Thomas, Edjuardo Najera
C - Kwame Brown, DeSegana Diop

Trade #2
Denver gets: Jamario Moon, Anderson Varejao, Eddy Curry's expiring contract
Cleveland gets: Danilo Gallinari, Anthony Randolph, J.R. Smith
New York gets: Carmelo Anthony

Post trade rosters:

Denver:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - Arron Afflalo, Gary Forbes
SF - Jamario Moon, Al Harrington
PF - Nene Hilario, Kenyon Martin, Shelden Williams, Renaldo Balkman
C - Anderson Varejao, Chris Andersen

Cleveland:
PG - Mo Williams, Ramon Sessions
SG - J.R. Smith, Anthony Parker, Daniel Gibson
SF - Danilo Gallinari, Jawad Williams, Joey Graham
PF - Antawn Jamison, Anthony Randloph, Leon Powe
C - J.J. Hickson, Ryan Hollins

New York:
PG - Raymond Felton, Toney Douglas
SG - Landry Fields, Bill Walker, Roger Mason
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Wilson Chandler, Kelenna Azubuike
PF - Amar'e Stoudemire, Shawne Williams
C - Timofey Mozgov, Ronny Turiaf

Trade #3
Denver gets: Derrick Favors, Gerald Wallace, Jamal Crawford
Atlanta gets: Boris Diaw, Nazr Mohammed
Charlotte gets: Troy Murphy, Josh Smith, J.R. Smith
New Jersey gets: Carmelo Anthony

Post trade rosters:

Denver:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson, Anthony Carter
SG - Jamal Crawford, Arron Afflalo
SF - Gerald Wallace, Gary Forbes
PF - Kenyon Martin, Derrick Favors, Shelden Williams
C - Nene Hilario, Chris Andersen

Atlanta:
PG - Mike Bibby, Jeff Teague
SG - Joe Johnson, Mo Evans
SF - Marvin Williams, Pape Sy

PF - Al Horford, Boris Diaw
C - Nazr Mohammed, Zaza Pachulia, Josh Powell, Etan Thomas, Jason Collins

Charlotte:
PG - D.J. Augustin, Shaun Livingston
SG - J.R. Smith, Gerald Henderson, Matt Carroll
SF - Stephen Jackson, Dominic McGuire
PF - Josh Smith, Tyrus Thomas, Troy Murphy
C - Kwame Brown, DeSegana Diop

New Jersey:
PG - Devin Harris, Jordan Farmar
SG - Anthony Morrow, Terrence Williams
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Travis Outlaw, Damion Jones, Quinton Ross
PF - Kris Humphries, Joe Smith
C - Brook Lopez, Johan Petro

Trade #4
Denver gets: Anderson Varejao, Jamario Moon, Zach Randolph, O.J. Mayo
Cleveland gets: J.R. Smith, Thaddeus Young, Kenyon Martin (and his expiring contract)
Philadelphia gets: Carmelo Anthony
Memphis gets: Andre Iguodala, Antawn Jamison

Post trade rosters:

Denver:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - O.J. Mayo, Arron Afflalo
SF - Jamario Moon, Gary Forbes
PF - Zach Randolph, Al Harrington, Shelden Williams
C - Nene Hilario, Chris Andersen, Anderson Varejao

Cleveland:
PG - Mo Williams, Ramon Sessions, Daniel Gibson
SG - Anthony Parker, J.R. Smith
SF - Thaddeus Young, Joey Graham, Jawad Williams
PF - Kenyon Martin, Leon Powe
C - J.J. Hickson, Ryan Hollins

Philadelphia:
PG - Jrue Holiday, Louis Williams
SG - Evan Turner, Jason Kapono, Jodie Meeks
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Andres Nocioni
PF - Elton Brand, Darius Songaila
C - Spencer Hawes, Marresse Speights, Tony Battie

Memphis:
PG - Mike Conley, Acie Law
SG - Andre Iguodala, Xavier Henry, Greivis Vasquez
SF - Rudy Gay, Sam Young
PF - Antawn Jamison, Darrell Arthur
C - Marc Gasol, Hasheem Thabeet, Hamed Haddadi

Trade #5
Denver gets: Shane Battier, Anderson Varejao, Nazr Mohammed, Anthony Parker
Houston gets: Carmelo Anthony
Cleveland gets: Gerald Wallace, J.R. Smith
Charlotte gets: Mo Williams, Kevin Martin

Post trade rosters:

Denver:
PG - Chuancey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - Anthony Parker, Arron Afflalo
SF - Shane Battier, Gary Forbes
PF - Nene Hilario, Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington
C - Anderson Varejao, Chris Andersen, Nazr Mohammed

Houston:
PG - Aaron Brooks, Kyle Lowry, Ishmael Smith
SG - Courtney Lee, Jared Jeffries
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Chase Budinger
PF - Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes, Jordan Hill
C - Yao Ming, Brad Miller

Cleveland:
PG - Ramon Sessions, Daniel Gibson
SG - J.R. Smith, Christian Eyenga
SF - Gerald Wallace, Jamario Moon, Joey Graham, Jawad Williams
PF - Antawn Jamison, Leon Powe
C - J.J. Hickson, Ryan Hollins

Charlotte:
PG - Mo Williams, D.J. Augustin, Shaun Livingston
SG - Kevin Martin, Gerald Henderson, Matt Carroll
SF - Stephen Jackson, Dominic McGuire
PF - Boris Diaw, Tyrus Thomas
C - Kwame Brown, DeSagana Diop

Trade #6
Denver gets: Tayshaun Prince, Peja Stojakovic, Chris Wilcox, Marcus Thornton
Detroit gets: Kenyon Martin, Jamal Crawford, Josh Smith
New Orleans gets: Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith
Atlanta gets: David West, Richard Hamilton, Jason Maxiell

Post trade rosters:

Denver:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - Arron Afflalo, Marcus Thornton
SF - Tayshaun Prince, Peja Stojakovic, Gary Forbes
PF - Shelden Williams, Al Harrington, Chris Wilcox
C - Nene Hilario, Chris Andersen

Detroit:
PG - Rodney Stuckey, Will Bynum
SG - Jamal Crawford, Ben Gordon, Tracy McGrady
SF - Jonas Jerebko, Austin Daye
PF - Josh Smith, Kenyon Martin, Charlie Villanueva
C - Ben Wallace, Greg Monroe

New Orleans:
PG - Chris Paul, Jerryd Bayless
SG - Trevor Ariza, Marco Belinelli, J.R. Smith, Willie Green
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Quincy Pondexter
PF - Jason Smith, Pops Mensah-Bonsu
C - Emeka Okafor, D.J. Mbenga

Atlanta:
PG - Mike Bibby, Jeff Teague
SG - Joe Johnson, Richard Hamilton, Jordan Crawford
SF - Marvin Williams, Mo Evans
PF - David West, Etan Thomas
C - Al Horford, Zaza Pachulia, Josh Powell

Trade #7
Denver gets: Jeff Green, Nenad Kristic, Kevin Martin, Kosta Koufos, Lazar Hayward
Oklahoma City gets: Kevin Love, J.R. Smith
Minnesota gets: Shane Battier, Chauncey Billups
Houston gets: Carmelo Anthony, Martell Webster

Post trade rosters:

Denver:
PG - Ty Lawson, Anthony Carter
SG - Kevin Martin, Arron Afflalo
SF - Jeff Green, Gary Forbes
PF - Nene Hilario, Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington
C - Nenad Kristic, Chris Andersen, Kosta Koufos

Oklahoma City:
PG - Russell Westbrook, Eric Maynor
SG - Thabo Sefolosha, James Harden, J.R. Smith
SF - Kevin Durant, Morris Peterson
PF - Kevin Love, Nick Collison
C - Serge Ibaka, Cole Aldrich, Byron Mullens

Minnesota:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Johnny Flynn, Luke Ridnour, Sebastian Telfair
SG - Corey Brewer, Wayne Ellington
SF - Shane Battier, Wesley Johnson
PF - Michael Beasley, Anthony Tolliver
C - Darko Milicic, Nikola Pekovic

Houston:
PG - Aaron Brooks, Kyle Lowry, Ishmael Smith
SG - Martell Webster, Courtney Lee
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Chase Budinger
PF - Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes, Jordan Hill
C - Yao Ming, Brad Miller

Trade #8
Denver gets: Donte Greene, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu, Jeff Green
Oklahoma City gets: Jason Thompson
Sacramento gets: Chauncey Billups
L.A. Clippers get: Carmelo Anthony

Post trade rosters:

Denver:
PG - Ty Lawson, Anthony Carter
SG - Arron Afflalo, J.R. Smith
SF - Jeff Green, Donte Greene, Al-Farouq Aminu
PF - Nene Hilario, Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington
C - Chris Kaman, Chris Andersen

Oklahoma City:
PG - Russell Westbrook, Eric Maynor
SG - Thabo Sefolosha, James Harden
SF - Kevin Durant, Morris Peterson
PF - Jason Thomson, Nick Collison, D.J. White
C - Nenad Kristic, Serge Ibaka, Cole Aldrich

Sacramento:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Beno Udrih
SG - Tyreke Evans, Francisco Garcia, Luther Head
SF - Omri Casspi, Antoine Wright
PF - Carl Landry, Darnell Jackson, Hassan Whiteside
C - Samuel Dalembert, DeMarcus Cousins

L.A. Clippers:
PG - Baron Davis, Eric Bledsoe, Randy Foye
SG - Eric Gordon, Rasual Butler
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Ryan Gomes
PF - Blake Griffin, Craig Smith, Brian Cook
C - DeAndre Jordan, Jarron Collins

Trade #9
Denver gets: Gerald Wallace, Boris Diaw, Thaddeus Young, Andres Nocioni, Jason Kapono
Dallas gets: Andre Iguodala
Charlotte gets: Shawn Marion, Jason Terry
Philadelphia gets: Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin

Post trade rosters:

Denver:
PG - Chauncey Billups, Ty Lawson
SG - Arron Afflalo, J.R. Smith, Gary Forbes
SF - Gerald Wallace, Thaddeus Young, Andres Nocioni
PF - Boris Diaw, Al Harrington
C - Nene Hilario, Chris Andersen

Dallas:
PG - Jason Kidd, J.J. Barea, Rodrigue Beaubois
SG - Andre Iguodala, DeShawn Stevenson, Damion Jones
SF - Caron Butler, Steve Novak
PF - Dirk Nowitzki, Brian Cardinal
C - Tyson Chandler, Brendan Haywood

Charlotte:
PG - D.J. Augustin, Shaun Livingston
SG - Stephen Jackson, Jason Terry, Gerald Henderson
SF - Shawn Marion, Dominic McGuire
PF - Tyrus Thomas, Edjuardo Najera
C - Nazr Mohammed, Kwame Brown, DeSagana Diop

Philadelphia:
PG - Jrue Holiday, Louis Williams
SG - Evan Turner, Jodie Meeks
SF - Carmelo Anthony, Craig Brackins
PF - Elton Brand, Kenyon Martin, Darius Songaila
C - Spencer Hawes, Marresse Speights, Tony Battie

Why all the big fuss?

2010-10-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm being cynical, maybe I'm a little jaded. Maybe it's because I live in Seattle and frankly I should be the one going to games and raving about Kevin Durant, which causes me to be predispositioned to dislike the city that stole our team. I'm a little confused as to how the Thunder all of sudden are considered contenders. Don't get me wrong, I know they're good. Are they really THAT good though? As good as the Lakers? As good as the Celtics? The Magic? Let's compare:

	THUNDER	LAKERS	CELTICS	MAGIC
PG	Russell Westbrook	Derek Fisher	Rajon Rondo	Jameer Nelson
SG	Thabo Sefalosha	Kobe Bryant	Ray Allen	Vince Carter
SF	Kevin Durant	Ron Artest	Paul Pierce	Quentin Richardson
PF	Jeff Green	Pau Gasol	Kevin Garnett	Rashard Lewis
C	Nenad Kristic	Andrew Bynum	Kendrick Perkins	Dwight Howard
Bench	Eric Maynor	Steve Blake	Nate Robinson	Chris Duhon
	James Harden	Shannon Brown	Delonte West	J.J. Redick
	Morris Peterson	Matt Barnes	Marquis Daniels	Mickael Pietrus
	Nick Collison	Lamar Odom	Jermaine O'Neal	Brandon Bass
	Serge Ibaka	Theo Ratliff	Shaquille O'Neal	Marcin Gortat
	Cole Aldrich	Luke Walton	Glen Davis	Ryan Anderson
	D.J. White	Sasha Vujacic	Semih Erden	Daniel Orton

I honestly can't say that the Thunder roster looks significantly better than any of the "contenders" out there, well, let's call them definitive contenders, as these three teams are the ones that made the Finals in the last two seasons. I like the Thunder roster but not enough to call them contenders. Am I short-selling Kevin Durant? Maybe, but frankly, a single player doesn't win titles. Can we definitively say that these OKC Thunder are definitively better than... say the 2009-2010 Cleveland Cavaliers?

	THUNDER	2009/2010 CAVS
PG	Russell Westbrook	Mo Williams
SG	Thabo Sefalosha	Delonte West
SF	Kevin Durant	LeBron James
PF	Jeff Green	Antawn Jamison
C	Nenad Kristic	Shaquille O'Neal
Bench	Eric Maynor	Daniel Gibson
	James Harden	Anthony Parker
	Morris Peterson	Jamario Moon
	Nick Collison	Anderson Varejao
	Serge Ibaka	Zydrunas Ilgauskas
	Cole Aldrich	J.J. Hickson
	D.J. White	Jawad Williams

Really? Let's assume that LeBron and Durant are a wash. I know Westbrook is a significant upgrade over Williams, and the 2009/2010 Cavs dealt with a plethora of injury and chemistry issues, but really? Can we say that the OKC is significantly better? Is Jeff Green better than Antawn Jamison?

Per Game:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Jeff Green	2009-10	23	82	82	37.1	5.9	13	0.453	1.3	3.8	0.333	2	2.7	0.74	1.4	4.6	6	1.6	1.3	0.9	1.6	2.7	15.1
2	Antawn Jamison	2009-10	33	66	64	36.5	7.2	15.7	0.461	1.3	3.7	0.344	2.9	4.5	0.647	2.1	6.3	8.4	1.3	1.1	0.3	1.4	2.7	18.7

Per 36:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Jeff Green	2009-10	23	82	82	3043	5.7	12.7	0.453	1.2	3.7	0.333	2	2.6	0.74	1.3	4.5	5.8	1.6	1.2	0.9	1.6	2.6	14.7
2	Antawn Jamison	2009-10	33	66	64	2406	7.2	15.5	0.461	1.3	3.7	0.344	2.9	4.5	0.647	2	6.3	8.3	1.3	1.1	0.3	1.4	2.7	18.5

Well... they're pretty comparable, but Jamison shoots better, rebounds better, scores more, and gets to the line more. Hrm... They lost 4-2 to Boston in the Conference Semi-Finals. A lot of people thought LeBron could do it, but I was pretty skeptical as to actually how good the team actually was, I see the same case here. Sure Durant might be awesome, but at best I don't see that he's better than LeBron awesome.

Per 36:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Kevin Durant	2009-10	21	82	82	3239	8.8	18.5	0.476	1.4	3.9	0.365	8.4	9.3	0.9	1.2	5.8	6.9	2.6	1.2	0.9	3	1.9	27.5
2	LeBron James	2009-10	25	76	76	2966	9.3	18.5	0.503	1.6	4.7	0.333	7.2	9.4	0.767	0.9	5.9	6.7	7.9	1.5	0.9	3.2	1.4	27.4

Now, honestly, they're about the same, except LeBron passes the ball better. Aside from that most of the stats are fairly comparable. With that then, I can't say that the Thunder are significantly better than any solid playoff team, I mean, statistically you can't really even say he's significantly better than Melo::

Per 36

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Carmelo Anthony	2009-10	25	69	69	2634	9.4	20.5	0.458	0.8	2.6	0.316	6.9	8.4	0.83	2.1	4.1	6.2	3	1.2	0.4	2.9	3.1	26.6
2	Kevin Durant	2009-10	21	82	82	3239	8.8	18.5	0.476	1.4	3.9	0.365	8.4	9.3	0.9	1.2	5.8	6.9	2.6	1.2	0.9	3	1.9	27.5

While Melo scores less on more shots, he's also a way better offensive rebounder, and frankly, there isn't enough of a differentiation between them to definitively declare one better than the other, at least statistically speaking. Sure most of us (GMs and their assistants included) like Durant more than Melo, but that doesn't mean a whole lot when the tip-off whistle is blown. I really don't buy the whole hype about how Thunder, if they aren't contenders are the only ones that can take down the Lakers, sure overall they might match up okay against the defending champs, but I certainly don't think they have a significantly better shot than anyone else in the West. Why? Their frontcourt is pretty atrocious. Jeff Green is not a PF and if he is, he's at best a harder-working Al Harrington. And I would take an old Shaq and Big Z over Nenad Kristic and Serge Ibaka, I don't care if Ibaka is supposed to have a "breakout" season. What they have to their advantage is youth and thereby health, something some of the more seasoned teams cannot boast as much of, but seriously? If the Lakers appear to be head and shoulders above the rest of the West does that mean that Thunder are a head above the rest? I think not:

	THUNDER	SPURS	MAVERICKS	BLAZERS	NUGGETS	JAZZ
PG	Russell Westbrook	Tony Parker	Jason Kidd	Andre Miller	Chauncey Billups	Deron Willaims
SG	Thabo Sefalosha	Manu Ginobili	Caron Butler	Brandon Roy	Arron Afflalo	Raja Bell
SF	Kevin Durant	Richard Jefferson	Shawn Marion	Nicolas Batum	Carmelo Anthony	Andrei Kirilenko
PF	Jeff Green	DeJuan Blair	Dirk Nowitzki	LaMarcus Aldridge	Kenyon Martin	Al Jefferson
C	Nenad Kristic	Tim Duncan	Brendan Haywood	Greg Oden	Nene Hilario	Mehmet Okur
Bench	Eric Maynor	George Hill	J.J. Barea	Wesley Matthews	Ty Lawson	Earl Watson
	James Harden	James Anderson	Jason Terry	Rudy Fernandez	J.R. Smith	C.J. Miles
	Morris Peterson	Bobby Simmons	DeShawn Stevenson	Dante Cunningham	Gary Forbes	Gordon Hayward
	Nick Collison	Antonio McDyess	Ian Mahinmi	Marcus Camby	Al Harrington	Paul Millsap
	Serge Ibaka	Tiago Splitter	Tyson Chandler	Joel Przybilla	Chris Andersen	Francisco Elson
	Cole Aldrich	Matt Bonner	Rodrigue Beaubois	Armon Johnson	Renaldo Balkman	Kyrylo Fesenko
	D.J. White	Gary Neal	Dominique Jones	Fabricio Oberto	Shelden Williams	Jeremy Evans

Maybe it's me, but while Durant would be the SF I'd want the most on my roster, I can't say that Westbrook is someone I'd pick over Kidd, Parker, Billups, and definitely not Deron Williams. Every team except maybe the Nuggets has a more desirable PF, and every other team has actually a more desirable frontcourt pairing and a comparably deep bench. While the Thunder may have surprised us last season with a strong performance, I can't say with confidence that they can beat any of the other five leading Western Conference teams not called the Lakers, not in a 7 game series.

Team	Pts	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	To	Pf	Dreb	Oreb	Fgm-a	Pct	3gm-a	Pct	Ftm-a	Pct	Eff	Deff
Utah	104.5	41.9	26.4	7.9	4.8	14.4	23.1	31.3	10.7	39.2-80.1	0.49	5.5-15.0	0.365	20.6-27.9	0.739	123	15
Orlando	101.9	42.8	19.3	6.3	5.5	13.5	20.2	33	9.8	36.1-76.9	0.469	10.2-27.3	0.374	19.5-27.1	0.72	113.8	14.2
Boston	98	38.7	23	8.4	4.8	13.9	22.7	30	8.8	36.4-76.5	0.476	6.0-17.1	0.351	19.1-25.6	0.748	112.6	11.9
Dallas	101.4	41.8	23.1	7.5	5.4	12.4	19.3	31.6	10.3	38.0-82.2	0.462	6.8-18.3	0.369	18.6-22.8	0.814	118.4	10
Oklahoma City	101	43.5	19.7	7.7	5.9	14	21.4	31.8	11.7	36.9-80.7	0.457	5.1-15.2	0.337	22.0-27.3	0.807	114.7	9.6
San Antonio	100.8	42.6	22	6.2	4.6	12.9	20.4	31.8	10.7	38.2-80.9	0.472	6.5-18.4	0.356	17.9-24.3	0.735	114.1	8.9
L.A.Lakers	101.6	44	20.8	7	5.1	12.8	20.2	31.9	12.1	38.1-83.2	0.458	6.6-19.4	0.338	18.8-24.6	0.763	114.8	7.9
Portland	97.8	40	20.4	6.3	4.3	11.5	21.1	28.9	11.1	36.0-78.6	0.459	6.0-16.9	0.356	19.7-25.0	0.786	109.4	6.5
Denver	106.6	41.3	20.8	8.1	5.1	13.5	23.1	30.4	10.8	38.0-81.2	0.468	6.6-18.5	0.359	23.9-31.0	0.772	118.2	5

Based on their overall team metrics, while I'm surprised they out-rebounded everybody, I can't really say they particularly stand out enough to warrant the sudden hype. Frankly, I don't find them to be significantly better than any playoff/fringe playoff team save for the presence of Durant.

