The End of the Bench |
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Basketball blog with takes on basketball and anything related to basketball . . . as well as a haven for jingoists everywhere - in America.
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Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Monday, December 22, 2003
Big Game Performance It seems Scott from NBA Weblog and I disagree as to how important it is. In the comments for my post on the Elliot Kalb book he writes: "And I think when choosing such a team, performance in big games counts. Now Kalb is not going to rate stepping up as much as he discredits stepping down. That is, Wilt never won a Game 7 in his career, and he played in numerous Game 7s. This is what he means. Jordan was always seemingly able to step it up when all the marbles were on the line (see 1993 and 1998 for prime examples)." Performance in big games is over-rated. There are multiple reasons. One is that most guys don't get to play that many "big" games, which leads to small sample sizes which means that you can't draw good conclusions from that. Second is that a lot of times guys get labeled because their teams don't perform when it isn't really their fault. Some guys get more credit than they deserve. Kevin Garnett got labeled as a guy who couldn't win the big game because his team couldn't get out of the first round. To say it was his fault though is absurd. Those teams weren't exacty swimming in talent. If you read the current Pro Basketball Prospectus you find that Kevin Garnett's average game score per 30 minutes drops .76% in the playoffs. HOWEVER, if you read the first PBP you know that the league average is a 10% decline. So the reality is that KG is 10% better than most come playoff time. Now Robert Horry is over-rated as a big game performer in my opinion. I know Big Game Rob has hit numerous game winners in the playoffs. The thing that drives me crazy about that stat is that no one ever mentions how many games he's done it in - 181. That's a season and a half worth of playoff games people. Should we be that surprised that a guy who can shoot like him has hit a few game winners in that many games? No. Now Horry does raise his game score per 30 minutes 4.6% come playoff time. That's huge don't get me wrong, but when it is going from 8.86 to 9.93 that still means he is an average player at best. It's a nice jump, but he still isn't a great player. Holding losing game 7's over Wilt's head just distorts the picture of how good he was. Wilt didn't lose those game 7's by himself. Jordan was a great player, but he didn't win those game 7s by himself either. How can you use a team stat to evaluate an individual? I doubt Wilt played enough game 7s that you could get a good sample to evaluate his stats from. So how can you hold those against him? Layden Out, Zeke In as Knicks President I applaud the fact that the Knicks finally got rid of Scott Layden. It was a long time coming and I doubt I'd find anyone who disagreed. On the other hand, hiring Isaiah Thomas isn't necesarily a step up. Thomas has never been known for his personnale decisions or business savvy. Does anyone remember what happened with the Raptors? Or what about the CBA having to decleare bamkruptcy while Zeke was running it? The reality is that at this point, Zeke has his hands tied with a bunch of guys whose contracts are not comparable with their actual value on the court. So other than the draft, there may not be a whole lot that Thomas gets to do for the next few years. Thursday, December 18, 2003
Who's Better, Who's Best in Basketball?: Mr. Stats Sets the Record Straight on the Top 50 Players of All Times The book above, by Elliot Kalb, is the subject of a recent post over at NBA Weblog (12/16/03). Kalb's "worked as a statistical analyst for NBC's NBA department for numerous years, has been courtside for all NBA Finals games since 1991, and has met with and talked with hundreds of present and past NBA greats for their take on the greatest players of all time." I also was at the bookstore last night and saw the book and glanced through it. While I don't doubt that the book is an entertaining read, I see it as little more than that. When it comes right down to it, the book is nothing more than Kalb's opinion. I realize that his opinion is probably much more informed than mine, but it is still nothing more than his opinion. My problem with this is that he makes it seem like the list is more than that - like it is an authoritative ranking. