What is with the Wizards' Players? Seriously.

“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?

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	3PA	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	0.0	0.0		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	0.0	0.0	.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	0.0	0.0	.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	0.0	0.0	.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

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

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?

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?

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

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.