	THUNDER	ROCKETS	HAWKS
PG	Russell Westbrook	Aaron Brooks	Mike Bibby
SG	Thabo Sefalosha	Kevin Martin	Joe Johnson
SF	Kevin Durant	Shane Battier	Marvin Williams
PF	Jeff Green	Luis Scola	Josh Smith
C	Nenad Kristic	Yao Ming	Al Horford
Bench	Eric Maynor	Kyle Lowry	Jeff Teague
	James Harden	Courtney Lee	Jamal Crawford
	Morris Peterson	Chase Budinger	Mo Evans
	Nick Collison	Chuck Hayes	Etan Thomas
	Serge Ibaka	Brad Miller	Zaza Pachulia
	Cole Aldrich	Jordan Hill	Jordan Crawford
	D.J. White	Jermaine Taylor	Pape Sy

Sure, it's a great Cinderella story, but hey so were the Hornets in 2008, and look at them now. Granted, the Thunder are in better shape than the Hornets, but really? Contenders? Really? Seriously people, I know they're a fun team to watch, but let's be realistic. I mean, a lot of this is coming from the same people who said Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry would make a monstrous frontcourt.

The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 3

2010-10-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this isn't dead. I stopped posting when I thought Melo was for sure going to New Jersey, but he's not, or not yet. We'll see. Meanwhile, onwards to my pointless (but fun) trade mongering...

Golden State Warriors send Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins, with the expiring contracts of Vladamir Radmonovic and Dan Gadzuric to Denver for Melo and K-Mart

Okay, so I don't know that Denver wants to save money more than it wants a different super star, I'm also fairly confident that they probably won't consider Monta Ellis that super star. Another option would've been swapping Vlad Rad and Gadzuric for Brandon Wright and K-Mart for J.R. Smith otherwise waiting until December and using Dorrell Wright. Either way, it's an interesting concept, but frankly it does leave the Ws a little thin in the frontcourt, forced to once again play David Lee as a center (which he really isn't). With Louis Amundson injured and missing time, I'm not positive that GSW is willing to pull the trigger in parting with one of its key bigs (Biedrins) even if it means getting a star in return, and frankly, I don't see Melo signing an extension with GSW so they'd be essentially giving away Monta and Biedrins for nothing. A lot of fans would love to see this though.

New York seems to think it can trade Danilo Gallinari and/or Anthony Randolph for a star of tradeable caliber to Denver. I'm not entirely convinced that's the case, but speculation puts me with either a Gilbert Arenas trade or a recreation of the 2004 Detroit Pistons. I'm pretty sure neither Gilbert nor Rip Hamilton are answers. Additionally, I don't think Gallinari and/or Randolph are super appealing to the Wiz who have Blatche, Thornton, Yi, and Howard nor the Pistons who are sitting on T-Mac, Jerebko, Austin Daye, Jason Maxiell, and Charlie Villanueva. Not a fan of either, but I'm just throwing it out there for thought.

Now I don't know that they're looking, but a trade that makes sense to me is this:

Charlotte Bobcats send Boris Diaw, Gerald Wallace, and Nazr Mohammed to Denver for Melo and J.R. Smith

Why? Bobcats need a scorer and Melo can score (so can J.R. Smith when he's on). This trade also makes sense too. In fact I like it better. Essentially Bobcats still get Melo and Denver still gets Wallace and Mohammed, but we loop in Toronto, getting Boris Diaw from Charlotte and Kenyon Martin from Denver and sending Reggie Evans to Denver and Jose Calderon with Chris Bosh's trade exception to Charlotte. Why does this work? Jerry Colangelo loves those saavy European vets like Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa, they had originally wanted essentially Diaw for Calderon, but were balked by Jordan for wanting Tyson Chandler too (who he later gave away for Erick Dampier who he waived so nothing?), and Calderon is precisely the type of point guard that works well with Larry Brown (runs sets, doesn't push the game, takes carefully selected shots) and therefore precisely the kind of PG that the Bobcats want. The main question is whether or not Gerald Wallace is a sufficient star in what Denver wants in return. Certainly Wallace has shown his prowess on the defensive end, and adding eligible big men in Mohammed and Evans while jettisoning K-Mart's contract is on the agenda, will adding Wallace keep the Nuggets competitive? I'd like to say yes, via also more opportunities for Nene, but I honestly can't say I know their games well enough to say for sure.

I'll keep thinking of these and we'll keep going until Melo is actually traded.

Revisiting Shoe Endorsements

2010-10-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

Nike obviously has the most endorsements in the NBA in terms of shoe contracts. As with all my pointless speculations and hypotheticals, we are coming back to the question of whether or not Nike does in fact have the "best" endorsements. I know that Jordans technically are Nike sneakers, but I'm counting them as a different brand. Reebok honestly is so hurting I'm tempted to add "other" to them, nonetheless. Let's assume it's playoffs and teams are running a typical 10 man rotation. Have at!

Starters:	Nike	Jordan	Adidas	Reebok	Other
PG	Deron Williams	Chris Paul	Derrick Rose	Jameer Nelson	Jason Kidd - Peak Shoes
SG	Kobe Bryant	Dwayne Wade	Chauncey Billups	Jason Terry	Stephen Jackson - Protégé
SF	LeBron James	Gerald Wallace	Josh Smith	Rasual Butler	Ron Artest - Peak Shoes
PF	Amar'e Stoudemire	Carmelo Anthony	Tim Duncan	Danilo Gallinari	Kevin Garnett - ANTA Sports Products
C	Pau Gasol	Juwan Howard	Dwight Howard	Yao Ming	Shaquille O'Neal - Li-Ning
Bench	Rajon Rondo Brandon Roy Andre Iguodala Dirk Nowitzki Chris Bosh	Joe Johnson Ray Allen Richard Hamilton Kevin Martin Jared Jeffries	Devin Harris John Salmons Hedo Turkoglu Nene Hilario Brook Lopez	John Wall Eddie House Jamal Crawford Morris Peterson Jason Smith	Baron Davis - Li-Ning Monta Ellis - And 1 Shane Battier - Peak Shoes Al Harrington - Protégé Ben Wallace - Starbury

Team Nike
Strength: Depth, versatility, scoring
Weakness: Chemistry, no true center

I don't see how Nike can't be the favorites to take this one. I mean, Nike could probably field like 5 other fairly legit teams, I mean, seriously, I'm cutting the likes of Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Rudy Gay from this roster. Seriously. The only flaw I see in this team is possibly how everyone except for Pau Gasol kind of need the ball in his hands to be effective. It would be interesting to see how Roy and Bryant come off of catch-and-shoot situations. The fact that they don't really have a low-post presence also kind of bothers me, but not immensely as Amar'e and Gasol are both fairly versatile in the paint, tack on the unique skillsets of Bosh and Dirk and suddenly we have here a very unorthodox and potent froncourt. However, the defensive tenacity of said frontcourt does come into question. You'd need a coach who is able to handle all the personalities.
Recommended Coach: Phil Jackson

Team Jordan
Strength: Shooting, mismatches
Weakness: Lack of size

Jordan seems only to really endorse wing players, maybe it's because Jordan himself was a wing player. With the likes of Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Joe Johnson, and Kevin Martin though, the lights will get shot out. The amount of perimeter defense that the opposition would have to deal with frankly ends up being is frankly quite ridiculous. The issue though is the fact that the team is extraordinarily small and thin up front. Juwan Howard and Jared Jeffries are by no means going to be any menace in the post, this forces Melo and Wallace to log a number of minutes as a big forward, so while the shooting is there, there might just not be enough easy baskets to make this team entirely viable. That being said, Wallace is a fairly underrated rebounder, so these guys could do a lot better than I can imagine right now.
Recommended Coach: Mike D'Antoni

Team Adidas
Strength: Size, interior defense
Weakness: Perimeter shooting, defense

With his improved mid-range shot, I think Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan would be the second coming of the Twin Towers. While I don't necessarily think that Howard is as versatile as David Robinson was, I think that he can make up for it. Add in the fact that both are ridiculous interior defenders, then I think it works itself out. I'm not confident in anybody's outside shot other than Billups's and possibly John Salmons's, so it's hard to see there not being a potential bottleneck in the paint. However, I can see a smart system working that out. This team is tremendously balanced and deceptively deep. While Billups may not be an ideal off-guard, they tried it in FIBA this year and it seemed to work. Additionally, knowing the likes of Howard and Duncan are in the paint may help bolster everyone's confidence defending perimeters knowing that Howard and Duncan (and even Smith) can help cover up a lot of defensive miscues.
Recommended Coach: Gregg Popovich

Team Reebok
Strength: Shooting
Weakness: Depth, lack of size

This really needs to be one of those "whole is greater than the sum of the parts" kind of teams. There's no one on this team that really makes this team stand out in any way besides a healthy Yao Ming. However, with that, this team could start to catch people off guard with smart shot selections and effective screen-and-roll plays they could really keep themselves in the game. While I don't savor a Jameer Nelson/Jason Terry backcourt, especially on the defensive end, it could be worse. How effectively this team manages the intangibles and plays together will determine its success or failure.
Recommended Coach: Rick Adelman

Team Other
Strength: Defensive tenacity
Weakness: Scoring

Between Stephen Jackson, Ron Artest, Shane Battier, and Ben Wallace, this hodgepodge of non-mainstream company endorsed players have most of their defensive bases covered. However, that being said, it's more of a question of who can put the ball in the bucket. Monta Ellis is probably the one player that can be relied on to most consistently put the ball in the bucket, but I don't see him being the Allen Iverson type scorer that such a team would need to carry the load. Of course, this could be a very even-keeled well-distributed scoring balance between everybody. That would work too.
Recommended Coach: Larry Brown

That's my take. What's yours?

The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 2

2010-09-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Continuing on, two other teams mentioned in regards to the whole Melo trade speculation thing have been the Bulls and Rockets. Here's what I think it will boil down to...

Chicago Bulls send Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah, and James Johnson to Denver for Melo.
Frankly if this ever gets proposed and this does end up happening Ujiri will look like a genius and Paxson an idiot. It's not that I don't like Melo, but the Bulls are getting fleeced for this deal, unless a third team gets involved and Chicago gets more out of this, this is the only way Chicago can even muster up enough salary to match Melo, short of trading Derrick Rose. While a core of Rose, Melo, and Carlos Boozer is quite formidable, the Bulls essentially have gutted their entire frontcourt. Chicago is now relegated to once again searching free agency, since their C slot is relegated to Omer Asik and Kurt Thomas, leaving no one really to backup Carlos Boozer. I don't mind a 3 big rotation, but only if the three bigs are of high caliber. Not to knock on Asik and Thomas, but frankly, Asik is completely unproven and Thomas, well, at best he'd be the third big.

As for Denver, well, they get an amazingly solid lineup. The presence of Noah will slide Nene back to PF, where he is more comfortable, and then Deng can take Melo's starting spot. While perhaps not as offensively polished as Melo, Deng can hold his own and is a defensive force to be reckoned with. Tack on the hustle and rebounding of Taj Gibson, plus scoring off the bench of Al Harrington (provided the rotations work out) and the Nuggets actually get better by getting rid of their best player.

Houston Rockets send Kevin Martin and Shane Battier to Denver for Melo.
Ultimately I really see this to be something of a wash, since it involves how well Melo meshes with a very team oriented system on Rick Adelman's Rockets. This certainly allows Courtney Lee to get his chance as a starter on the Rockets next to a formidable lineup of Aaron Brooks, Melo, Luis Scola, and Yao Ming (if healthy). While they don't have a number of big name players, Jared Jeffries can spot minutes as a defensive specialist, and Kyle Korver and Brad Miller off the bench is still a pretty good system roster wise. Melo definitely is a step up from Kevin Martin scoring wise and should take a lot of that load off of Yao, providing a very balanced offense with Scola's hustle and Brooks's shooting.

On the flip side, Kevin Martin and Shane Battier slide into the Nuggets' starting lineup quite well. However, the question is, how well will a platoon of J.R. Smith and Arron Afflalo for minutes work behind Martin in the depth charts. Again, it's muuch more of a horizontal movement than any improvement given Martin's peaking game and Battier's decline due to age.

The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 1

2010-09-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

So, Denver's front office has said that it will listen to trade offers for Melo, so as per usual, me and my trade mongering ways, I am going crazy with ESPN's trade machine. Rumors have the Nuggets asking for "top-tier young players, future first-round draft picks, young assets (i.e. high-upside players with relatively affordable contracts), and salary cap savings." Chad Ford of ESPN also says that New Jersey is the front runner for Melo. So here's the mongering!

New Jersey Nets send Derrick Favors, Troy Murphy, and Kris Humphries to Denver for Melo.
Chad Ford has this as the "intriguing" package that New Jersey has to offer. Of course, the trade would mostly be for Favors, so Ujiri would be banking entirely on the upside of the 3rd overall pick of the 2010 draft. Troy Murphy is more for an expiring contract piece and like Humphries is mostly there to make the money match. While Humphries is a solid energy man off the bench for a thinner frontcourt given Kenyon Martin's injury, Troy Murphy is basically a white, more expensive, slightly better rebounding version of Al Harrington. It's pretty ironic that it was only a few years ago that they were traded for each other (Golden State and Indiana). While neither Harrington nor Murphy spell a move for Nene back to his more comfortable PF position, it does add a substantial amount of depth to the frontcourt, giving them two PFs with excellent range, unfortunately Favors and Humphries are both also PF and Favors is definitely someone that Denver would want to develop. With Chris Andersen already spelling minutes as backup this creates mostly a logjam more than any significant amount of depth to be afraid of, as none of Harrington, Murphy, Favors, nor Humphries look to sop up minutes as a center in a non-Don Nelson rotation. That means 6 players (Favors, Murphy, Harrington, Martin, Shelden Williams, and Renaldo Balkman) fighting for 48 minutes at one position. Naturally, now that they have no SF, it's entirely possible to see Harrington slide back to SF where he originally played in Atlanta, but like Josh Smith, he is a little slow on the defensive end in keeping up with the wings. It's possible to see J.R. Smith and/or Arron Afflalo start to see minutes at the SF slot with a dual PG thing with Billups at the 2 and Ty Lawson seeing more minutes. That'll be something for George Karl to figure out. In general, other than a cost cutting mechanism, it's not really looking like a good thing for Denver.

For New Jersey, well they get Melo. They do effectively trade away all of their PFs though. While Melo and Outlaw can both play spot minutes at the 4 slot, it's not something I'm entirely comfortable seeing either doing for long stretches. This makes Joe Smith the primary PF, and while that should be okay around a core offense of Devin Harris, Melo, and Brook Lopez, it's not really something I think ideal. I like the young sharpshooter Anthony Morrow manning the SG slot and keeping defenses honest with his range, but depth at every position other than SF is something of a concern. Johan Petro is a great addition as a hustle guy behind Brook Lopez, but all other positions are only one deep, which means a lot of extended minutes for the starters or a lot of people playing out of position. While getting Melo may sound good, I'm not sure I'm entirely in favor of this trade, I don't think it's really good for either team.

New York Knicks send Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, and Eddy Curry to Denver for Melo.
This now is entirely in the realm of my personal speculation. I think ultimately Gallinari is the biggest asset that New York has to offer. Whether or not Ujiri sees enough upside in him may also determine whether or not New York throws in even more picks which it doesn't really have a lot of, into the deal or something. Eddy Curry is finally an expiring contract, and at worse is just that, if Curry does somehow make a comeback, he might be a decent low-post option to slide Nene back to PF. Gallinari and Chandler make a decent 1-2 combo at the small forward position, and if Gallinari pans out, it'll be all in all something good for Denver, as he brings a lot of similar skillsets that Melo brings to the table. Chandler is a good athletic spark plug off the bench and also solid defensively.

For New York, well, it's part 2 of the supposed Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire big 3. It certainly adds another major scoring punch, but coexistence with Amar'e may be questionable. Though, if Melo did it decently with Allen Iverson, I don't suppose it'll be significantly more difficult than that. With Raymond Felton at PG it'll be a decent lineup with a high potential Anthony Randolph and high energy Ronny Turiaf sharing the frontcourt with Amar'e. At the 2 you have decent shooters of Roger Mason and Kelenna Azubuike as well as the scoring energy of Bill Walker. If Tony Douglas keeps up the strong play behind Felton, then I think the Knicks all-in-all would have a pretty dang good team. Not stellar, but definitely middle of the pack good. Playoff good.

Those are the two main teams I think that have a shot at landing Melo in the East. While there are teams that I think might need him, it's entirely up to speculation. Melo has expressed interest in Orlando, but frankly, I don't know that they can offer enough and I don't think Melo is a good enough fit to be worth speculating excessively about it. I'll post more later.

Revisiting NBA Jam: The Eastern Conference

2010-08-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

Apparently they're making this again. I did this already before, but not for a couple of years, let's do this again...

If I recall correctly you have three players per team of which you have to choose a two player combination, on the list I will list the defaults then add the third player.

EASTERN CONFERENCE:

Atlanta Hawks:
Default: Joe Johnson, Josh Smith
Res: Al Horford
This isn't going to change unless the Hawks decide to trade Josh Smith or something. As bad as the Joe Johnson contract is, NBA Jam is hardly a game that looks at the long-term prospects of players. This would probably be one of my personal favorite teams to play with, I'd love bombing those alley-oops all day, with the crazy 3/4 shots from Johnson. Horford is probably going to be the third player that no one ever uses, though maybe we could use Jamal Crawford instead.

Boston Celtics:
Default: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett
Res: Rajon Rondo
It's hard to leave Ray Allen off of this short list, but with the emergence of Rondo and the decline of the Big 3 it's hard to justify adding Allen at the expense of the 3rd best point guard in the league. Pierce and Garnett still remain the face, though Rondo is slowly usurping them. If only Garnett could still play like this in real life. No love for the O'Neals, but that's really not surprising.

Charlotte Bobcats:
Default: Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace
Res: Boris Diaw
The third player here is pretty much just something of an afterthought. You know he's there, but you only really look to see who he is, and you'll only ever play with him if you accidentally choose him to be on your team. That being said, Jackson and Wallace would probably be something I'd enjoy playing too. Especially since Jam players are indestructible, so if they don't give Gerald Wallace concussions in the game, I'm happy with it.

Chicago Bulls:
Default: Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer
Res: Luol Deng
Boozer was the big free agent addition this year, so this would be interesting. Deng is probably one of the more interesting third options, despite his injuries, the whole invincible player thing would solve that problem. So let's not worry about it. Though a substitution thingy would be pretty nifty, I can see it being frustrating actually having injuries.

Cleveland Cavaliers:
Default: Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison
Res: Jamario Moon
Cleveland once again becomes the team that everyone avoids like the plague, it'll be kind of sad, probably more than kind of. Moon, the former Globetrotter makes the cut because, well, he's a former Globetrotter.

Detroit Pistons:
Default: Ben Gordon, Richard Hamilton
Res: Tayshaun Prince
There are going to be a number of these plague-like teams. Honestly, just looking at the roster I had a hard time figuring out who I would actually enjoy playing with on this team... As tempting as Charlie Villanueva, Chris Wilcox, and Kwame Brown would've been, I showed restraint.

Indiana Pacers:
Default: Danny Granger,Tyler Hansbrough
Res: Darren Collison
This is only marginally easier than Detroit to figure out due to the presence of Danny Granger on the roster. I think Collison will be a big part of the Pacers offense. Though I know that this is not an accurate portrayal of the ethnic demographic of the Pacers team, I could not in my right mind bring myself to make a team of Tyler Hansbrough, Jeff Foster, and Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Miami Heat:
Default: Dwayne Wade, LeBron James
Res: Chris Bosh
Gee... that was hard. Insert joke about Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Juwan Howard.

Milwaukee Bucks:
Default: Brandon Jennings, Andrew Bogut
Res: John Salmons
I think Michael Redd is done, and I'm sure everyone hopes that Bogut makes a full recovery. I wonder who they'd get to call the game (it was Steve Kerr if I remember the Live series correctly, but that was 2008). It would be sweet to hear them saying Mbah a Moute, seriously.

New Jersey Nets:
Default: Devin Harris, Brook Lopez
Res: Troy Murphy
I kind of wanted to squeeze Travis Outlaw in there somehow, but hey, this is good. Nets still seem like a sad team, but there are other teams that seem sadder. Still, I suppose you can't get much worse than 18 wins. Good thing this isn't real life.