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Look at the things he says are most important in his rankings: - Performance in big games / championships - Scoring titles - Rebounding titles - MVP selections - All-Team NBA Uggghhh. Where do I start? The last two are a joke. By heavily weighting those, he bases his opinions on the opinions of others - namely sportswriters and NBA personnel. Basing opinions off of opinions is a slippery slope, especially when sportswriters' opinions are involved. Scoring titles and revound titles - guys can win these while doing little else on the floor. Dennis Rodman rebounded and played defense and that was it. He won an absured number of rebounding titles, but that doesn't mean he should be considered for one of the fifty best players necesarily. Similar arguments can go for scoring. I know points win games, but there are a lot of things that go into making a bucket. And then we get to my least favorite of the five - performance in big games. You know what, this is such crap. There are few players that consistently step it up come playoff time. Hell the guy who has the biggest improvement come playoff time in the modern era is Raja Bell - RAJA freakin BELL!!!! I think that more than makes my point. The reality is that if you look at the stats, a huge majority of guys don't play better in the playoffs and they don't make the guys around them better. Talking heads on TV may say that they do, but the stats disagree. I'm sure Kalb's book is a fun, interesting read, but that's all it is. If I got in an argument on the subject of who's the best player, I'm not citing Kalb as supporting evidence. I'll stick to objective evidence, namely the actual stats like what is used by John Hollinger. Monday, December 15, 2003
Ricky Davis traded to Celtics for ball rack Real trade details are as follows: Celtics get: Ricky Davis, Chris Mihm and Michael Stewart Cavs get: Tony Battie, Eric Williams and Kedrick Brown The Cavs just gave Davis away. Basically, Dabis wanted out and Silas wanted him out. Davis went from shooting every touch to never shooting almost like he was trying to tell Silas to suck it. On one hand I find it hard to believe that Paxson couldn't get more for Davis, especially when they're packaging Mihm with him who has turned into a decent center for the Eastern Conference. The Cavs got pretty much crap back. Williams and Battie are solid, but not spectacular. But when you give away a guy who can score 20 a night at will (even if he does have an attitude problem) you can get more. It may just be a case of wanting Davis out of town as fast as possible though. For the Celtics, Paul Pierce get a helper in the scoring department - as long as Ricky is willing to be second fiddle to PP. Mihm also helps in the middle and we'll all get to see what he can really do with 30 minutes a night. The Celts will need the help in the middle with Raef LaFrentz gone for the season. Friday, December 12, 2003
Fun Quotes From Camby "Sometimes when he doesn't get the ball, he gets a little frustrated, then he starts speaking Portuguese," Nuggets center Marcus Camby said. "That's when you know he's upset." -- From a Rocky Mountain News article on Nene Hilario Spurs and Rockets set mark for half time futility As Jim Rome pointed out this morning, is anyone surprised that Jeff Van Gundy was involved in this? Thursday, December 11, 2003
We're slumping and we lost To Orlando!!!! Where's the Panic Button!!!! The Suns fired Frank Johnson. Colangelo says the chemistry wasn't there, blah blah blah. It's just a case of the players can't be fired so the coach gets it. Now I meant to link this when I first saw it linked by the guys over at SportsFrog. John Hollinger did an article in the wake of the Doc Rivers firing on how a coaching change historically hasn't made a huge difference in the team's record. Basically, the coach gets fired usually because the team is bad and they can be bad with someone else too. There is some improvement, but it can be explained by things other than the coach. Hollinger cites Memphis last year. Hubie Brown got hired after the team started 0-8. The team wasn't gonna lose every game, so an improvement was inevitable. The reality is that the coaching change probably isn't gonna make a huge difference for the Suns, but it is more symbolic than anything else. New Comments Thing Like Matt over at Bulls Blog, my comments service also decided to stop actually telling me how many comments there were. Therefore, it had to go. So now everyone will be able to tell how many comments there are. The bad part, however, is that I lose all the comments from before. It sucks, but it is necesary. Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Quick Stay: Bliss Quits as Volunteer Coach And the players are now safer for it. Glad to have been able to do my part. Monday, December 08, 2003