New York Knicks:
Default: Amar'e Stoudemire, Anthony Randolph
Res: Danilo Gallinari
I hope the Knicks keep Randolph, and I hope he develops into a great player, he's got the potential. I kind of feel bad for Wilson Chandler with the addition of Kelenna Azubuike and D'Antoni's propensity to move forward with Gallinari. I think these are the only three players that are going to be here for the long haul. Maybe this is the only opportunity for Eddy Curry to get some playing time.

Orlando Magic:
Default: Dwight Howard, Vince Carter
Res: Jameer Nelson
This is one way I can continue to convince myself that Vince Carter has still got game. Hard leaving Rashard Lewis off, but he's fallen off so much, it's hard to justify putting him on. Besides, who doesn't want to see Jameer Nelson dunk on and swat 7-footers?

Philadelphia 76ers:
Default: Andre Iguodala, Elton Brand
Res: Louis Williams
This was the first team I was tempted to put a rookie on, but Evan Turner was so disappointing in Summer League that Sixer fans would probably get angry at how good he is in the game. I really can't figure out who is actually any good on this team, but that has never made a difference.

Toronto Raptors:
Default: Andrea Bargnani, Leandro Barbosa
Res: Jose Calderon
Until Calderon gets traded, we'll stick with this. When Andrea Bargnani is your primary scoring option, your team is screwed. If you beat someone else with this team though, you got bragging rights. Can't you imagine running around screaming: "YOU JUST GOT POSTERIZED BY ANDREA BARGNANI! YOU GOT DUNKED ON BY A GUY NAMED ANDREA!!!"

Washington Wizards:
Default: John Wall, Gilbert Arenas
Res: JaVale McGee
Eh... this was a pretty hard one too, throwing Yi Jianlian out was hard. Oh well. Wall is supposed to be good, so he goes in here. Arenas... sure. McGee... well... he almost made Team USA? or did he? What? Anyways, Epic Vale sure.

Seriously Cleveland? Suck it up

2010-07-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

Sure, this probably feels a heck of a lot worse than the Carlos Boozer debacle in 2004. Still, I'm sick and tired of reading about how LeBron James sucks for announcing on national television that he will sign with the Miami Heat. Frankly, I don't know anybody outside of Miami that is happy. Nobody. Was getting on national TV and screwing over your hometown a poorly planned, narcissistic, inconsiderate, and frankly just plain bad move? Probably. Frankly, I think the only place that LeBron could have gone without getting all this flak would've been like to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where nobody knows what's going on, and that wasn't going to happen. For the people that are upset in regards to the decision to have a fairly classless announcement of his decision via an ESPN interview on national television, I can't help you, it's bad press, it was a stupid PR stunt. For those of you that are upset he didn't stay in Cleveland (ahem, Dan Gilbert), I have two words for you: shut up.

Yes, James can probably dubbed an egotistical narcissist, I will neither deny nor endorse that statement. From a purely basketball perspective though, let's consider what James has in store. If Cleveland wants to blame anyone for LeBron leaving, blame the front office, seriously, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in all honesty (and my "expert" opinion) have never been championship contenders, that they even got this far is frankly (I think) a merit to how good LeBron James really is. Seriously, since LeBron James was drafted in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers the Cavs have never had anyone really any good outside of LeBron James. In James's rookie year behind James you had Carlos Boozer, Ricky Davis, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas all averaging about 15 points per game, fair enough, that seems like a pretty good team, right? You still got Tony Battie and Darius Miles coming off the bench. In 2003-2004 the Lakers lost in the Finals to a well balanced Detroit Pistons featuring a starting five of Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, and Ben Wallace. The Cavs? Yeah, no playoffs. LeBron was a rookie, fair enough. In 2004-2005 season, no playoffs again for the Cavaliers. Oh yeah, Spurs beat the Pistons in 7 that year. Boozer and Davis are gone and the Cavs' second scoring option is Zydrunas Ilgauskas, behind him you now have Drew Gooden as your third offensive option and a huge curtail off behind that with minutes being sopped up by Robert Traylor, Ira Newble, and Jeff McInnis. In the 2005-2006 season, Paul Silas gets canned as the head coach and replaced by Mike Brown. The Cavs make the playoffs and lose in the second round to the Pistons. Cavs front office got the brilliant idea to give a huge contract to Larry Hughes to play next to LeBron, we all know how well that worked... Hughes averaged a rough 15.5 points per game, kind of Ricky Davis-esque performance eh? This year, the Mavericks collapse to the Heat after taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. In 2006-2007 we're still featuring a "Big Three" of LeBron, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Larry Hughes/Drew Gooden. The Cavs miraculously get to the finals only to get swept by the Spurs. In 2007-2008 the Cavs revamp, Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes are traded for Ben Wallace and Joe Smith. Smith is later traded to the Sonics for Wally Sczerbiak and Delonte West. Something along those lines. Cavs lose to the new Big Three of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett in the conference semifinals. In 2008-2009, we revamp again, the Cavs draft J.J. Hickson and manage to acquire Mo Williams from the Bucks. Then they are subsequently destroyed by Orlando's pick-and-roll game in the conference finals. Finally in 2009-2010, to remedy their problems, the Cavs add Shaq, who is notoriously one of the worst pick-and-roll defenders in the league. Yeah... makes a ton of sense right? They trade mid-season for Antawn Jamison and then are ousted in the second round once again by Boston.

Now that's a quick snapshot history of the Cavs with LeBron on the team, and quite frankly, Dan Gilbert and Danny Ferry had done a horrendous job of putting any talent next to LeBron, any talent that would get them anywhere. Some people might note that they've had the best record in the league before, so what? The Mavericks had a 67-15 record going into the playoffs in 2006-2007, and they were beaten in the first round by Don Nelson's crazy ball Golden State Warriors. Just because you're a good regular season team doesn't mean jack. The only way it could mean anything would be if the NBA was formatted like the NCAA March Madness tournament, one and done. It doesn't make a difference if Cleveland and LeBron had a 66-16 overall record for the 2008-2009 season, the fact that they couldn't guard a Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard pick-and-roll set means that they can't win in the playoffs. Frankly Cleveland fans, if you're going to be angry, be angry at your FO, be angry at your team roster management, because frankly, they didn't get the job done. Don't tell me they tried, because to be frank the Cavs were never that good.

So LeBron is gone. Yeah, he is. He's gone, and it's too bad. Don't blame him though, he's going where he can be successful. Think about it logically, forget the money, we know he has enough. If I'm LeBron, what are my choices? The top were what? New Jersey, Cleveland, New York, Chicago, and Miami. So think about this, who would I rather play with if I'm LeBron? Who's going to give me the best shot at winning? Should I go back to Cleveland where it's just Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison? Where I haven't won anything in the past 7 years? Should I go to New York where Amar'e is? Play next to Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari? Or New Jersey with Brook Lopez and Devin Harris, who almost broke the record for most losses in a season? Chicago? With Carlos Boozer and Derrick Rose? Or with Miami, where we already knew that Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, two fellow 2008 Team USA teammates and good friends, and fellow All-Stars have committed to sign? Sure, he was a jerk to do it on national TV but we're all suckers for watching him do it. Seriously Cleveland, suck it up, don't blame LeBron, if you're going to blame anyone, blame your organization for not being able to keep him. Seriously, why do you think Garnett didn't win a ring until he got to Boston? Seriously.

The Exit Poll: Chicago Bulls

2010-05-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

Next team up is the Chicago Bulls, the once great dynasty from the 1990s, oh, how the great have fallen.

Coach: Vinny Del Negro
PG: Derrick Rose, Jannero Pargo
SG: Kirk Hinrich, Flip Murray
SF: Luol Deng, James Johnson
PF: Taj Gibson, Hakim Warrick
C: Joakim Noah, Brad Miller
Reserves: Acie Law, Devin Brown, Rob Kurz, Chris Richard, Joe Alexander

I don't know where to start with this team. I know Kelly Dwyer from Yahoo! Sports has a soft spot for this team. I personally was rooting for the Mailman during the Finals in 1997 and 1998. Now... well, frankly, they only made the Playoffs because the Raptors really are that bad. I don't know enough about Del Negro to say how he does as head coach, but I've heard enough stories to know that he's not really that good, and I suppose I'm putting it a little more nicely than some of them. Derrick Rose has shown potential, but not a whole lot else. Sure he can score, sure he's fast, sure he can get assists, but his shot selection isn't stellar and he takes probably the most inefficient shot in basketball at a very, very high clip. Everyone else, well, everyone else is a plug piece. Noah and Gibson are both energy guys in the mold of someone like Anderson Varejao, while Deng, one of the premier mid-range shooters in the league, is primarily a viable instant-offense second option. Hinrich is a facilitator and defensive specialist, great piece but only in the right system (say Portland?). This means Derrick Rose is the go-to guy, not a go-to guy I'd look for.

I think most of these guys are expiring contracts. Word on the street is Vinny Del Negro is out, but in terms of players, it's hard to say. The obvious answer is a more consistent scorer, optimally someone in the post. However, if we like Taj Gibson. Well, I don't know that they want to get rid of or give up on Derrick Rose yet, but maybe an offensive option in the 2 and defensive options off the bench, better than James Johnson, Jannero Pargo, and Flip Murray. Maybe a fully healthy Luol Deng will make the difference, but I can't say how much so. Nothing short of a major re-haul, but maybe I'm biased, I don't really like anyone on the team aside from Deng.

The Exit Roll: Charlotte Bobcats

2010-05-03T00:46:00.000-07:00

I apologize for those people that are looking to read my witty exposition and my failure to write for you. Anyways, so here is my next piece, or set of pieces. I'm looking at the teams that got ousted from the first round of the playoffs and how I think they can change it. Let's go:

The Charlotte Bobcats. Well, they did a lot better than people thought they would. I personally think that they got bad luck drawing the Magic for the first round. I really think that they had a shot if they drew Boston, but instead, they had to face Dwight Howard and a rather embarrassing first round sweep as their franchise playoff debut. So going into this post season, how can they get better? Well, let's start at the logical place, what do they have now?

Head Coach: Larry Brown
PG: Raymond Felton, D.J. Augustin
SG: Stephen Jackson, Larry Hughes
SF: Gerald Wallace, Stephen Graham
PF: Boris Diaw, Tyrus Thomas
C: Theo Ratliff, Tyson Chandler
Reserves: Nazr Mohammed, DeSagana Diop, Gerald Henderson, Alexis Ajinca

My first reaction to this roster is simply that, I like it. It's a good lineup full of good players. However, a slew of "good" players don't make up for the glaring lack of excellent players. Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson are known for their above-average defense, and if Gerald Wallace weren't so injury prone then I would call him one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, and Stephen Jackson, well, he's showing his age. Boris Diaw, well, he's not consistent, but when he's on, he's a good defender and Tyson Chandler is one of the premier post defenders in the league, but Chandler is also known to be an injury liability. While I think Jackson and Wallace are decent offensively, the Bobcats don't really have a go-to offensive option. Most notably they don't have a presence in the post, while Jackson is decent, he's not great and not someone I'd consider go-to down low. Then, neither are Diaw, Tyrus Thomas, Theo Ratliff, nor Tyson Chandler. Nazr Mohammed is decent, but I understand the reservation Larry Brown has for giving Mohammed extended minutes, we saw how that worked out in every team Mohammed's been on except San Antonio, and of course, that might have something to do with a little someone named Tim Duncan.

I like the core of Jackson, Wallace, and Chandler, and Gerald Henderson looks to be a good prospect, but they need someone, someone that can put points on the board, and given their age and injury track record, they have to win NOW. I don't think they can get rid of Diaw, and Larry Hughes is an expiring contract, but to be honest, I can't say they have very attractive tradeable assets. You figure that with 5 different centers they'd figure out something of a big man rotation, but given who it is, DeSagana Diop, Alexis Ajinca, Nazr Mohammed, and Theo Ratliff, they're not really tradeable. The obvious upgrades, at least positionally, are PG or PF. Raymond Felton and Boris Diaw, serviceable, but only if you have some offensive options next to them. Given Stephen Jackson's underrated passing ability, maybe a score-first point guard (Gilbert Arenas?) or something... Otherwise, a solid post scorer at PF (Carlos Boozer?). I don't know that free agency is really an option to be frank, I don't know that they have the cap-space, so it's gotta be a trade, but they have all these bloated contracts: Diaw, Diop, Mohammed, etc... We'll see how it works. Hopefully Michael Jordan doesn't call too many of the shots.

Trades in the shadow of the All-Star Game

2010-02-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I didn't watch the All-Star Game this year, from all reports it was okay that I didn't. I heard it wasn't really that good. Anyways, I check the boards to find, this massive trade between Washington and Dallas. It's something to ponder. In summary, it's Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton, and Quinton Ross.

Hm... how does this pan out? Not sure. We know that Washington is on firesale mode, and completely rebuilding, so it's not a bad deal for them, I think all the contracts are expiring, if not, Howard is a decent piece to build around. So the big question is how this works out for Dallas. I think Butler is an upgrade over Howard, but a marginal one, though many might disagree with me given Howard's recent slump. Though he doesn't bring the rebounding that Howard has, the presence of Shawn Marion mitigates the problem slightly. Additionally, Brendan Haywood I think is the clincher. He's somewhat underappreciated as a center since he played for Washington, he's not elite, but he certainly is an upgrade over Erick Dampier and Drew Gooden on the offensive and defensive ends respectively. I think DeShawn Stevenson is also a legitimate backup on the wings. All-in-all, way to capitalize Dallas. I anticipate Butler and Haywood will start immediately, so as soon as they get integrated into Rick Carlisle's system, Dallas becomes that much scarier. Singleton and Ross were pretty expendable so, Dallas gets an A for upgrading needs at starter and adding depth. Both Butler and Marion can shift between the 2 and 3 slots to the 3 and 4 slots, DeShawn Stevenson can play the same positions as Butler, and then adding in Terry and Dirk the wings are covered pretty well, then Dampier serves a suitable backup for Haywood. Score for Dallas.

The 5 Most Confusing Front Offices

2009-10-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Since the season has started, I'm going to do this quick piece on pretty much my overall offseason grades for various front offices. I'm a critical guy, so I'll just go with the five worst. I mean, these confused the heck out of me. These aren't in any particular order, just the order that I come up with in my brain.

1.) Minnesota Timberwolves

To say that this team boggles me is something of an understatement. The first move made was essentially trading Mike Miller and Randy Foye for Ricky Rubio, who, mind you, probably isn't even going to play this season. Even if he did, I don't see him being very spectacular, he's like... Steve Nash without a jumpshot. That was something understandable, as Foye was obviously not a point guard and Sebastian Telfair in a starting gig is just hurting. Great, so T'Wolves go and land one of the premier points in the draft, and then subsequently draft the next premier point in the draft in Johnny Flynn. Either Flynn is expensive Rubio-not-coming-to-America insurance, or something's up. Obviously we were all a little shocked when Sacramento opted for Tyreke Evans over Rubio, and we knew Rubio's stock was quickly dropping and therefore he no longer was super valuable as trade bait because the first 3 teams didn't need him. Then they draft Wayne Ellington, fine, project PG, probably our backup. Rebuilding looks good so far huh? Until we remember that T'Wolves now have no wing players whatsoever. Rashad McCants was traded to Sac, Foye and Miller gone to Washington. So to solve their problems, the T'Wolves decide to trade Craig Smith and Sebastian Telfair, who do they get back? Jason Hart? Wait, they need another PG? I feel really bad for Al Jefferson at this point in time. Deciding to make a splash in free agency, the T'Wolves later decide to sign Ramon Sessions. We so far, have a roster of 4 PGs with one playing overseas. Please do not tell me Sessions is a combo guard. The wings currently are Ryan Gomes and Corey Brewer with no SG to speak of. Somehow then, they manage to pick up Sasha Pavlovic and Damien Wilkins, serviceable but nothing stellar. Essentially, I think they're eventually hoping for either Sessions or Flynn to really make a huge impact and become studs, I mean, if we take everything else away, T'Wolves essentially gave up Foye, Miller, Smith, and Telfair for Sessions, Wilkins, Pavlovic, and I suppose ultimately Flynn. Unless this Rubio gamble pays off and he manages to somehow play with two other starting caliber point guards, or gets traded for some stud on the wings, the PG love from the T'Wolves was confusing as heck, and honestly, doesn't make them better. It overaddresses one need, and doesn't address any others.

2.) Memphis Grizzlies

I'm starting to take this team as seriously as the Harlem Globetrotters. Okay, so first, they trade Darko for Quentin Richardson, understandable, sort of... Then they draft Hasheem Thabeet, which confused me to no end, but I guess that means Marc Gasol isn't good enough? That boggles my mind. The 2nd overall pick isn't something you spend on a simple defensive stopper, 7-feet or nothing, they have Gasol, so I'm not sure how that's going to work. Then they trade Q-Rich for Z-Bo (Zach Randolph). Great... While it solves the problem of interior scoring, the last thing the Grizzlies need is a ballhogging black hole (like OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay). There isn't a single player on the roster at the moment that can be effective not putting the ball in the bucket, and not a single player on the roster who can be effective without the ball in his hands. Then to top it all off the Grizzlies opt to sign the one player that needs the ball in his hands the most, Allen Iverson. I'm sorry, but all the carts from the 3pt shootout won't be enough balls to go around for this team. If you thought AI and Melo on Denver had sticky hands, what about a floor spread of Iverson, Mayo, Gay, and Randolph? Geez. Sure it's an offensive powerhouse, but that's what Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph were supposed to be three years ago, and we all saw how that turned out.

3.) Atlanta Hawks

I understand why the Warriors traded Jamal Crawford, they just wanted to get rid of him, it's kind of a Nellie thing. What I don't understand is why ultimately the Hawks traded for him. It's not that I don't like Crawford, but it's just that he doesn't really fit. The trade ultimately ended up being Speedy Claxton and Acie Law for Jamal Crawford. Claxton and Law probably will see little to no playing time in Nellie-ball, but Crawford apparently is supposed to fill the void of 6th man on the Hawks. While the idea of the shooting from a Jamal Crawford/Joe Johnson backcourt is intriguing, it's fairly redundant. From my perspective, Jamal Crawford is essentially a highly inefficient Joe Johnson, who in and of himself is already pretty inefficient. What this does mean though, is that perhaps the Hawks haven't yet given up on Josh Smith. While this provides a means of flexibility, possibly moving Joe Johnson on occasion to SF, having a backcourt of Bibby, Crawford, Johnson, the concept of Jamal Crawford being a Flip Murray upgrade is a little confusing to me. Why? Simply put, Murray knows his spot, Crawford needs the ball a lot to be effective. If Joe Johnson still gets his touches, Crawford's game is going to have to come at the expense of Williams, Smith, and Horford. I'm not entirely ecstatic about such a prospect. Of course, the Hawks could prove me wrong by having Crawford simply prove me wrong about him, or turn their forwards (Williams, Smith, Horford) into some monstrous offensive rebounding team.

4.) Charlotte Bobcats

I'm sorry, if this team wants me to start taking them seriously (and I bet they could care less if I'm taking them seriously) they have to start considering the implications of their moves. A year after Larry Brown takes over, the Bobcats opted to swap their center Emeka Okafor, for Tyson Chandler. On paper it looks like a wash, Okafor is slightly better offensively and Chandler is a legit 7-footer with stellar defense. What's the problem then? First, on a team that struggles with its offense, replacing an offensive cog with a defensive piece doesn't really make sense. While Chandler is active, a lot of his production came from playing with Chris Paul, production that neither Raymond Felton nor DJ Augustin can help replicate. While I respect the players, Larry Brown essentially has his three primary scoring options shifted to Gerald Wallace, Boris Diaw, and Raja Bell, not exactly what I'd call explosive. Of course, Larry Brown's recent success has shown that perhaps you don't need a scorer, as seen with the 2004 Detroit Squad. Yet something tells me that Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, and Rasheed Wallace are greater than Wallace, Diaw, and Bell, especially if you consider the support cast of Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace, and Antonio McDyess as compared to Raymond Felton, Tyson Chandler, and DJ Augustin. I don't get it. I really don't. Maybe someone can clue me in.

5.) Milwaukee Bucks

The traded Richard Jefferson for essentially Kurt Thomas (they cut Bowen and Oberto), and then traded for Amir Johnson and then traded Amir Johnson again. Then signed Hakim Warrick and drafted Brandon Jennings. Though it's technically not this offseason, I'm still reeling from the whole extension of the Andrew Bogut. I mean I know he was first overall pick, but really? Is he that good? I know you overpay big men, but the same price tag as Deron Williams and Chris Paul? I'm still not convinced he's anything more than a younger Chris Kaman. With the retention of Kurt Thomas and the signing of Kurt Thomas I'm not entirely convinced that the Bucks are rebuilding, but then again, maybe they are with a core of Brandon Jennings, Luc-Richard Mbah-a-Moute, and Joe Alexander. Of course, that makes me feel bad for Michael Redd. I really don't know. It's like they want to try to covertly go young, so they move towards Mbah-a-Moute and Jennings, but not so you know, so they go keep Ridnour and Redd... Yeah, if that's as confusing to read as it was to write, I think I've done my job.

No more Captain Jack

2009-10-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

Stephen Jackson want out of Golden State and will cause havoc unil he is able to be traded. He would of had a lot of trade value if he didn't sign a 3 year, $28 million dollar contract extension last year which leav 4 years and $35 million dollars left on his contract. No team would take on that contract, especially for a 31 year old with a somewhat troubled past and very prone to technical fouls.

In an exhibition gme against the Lakers, Jackson picked up 5 fouls in less than 10 minutes along with a technical. I know these replacement referees are pretty bad, but those 5 fouls didn't come from his aggressive defense on Kobe, but him wanting out of Golden State and causing any kind of trouble he can. He and coach Don Nelson aren't getting along anymore as Nellie suspended Jackson for 2 exhibition games and more will likely to come if Jackson doesn't get traded and continues to plague the Warriors. If the Warriors really want to make it tough on Jackson, they should suspend him for many games in which he will not get paid.

But maybe there is a small chance that somehow Jackson wants to play well along with Monta, Curry, Randolph and Biedrins and start winning games, all this this will easily be forgotten. Winning always cures everything. Will Warriors fans ever get a chance to see winning basketball in the Bay Area anytime soon?

Sucks for Sessions, Sucks for the Knicks

2009-08-26T06:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure what the New York Knicks are going for here. Do they really want to win? I grew up in upstate New York so I'm something of a closet Knicks fan, there's still a little hometown loyalty left in me, but because I started following basketball seriously during the end of the Isaiah Thomas-running-the-show era it was something of a fairly difficult pill to swallow. Since then, Donnie Walsh has successfully removed most everyone Isaiah Thomas had brought in (see: Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson, Stephon Marbury, Jerome James, Renaldo Balkman, Zach Randolph, Malik Rose, and Isaiah Thomas) with few exceptions (see: Wilson Chandler, Eddy Curry, and Jarred Jeffries) with a couple of the fan favorites in limbo (see: Nate Robinson and David Lee). From how I see it right now, the only guaranteed contracts come 2010 are Danilo Gallinari, Eddy Curry, and Jared Jeffries, the latter two of which Walsh is working furiously to get off the books. While Walsh has made strides to rectify the debacle that Dolan and Thomas had brought upon themselves and the once respectable Knicks organization, he's done little else to make the team better, to make the team something to believe in, heck, even something that makes the playoffs in a mediocre (but improving) Eastern Conference. While I understand the concept of saving for a big name star in 2010 (one that might not even show up), does surrounding said star (see: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amar'e Stoudemire) with a slapdash collection of random talent really help? I mean, I like Wilson Chandler, and Danilo Gallinaro is supposed to be a stud, but are we really going to try to play them at the SG and PF spots respectively if the Knicks do land LeBron? Is that enough?

The big free agent name of the 2009 offseason for the Knicks has been Ramon Sessions, and if the reports are to be trusted, then Sessions will not be signing with the Knicks, ouch. I can't say I know enough about Sessions save except some numbers to say that I have a fair grasp of what Sessions can do. I mean, I know that he dropped 20 assists in a meaningless game at the end of another losing Bucks season in 2007. I know that Scott Skiles ended up playing him next to Ridnour as an off guard and his production suffered. I know that he's still young, and has tons of potential and everybody likes him, and I know that he's no longer welcome in Milwaukee, and the only other team courting him, the Clippers, would make him the backup failsafe plan of a questionably motivated Baron Davis. I also know that he has holes in his game, he can't hit an outside shot to save his life, but you know what? Neither can Rajon Rondo, nor Andre Miller, Tony Parker had a questionable jumper until recently, Jason Kidd's jumper's not exactly stellar either. My point is simple, certainly Ramon Sessions is by no means a finished product, I mean, he's only 24, he's not been in the league that long, so he has room to grow, but I think that Sessions is exactly the kind of player that the Knicks needs, and the Knicks are exactly the kind of team that Sessions needs.

Sessions is a young explosive player who has the potential to be an exciting draw for Knicks fans and basketball fans for Donnie Walsh. Paired with the freedom that Mike D'Antoni gives to PGs in his 7-second-or-less offense, Sessions has the potential to really grow into his own. I mean, just look at what D'Antoni was able to do with Chris Duhon, a prototypical NBA backup point guard. Just look at Leandro Barbosa and Steve Nash with and without D'Antoni's offense. Yet Donnie Walsh seems allergic to Sessions based entirely on the fact that he wants years, and Jared Jeffries and Eddy Curry are still on the books. It'll be a pity if Sessions is still a free agent come trade deadline, but it'll be a steal for the Knicks if he is and they can jettison one of Curry's or Jeffries's contract if not both, though I don't know why a talent like Sessions would fall to that far. Some might find it hard to fault Walsh because of the 2010 jackpot in free agency, I mean there's LeBron, Bosh, Wade, Amar'e, Kobe, Joe Johnson, Ray Allen, Dirk Nowitzki, just to name a few. Honestly though, for those teams that haven't made it, does moving from one mediocre team to another mediocre team that pays more really make it worth it to them? If it does, does New York really want that kind of a player? It really depends on what New York wants to do, and I personally want New York to win, it's pointless if you don't play to win. New York is already still one of the most profitable franchises in the league and they're probably at best the second or third worst team in the Eastern Conference. How long will "At least we're better than the Nets and the Grizzlies" really last you? Will Dwayne Wade find the combination of Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari that much better than one of Mario Chalmers and Michael Beasley? Will Chris Bosh really think that it'll be better there than with Calderon and Turkoglu? Really? If they're winners why not go play in Cleveland (taking Shaq's paycheck) with LeBron? Or maybe some Western Conference team that's more competitive? Certainly there is the implication of being a marquee player for a larger market, and while Amar'e might want to play once again with D'Antoni, his competitiveness has been questioned and he's now widely regarded as someone who can't take a team the distance.

So save for the future? What's Donnie Walsh going to do if all of the big names balk at playing at New York with a bunch of misfits? Is there anything even moderately appealing to some combination of Larry Hughes, Chris Duhon, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Al Harrington, Darko Milicic, Eddy Curry, Jared Jeffries, and possibly David Lee and Nate Robinson? Of which only 4 of whom will be around and only 2 of which will likely play in the 2010-2011 season if all 4 are still around. Knicks need direction, and they have none, "waiting for the 2010 free agency" isn't any more direction than "waiting for a multi-million dollar inheritance/lottery" is a career path. Sessions needs the Knicks, the Knicks need Sessions, do the right thing.

What is with the Wizards' Players? Seriously.

2009-08-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

“I told people that it’s a unique situation. It’s one of those situations were this is where teams really have a chance to build their team, when you have injuries like that. It’s a completely different aspect of what it was in San Antonio, but it’s in the same realm of what San Antonio was when you have an injury like they did with David Robinson and they had a chance to get a pick. You have talent with this team with Antawn, Caron, Gilbert, who’s got three all-stars; to have a top-5 pick in the draft is something you don’t expect. So, when you have that kinda talent, it’s just injuries and they didn’t play together all last year, it gives us an opportunity to build something here. When you have a losing record the year before, you can have a chance to bring in different talent, and hopefully we can mesh together and make it happen.”

The above quote was given by newly acquired Washington Wizards Mike Miller. I honestly have no real idea of how he's drawing this comparison between Washington and San Antonio except maybe that their best player was injured. When Robinson got injured, San Antonio was a team featuring a 37 year-old Dominique Wilkins as its top scoring player, featuring some mix of starters among Avery Johnson, Vinny Del Negro, Will Perdue, Carl Herrera, Vernon Maxwell, Greg Anderson, and Monty Williams. Sean Elliot, the third best player on the team, only played 39 games. Despite injuries, Wizards were never without at least one, if not two of Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler, and Antawn Jamison, the three of which probably outscored the entire 1996-1997 San Antonio team put together. Sure, because of injuries Wizards got a lottery pick (5th), which they promptly traded away for Miller and Foye. So is Miller calling himself Tim Duncan? I don't get it.

Does DeShawn Stevenson know what he's talking about?

2009-08-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

I know players are supposed to be confident in their teams, I know they're supposed to say the right things, but making bold promises? That's pretty iffy. When you make a concrete guarantee, you're putting someone up to prove you wrong, especially if you haven't proven anything before. So, the latest of them has been from the Washington Wizards, with DeShawn Stevenson making this bold claim:

"If Gilbert is 70 percent, we're going win a lot of games. If Gilbert is 80 percent, we're going to be No. 1 in the East. If he's 100 percent, we might win a championship."

Obviously the Gilbert being referred to is none other than Wizard's captain Gilbert Arenas, aka Agent Zero. Does Stevenson's assessment of Arenas ring true? I don't know, as he's only played 15 games in the past two seasons, that's right, he's only seen floor time 15 out of the past 164 possible regular season games. While the "percent" that Agent Zero plays at may be arbitrary, Stevenson all but guarantees the Wizards to be at the top of the Eastern Conference. Is that even feasible with Gilbert at 100%? I'm dead serious, I'm sure Washington is a great team, but does having Gilbert Arenas automatically make them better than Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando? Hm.... Well, let's look at the rosters. The Washington Wizards boast a lineup likely of:

PG - Gilbert Arenas, Randy Foye, Javaris Crittenton
SG - Mike Miller, Nick Young, DeShawn Stevenson
SF - Caron Butler, Dominic McGuire
PF - Antawn Jamison, Andray Blatche
C - Brendan Haywood, JaVale McGee

Okay, that's pretty impressive, but let's look at matchups:

Cleveland Cavaliers:

PG - Mo Williams, Daniel Gibson
SG - Delonte West, Anthony Parker
SF - LeBron James, Jamario Moon, Jawad Williams
PF - Anderson Varejao, Leon Powe, JJ Hickson
C - Shaquille O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Boston Celtics:

PG - Rajon Rondo, Eddie House
SG - Ray Allen, Tony Allen
SF - Paul Pierce, Marquis Daniels, Bill Walker
PF - Kevin Garnett, Glen Davis, Brian Scalabrine
C - Kendrick Perkins, Rasheed Wallace

Orlando Magic:

PG - Jameer Nelson, Anthony Johnson
SG - Vince Carter, JJ Redick
SF - Mickael Pietrus, Matt Barnes
PF - Rashard Lewis, Brandon Bass, Ryan Anderson
C - Dwight Howard, Marcin Gortat

Now let's assume 2006-2007 performance would be comparable to Gilbert Arenas at 100% and do some quick comparisons:

Per 36:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Gilbert Arenas	2006-07	25	74	73	2942	7.9	18.9	.418	2.5	7.1	.351	7.4	8.8	.844	0.7	3.4	4.1	5.4	1.7	0.2	2.9	3.0	25.8
2	Jameer Nelson	2008-09	26	42	42	1309	7.3	14.6	.503	2.3	5.0	.453	2.4	2.7	.887	0.6	3.4	4.0	6.2	1.4	0.1	2.3	3.4	19.3
3	Rajon Rondo	2008-09	22	80	80	2642	5.2	10.3	.505	0.2	0.7	.313	2.3	3.7	.642	1.4	4.3	5.7	9.0	2.0	0.1	2.8	2.6	13.0
4	Mo Williams	2008-09	26	81	81	2834	6.7	14.3	.467	2.3	5.3	.436	2.6	2.9	.912	0.6	2.9	3.5	4.2	0.9	0.1	2.3	2.7	18.3

Advanced:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	MP	PER	TS%	eFG%	ORB%	DRB%	TRB%	AST%	STL%	BLK%	TOV%	USG%	ORtg	DRtg	OWS	DWS	WS
1	Gilbert Arenas	2006-07	25	74	2942	24.0	.565	.484	2.3	11.1	6.6	27.2	2.4	0.3	11.2	31.4	115	111	9.6	1.5	11.1
2	Jameer Nelson	2008-09	26	42	1309	20.6	.612	.580	1.8	10.5	6.2	32.1	2.0	0.2	12.6	23.2	121	103	3.9	2.1	6.0
3	Rajon Rondo	2008-09	22	80	2642	18.8	.543	.514	4.8	13.9	9.6	39.7	3.0	0.3	19.2	19.2	114	101	4.7	5.0	9.7
4	Mo Williams	2008-09	26	81	2834	17.2	.588	.548	2.1	9.4	5.9	20.1	1.3	0.3	12.7	23.4	115	106	5.9	3.6	9.4

Okay, well, in the PG battle, a healthy Gilbert Arenas obviously has the advantage. While Rajon Rondo and Jameer Nelson are still "breaking out" it's hard to imagine that either would mimic the production that Arenas, completely healthy would provide. However, remember, basketball is a team sport, certainly the Wizards would have the advantage if all other positions were a wash. While Williams of the four is the weakest PG performance wise, we also have to remember the roles each has on the team, Rondo and Williams have more facilitator roles whereas Arenas is the go-to guy. Nelson is a little harder to place as he's somewhere between the two.

Let's move on to the off-guard position:

Per 36:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Ray Allen	2008-09	33	79	79	2876	6.2	13.0	.480	2.5	6.1	.409	3.0	3.1	.952	0.8	2.7	3.5	2.7	0.9	0.2	1.7	2.0	17.9
2	Vince Carter	2008-09	32	80	80	2946	7.2	16.4	.437	1.8	4.8	.385	4.1	5.0	.817	0.9	4.1	5.0	4.6	1.0	0.5	2.0	2.9	20.3
3	Mike Miller	2008-09	28	73	47	2356	4.0	8.4	.482	1.3	3.4	.378	1.7	2.3	.732	1.1	6.3	7.4	5.0	0.5	0.5	2.2	2.1	11.0
4	Delonte West	2008-09	25	64	64	2152	4.8	10.4	.457	1.5	3.8	.399	1.5	1.8	.833	0.5	2.9	3.4	3.8	1.6	0.2	1.5	2.1	12.6

Advanced:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	MP	PER	TS%	eFG%	ORB%	DRB%	TRB%	AST%	STL%	BLK%	TOV%	USG%	ORtg	DRtg	OWS	DWS	WS
1	Ray Allen	2008-09	33	79	2876	17.3	.624	.575	2.9	8.6	5.9	12.6	1.3	0.4	10.4	20.8	122	106	7.3	3.6	11.0
2	Vince Carter	2008-09	32	80	2946	19.3	.545	.493	3.0	13.8	8.3	23.7	1.5	1.1	9.8	26.8	112	112	5.6	1.8	7.4
3	Mike Miller	2008-09	28	73	2356	13.8	.588	.559	3.5	21.2	12.0	21.6	0.7	1.0	19.1	14.5	112	112	2.8	1.4	4.2
4	Delonte West	2008-09	25	64	2152	14.1	.559	.530	1.8	9.2	5.6	16.6	2.4	0.5	12.0	16.7	114	104	2.9	3.3	6.2

I understand that Mike Miller had his confidence shot last season and was plagued throughout the year by injuries, but even if we took the year before when he was healthy and playing well, the advantage still goes to Orlando in this matchup. Delonte West of course is the defensive presence on the Cavs so obviously he's fairly far down in the pecking order, but he does make a difference. Carter has been playing well despite all the nay-sayers and his age, as has Ray Allen, though Allen has been somewhat less consistent since joining the Celtics, but he is also the third option behind both Pierce and Garnett, so he's not getting a huge number of touches. While Miller adds a lot in other aspects other than scoring, he's also known for not being very good defensively. Definitely not making the difference for me here.

Onwards to the SF position:

Per 36:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Caron Butler	2008-09	28	67	67	2585	6.8	15.1	.453	0.9	2.9	.310	4.8	5.6	.858	1.6	4.1	5.8	4.0	1.5	0.3	2.9	2.3	19.4
2	LeBron James	2008-09	24	81	81	3054	9.3	19.0	.489	1.6	4.5	.344	7.0	9.0	.780	1.2	6.0	7.2	6.9	1.6	1.1	2.8	1.6	27.2
3	Paul Pierce	2008-09	31	81	81	3035	6.4	14.0	.457	1.4	3.6	.391	5.4	6.6	.830	0.7	4.8	5.4	3.5	0.9	0.3	2.7	2.5	19.7
4	Mickael Pietrus	2008-09	26	54	25	1329	4.8	11.5	.413	2.2	6.0	.359	2.1	3.0	.709	1.2	3.6	4.8	1.8	0.8	0.7	1.5	3.4	13.8

Advanced:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	MP	PER	TS%	eFG%	ORB%	DRB%	TRB%	AST%	STL%	BLK%	TOV%	USG%	ORtg	DRtg	OWS	DWS	WS
1	Caron Butler	2008-09	28	67	2585	18.8	.552	.482	5.2	13.8	9.4	19.7	2.2	0.6	14.3	25.9	108	113	3.4	1.1	4.4
2	LeBron James	2008-09	24	81	3054	31.7	.591	.530	4.3	19.0	11.9	38.0	2.4	2.4	11.0	33.8	122	99	13.3	6.3	19.6
3	Paul Pierce	2008-09	31	81	3035	17.7	.582	.508	2.4	15.4	9.2	16.3	1.4	0.7	13.8	25.4	112	104	5.4	4.8	10.2
4	Mickael Pietrus	2008-09	26	54	1329	11.6	.538	.507	3.8	10.9	7.5	8.0	1.2	1.3	10.6	18.4	106	104	1.0	2.1	3.0

All of the starting forwards here save Pietrus are All-Stars. However, it's hard to dispute that LeBron would be in the best shape here, simply because he's LeBron. It's hard to argue against one of the best players in the league despite how good both Butler and Pierce are. Advantage here always goes to the Cavs so long as LeBron is healthy and playing.

At the PF slot:

Per 36:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Kevin Garnett	2008-09	32	57	57	1772	8.0	15.0	.531	0.0	0.2	.250	2.3	2.7	.841	1.6	8.3	9.9	2.9	1.3	1.4	1.8	2.6	18.3
2	Antawn Jamison	2008-09	32	81	81	3096	7.8	16.8	.468	1.3	3.7	.351	4.0	5.3	.754	2.3	6.1	8.4	1.8	1.1	0.3	1.5	2.5	20.9
3	Rashard Lewis	2008-09	29	79	79	2859	6.0	13.7	.439	2.8	7.0	.397	2.8	3.4	.836	1.2	4.5	5.7	2.6	1.0	0.6	2.0	2.4	17.6
4	Anderson Varejao	2008-09	26	81	42	2306	4.2	7.9	.536	0.0	0.0	.000	2.4	3.9	.616	2.6	6.5	9.1	1.3	1.2	1.0	1.2	3.7	10.8

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	MP	PER	TS%	eFG%	ORB%	DRB%	TRB%	AST%	STL%	BLK%	TOV%	USG%	ORtg	DRtg	OWS	DWS	WS
1	Kevin Garnett	2008-09	32	57	1772	21.2	.563	.532	5.6	26.7	16.6	14.7	1.9	3.1	10.1	23.4	112	98	3.0	4.1	7.0
2	Antawn Jamison	2008-09	32	81	3096	20.6	.549	.507	7.2	20.5	13.7	9.1	1.6	0.7	7.1	25.9	114	113	6.5	1.6	8.1
3	Rashard Lewis	2008-09	29	79	2859	16.8	.580	.540	3.7	13.9	8.9	12.5	1.5	1.3	11.6	22.0	113	103	4.7	4.9	9.6
4	Anderson Varejao	2008-09	26	81	2306	14.6	.565	.536	8.9	20.6	15.0	5.4	1.8	2.3	11.5	14.2	116	100	3.2	4.5	7.7

As well as Antawn Jamison has played, you can't really match the two-way intensity that Kevin Garnett brings to the floor. While his numbers have suffered, you have to realize that he now has Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to carry much of the offensive load on the team for him, so he's not required to do as much. The impact from Garnett is made mostly on the defensive end, and I find that Jamison and Lewis are a wash. Remember that Jamison played this previous year so well partially due to Arenas being out, he's not going to get as many touches if Arenas is back.

Finally the C position:

Per 36:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Brendan Haywood	2007-08	28	80	80	2228	5.1	9.7	.528		3.5	4.8	.735	4.4	4.9	9.3	1.1	0.5	2.1	1.7	3.5	13.7
2	Dwight Howard	2008-09	23	79	79	2821	7.1	12.5	.572	.000	6.4	10.8	.594	4.3	9.7	13.9	1.4	1.0	2.9	3.1	3.4	20.7
3	Shaquille O'Neal	2008-09	36	75	75	2252	8.2	13.4	.609	.000	4.9	8.3	.595	3.0	7.1	10.1	2.0	0.8	1.7	2.7	4.0	21.3
4	Kendrick Perkins	2008-09	24	76	76	2253	4.4	7.6	.577	.000	1.5	2.6	.600	3.3	6.6	9.9	1.5	0.4	2.4	2.6	4.0	10.4

Advanced:

Rk	Player	Season	Age	G	MP	PER	TS%	eFG%	ORB%	DRB%	TRB%	AST%	STL%	BLK%	TOV%	USG%	ORtg	DRtg	OWS	DWS	WS
1	Brendan Haywood	2007-08	28	80	2228	18.3	.582	.528	14.0	16.4	15.2	5.2	0.7	5.0	12.9	17.3	119	109	4.7	1.8	6.6
2	Dwight Howard	2008-09	23	79	2821	25.4	.600	.572	13.8	29.5	21.8	7.3	1.4	5.9	15.1	26.1	113	95	6.2	7.6	13.9
3	Shaquille O'Neal	2008-09	36	75	2252	22.3	.623	.609	10.1	22.3	16.4	8.9	1.1	3.5	13.6	24.2	117	109	5.9	2.3	8.2
4	Kendrick Perkins	2008-09	24	76	2253	13.2	.591	.577	11.5	21.4	16.7	6.5	0.5	5.3	23.1	14.8	105	100	1.1	4.4	5.5

It's hard to not give Dwight Howard and the Magic the advantage at this position. Even if Haywood replicates his performance from before his injury, it's not really even close, even an aging Shaq can be more effective than Haywood.