Orlando Comes Back From 22 Point Deficit How sorry must the Suns feel right about now? I know they didn't have Amare Stoudemire, but they were up 22 . . . 22!!!!!!! on Orlando. When you're up 22 on a team that's lost it's last 19, you should be able to close that one out. Some fun quotes from the recap: "As the music blared, coach Johnny Davis was accepting a bottle of champagne . . . " I want a job where I can accomplish my goal 10% of the time and get champagne. Okay, so it was really for his first win. Just out of curiosity, how old you think that bottle is? Did they put the same bottle on ice for each of the first ten games on the off chance they won or did they have to dig one out tonight? "The free throw discrepancy was unreal," said Johnson, noting the 32-11 edge in favor of Orlando. "I'll leave it at that." Boo hoo. I'm tired of people blaming the officials when the free throw attempts aren't even. Now granted, sometimes it is officiating. But you know what? A lot of times the one team is just fouling a whole lot more than the other. Does anyone believe that the team that lost 19 in a row is gonna be getting calls from the officials? Other than Tracy McGrady, who on that team is gonna get calls? No one. But it wasn't McGrady shooting all those foul shots. He took 7, but so did Juwan Howard. Hell, Shammond Williams took 5 as did Drew Gooden. Even Gordan Giricek shot 4. These are not guys who get that borderline call from the officials. I didn't see the game, but I would guess that Orlando simply drove the lane much more often than Phoenix did (particularly in the second half) and that Phoenix simply committed more fouls. So to Frank Johnson and everyone else who wants to blame the referees for their team being a bunch of hacks on any given night, quit your crying. Sunday, December 07, 2003
New Link Infinite Hoops is a website with some NBA news, but it's main function is to assist people in finding pickup games near them. Check it out. Personally I think it's a really cool idea and I signed up (no charge or anything like that). So go check it out. Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Ninja Turtle on the Move The Blazers have traded Bonzi Wells (aka. The Ninja Turtle due to his strong resemblance to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) for Wes Person and a conditional 2004 1st rounder. The conditions for the pick are that it can't be top 3 in 2004 or 1st overall in 2005. I like Wes Person . . . okay no I don't. Either way, Person isn't the player that Wells is and a first rounder doesn't make up the difference, especially when it is likely to be late lottery. This trade was a matter of getting Wells the hell out of Portland and the Blazers getting what they could for him. Person is older, a better shooter, but not as good an athlete, scorer, rebounder, etc as Wells. Wells was an attitude problem lately and his rift with Mo Cheeks was the last straw. I mean how do you get in a rift with Mo Cheeks guy? How much of a punk must you be to piss Mo Cheeks off? Maybe Hubie Brown will get Bonzi's head on straight. Right now, the Grizzlies got the best of this deal, but if Wells continues to be a pain in the ass that may change. Bliss volunteers to assist son's prep team If you're the coach of that team, isn't this one of those times you say "Thanks but no thanks"? Do they do random counts to make sure all the players are still there? And if you one of the parents of the players, aren't you concerned about this? I wouldn't let him anywheer near anyone I knew, let alone my kid. Sunday, November 30, 2003