Now I can't feasibly say that the Washington bench is significantly better if better at all than those of Cleveland, Boston, or Orlando, so if we presume those and coaching a wash, the Wizards still fall behind Orlando, and I would put them behind both Cleveland and Boston as well. At best, they can hope for the playoffs at 4th seed, and therefore not have to face one of those top three in the first round.

Breaking Down the New Orleans and Charlotte Trade

2009-07-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

This is a little late, and I'm not the only one that thinks this makes little to no sense whatsoever. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, and while various pundits have tried to explain it away somehow, I still can't help but sit and consider how remarkably incapable the Bobcats' front office really is. You'd have to think money plays into this somewhere, and that while Chandler is slated to make $2 million more than Okafor over the next two years, Okafor is signed for the next three following. It's a weak, but semi-palatable argument that gives Bobcats some resemblance of credibility on this trade, more so than Larry Brown's proclaimation of playing Chandler, at least for a little bit, at power forward. I could start pulling out numbers now and talk about immediately how Emeka Okafor is at the very least, Tyson Chandler with an offensive game. So in essence the main difference in what you're paying Chandler is 3 inches of height on Okafor.

For the Hornets this makes every single bit of sense. Not only do you retain the defense that Chandler once brought to the middle in Okafor, you add a legitimate third option scorer behind Chris Paul and David West, one that isn't as injury prone as Tyson Chandler (or Peja Stojakovic). This is important because this enables Chris Paul a little more help and decreases the necessity of having to create a shot for every single other player, he can simply toss it into the post every now and again and have Okafor back his man in. While he's no Tim Duncan, Okafor is a competent back-to-the-basket player, and therefore keeps the defense honest on him. Additionally, he can run the pick-and-roll as effectively as Chandler can. Finally, depsite being undersized, Okafor plays like a true center, requiring fairly close positioning in the paint without any teammates getting in his way, with David West's bread-and-butter being the mid-range jumper, the frontcourt has good synergy and the pieces fit well next to each other.

On the other side of the trade, I'm not really sure why they pulled this. Some argue that Okafor is too much of a center and the Bobcats haven't been able to put legitmate PFs next to him, ones that can shoot, which leads me to wonder, isn't Boris Diaw the Bobcats' starting PF? Doesn't he shoot pretty darn well? I mean, I'm pretty sure you'd have to, to be a starter in D'Antoni's 7-seconds-or-less offense. The only feasible reason would be that Larry Brown wants to run the offense less through the middle, meaning more touches and shots for who? Oh, yes, the offensive powerhouse of a trio in Gerald Wallace, Raja Bell, and Boris Diaw? Maybe Raymond Felton and DJ Augustin? Vladamir Radmanovic? Um.... Yeah, I don't get it either. As Brown mentioned in his interview, he might play Chandler sometime at PF making the other center either Nazr Mohammed or DeSagana Diop. Now, Mohammed has some scoring ability, but with a front court of Diop and Chandler? I was just watching the 1999 NBA finals on DVD, and Doug Collins consistently mentions how Jeff Van Gundy was loathe to play Chris Dudley simply because while defensively competent, he can't score, and therefore stressing the importance of buckets. Not to say that Chandler and Diop can't put the ball in the bucket when left alone, but they are by no means defensive stalwarts, and neither DJ Augustin nor Raymond Felton are extraordinarily adept at creating shots for others. I understand that defense is important, but a team full of defensive specialists that aren't exactly known to be able to score? Uh... did I miss a memo here? Sure it's nice to hold the opposition to 85 points, but it doesn't help if you can't even score 80.

Swapping Centers

2009-07-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

In the event you haven't heard yet, Charlotte and New Orleans are reaching agreements to trade Emeka Okafor and Tyson Chandler. It's an interesting swap, and you usually don't see straight up position for position swaps unless there's a particular motive, usually in terms of money or personnel fit. When we look at both players though, it's not as though either one is a lockerroom issue, from what I hear both are nice guys that fit well on both teams, both bring generally the same things to the floor, those being rebounding, solid interior defense, and a shot blocking presence. The swap to me from a basketball perspective ends up as something of a wash, however, maybe it makes a little more sense from a financial perspective, Bobcats save money in the long run and Hornets get a more offensively potent center and save a little bit of money now. Dunno how it works out, wish the best for both of them. Okafor's definitely one of those nice-guy big men that I wish Tim Duncan could've developed.

Does it matter how long you play college?

2009-07-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

I was kind of speculating. My guess is that it really doesn't, since the talent level varies significantly, and people have different reasons for leaving or staying in school. Nonetheless, since I haven't done any of these speculations in a while, here we have it:

High School Only
PG	Monta Ellis	Louis Williams
SG	Kobe Bryant	Stephen Jackson
SF	LeBron James	Tracy McGrady	Rashard Lewis
PF	Kevin Garnett	Amar'e Stoudemire
C	Dwight Howard	Al Jefferson	Andrew Bynum

One and Done
PG	Derrick Rose	Jamal Crawford
SG	OJ Mayo	Corey Maggette
SF	Kevin Durant	Carmelo Anthony	Luol Deng
PF	Lamar Odom	Anthony Randolph	Zach Randolph
C	Chris Bosh	Spencer Hawes

Sophomore Sensation
PG	Chris Paul	Chauncey Billups	Gilbert Arenas
SG	Joe Johnson	Jason Richardson
SF	Caron Butler	Andre Iguodala	Rudy Gay
PF	Elton Brand	LaMarcus Aldridge
C	Rasheed Wallace	Brook Lopez

Juniors
PG	Deron Williams	Devin Harris
SG	Dwayne Wade	Ray Allen	Vince Carter
SF	Paul Pierce	Shawn Marion
PF	Carlos Boozer	Antawn Jamison
C	Marcus Camby	Emeka Okafor	Al Horford

College Graduates
PG	Jameer Nelson	Steve Nash	Jason Terry
SG	Brandon Roy	Danny Granger
SF	Tayshaun Prince	Shane Battier	Josh Howard
PF	Tim Duncan	David West
C	Brad Miller	Brendan Haywood

Foreign Club
PG	Tony Parker	Jose Calderon
SG	Manu Ginobili	Rudy Fernandez
SF	Hedo Turkoglu	Andrei Kirilenko
PF	Pau Gasol	Dirk Nowitzki	Nene Hilario
C	Yao Ming	Mehmet Okur	Marc Gasol

Now granted some of the one and done players might have tried to go into the NBA straight out of college (2006 and later) but for now, it seems we have a pretty good spread. What's your take? Juniors are pretty stacked.

What is Kevin Pritchard Doing?

2009-07-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, so obviously Portland is trying to get better, obviously. I mean, they're one of the few playoff teams that has kept its core intact and still has cap space to play with. So the question ends up being, what do they need? Well, as of right now, here's what I see in terms of the Blazers' roster:

PG- Steve Blake, Jerryd Bayless
SG- Brandon Roy, Rudy Fernandez
SF- Nicolas Batum, Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster
PF- LaMarcus Aldridge
C- Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla

This is not counting the Blazers' draft picks of Victor Claver (who will probably stay in Spain for a year or two), Jeff Pendergraph, Dante Cunningham, and Patrick Mills. I don't know if the plan is just to let them all walk, or to offer any one of them a contract. What is crucial now is to consider the needs that Portland has. There are three things that I think Portland really needs, and these are them, in what I consider order of importance:

1.) Upgrade at the SF slot (defensive minded player that can hit threes)
2.) Upgrade at the PG slot
3.) A backup PF

So if we look at Kevin Pritchard's moves, it's a little confusing to say the least, at least from where I'm standing. The first was to offer a 5 year $50 million contract to Hedo Turkoglu, which makes some semblence of sense. He's decent on defense and can hit threes, as well as take some of the playmaking burden off of Brandon Roy. However, he's 30, and isn't super effective without the ball, it's a tough call, I think he'd help, but he wouldn't be the perfect fit in Portland. As we all know, he spurned the Blazers last minute for a 5 year $56 million deal in Toronto.

His second major free agent push was to throw a front loaded contract at Paul Millsap, I think the deal ended up being like $32 million for like 4 years or something, but Pritchard threw in a singing bonus and therefore paid Millsap $10 million upfront. The Jazz had made a commitment to match anything anyone threw at Millsap, and were able to scrounge up the money to do so. This is where things start making less sense. I can understand the idea of throwing a contract at Millsap for no reason if other than to make the Jazz match, but I don't see how Millsap is super attractive as a piece on the Blazers. Millsap is a starting caliber talent, and on the Blazers he's not going anywhere except on the bench behind LaMarcus Aldridge. $8 million a year for a backup is a lot, that's all I'm saying, unless Blazers had in mind to start Aldridge back at the center and play Millsap.

Now, there are murmurings of interest in Andre Miller. While it's an intriguing idea, I don't subscribe to the fact that Andre Miller will make the Blazers better. In my opinion, what fits for the Blazers in terms of point guards, is one that can hit threes as well as run the point. While I have no doubt that Miller can run the point, he can shoot threes for jack, and therefore needs the ball in his hands to be effective, which means taking the ball out of Brandon Roy's hands, and relegating him (Roy) to being more of a shooter than a creator. If we look at the blueprint of the Blazers, it's actually fairly similar to the Lakers. I consider Derek Fisher and Steve Blake to be along a similar mold of point guard, that is, one who can run the show, but also be that spot up catch and shoot guy at the top of the key. A perfect fit would actually be Kirk Hinrich if they could get him somehow (without giving up Jerryd Bayless).

My call would be to make a bigger splash at the wing position in free agency and then trade the expendable wing player for a backup big or something. I would say make a comparable if not larger offer that was made to Millsap to Marvin Williams. Worse case scenario is that Hawks match and take up a lot of cap space. Another possibility is to offer Lamar Odom the contract that was offered Hedo Turkoglu, and if the fit isn't great, trade him somewhere, maybe work out a sign and trade or something, say to Chicago for Hinrich. In terms of getting a backup big, there are a number of free agents still out there that are serviceable, maybe like a Hakim Warrick, Joe Smith, or Drew Gooden. Remember that Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw are still very tradeable. Maybe the Blazers think that Martell Webster will be good enough? They're high on Nicolas Batum? I don't know.

Thoughts From a (former) Warriors Season Ticket Holder

2009-07-02T23:47:00.000-07:00

Most of my posts will be Warriors related, but i'll try to expand out to the rest of the NBA as best as I can.

It all started from the WE BELIEVE era of the Warriors after 13 years of not making the playoffs and so many bad decisions throughout the whole franchise, Don Nelson with the cast of Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, Monte Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes, Mickael Pietrus, Al Harrington and Andris Biedrins going on an incredible hot streak and sneak into the 8th spot of the playoffs. Around the All-Star Break, the Warriors were not supposed to make the playoffs, which would be what all Warriors fans would accept, but the Indiana Pacers gave us some hope when they traded Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington (plus Sarunas Jasikevicius) for Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy (plus Ike Diogu). Then the biggest upset in NBA Playoffs history happened and the Warriors beat the #1 seed Dallas Mavericks.

Then building upon the sucess of the previous season and the emergence of Monta Ellis, the Warriors traded beloved Jason Richardson to Charlotte to draft Brandon Wright. The Warriors had a good season winning 48 games, but wasn't able to make it to the playoffs because the Western Conference was too good. I went to a game with a friend and checked out a table with sales reps from the Warriors offering the Playoff Push Plan where we would get playoff tickets for making a downpayment on season tickets next year. We thought the Warriors would make the playoffs for sure and then play the Lakers in the fist round which we honestly could have made a thousand dollars in selling our playoff tickets, but they CHOCKED and it went all downhill from here.

Once free agency period hit, Baron Davis opted out of the last year of his contract and signed with the Clippers. The Warriors panicked to find a replacement for him and signed Corey Maggette to a big contract after Elton Brand and Gilbert Arenas refused to sign with the Warriors. The Warriors resigned Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins as their core players for the futures. Then Monta Ellis celebrates his new contract by buying a moped and tears his ankle and misses the first half of the season.

We decided to get a pair of lower level seats behind the backboard which was the cheapest of the lower level with a season ticket holder price of $50 each and a face value of $80 thinking we could be able to sell games at face value and make $60 in profit for each game. This would have been the case if the Warriors were good and playing against a decent team. The Lakers are always schedule to come in to town and we could really make some money from selling those games. I was able to sell my pair for $250 and my friend sold his game for $300. But on the schedule comes midweek games against teams like the Kings, Thunder, Bucks, and Grizzlies where I could not find any buyers at all so I went to those games if I was able to go. The positive thing was that I was able to bring friends to their first Warriors game, but I could have bought similiar tickets from other season ticket holders or ticket brokers on craigslist for $20 instead of my cost of $50 or bought upper level tickets for $8. One of the perks that we got was to sit coutside at a pre-game shootaround as they Toronto players warmed up. That was an awesome experience as I got a "whats-up" from Jamario Moon, a thumbs up from Jose Calderon and a hand slap with Nathan Jawai. I yelled at Chris Bosh, but he didn't turn his head to look over at us. I went to a total of 10 games this past year and most of those games were losses.

In the end, I lost money by going to the games and eating most the costs for the people I took to the game so I will not renew my season ticket for next year even though they lowered the costs of our seat to $38 a game instead of $50 since the Warriors aren't going to get better anytime soon, even if they make the trade for Amare.

New Spurs Blog

2009-07-02T16:46:00.001-07:00

So I'm still going to be fairly active here over the summer offseason, but I definitely am moving towards doing more specifically Spurs related blogging. Please check it out.

Taking the Next Step: Part 3

2009-06-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

Cleveland Cavaliers
66-16 in 2008-2009
Lost to Orlando 4-2 in Eastern Conference Finals

I'm not really picking any particular order to do these in. Anyways, next on my list is the Cleveland Cavaliers, who after having a league best record, and numerous pundits lauding them the up and coming team, were embarrassingly and soundly routed by a superior Orlando Magic squad. Obviously Mo Williams wasn't enough, not enough to stop Dwight Howard from yanking the welcome mat to the Finals out from under the MVP. So, obviously things had to be done, and things were done, are they the right things though?

Shaq

The first obvious big move was to move the contracts of Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic for that of Shaquille O'Neal. Wallace and Pavlovic would then be traded and bought out respectively, where ever they do end up. How does this work though? Is this just another trigger happy reaction on the part of Danny Ferry to make a big splash? My gut instinct tells me yes. Why is that? Well, simply put, for all the low-post help that LeBron needs, Cleveland is a team built on defense. While Shaq provides a more legitimate post presence than say Zydrunas Ilgauskas, he definitely is a significant defensive downgrade from Ben Wallace. Perhaps Shaq's offensive contributions overcome any loss of Ben Wallace on the defensive end, okay, I can live with that. However, Cleveland was decimated by Orlando's high pick-and-roll with Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard. So what does Danny Ferry do? Trades for one of the worst pick-and-roll defenders ever? Maybe Hedo's not coming back with Dwight next season, but Jameer Nelson is, equally effective if not more so. Now you throw on a 325 lb colossus that won't show on the guard? A guard whose effective field goal percentage was in the mid 50s and whose true shooting percentage was like 61%? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Okay, perhaps I'm making too big of a deal about this, I mean, the Cavs might not even play the Magic again in the post season, but wouldn't it make sense to plan for the reigning Eastern Conference champions to be right back in the Eastern Conference Finals? For all the problems that having Shaq on the team does portend (especially on the defensive end for a defensive minded team like the Cavs), it does solve the problem of an interior presence. For all the problems both on and off the court that Shaq brings, he at the very least is a force in the paint, and one of the better passing big men in the league. While he won't dominate anymore, you can still probably expect him to put up comparable numbers to the 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game that he did last season. Having Shaq platoon time with Zydrunas Ilgauskas ensures that the Cavs will always have an above-average, albeit old, big man in the pivot at all times of the game. Furthermore, since Shaq is an expiring contract, he's minimal risk, and will enable the Cavs to still be players in the long-awaited 2010 free agency. The biggest problem would be if the Shaq thing doesn't work out and LeBron gets fed up with Cleveland and bolts for New York or something.

Now that Anderson Varejao has opted out, the roster probably looks something like this:

PG - Mo Williams, Daniel Gibson
SG - Delonte West
SF - LeBron James, Tarence Kinsey
PF - JJ Hickson, Darnell Jackson, Jawad Williams
C - Shaquille O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Unless for some reason Mike Brown decides to start starting big Z at the PF spot that's one of the most obvious needs there is. Additionally, they need a backup wing. Cavs had shown interest in Charlie Villanueva, but they wouldn't have the resources to bid against the massive amounts of cap space that Detroit seems willing to spend on him. With pretty much only the MLE available to spend, the Cavs will definitely have to bolster their roster significantly as they lost significant depth with the trading of Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic as well as the expiring contract of Wally Sczerbiak.

Some murmurs around have Lamar Odom being takeable at the MLE simply because Lakers will have to overpay to keep Trevor Ariza. It's hard to imagine that a talent like Odom would fall to just a simple MLE, but it'd be a dream come true for the Cavs should it happen. Odom is a versatile PF who can score like a SF but also rebounds well. Within the Cavs system he wouldn't have the pressure of being a go-to guy, especially with both LeBron and Shaq in the picture. He's versatile not only offensively but defensively as well and would add a ton of length to the frontcourt. Further down the list, were I Danny Ferry, I'd look at Chris Wilcox for cheap, or even Shawn Marion.

In terms of wing players, I'd keep an eye open on vets like Anthony Parker or Dahntay Jones or Flip Murray. Backup wings are generally pretty easy to come by. Cavs still lack a major scoring punch next to LeBron, and the ideal position for someone like that would be the PF slot on this Cavs roster. We'll see what happens here.

Welcoming....

2009-06-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome a new contributor to Poor Man's GM! Please welcome, jfoon131! He'll be (hopefully) posting stuff up as well, maybe it'll be a good break from my normal output. Welcome!

Sports Science Isn't Science

2009-06-29T16:15:00.001-07:00

At least not when it comes to basketball.

The other day I found this video via Ball Don't Lie's 10-Man Rotation.

It was a feature trying to debunk the idea that Shaq's poor free throw percentage was due to his height and the size of his hands. The feature brought in Lakers' guard Sasha Vujacic and had him shoot a bunch of free throws, and then tried to distract him while he's shooting. Vujacic, for what it's worth, is a good free-throw shooter (career 88%), and naturally was sinking anywhere between 8 of 10 to 10 of 10 freethrows. To "simulate" Shaq-like conditions, the guys on the show give Vujacic stilts (the equivalent of 6 inch tin cans tied to his feet) and rubber gloves (basically) the size of Shaq's hands. Then they blindfold Vujacic, and he still sinks 8 of 10 free throws. Myth of size and height obviously debunked, right? Wrong.

If you carefully watch Vujacic shooting the free throws with the gloves, you'll notice that the gloves flop around a lot on his release because his hands obviously don't fit the glove. Now, I'm not saying by any means that Shaq's supposed to be a great free throw shooter if the hoop were 6 inches higher and the ball twice as large, I mean, his form is horrible. However, the simulation run on Sports Science does nothing to really simulate the conditions Shaq shoots free throws under. Firstly, the stilts, while they raise Vujacic to Shaq's height, don't really simulate what Shaq's body experiences when he's shooting a free throw. As you see with good free thow shooters, the form encompasses the entire body, while there is a change from the different height you shoot the ball at, it's not necessarily the most accurate emulation, though perhaps, not much can be done with that.

My biggest beef with the experiment is the hands. Obviously if you make Shaq sized gloves, and put any other basketball player's hands into them, they're not going to fit, there's going to (generally) be a lot of space between where a normal (in this case Vujacic's) basketball player's hands end and where Shaq's end. Therefore, when Vujacic shoots the ball, the ball is still resting on his hand, so he shoots it like he would normally shoot the ball, there's just a big rubber glove between the ball and his hand. However, the way the ball rests and the release are all the same as if he shot the ball from his own hands. I mean, if I tie a piece of paper onto my hand because Shaq's hand is the size of the same as that piece of paper, and hold the ball, do I know what it's like for Shaq to hold a basketball? While height may not be a huge factor (Pau Gasol is about the same height and a much better free throw shooter and Yao Ming is taller and also a much better shooter), it doesn't necessarily take into account hand size and strength. I can't say how big Shaq's hands are for sure but I would imagine that if your hands really were as big as Shaq's, then you might have problems shooting a ball. The more accurate test would have been to shrink the hoop and the ball to a size where Sasha Vujacic would have been the equivalent of Shaq on the court, then see if that affects it. Shaq may not be a great free throw shooter, even if he were smaller, but nonetheless, this video does nothing to debunk his normal excuse of size.

From my experience (I'm 6-0 and can kind of palm a basketball) it's harder to shoot a foam nerf ball about the size of a softball on a 7 foot nerf hoop than it is to shoot an NBA size regulation basketball on a 10 foot hoop. Maybe it makes a difference. Either way, the video does nothing except validate that Vujacic can shoot free throws in circus situations. So if you want to win a stuffed animal from a carnival, bring Sasha with you.

Taking the Next Step: Part 2

2009-06-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

Orlando Magic
59-23 in 2008-2009
Lost to LA Lakers 4-1 in NBA Finals

Orlando surprised a lot of people (not me though) by making their way to the NBA Finals past the defending champs in Boston and then the Eastern Conference favorites of LeBron and co in Cleveland. Upon reaching the big stage, they ran up against Western Conference powerhouse of the Los Angeles Lakers, where they were quickly downed in 5 games. Without a draft pick in a weak draft, and with little flexibility in their payroll, the Magic needed to make a change via trade, and while the offseason is still young, Magic have already made a good start in coming back as strong favorites in the East.

Vince Carter

The big deal that Otis Smith ended up landing to help the Magic, especially in late-game situations was a major trade of Rafer Alston, Tony Battie, and Courtney Lee for Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson. Despite being already 32, Vince Carter has shown that he still has game, averaging a solid 20.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game last season. A solid addition to the strong core Orlando already has based around Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, and Jameer Nelson. While Carter's contract is fairly unattractive, making upwards of $33 million over the next two seasons, with an $18 million team option in the 2011-2012 season. However, given the inflexibility of Orlando's payroll situation, it's a sacrifice that has to be made to add a player of Carter's caliber. The addition of another All-Star takes pressure off of the others on the roster already, and is mutually beneficial for both Carter and the rest of the Magic. It helps too that Carter has always wanted to play for Orlando (which is near his hometown).

Ryan Anderson

Ryan Anderson isn't exactly the name that pops to mind when you think of a player worth trading for, but at the very least, the Magic do get some youth to work with in return for sending Courtney Lee up to New Jersey. In essence, the Magic and Nets just swapped last year's draft picks (Nets drafted Anderson at number 21 and the Magic Lee at 22). Ben Q at Third Quarter Collapse does an apt analysis of what Ryan Anderson brings to the floor. As Ben Q points out, DraftExpress lists Ryan Anderson to have the upside of Troy Murphy, and potentially be as big of a dud as Brian Cook. Which is to say, that he'll probably end up somewhere in the middle, so to speak. At the very least Anderson is a big body that can sop up minutes at the backup PF spot and continue to spread the floor. This would be especially useful should Stan Van Gundy want at points in time to move Rashard Lewis back to SF slot and have a longer lineup.

The Free Agent Situation

Well, the Magic really only have the MLE to work with (somewhere between $5 million and $6 million) in order to fill their remaining roster slots. However, with potentially two big names on their way out, this could prove to be an interesting (and more difficult) situation for the Magic. First, is the situation with Hedo Turkoglu. Hedo has already opted out of his contract, and with the addition Carter's salary, it would be hard for the Magic to resign Hedo for much more than what he makes now. While Hedo has expressed interest in returning to the Magic, it's not certain whether he would opt for a 5 year $35 million deal in Orlando over something closer to a 5 year $50 million deal or something from someone like Portland with cap space. However, that's what Carter was for, worst case, he's an upgrade from Hedo, best case, he's a super addition and the Magic easily boast the best starting lineup in the entire league. Upgrade from Hedo? Really? I'm sure several Magic fans are wondering about that. Well here's how it breaks down, if we take their last season as indicative of what their 2009-2010 performance will be:

Per 36	FG%	3pt%	PTS	RBDS	ASSTS	STLS	BLKS	TOS
Player A	43.7%	38.5%	20.8	5.1	4.7	1.0	0.5	2.1
Player B	41.3%	35.6%	16.8	5.3	4.9	0.8	0.2	2.8

Who would you rather take? Well, save for 0.2 assists and 0.2 rebounds, player A is obviously better. For those of you that haven't guessed, Player A is Vince Carter, Player B is Hedo Turkoglu. Given that Turkoglu is a 6-10 small forward, you would expect him to rebound better than a 6-6 shooting guard, I'm not going to say it's a knock against Hedo but more lean towards the direction that Vince Carter is just that good of a player.

The second issue would be the issue of Marcin Gortat, who is an excellent backup big man. Let's look at some numbers first:

Per 36	FG%	PTS	RBDS	ASSTS	STLS	BLKS	TOS
Player A	54.8%	11.1	10.9	0.8	1.0	4.3	1.7
Player B	57.2%	10.9	13.0	0.6	0.8	2.4	1.1
Player C	40.0%	12.1	10.9	1.3	1.2	2.4	2.4

Comparatively, Player A looks to be the strongest player, though the rebounding rate and field goal percentage of Player B is significantly improved, the block rate of Player A is just phenomenal. Nonetheless, players A and B are both fairly comparable. Player A is Chris Andersen last season, why Chris Andersen? Well, DraftExpress lists him as Gortat's upside, as you may have guessed, Player B is Marcin Gortat, Player C, is Chris Andersen in his 2nd year, as Marcin Gortat was last season. Obviously Gortat will command some attention as one of the better big men in a league where it's difficult to find such talent, so it's possible that they would not be able to retain him, as he currently is had for the extraordinarily cheap salary of $700k.

Should the Magic retain both Turkoglu and Gortat (by some miracle) their lineup would look something like:

PG- Jameer Nelson, Anthony Johnson
SG- Vince Carter, JJ Redick
SF- Hedo Turkoglu, Mickael Pietrus
PF- Rashard Lewis, Ryan Anderson
C- Dwight Howard, Marcin Gortat

However, if the Magic should lose out on keeping either or both of Hedo and Gortat, then I would presume Pietrus would slide to the starting SF spot and there would be holes at both the backup center and SF slots.

Possible Solutions

Well, there isn't a whole lot for the Magic to work with in terms of free agency, and they don't have a whole lot to trade with, so it'd be hard to figure out anything major. Likely, after all is said and done, the Magic will only have what's leftover from the remainder of the pickings from free agency, especially as they no longer really have any tradeable assets. I believe that should Hedo be lost to free agency, that Otis Smith should make a priority of re-signing Gortat, as it's easier to facilitate a solution at the SF position than it is to find a quality big man.

The Backup Center

There really aren't a whole lot of options when it comes to finding a solid backup big man for cheap. The Magic could always go back to Adonal Foyle, however, that's a major downgrade from the production that Gortat brings. Other names that come to mind that wouldn't be too expensive may possibly be Rasho Nesterocvic or Chris Mihm, possibly Zaza Pachulia as well. Ideally though, if I were the Magic, I would try to keep Marcin Gortat.

The Small Forward Issue

Since Hedo has opted out, the question ends up being where he will sign. If he does end up signing somewhere other than Orlando then the feasible solution would be to slide Pietrus to the starting SF slot as something of a defensive specialist (think Bruce Bowen on the Spurs) and find a legitimate backup SF, then finding someone via free agency to back him up. One name that possibly comes to mind would be Marquis Daniels, as the Pacers have let him walk. Daniels, while not a great 3 point shooter, does add solid defense and scoring off the bench. The question would be how well he embraces his role, especially given his performance last season in the wake of injuries to both Mike Dunleavy and Danny Granger. The second question would be how cheap he could be had for. Ime Udoka and Matt Barnes are other names that pop to mind.

However, there is one other solution that I could possibly think of. That would be finding a legitimate starting PF that can play alongside Dwight Howard and sliding Rashard Lewis back to the SF slot, having Mickael Pietrus be the first man off the bench as a defensive stopper (think James Posey on the Celtics). Again the question would be whether or not Otis Smith could command such talent given the inflexibility of the budget, since he has to sign multiple players with such a limited amount of money. However, should Hedo walk, I would not be opposed to trying for someone like Antonio McDyess or Paul Millsap, or possibly even Drew Gooden.

Other Minor Issues

I think that while Anthony Johnson is an adequate backup point guard, I wouldn't mind trying to upgrade or bring in some young talent to develop as the 11th, 12th, or 13th man on the squad to fill out the roster.

That's basically my take on the Magic moving forward.

Taking the Next Step: Part 1

2009-06-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

San Antonio Spurs
54-28 in 2008-2009
Lost 4-1 to Dallas in 1st round of playoffs

I'm a Spurs fan, and to be honest, I might be closing down Poor Man's GM in favor of a Spurs blog, so I can better follow what's going on with one specific team. There's only really three teams I pay a lot of attention to in terms of moves (San Antonio, Portland, and Orlando). Anyways, after an embarrassing ousting in the first round by the Dallas Mavericks, it was clear that the Spurs needed to retool their roster, in fact, it was just short of a major overhaul. I would like to commend RC Buford and the entire Spurs front office for creating a situation in which it is realistic to believe that the Spurs can continue to chase their fifth title.

Richard Jefferson

First thing we need to discuss is the Richard Jefferson trade. I believe the package ultimately ended up as Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas, and Fabricio Oberto (who was later traded to Detroit for Amir Johnson, and will likely be waived) for Richard Jefferson. If you've read any of my posts in the past, I haven't been entirely kind to Richard Jefferson, and you'll read a lot of posts talking about how Jefferson's +/- and PER aren't really telling since Milwaukee was such a shoddy outfit, especially after the loss of Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd to injuries midway through the season. I also believe that the type of game Jefferson has tends to thrive the most when he's not a focal point of the offense. He's only one season removed from his best statistical season, where he came into the season averaging 22.6 points per game as the third offensive option behind Vince Carter and Jason Kidd during his final season as a Net in 2007-2008. He's a potent offensive option, and honestly, is basically a Vince Carter-clone, as he brings much of the same things, perhaps not as effectively, but his offesnive game is similar. He can hit the open three, not proficiently, but well enough to keep defenses honest, he can create his own shot, he can finish at the rim, being traded to Milwaukee he immediately spiked up to the 2nd option behind Michael Redd, and once Michael Redd was out for the season he soon became the focal point of the offense for the Bucks, which isn't something he's super comfortable with as it seems. So now, on the Spurs, he doesn't need to be, he just needs to let his game come to him. I think overall it's a smart move by the Spurs, while Jefferson's contract isn't exactly pretty, being owed about $29 million through 2011, he does add something the Spurs have needed for a while, athleticism. While Jefferson now becomes less of a focal point in the offense, that doesn't mean that his offense isn't to be respected, playing in the Spurs system is going to get him good looks and ample scoring opportunities, though Ginobili, Duncan, and/or Parker are no Jason Kidd in terms of setting up teammates, they do a solid job of it. Additionally, Jefferson is a known enough offensive threat to really take some of the defensive pressure off of the Big 3, so it's definitely a step in the right direction, as Greg Popovich can afford to rest his Big 3 more, without sacrificing as much on the offense, Jefferson, has shown to be fairly resilient over the past years, playing all 164 games over the past 2 regular seasons.

The big question comes down to how well Jefferson plays defend. All in all, this is a fairly difficult question to assess. Jefferson has never been known as a lock-down defender by any stretch of the imagination, but just how good (bad) is he? In comparing him to the players he would effectively replace (Michael Finley, Bruce Bowen, Ime Udoka), it's hard to say based on defensive winshare and points allowed, since usage of said players are so different. Michael Finley (surprisingly) has the highest defensive winshare with 2.7 while Richard Jefferson has 2.5, however, Jefferson also allows the most points per 100 possessions (at 110). It's hard to dictate that Jefferson is a horrible defender but it can't be said that he's a stellar one either. HoopsHype calls him, "A tough defender when he's into it." Whatever that means. I think ultimately it means you don't need to hide him on the defensive side, he won't be a liability, but it also means that he probably isn't your best bet to be chasing Kobe and LeBron around the court for 35+ minutes. I think this might be an issue that needs to be addressed as the Spurs move forward, because a wing pairing of Roger Mason and Richard Jefferson or Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson might leave the defense somewhat lacking and I don't believe that Greg Popovich should sacrifice that much defense for the offensive improvement. I'll talk about this later.

The Draft

In this year's draft, the Spurs showed us, as a friend of mine put it, that first round picks don't matter. DeJuan Blair, slotted by some mock drafts to be taken in the lottery, projected by DraftExpress to be taken at the 20th pick in the first round, somehow fell, all the way into the Spurs' laps at the 37th overall (2nd round 7th pick). There's a lot of speculation on how it might be because of his two surgically repaired knees, though not having any ACLs hasn't stopped him from being competitive at games and attending every practice (and game save one DNP), or from averaging 15.7 points and 12.3 rebounds in his last season at Pittsburgh. If you take a look at his pace-adjusted per-40 minute statistics (the NCAA equivalent of pace-adjusted per 36), this guy is a scary monster: 23 points, 18 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 2.3 steals, and 1.4 blocks on 1.8 turnovers, shooting 59.3% from the field. 18 rebounds per 40 minutes. I'll let that sink in a little.

At the very least we know, despite being 6-7, he can rebound, and he can hustle, and he's everything you want in a PF. He was ranked 3rd overall for rebounding in the NCAA, 1st for offensive rebounds (5.6 per game). DraftExpress lists his best case scenario as being Paul Millsap (sweet) and worst case as being Reggie Evans. Even then, at the worst case, you get a guy who you know is intense and hustles and will grab you rebounds, everything you want in a reserve big. Given how well Blair has played, it's pretty apparent that his game can translate into the NBA, if only at 10-15 minute intervals, which is all the Spurs are really asking of him. Both Jack McClinton and Nando De Colo look to be like long-term projects, and I would suspect they get thrown to Austin and left in France respectively.

More to come

Obviously this can't be it for the Spurs. The roster as currently constructed would look something like:

PG - Tony Parker, George Hill
SG - Roger Mason Jr, Manu Ginobili
SF - Richard Jefferson, Michael Finley?, Ime Udoka?
PF - Matt Bonner, DeJuan Blair
C - Tim Duncan, Ian Mahinmi

There definitely is something to be said about continuity and chemistry, but I'm still of a mind to trade Roger Mason and/or Matt Bonner if possible to improve on the roster. I have question marks behind Finely and Udoka simply because they have a player option and team option respectively. Were I the Spurs front office, I'd let Udoka walk, but I don't know why Finley wouldn't take his player option, unless he wants to retire. I believe that the Spurs are going to be willing to pay the luxury tax this season, and therefore even with the addition of Blair and Jefferson, there should be a fairly significant amount of the MLE left available for whatever free agents San Antonio might be pursuing.

The most immediate need to me, is simply finding a defender. There are enough options for scoring, what the Spurs need is someone on the wings to chase the Kobe Bryants, LeBron Jameses, and Dwayne Wades around the court, and make open threes. This could be either via trade or via free agency, now ideally this would be something of a Raja Bell in his prime type of player, but Raja Bell is neither available nor in his prime anymore, so let's look around for someone else. One name that's a possibility might be DeShawn Stevenson, not sure how the Wizards are going to work out their backcourt glut of Gilbert Arenas, Nick Young, Mike Miller, Randy Foye, DeShawn Stevenson, and Dominic McGuire, I'm going to assume that either Mike Miller or McGuire slide to the SF slot, and then Foye would be the backup PG? Hard to say, since the roles aren't really defined, but he's worth a look at. From free agency, I'd still say maybe Marquis Daniels, though he doesn't really shoot very well. Dahntay Jones, made famous after tripping Kobe Bryant, is another possibility, he plays solid defense. Trevor Ariza would be awesome, though I doubt the Spurs would be able to offer anything close to what he'd command. Maybe Anthony Parker? Though it's possible that they look to younger talent for their needs, like someone from Austin or something.

The second need would be the need for a center to play next to Tim Duncan, or rather, a true big that can spread the floor, doesn't have to be center, though it would be nice if he were center eligible. I'm still not sure as of right now that Ian Mahnimi or Matt Bonner are the answer. Maybe Mahnimi develops, but I'm definitely not sold on Bonner. The ideal would be Rasheed Wallace, but if he's asking for at least $8 million, then he's both unaffordable and not worth the price, not at the ripe age of 34. The kind of big that is ideal is one that is able on defense and can spread the floor with some midrange shooting, leaving Duncan alone in the paint. While Duncan can ably hit those 15-19 foot wing jumpers, it'd still be nice to have someone do that for him so that Duncan can operate where he's most effective, in the paint. Another option would be to bring back Rasho Nesterovic for cheap, but perhaps better could be had. I can't really think of anything available, but those are the immediate needs that the Spurs still need to address. Otherwise, looking good.

The Best of the Best

2009-06-17T13:11:00.001-07:00

Is this something really worth looking at? Is this something really worth talking about? It comes up all the time, and it comes up frequently. The question is, does it really matter? Firstly, let's get this straight, we're talking about a game. That's right, read it closely, a game, G-A-M-E, game. Sure players get paid millions of dollars to play this game, but it's no less or more of a game because of that. The argument of "best", "better", and "bad" almost seems like a dumb, arbitrary way for ESPN and 2ksports to come up with player ratings for their game. "Player X is awesome, let's give him an overall rating of 97." "Player Y dominates in the post, let's give him rebound and low post ratings of 99." etc...

Why do I bring this up then? Well, I came across this interesting article (interesting and well-written at that) by Reed at Forum Blue and Gold. I actually stopped reading ESPN a while ago so I haven't had a chance to read the Bill Simmons article they keep talking about in there, especially since I feel like ESPN analysts are basically paid more to spout the same nonsense that Kelly Dwyer does, and I like how Dwyer writes better. If I want arbitrary judgment thrown out at a team I'll read Dwyer or watch Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, if I want to know about a specific team, I'll go to SBNation or something.

Now that I've done all my prefacing, let's jump into the meat. I agree with Reed's first two premises (I can't comment on the third as I haven't read the Simmons article): Kobe Bryant is NOT Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant is NOT LeBron James. Due to the large number of variables that goes into the game of basketball when making such comparisons (i.e. skills, physical attributes, opponents, teammates, coach, rules, etc...) I believe that you could insert "better than" after the NOTs and still say it's true. On the same respect, I believe you could take the converse (Michael Jordan/LeBron James is not (better than) Kobe Bryant), and it would be true too. You can't make direct comparisons, furthermore, there's no real purpose to it. Basketball isn't tennis, in which, even if you have players with different games, they play each other and a clear victor is declared. I can say that Pete Sampras is better than Pat Rafter because Pete Sampras has consistently beaten Pat Rafter in Wimbledon. I can't say that Roger Federer is necessarily better than Pete Sampras because Sampras is 10 years older and therefore the two can never meet in their primes. If Federer beats Sampras's record for titles? Maybe, but hey, maybe Sampras's competition was stiffer, we'll never really know. Now jumping back to basketball from the tennis analogy, we can't make that kind of comparison, because even with same era stars, it's not a matter of Kobe playing LeBron, the team has to be taken into account too.

Let's take a look at some numbers:

Per Game:

	FG%	3PT%	FT%	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TO
Player A	45.5%	34.1%	84.0%	25.1	5.3	4.6	1.5	0.6	2.9
Player B	47.1%	32.8%	73.8%	27.5	7.0	6.7	1.8	0.9	3.3
Player C	49.7%	32.7%	83.5%	30.1	6.2	5.3	2.3	0.8	2.7

Ok, let's say per game isn't necessarily a fair comparison as some players have played more games than others.

Per 36 Minutes:

	FG%	3PT%	FT%	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TO
Player A	45.5%	34.1%	84.0%	24.8	5.2	4.6	1.5	0.6	2.9
Player B	47.1%	32.8%	73.8%	24.4	6.2	5.9	1.6	0.8	2.9
Player C	49.7%	32.7%	83.5%	28.3	5.9	4.9	2.2	0.8	2.6

Who's the best player? There's no real way of telling I suppose, but I would love to have anyone of those three on my team. If you haven't guessed already, these are the career averages of Kobe (Player A), LeBron (Player B), and Michael Jordan (Player C). So numbers don't tell us anything conclusive. Well what then determines which player is the best? I could throw Dwayne Wade into the conversation and his numbers would be remarkably similar (career averages of 25.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game). Is it the number of rings?

Bill Russell has 11, no one doubts Russells greatness, then there are a bunch of Celtics from the 60s that have anywhere from 7 to 10, Celtics whom I've never heard of before. Robert Horry has 7. Michael Jordan has 6, Steve Kerr has 5, Kobe has 4, and LeBron has none. Heck, even Antoine Walker has one, heck, even Sun Yue and Mengke Bateer have one. Even Adam Morrison and Brian Scalabrine have one. So rings obviously isn't a good comparison, otherwise, LeBron is worse than Kobe, who is worse than Jordan, all of whom are worse than Robert Horry (and all of whom are worse than Sam Jones).