Raptors, Bulls Agree to Deal Raptors get: Jalen Rose, Lonny Baxter, and Donyell Marshall Bulls get: Antonio Davis, Jerome Williams and Chris Jefferies Rose gives the Raptors a second scoring option (at this point no one on the Raptors not named Carter is averaging ten points a game. Marshall will also help. He can score, he rebounds well and he plays defense fairly well. He was stuck in the logjam that was the Bulls forward spots. Baxter was in the same logjam with less skills. Personally I think Rose is extremely over-rated and has been for years, but these guys will help Toronto. Antonio Davis may or may not help Chicago. He's tall, but he's been playing pretty crappy for the first part of the season, so we'll see if he can turn it around. Either way he won't be starting regularly. JYD is the same way. He won't score, but he'll add even more rebounding to the Bulls bevy of big men. As for Chris Jefferies, well . . . ummmm . . . he can wave a towel well? He may get minutes, but I don't see him contributing significantly. I think this trade probably ends up helping both teams, but a slightly better deal here. They depleted the bench, not that there was much there before, but helped the starting five. The Bulls just added more height and depth, which will help, but won't have the impact the TO guys will have. For other people's views on the deal, check out the Bulls Blog and Raptor Blog. Thursday, November 27, 2003
Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from everyone here at the End of the Bench. Yes I know that "everyone" is really just me, but don't burst my bubble here:) Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Skiles Is Leading Candidate for Bulls Looks like Matt over at BullsBlog is gonna get his wish. Crusty young guy it is. Monday, November 24, 2003
Cartwright Gets the Axe Paging Dr. Rivers . . . Paging Dr. Rivers. This is looking a lot like the Rick Carlisle firing this summer. A better guy is out there and the team is willing to cut their guy loose to get him. Now granted Rick Carlisle won 50 games 2 seasons in a ro and Cartwright has the Bulls sucking, but it still seems like similar reasoning behind the firing. Zo Retires, Need Kidney Transplant Rod Thorn announced this morning that Alonzo Mourning needs a kidney transplant and that he will retire from the NBA. This brings up three things for me. 1) What a crappy way for Zo to go out. He's been struggling all season and simply looked like he was playing his way into shape most of the time. Obviously, we all know what was really happening now. The guy had a great career and it's just sad to see him have to go out like this after being such a warrior for his whole career. 2) While I realize when Zo had to sit out a year it probably made players reconsider taking those anti-inflammatories, but does him having to retire to get a kidney transplant make them think even harder about the issue? 3) How big of an ass does Kenyon Martin feel like right now? From what I've seen, he seems like he's an ass anyway. But even if you are a huge ass, you gotta feel stupid for making fun of a guys kidney condition when it turns out he needs a transplant. Friday, November 21, 2003
Good Ways to Lose 11 in a Row Have starting lineup that includes Stephen Hunter at center and Tyronn Lue at the point. The Magic are awful. I don't what else there is to say. If your name isn't McGrady and you're on that team, you aren't that good. Drew Gooden's numbers look nice, but he seems to have this penchant for making really dumb decisions. Juwan Howard is being Juwan Howard and not rebounding that much while coming off the bench. And for god sakes, Stephen Hunter? That's a weak starting center even in the Eastern Conference. That roster after say McGrady, Howard and Gooden is juts lacking any talent at all. I'll give Reece Gaines and Zaur Pachulia a pass cause they haven't really been getting minutes, but the dearth of talent in Orlando is just stunning. Thursday, November 20, 2003
Your Business May Be in Trouble If . . . You are trying to build a big campaign based on this year's rookies and the five you choose include Kirk Hinrich, Mike Sweetney and Troy Bell. Now granted the other two are Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but still. 1) Do you want kids to walk up to your shoes in the store and go "Hey, if I get these maybe I can make more turnovers and assists just like Kirk Hinrich!"? 2) I know Troy Bell has a shoe, but does he need it? Wouldn't you need to get into the game to use them? I know the injury report says he has tendinitis in his left knee, but isn't that just a slight step above back spasms on the injury credibility chain? 3) Oh oh oh!! Lemme get the shoe of that guy who's only gotten into 6 of his teams games for a total of 30 minutes so far!!!!! Get me those!!!! (Yes I'm talking to you Sweetney). How far Converse has fallen. And to think they used to be THE basketball shoes. Now they can only get guys like Troy Bell and Mike Sweetney to hawk their shoes. Tuesday, November 18, 2003