What about the ultimate intangible of "making his teammates better"? Well, it's hard to say which player is better at "making his teammates better". Is it winning percentage? Statistics? If either were the case, then Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash make their teammates awesome. The more I think about the concept of "making his teammates better", the more I realize that most of it is pretty much an utter load of crap. The main influence that players have on one another is attitude and habits, granted given that case, then it's possible that certain veteran players or more proven players imprint their own good attitudes and habits on the team, however, when people talk about "making teammates better" this isn't what they're talking about, the effect that players have on each other off of the hardwood or in practice is generally referred to as "lockerroom influence", "making his teammates better" then, is what? Is it changes in statistical production? Well, if that's the case, then players that are good at "making teammates better" shouldn't need a good supporting cast, because he should make them good just simply by being on the floor with them. Obviously this isn't the case, as we see the woes of the Hornets and Cavaliers these past couple of years. No player is going to turn another player from a 10-2-2 guy to a 20-5-5 guy just by merit of playing next to him. Is it then the number of assists? Creating opportunities for other teammates? Well, that's not really the case either, because assists are a two way street. The ideal case is that the player "making his teammates better" creates an easy bucket for his teammate, hence the assist. However, what also counts as an assist, is if I pass the ball to my teammate and he creates his own shot (in a given amount of time). I got an assist, I made my teammate better, right? Also, there is the onus on the recipient of the play/assist/opporutnity to make the bucket. If my teammate draws a double-team and kicks it out to me and I brick the open jumper, does that mean my teammate isn't trying to play unselfishly and "make his teammates better"? These are probably the foremost reasons why I don't really like that phrase.

My point is simply this, there's no real reason to say who is better and who is the best. Really, there isn't. They're different players, and to some extent playing a different game, they play against different opponents with different teammates. Can there be a definitive best? No. Let's just then appreciate these athletes for the gifts and talents they bring to the game then.

It's THE FINALS... dun dun dun.....

2009-06-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe not so dramatic as people expected. Lakers were definitely the safe pick coming out of the West, but I had definitely been backing the Magic this whole time. I'm glad that they could make it. I'm sure it's not much of a secret that I don't like the Lakers very much. Sure they're a great team on paper, Kobe's probably the best player currently in terms of basketball ability (LeBron is awesome, but I would still currently give it to Kobe), they have a solid bench, likeable guys (except maybe Vujacic). So before Lakers fans start getting all indignant and self-righteous about how I should give the Lakers more props, let me quickly say, that that is exactly the reason I don't like the Lakers (that is, Lakers fans getting all indignant and self-righteous because I don't think Lakers are undefeatable). I'll admit as much as the next guy that Lakers should win it all, they certainly have the talent to do so, so I'll be as much on the bandwagon as anyone else in saying that it's all a mind game.

I thought the Finals were like the Playoffs in that the series would be 2-2-1-1-1, but I was wrong, and it in actuality is 2-3-2, which changes my prediction a little. For some reason, given that it's 2-3-2, I have a hard time seeing this go to 7 games, though it is possible, but only if both teams win all their home games in the first 5. If this year's Playoffs have taught us anything, it's that you can't really bank on anything that should happen. Manu Ginobili and Kevin Garnett should have been healthy, LeBron should have been defeating the Celtics in the Conference Finals because Mo Williams should have made the difference for the Cavs, Lakers should have swept all competition out the door easily because the Rockets should have folded when they discovered Yao Ming's foot fracture instead of taking the Lakers to 7 games.

Ok, we're past all that now, so lets get down to what is going to make or break this series for either team: the matchups. While regular seasons don't mean everything when it comes to a seven-game series, you can't blatantly disregard them either, John Hollinger did that, and he picked Cleveland to win in 5. Matchup wise, it's rather swung in the Lakers' favor currently, as the this is the major matchup in which the loss of Jameer Nelson will seriously hurt the Magic. From a position reference, the only clear cut advantage any team can really get on the Lakers, on paper or otherwise, is at the point guard position, and Jameer Nelson is just the type of guard that would give the Lakers fits. He was crucial to the Magic's two victories over the Lakers both at home and at Staples, Nelson is basically Aaron Brooks at an All-Star level. So the question(s) end up being: is Derek Fisher bad enough to make Rafer Alston look that good? (and the answer is likely no) so therefore, who can replicate Nelson's production? All eyes should naturally turn to Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu. Courtney Lee and Mickael Pietrus will definitely have their hands full trying to guard Kobe, and the matchups between Odom and Ariza on Lewis and Turkoglu are pretty comparable. Should Bynum be used in limited minutes, Gasol could really stretch the Magic defense by pulling Howard out of the paint. For the Lakers it's all about staying focused on offense, getting Howard out of the paint, and hitting the subsequent cutters from the high post. While I would argue that outside of Howard, Alston, Lee, Pietrus, Turkoglu, and Lewis are all long and above-average man defenders, the Lakers just have too many weapons. On defense, Lakers have to keep Dwight Howard off the glass, while Lewis isn't a great rebounder for his height, they still can't afford to let him have a good rebounding game either.

Magic I think will go back to their newfound strategy of running a Dwight Howard/Hedo Turkoglu high screen and roll with Lewis, Alston, and Lee/Pietrus spotting up from the 3pt mark. Howard really needs to dominate the glass, especially on the offensive end. I know it sounds stupid and cliche to say this, but basically, the Magic need to hit their open threes. I'm sure several Magic fans, and probably a lot of Rockets fans will cringe at this as well, I think at least 1 game will be decided by the play of Rafer Alston, he's going to have to be big, as that is the only position that Magic can really exploit. Specifically, it's "whatever guy Derek Fisher has to guard".

While the change in the schedule has sort of thrown me in for a loop, I'm going to call it this way, the way I originally called it...

Magic in 6, otherwise Lakers in 7.

Actually you know what? I'm feeling gutsy again...

Magic in 5 on sheer momentum based on the fact that they have 3 home games in a row.

As we've seen though in this year's Playoffs, it could swing either way.

Let's get to it.

LeBron's Team

2009-05-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

I think I've probably made mention of this somewhere before, but, honestly, LeBron still needs help on his team. Firstly, let me make note that this is purely my own analysis and opinion, and therefore, feel free to make any sort of disagreement here, I will agree to disagree with you on any point where we can't meet eye to eye. Now that that's out of the way, let's get to what we're talking about. I believe that the Cavaliers have yet to be as successful a team as possible is simply this: we're misinterpreting the kind of player that LeBron James is. Let me let that sink in for you a little more and reiterate my point: the Cleveland Cavaliers as currently constructed is a bad fit for LeBron James.

I'm not really going to go into the whole Kobe vs LeBron thing, but the fact remains, that LeBron, for all extensive purposes, is more of a facilitator than someone who takes over games. Before everyone starts hounding me, and looking to bash in what little NBA credibility I have, I ask that you first hear me out. I'm not saying LeBron cannot take over games, as shown over and over through the regular season, and more importantly, via the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron obviously has the talent and the ability to not only take over games, but entire series. It appeared this year was LeBron's year, given the Cavaliers' strong regular season performance and quick romp through the first two rounds of the playoffs. However, if 2007 showed us anything, it is that regular season success is not indicative of post season success (see Dallas Mavericks). Furthermore, if we look at the matchups that LeBron and co had through the playoffs, it's not surprising that they swept a Pistons squad that stopped caring and a Hawks squad that had been depleted of its top defenders (Marvin Williams and Al Horford). However, now faced with an Orlando team that has traditionally matched-up well against Cleveland, the top team of the regular season looks mortal, in fact, they look like their done. After last night's loss, the Cavs now return to Cleveland facing the dreaded 3-1 deficit, and while these games are tight, a LeBron James buzzer beating fallaway three is more likely to clank off the rim than go through the net (he's a respectable 35% from beyond the arc, but even that's more misses than makes, it's simple math).

Here's three times that LeBron has led the Cavs to at least the Eastern Conference Finals and each time the Cavs have fallen short. First was an embarassing Finals sweep at the hands of the Spurs, then a 7-game series loss to the revamped Boston Celtics, and now (ok, I may be getting ahead of myself) they head into the next game facing a 3-1 series deficit to the Orlando Magic, meaning, they have to win three in a row, including one in Orlando, where they have yet to win a game this season. In fact, they haven't been close. In their four contests in Orlando, only the most recent overtime loss was decided by less than 10 points (the last playoff game in Orlando they lost by 10, then in the regular season they lost their two contests in Orlando by 29 and 11).

As much as I hate these championship Bulls comparisons, I'm going to use it to illustrate my point, since it's something that everyone is fairly familiar with. Firstly though, I want to point out, that like any analogy, the comparison isn't perfect, so in no way are the current Cleveland Cavaliers anywhere near being analogous with the say 1996 Chicago Bulls. Now I know that somewhere buried in previous posts that I don't want to dig up, that I've said that Mo Williams is not somebody I want as a second option on my team. Sure, he's better than Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Drew Gooden or Larry Hughes as a second option, but still... even then. Everyone says Mo Williams was supposed to be the Scottie Pippen to LeBron's Jordan, he was supposed to ease the offensive pressure, give the Cavs another ball handler, and that is where everyone got it wrong. Again let me state my disdain of these classic Bulls comparisons, and Michael Jordan comparisons and all that, but I will use this analogy so that people get a clear idea, here's what it really boils down to: Mo Williams is no Scottie Pippen, in fact, he's closer to probably a Toni Kukoc than anything else, and here's the kicker: LeBron James is much closer to Scottie Pippen than he is to Michael Jordan. So there is the basic premise under which I believe the Cavs are unsuccessful.

I'm not saying that the Cavs should move LeBron James to second fiddle or anything, I'd still loev to have LeBron as my primary scoring option, but I'm asking that Mike Brown and the Cavs recognize that LeBron is more of a facilitator than he is a scorer. I'm not saying that Danny Ferry has to find a "Michael Jordan" type player to play next to LeBron, this is why I think the whole Bulls analogy is stupid. I believe that all the flak that LeBron received in Game 2 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals for passing the las shot to Donyell Marshall instead of taking it himself, really changed how everyone looks at LeBron. Everyone wants him to be the go-to guy, and sure, he subsequently carried the Cavs in 4 straight wins to the Finals. However, I believe that that play is very telling of the kind of player that LeBron is.

Quite frankly, you can't really construct a team around LeBron like the 76ers did in 2001 with Allen Iverson. You can't just surround LeBron with role players and have him dominate the ball, and after about 4 years I think Mike Brown is starting to figure that out. Mo Williams is the first step, but I don't think it's necessarily the be-all-end-all. While it's nice to have another point of origin for the offense to run through, it's also not the greatest need of the Cavaliers. What I believe the Cavaliers need is, well, in short, a second-option. I don't know that that's very clear, as that's what Mo Williams was supposed to be, but let me try to explain this a little better.

As LeBron James is more of a facilitator than anything else, I believe that what the Cavaliers need is a scorer. Someone that LeBron James can consistently pass the ball to and rely on to score. Probably someone that can create his own offense, but regardless, someone that LeBron can facilitate for. In usage of another bad '90s basketball analogy, LeBron needs something of a Karl Malone to his John Stockton. I think ideally that type of player would be something akin to a post scorer, but the point remains the same. Jason Kidd not only had Vince Carter, but also Richard Jefferson on the Nets. When playing together, Jefferson then became the 6th leading scorer in the league for that season (I forget which). Likewise, I believe that LeBron is the kind of player that can draw out that sort of improvement or production from his fellow teammates, additionally, he's also blessed with the talent and ability to get his own as well.

Wherever LeBron ends up, I hope that the GMs realize this one thing, before LeBron needs a solid supporting cast, he needs someone he can pass the ball to, someone he can rely on to score. It sounds arbitrary, and arguably Mo Williams meets that need, but it's hard to exactly articulate what specifically I mean. Let me try one last way of explaining this. Should we go back to the Bulls analogy (as a note Pippen could take over games too), should Pippen and Jordan have switched roles (where Pippen was the go-to guy), the Bulls still would have needed the scoring that came from Jordan, and in that sense, that player is what the Cavs need. LeBron has aspects of both Pippen and Jordan, but he doesn't make up for the both of them, the Cavs, or rather, whatever team LeBron is on, needs a player to help make up for that difference. I really have to stop doing these comparisons and come up with better examples, but hey, I think it gets the picture across, sort of. In short, LeBron needs someone to pass the ball to that can score, he needs a go-to option that's not himself.

Round 2: Who's left standing?

2009-05-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(2) Boston Celtics vs (3) Orlando Magic
Series tied 2-2

When I look at the current roster breakdowns I really can't say that an already thin Boston squad, less Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe should have any chance. However, I don't know that Orlando has a fully healthy squad either, as both Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis were battling injury prior to entering the post-season. Given how rought the first round with the 76ers was, I highly doubt that either one is back 100%, and so, we have a series. It's not like both teams held home court either, they both split their homecourt showings so far in the series. However beat the Magic may feel though, the Celtics must feel even more so, as their stars are older and they had to go through a grueling 7 game series with Chicago in the first round, including a total of 7 overtimes played in addition to the 336 minutes of regulation gameplay.

Without Garnett, the Garden is no longer an impregnable fortress, the Celtics are but a shadow of themselves last season, their roster coming in from last season has gone from stellar to above-average to now sitting somewhere at slightly above-average. I personally don't think their chances really lie with Ray Allen finding his stroke, with Paul Pierce attacking the basket and getting to the line more, but really with how well Rajon Rondo plays, without Garnett, Rondo becomes all that much more important to making the Celtics run, losing the defensive presence of Garnett means that Rondo has to step it up on the offensive end, making up for those lost stops, because realistically, no combination of Mikki Moore, Glen Davis, and Brian Scalabrine can make up for that, tack onto that the loss on the offensive end and the loss of Leon Powe, and you need someone to step up. Maybe Eddie House does it every third game, maybe Ray Allen gets hot, but consistently you need someone to replace one of the legs of the tripod that is the Big 3, Rondo's the closest to that right now, hopefully the fit doesn't make the Celtics too wobbly.

I'd like to give the series straight away to Orlando, but for some reason, the Magic always have me kind of second-guessing myself whenever I want to pick them, or maybe I just second-guess myself a lot in general. Kelly Dwyer mentions how Hedo Turkoglu is playing significantly worse than he did in the regular season, and that is a cause for concern. Magic fans may be out to lynch me for this, but I honestly don't see Hedo as a long-term solution to the Magic franchise, and therefore, is expendable (via sign-and-trade maybe). However, that's just me speculating. Fortunately, Rashard Lewis is picking up the slack somewhat, averaging an additional 2.4 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.6 assists in an additional 2+ minutes of play. Additionally, rookie Courtney Lee has definitely looked to be a solid contributor. Something about the Magic not being able to close out games has definitely worried me some when it comes to this squad, however, I'm still confident that Dwight Howard's dominance will carry through. In light of Kendrick Perkins' injury, the Magic have the obvious advantage, in that, even if Perkins plays, he won't be 100% and therefore, no one can really contain Dwight. Hopefully Stan Van Gundy will use this to his advantage.

While I second-guess myself, I'm still going to go with my pick: Orlando in 6.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Los Angeles Lakers vs (5) Houston Rockets
Series Tied 2-2

Everyone thought the series was over when Yao Ming broke his foot. Lakers would take Game 4, thereby sweeping Rockets at the Toyota Center, and then handily exit the Rockets out of their first taste of the second round in a long, long time. That was what was supposed to happen. Obviously by the way I'm writing, it didn't. You've all heard about how Lakers just didn't show up in Game 4 and therefore the Rockets (namely Aaron Brooks) walked all over them. 34 points for Brooks, 23 for Battier, Lakers were just getting out-hustled out there. I mean, this is the Rockets surviving a 4-19 shooting night from Ron Artest.

Moving forward from there, I'm sure the Lakers have woken up, though they tend to take like every other game off in the playoffs, I fully expect them to handily wipe the floor with the Rockets in Game 5, which should make Game 6 interesting, because, do the Lakers get complacent again or do they keep playing with intensity? Talent has never really been a question for the Lakers, but desire has always been. Now we tack on to that the issues with Andrew Bynum's knee and Lamar Odom's back, the once invincible Lakers are starting to show more than just some minor kinks in their armor, everyone's starting to think, maybe the Lakers aren't quite as invincible as everyone thought in the regular season. Unfortunately for the Lakers, the Rockets are a team that matches up fairly well against them, in that they have multiple defensive options (Shane Battier and Ron Artest) to throw at Kobe, and their no-fouling defensive rotations don't allow the Lakers to punish them by getting to the free throw line.

Rockets are now down their two top go-to options in Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. They have an ever decreasing margin of error because they no longer have score-at-will players on the floor. However, given how team-oriented the Rockets' offense runs, it doesn't seem to bother them too much, however, I would be a little worried as a Rockets fan because you can't really bank on 34 and 23 point performances from Aaron Brooks and Shane Battier consistently. However, if the right people get hot at the right time, there's still a shot. Ron Artest has obviously been playing sub-par, but a good game from him at the right time, could be all the difference. One thing with losing Yao is that Lakers lose the running advantage they once had, however they gain a tremendous size advantage as Adelman has decided to start Carl Landry next to Luis Scola, and now the Rockets have no player over 6-9 (except maybe Chuck Hayes) in their rotation. However, the Rockets need to look to exploit the PG matchups as much as possible as Brooks and Lowry both run circles around Fisher.

The logical side of me says Lakers in 6, but I'm feeling gutsy today, Rockets in 7.

(2) Denver Nuggets vs (6) Dallas Mavericks
Nuggets lead series 3-1

I was really expecting this to be over yesterday, but I also am not tremendously surprised by the fact that this went to a 5th game. I don't really feel like talking about the whole Kenyon Martin and Mark Cuban thing as there's already a lot out there about it. To put it succinctly, Denver is the better team, but Dallas just willed themselves out of a sweep. I'm actually fairly surprised by how well Denver has been playing and in light of that, with game 5 going back to the Mile High City, Dallas doesn't really stand a chance. I don't have anything more to say about this. Denver in 5.

Beware: The NBA Jades

2009-05-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

People will tell me that the NBA is a business, I should expect things like this. Still, there's a part of me that clings on to the hope that the NBA can be what it was supposed to be, a showcase of the best basketball players in the world playing basketball. I wasn't really sure which word I should've emphasized, "playing" or "basketball" so I just decided to italicize both. This isn't really a recent development either, well, arguably it could be recent given that I haven't been on the NBA (blogging) scene for very long. Don't get me wrong, business is business, NBA is here to make money, it's not some charity or non-profit, it's in it for the money, David Stern is in it for the money. So it really shouldn't be surprising that the two leaders in jersey sales this year, Kobe Bryant (no. 1) and LeBron James (no. 2) get star treatment. At least, in my head, it shouldn't be surprising, no, the question isn't whether or not this is a shocker, but whether or not it's wrong.

Some people might come out and ask me whether or not they even get star treatment, honestly, I think it's rather hard to look at anything other than the box score and think otherwise. I know, I'm pulling out my conspiracy theorist hat, and it's jading me towards quality basketball, I suppose it was inevitable. As I said, this wasn't really a recent development, but honestly, I think it's gotten so blatant in this season's playoff series that it's sort of the proverbial "last straw". What is it? Well quite simply watch below:

This happened last night, and my gut instinct is that the NBA will rule the contact "incidental" and Kobe might get a slap on the wrist and a fine, but nothing more, not the suspension he's deserving of. Now someone's going to come up to me and say, "Well, Ron Artest was playing physical, he was like right on top of Kobe, so it was just an accident." Bull. Sure, Artest is a physical defender, but don't tell me that elbow was not purposefully thrown, you can't tell me that Kobe didn't know Artest was there, he [Artest] was sitting right on top of him [Bryant]. Some guy has his elbows on my shoulders, I'm pretty sure that if I threw an elbow backwards I'd deck him in the chest, gut, or throat, maybe the chin.

If that got a suspension, I don't know why Kobe's shouldn't, unless of course, players named Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, or anyone that plays for the Celtics can't get suspended (maybe it's one of those unwritten NBA rules). I'm not going to go into whether or not Artest should or should not have been ejected, but think about it, wouldn't you get mad if a ref doesn't call a foul on someone who just threw an elbow, at your throat? If Artest were really trying to draw a foul, do you think he'd use his throat? Seriously. Think about it. As I said, this is somewhat the tip of the iceberg:

Ok, so this play is pretty questionable, but still. It looked like Hinrich stumbled into Rondo, and Rondo naturally wants to get Hinrich off him, so... he subsequently throws him into the scorers' table? Uh... how did this not warrant a suspension? Oh right, because he plays on the same team as Kevin Garnett, and he's a Celtic, and all that good stuff, and David Stern's favorite Eastern Conference team is from Boston.

If you noticed, I threw LeBron up there too. I don't think LeBron has done anything like this, but still, given the physicality of LeBron's style of play, how he goes for those highlight reel blocks, and how he just barges through everything, you'd think he'd average at least two fouls a game, but he doesn't. Sure LeBron is a great player and all, but how in the world does a player THAT physical average 1.72 fouls PER GAME. I find it hard to believe. I'd believe it if he were a jump shooter, but heck, we've all seen the LeBron highlights, he's anything but a jumpshooter and plays no defense whatsoever, even then, that's hard to believe.

I'm not going to start on my conspiracy theory on how David Stern (and thereby the NBA) hates the Spurs. Don't get me started. Still, look for yourself, I'll give kudos to Stu Jackson if he does decide to suspend Kobe (as he should) but for some reason I doubt he will. This is dumb.

I feel like going to gnaw on something in frustration now.

Moving forward, onward, whatever you want to call it...

2009-04-30T09:32:00.001-07:00

Post season is over, well, for some teams, so far the Pistons, Jazz, Spurs, and most recently the Hornets. I got a chance to see 3 minutes of the 4th quarter of game 4 of the Houston-Portland matchup. So it goes without saying that I haven't really been following the Playoffs very closely, rather, almost not at all, besides Kelly Dwyer's Behind the Boxscore that shows up in my feeds every morning. I don't really have time or the inclination to go through and talk about every team that was bounced and how they should improve. How the Pistons really went into the post season not really caring because the team was built on a core that probably won't be there next year. How Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess are walking next year, and how the only players that are guaranteed to be wearing Piston's blue come September are Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum. How the Carlos Boozer probably won't be returning to the Jazz, how he's overpaid and overrated, and how they were plagued with injuries. How no one other than Jerry Sloan is willing to take ownership of the team, which it what keeps it from being championship caliber. How the Hornets' roster of Chris Paul, Rasual Butler, Peja Stojakovic, David West, Tyson Chandler, Antonio Daniels, James Posey, Sean Marks, and Hilton Armstrong are the modern day Western Conference equivalent to the 2006-2007 Cleveland Cavaliers roster of Larry Hughes, Sasha Pavlovic, LeBron James, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Daniel Gibson, Eric Snow, Ira Newble, Donyell Marshall, and Anderson Varejao.

If you've read me long enough, you know I'm a Spurs fan, and so, as you've likely guessed, I'm going to talk about the Spurs. While it bothers me somewhat that it's Dallas of all teams that's ousting my beloved Spurs, rather embarassingly, from the first round, there's a part of me that's sort of glad that they were rather soundly trounced. No one ever likes seeing their team lose, but nonetheless, I hope that Greg Popovich and RC Buford see this as a strong wakeup call that it's not 2005 anymore. While Tony Parker has evolved to become the star that everyone hoped for, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, while by no means quickly losing ground to old age, aren't really quite what they were almost 5 years ago. I don't want to hear the, "If only Manu were healthy..." excuses, the fact of the matter remains, outside of the Big 3 of Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker, the San Antonio Spurs are a mediocre team, at best.

Please don't tell me otherwise, I have no delusions of grandeur. Don't tell me how Roger Mason has been clutch, because while he's made a couple of big shots, he's a relatively ineffecient player and scorer. He's just getting more attention because he's not buried behind Gilbert Arenas and Antonio Daniels on the Wizards. In the additional 9 minutes of play he's averaging an additional 2.7 points, 1.5 rebounds, 0.4 assists, and 0.3 turnovers on 3 additional shot attempts, shooting roughly the same percentages (with a slightly increased 3pt shooting percentage I attribute to better looks). 11 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assist, with essentially no steals, no blocks, and a couple of threes in 30+ minutes of play isn't my definition of stellar. The guy turns 29 by the start of the next regular season, so I can't really imagine him getting better. Don't get me wrong, he's solid, an average role player, I just don't want people getting the wrong idea he's some kind of savior. If you don't believe me, check his per 36 numbers between this year and last. He actually did better last year because he had to facilitate more, since the only time he got to see significant floor time was when both Arenas and Daniels were injured.

I know Michael Finley can get hot once and a while and shoot the Spurs to a win. However, the distance between such games is growing ever larger. The man is 36, we have to remember that. He's almost 10 years removed from his best season. This isn't the 1999 22 point per game Michael Finley, this is the 2009 9 point per game, with streaky 3s, as capable of being red hot as he is consistently ice cold.

While Bruce Bowen is a solid contributor on the defensive end, he's about a month shy of 38. In basketball terms, 38 is a big number, when referring to age, big numbers are bad. Ok, maybe not "bad" but certainly it doesn't help his athleticism and ability to stay in front of younger, more athletic players. Same goes for Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto, who are 36 and 34 respectively.

Finally, while Matt Bonner has been a pleasant surprise this season, it's only because everyone had absolutely no expectations about him whatsoever coming into the season. When nothing turns out to be something, it's always something of a shock (in a good way). Let's be honest though, while Bonner's production was somewhat serindipidous, he's not much more than a poor man's version of Al Harrington or Andrea Bargnani. That's pretty bad. Granted, he's no Mark Blount or Brian Cook, but still, I don't know that it merits 23 minutes per game.

Jacque Vaughn was, well... Jacque Vaughn, I don't know that I really need to say much more than that. As for Drew Gooden, it was too little, too late. He's good, and he played fairly well with the Spurs, but I think that he's going to want more than he's worth, at least to the Spurs. There are other intricacies involved with Gooden, I'll get into that later.

Generally speaking, you could probably just read Timothy Varner's post at 48 Minutes regarding how the Spurs should move forward, which boils down a lot of the needs. It doesn't quite sum up what I want to talk about, but definitely is worth reading. I take a slightly different approach from Varner, but I think his ideas have merit and work too. Sounds like Varner is going to have a bunch of upcoming posts as to how the Spurs should improve their roster, so I'd always keep an eye on what Graydon and Varner have going on there, it's usually good stuff.

As you might've heard, the salary cap is supposed to fall. If you're not sure what that means, it means that teams are allowed less money to sign their players. Since as the cap falls, so does the luxury tax threshhold and likely the mid-level exception. The current salary cap is set at $58.68 million, it's expected to drop to $57.3 million, now in terms of salary flexibility, it doesn't mean much for the Spurs, as they're over the cap either way, however, if the MLE drops, they have less money with which to improve their roster. If we look at the roster next season, the Spurs will have approximately $66 million in salary tied up in Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Thomas, Bowen, Mason, Bonner, Hill, Mahinmi (if they exercise their team option), and Finley (if he exercises his player option). Of the above mentioned players, the core I think Spurs should rebuild around are Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Hill, and Mahinmi. While it would be nice to retain Mason and maybe Bonner, I personally don't think it necessary, and am willing to part with them, if it means an improvement to the roster, in short, they're not untouchable.

So far, the only thing the Spurs really have to play around with are expiring contracts, as everyone on the roster except essentially Duncan and Parker are not guaranteed past 2010. Given that a lot of teams are probably looking to cut costs, it's not a bad situation to be in. We'll see how all that pans out though. However, before we start looking into that, I want to address one thing:

Should the Spurs trade Manu Ginobili?

In short, my answer is: no. I suppose I should probably expound on that a little bit, there are various posts/comments and such around the internet regarding whether or not Manu should be traded. There are various reasons to think consider trading Manu. He's 32, he's beat up, and he's not getting younger, and therefore has the "injury-prone" label applied to him, especially given his style of play, granted, he's never played a whole season in his 7 season in the NBA, but still, he has been playing basketball essentially for the past 2-3 years (since the 2006-2007 season), straight, meaning no offseason (FIBA qualifiers and then Olympics). I'm not going to get into whether or not he should've been allowed to represent Argentina in the international games, but I'm just going to say this, while the Spurs pay him, they don't own him. Let the man make his decisions. You don't see Laker fans complain about how Kobe put off hand surgery and represented the US, oh yeah, Kobe's turning 31 by the way.

Anyways I digress. While I won't off handedly turn down any offers for Manu (like say LeBron for Manu), I don't believe that it's in the Spurs' best interest to trade him. Firstly, as he has the "injury-prone" label, I don't think his stock is that high. Yes, I think we all realize that he's only one season removed from the best statistical season he's ever had (2007-2008), but still, given that he hasn't played for most of the year, and only played a gimpy 44 games this season, I don't know that the Spurs could really get anything of significant value back for him. Secondly, I believe that Ginobili can still continue to contribute to the Spurs, and I honestly don't want to take the risk that Ginobili comes back with a vengence next season, on a different team. I can't really articulate another reason beyond that it just feels wrong, but I honestly think that a player of Ginobili's ilk is definitely something the Spurs need and it brings an intangible aspect of mojo and chemistry to the lockerroom. I'm sure Ginobili will be reasonable about what to expect in the form of an extension next season. Spurs are good at drafting players that usually are (reasonable about their salary).

So what've we got to work with? Well, simply put, we have the MLE (approximately $5 million), tack on another million or so for a veteran's minimum, plus upwards of $20 million in expiring contracts. Rumors are swirling about how Rasheed Wallace is a significant possibility come this offseason. While 'Sheed isn't exactly what the Spurs need to get younger (he turns 35 by next season), he's definitely what the Spurs want in another big man to play around Duncan. He's solid in the low post, he's a decent mid-range to long-range shooter, he's effective as a defender for a big man, he's a shot blocking presence, a decent rebounder, and he's played for a defense-first championship caliber Detroit Pistons. Finally, 'Sheed being 35, would likely not field offers anywhere near his current salary of $13 million per year. If 'Sheed is serious about winning another ring, there's not much better place than the one team that has won the most rings in the past 10 years (4 since 1999, Lakers have 3, Pistons 1, Miami 1, Boston 1). Timothy Varner mentions somewhere in his post that Spurs might be able to get Wallace for about $3.5 million of the MLE, ok, let's say he takes that much, what are the Spurs' other options now?

I've been pretty extensive looking through the free agency list, and honestly, for under $2 million, I don't know that we could sign anyone great, reasonably, I say we have a decent shot at someone like Walter Herrmann, who's been somewhat buried in the Piston's roster ever since the trade for Allen Iverson. Herrmann is currently signed for $2 million, I don't know if Pistons want to keep him, but surely, the Spurs could afford to try to throw at least a little money at him. Marquis Daniels is another intriguing option, but it's possible that he might be commanding a little more than Spurs could really afford.

Given the money situation, restricted free agents like Marvin Williams, Josh Childress, Paul Millsap, Brandon Bass are all a little out of reach. Before we get any further though, so as not to utterly confuse you all, I suppose it would be best to sit down and hammer out what exactly the Spurs need. Well, the obvious answer would be, any player not named Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, or Manu Ginobili, but it helps to have something a bit more concrete of an idea. There are two dire needs that have shown up towards the waning stages of the regular season and well into the playoffs that seem to plague the Spurs.

First order of business I believe would be a legitimate big man to play next to Tim Duncan. The Spurs believed that it would be young French draft prospect Ian Mahinmi, but he was injured during the course of the season and therefore couldn't play. However, I don't really see Mahinmi being the solution in the near future. While he continues to develop under Duncan, I think that as of now, he'd best serve as a sort of energy man off the bench, much in the mold of Anderson Varejao or Brandon Bass. While, I've yet to see him play, hopefully he gets some more playing time and experience in and it pans out. However, the immediate need for a big man that can immediately step into a starting role and play next to Tim Duncan then still remains very real and very unfilled. The roles have traditionally been filled with big men that were able defenders and able to spread the floor with a mid-range jumper, generally spreading the floor and allowing Duncan to work his magic in the low post. For those that don't remember, this group includes David Robinson in the later years of his career, Rasho Nesterovic, and Fabricio Oberto. While Kurt Thomas fits this role fairly well, his offense is somewhat too inconsistent to rely on, hence, Popovich went with Matt Bonner, sacrificing defense for some added offense. While Drew Gooden might be serviceable, and while both he and Duncan can play on the block and pull out defenses, I'm not a fan of Gooden when he starts jacking up wing 20 footers. The general consensus is that his game isn't versatile enough and too similar to Duncan's for him to be worth much money to hold on to. Additionally, his weakness on the defensive end certainly doesn't help matters any.

Enter Rasheed Wallace. No one expects Wallace to carry a team anymore, and on the Spurs he won't have to. He's a solid man-to-man defender, and between him and Duncan, they can split defensive assignments against opposing bigs. While 'Sheed isn't inclined to play much in the low block anymore, he certainly is more than able when the need arises, and he won't have to really do it all that much. Additionally, the need for his offense is generally something he's been doing a lot of lately (much to the frustration of many Detroit fans I'm sure), that is, shooting outside jumpers. No one questions Wallace's ability to play solid defense in the post, and of course, Wallace, while not known to be a crusher, does add a much needed shot blocking presence outside of Duncan for the Spurs' frontcourt. The biggest caveat with Sheed is simply that he might be something of a headcase, however, I think that two things mitigate the risk and make it worth taking; first, if 'Sheed wants to win, he knows he has to shape up. Remember, he played for Larry Brown, I'm sure Greg Popovich is used to having to deal with antics as such after Dennis Rodman. Secondly, Tim Duncan will still be there to help keep 'Sheed in line.

Now, I don't believe Rasheed Wallace to be the ultimate answer, but he certainly is the most realistic and I believe will help the Spurs tremendously. Granted if I could choose any player flirting with free agency, I'd actually take Mehmet Okur over Rasheed Wallace. However, given the situation, I highly doubt that Okur would opt out of his contract from the Jazz ($9 million) as he knows given the market he won't get anything more, and I highly doubt that the Spurs could offer him much, unless they pulled a sign-and-trade. Varner declares the Spurs to be major players in the 2010 market, and he's probably better informed than I am, however, I still don't really see the Spurs making a huge splash. However, I'm not going to complain if Spurs manage to somehow nab Chris Bosh via free agency. Given that, if Spurs really are looking into the 2010 free agency, and that the only reason Mehmet Okur would opt out would be for a longer contract since he's not getting a bigger one, then I don't know that the Spurs would want to go for Okur. While I'm rather skeptical about the amount of involvement Spurs will have in the 2010 free agency, I'm in agreement with Varner that should we tie someone up long term, at a fairly steep price, we might as well swing for the fences. $10 million per for Mehmet Okur for the next 5 seasons isn't exactly my idea of a home run.

There are also a number of restricted free agents that might come cheap, names such as Paul Millsap, David Lee, Charlie Villanueva, and Brandon Bass have all played themselves into prominence. However, being RFAs, I don't believe that their respective teams are willing to let them just walk, especially not at whatever the Spurs might be asking for. Furthermore, I see all of these guys more as kind of hustle players, and therefore, I'm willing to let these guys walk for the sake of seeing how Mahinmi pans out. I don't see any of these guys starting well next to Duncan, hence I generally tend to look more for players that are center eligible, and I mean on a normal team, not in a Mike D'Antoni offense.

Secondly, I believe that an upgrade in the wing position is needed, primarily the starting and backup SF position. Currently, the spot is platooned between Michael Finley, Bruce Bowen, and Ime Udoka. Now the commonality between the three is that they can all kind of hit threes, Bowen and Udoka are known more for their abilities on the defensive end, and Finley is just a slight upgrade offensively and downgrade defensively from the two. I believe this to be one of the biggest needs of the Spurs, and to make the biggest impact, I believe that the Spurs will have to trade themselves into a good spot. The biggest issue, is how the Spurs can't keep up with more athletic and younger teams, well to solve that, I would imagine the Spurs would just have to get more athletic and younger. Ideally, you'd want someone that can defend and hit threes (i.e. Bowen and Udoka). Now if I were to make a list of lockdown defenders, I could tell you that I don't see any of them falling into San Antonio in the near future, so, since we're likely not getting the likes of Shane Battier or Tayshaun Prince, I would propose that the Spurs alter some of the criteria, this would undoubtedly change the overall "feel" of the Spurs, but I think the long run make them better. I'll take an above average defender, esepcially if the Spurs land someone like Rasheed Wallace. I'm also willing to forgo 3 point shooting prowess to the level that said player can make enough to keep defenses honest.

That being said, I'm not sure that the free agency then is the best place in which the Spurs will be able to make a major splash and upgrade their roster, in which case they will need to do something via trade. However, one name in free agency that I've continually brought up and will continually bring up is the name of Walter Herrmann. I'm sure most of you are wondering who the heck I'm talking about, those of you that actually know me and have talked with me about basketball have surely heard his name mentioned somewhere in the course of conversation before. Fabio, as he's known in the basketball world, has proven that he's effective when he gets minutes. He's a little older, yes, turning 30 this June, however, he's on Detroit's books for $2 million and is a free agent this summer, and averages slightly more than 10 minutes per game, playing just under 6 minutes per during the playoffs. He's shown on Charlotte and in Detroit that if he's given extended minutes he can definitely do some damage. Additionally, he's a solid defender and can hit threes, he understands the team chemistry thing as he's won an Olympic gold medal playing with fellow Argentines Manu Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto, so I don't see chemistry being a huge issue. He's not a guy that demands shots, and is someone that makes the most of them. He's virtually an ideal Spur. RC Buford, if you are reading this, and ignore everything else I say, FIND A WAY TO SIGN WALTER HERRMANN!!!

Anyways, there are a number of other options both in restricted and unrestricted free agency that seem to be fairly intriguing. My sign-and-trade dream player that's semi-realistic would likely be Marvin Williams, who's definitely shown that he can step up and play big when he's called to do so. The only reason I say semi-realistic is because of the ineptitude with which the Hawks' front office handled the Josh Smith and Josh Childress contracts last offseason. Additionally, he and Raymond Felton are the only players picked top 5 in their class to not have a contract extension agreement already reached (the other 3 players being Andrew Bogut, Deron Williams, and Chris Paul). Re-signing Williams should be something of a no-brainer for the Hawks, but it's possible that they re-sign Mike Bibby for way too much and can't afford to match offers made to Williams. Of course, I doubt the Spurs would be the ones making that sort of offer. Josh Childress would be another guy I'd look for, but I don't know that he's coming back from Europe quite yet, and again, Hawks still own his rights.

Another player to look at would be Marquis Daniels, who has played exceptionally well for the Pacers, in light of injuries to Mike Dunleavy and Danny Granger throughout the season (mostly Dunleavy). He's rather expensive at the moment, so I don't really expect Indiana to pick up his $7.3 million team option. If he can be convinced to play for less, then it might be worthwhile.

Otherwise, the Spurs really have to look into various trade options in order to better improve their situation on the wings. Milwaukee looks to be a venue of possibility, however, the only player I'd really look into in Milwaukee would be Joe Alexander, as he's little used. While I'd rather have Luc Richard Mbah-a-Moute, I understand that Milwaukee probably would be a little unwilling to part with him. Alexander is somewhat little used and I see a lot of potential there that the Spurs could really tap into. I think a system like the Spurs is one where Alexander could really thrive in. The main problem is that I don't really see the Bucks adding salary just to get rid of Alexander, as they're looking to cut costs to be able to re-sign Ramon Sessions and Charlie Villanueva. Therefore, it's possible that they might ask the Spurs to take Richard Jefferson as part of the package. While I'm not entirely against having Richard Jefferson on the roster, I am opposed to adding $13 million in salary for a single player while having to dump virtually all tradeable assets (it'd end up being something like Bowen, Oberto, Bonner, and Thomas for Jefferson and Alexander).

I'm actually not super opposed to taking on Jared Jeffries's contract on the condition we can land Wilson Chandler. Bowen and Oberto for Jeffries and Chandler would be the scenario. Of course, that likely tears a hole in any 2010 plans that the Spurs may have had.

Another player I'm rather fond of would be Kelenna Azubuike. Though I doubt the Warriors part with him, and would likely give the Spurs Jamal Crawford or Corey Maggette in the process, both at prices that I wouldn't want, it's still something to consider. That being said, I wouldn't mind seeing Stephen Jackson back in a Spurs uniform.

All in all, there aren't a whole lot of options out there, so I'm kind of digging the bottom of the barrel here. I highly doubt that the Spurs land Trevor Ariza somehow, but Jamario Moon might be another player that they decide to take a risk on. Ultimately, I'm sure RC Buford has a plan worked out, and he probably has better scouts for younger players in D-League and Europe than I do. As you can see, the Spurs need to seriously retool their roster. The premise I think will be generally the same, fundamentally sound, defensive basketball, just how it's done will be somewhat different. However, I think the Spurs, with the right moves, can definitely stay in the thick of it.

Nonplussed...

2009-04-22T12:09:00.001-07:00

I don't know if I'm the only one that thinks this, but is it me, or do refs like LeBron? A lot. No one's really mentioning it though. [Insert David Stern conspiracy theory]. It was a moderately big deal when Leon Powe went to the line 13 times in game 2 of the Finals last year, a big deal because the entire Lakers squad only went to the line 10 times. Ok, I can see how that's weird, I mean, it is the Lakers, and it is Leon Powe.

I haven't seen the games really all that much, but it is sort of interesting that in the first two games of the series LeBron has already had 31 attempts at the charity stripe. 31 in two games (14 in the game 1, 17 in game 2). That's a lot. Especially when you consider that EVERY PISTON COMBINED has only seen 28 attempts. [Insert David Stern conspiracy theory]