What's Up Doc, You're Fired Can you say panic button? I know they lost ten in a row and all, but does anyone think this is actually Doc Rivers' fault? Maybe it has to do with having no one that can even pretend to be a center? Maybe it has to due with Tyronn Lue being the point guard? Maybe it is all of that. Someone had to take the fall and it wasn't gonna be the players with the guaranteed contracts. Either way Doc will be fine. He won't be out of coaching too long. He'll be near the top of everyone's list when coaches start getting the axe. As for the Magic. Well, they're a mess. Not sure what else I can say than that. They don't play much defense and they aren't scoring that well and that makes for a lot of losses. Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Flipping Out Over Murray A nice article by Marc Stein on Ronald "Flip" Murray who is helping keep the Sonics (and my fantasy team) together in the absence of Ray Allen. Tuesday, November 11, 2003
The Return of Those Crazy Christies There is a new article detailing the madness that is the marriage of Doug and Jackie Christie. Not as good as the first one. Give it a read. You'll be amused . . . or horrified . . . or both. Thursday, November 06, 2003
An Addition to the EotB favorite player list You all know of my fascination with Mateen Cleaves, but Mateen is currently unemployed. So to fill the void he left I have a new favorite player that doesn't really get to play that much. He is Chris Andersen. Now unlike Mateen, Chris actually does something with the few minutes he actually gets. He blocks shots. For example, last night he played 8 minutes and blocked two shots. The guy is ranked 6th in blocks per game and he plays 16 minutes a night. Theo Ratliff who? Adonal Foyle what? Chris's strong play has earned him a spot on my fantasy team. Although let's be honest, that really says more about my team than Chris. But regardless, Chris is the new favorite son of EotB. New Links! The basketball blogging community is growing, which is nice to see. When I started this blog, there weren't any other basketball blogs that I knew of. It's nice now to be able to read a fans thoughts that aren't my own. Many of the new additions are team blogs (Celtics, Nets, Raptors, Cavs, Blazers, Magic). RickBrunson.com is hilarious. To put it in an analogy (I've been studying for the GRE, can ya tell?) Mateen Cleaves : EotB :: Rick Brunson : RB.com Nash hurt in Mavs loss If this is a significant injury this could be very very bad for the Mavs. Do they even have a nother real point guard? And no Tony Delk doesn't count. Does anyone really think they'll be as good with Travis Best running the point? Exactly. The Mavs and one of my fantasy teams hope it is nothing serious. Boykins Makes Most of Homecoming (aka. Melo v. LeBron) I would be remiss if I didn't comment on this as a basketball blogger. For those of you who haven't seen here were the stats from last night: Anthony: 39min 6-17FG 6 Reb 2 Ast 14 Points People, especially the media, were totally disappointed by these guys because, basically they played like the rookies they are. It's not their fault that the media was hyping this as Magic v. Bird a mere 5 games into their NBA careers. I'm sure it's been covered, but I'm annoyed by this. So I'm gonna explain why this isn't Magic v. Bird. These guys had never played each other before. Magic and Bird played multiple times in college and had some good duels. Second, Bird and Magic were on good teams. They didn't have to share the court with guys like Voshon Lenard and Kevin Ollie for 30 minutes a night. Third, if Magic and Bird had an off night, you at least got a good game. If Bron and Melo have abad night, you just get a Cavs-Nuggets game and no one wants that. The other thing that bothered me was that after the game, the talking heads on Sportscenter talked about the game like Melo simply killed LeBron. In scoring yes, overall, I think it was pretty even. Both shot poorly. Bron doubled Melo up in boards though and killed him in assists. This bi-polar mentatlity to LeBron James performances needs to stop. It's like he's either the next Hall of Famer or he's a bust and there's nothing in between. The guy's a rookie. He's gonna be inconsistent. Everyone needs to just settle down until we see more than 5 games. Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Duncan has Grade 2 Sprain of Left Ankle Tim Duncan will miss 1-3 weeks. It could have been worse. Much worse, because really, is there a team with one guy that they could afford to lose less than the Spurs with Duncan. The next week or two is probably gonna be a mess with Parker still hobbled and Duncan out. What are they gonna do, run the offense through Rasho Nesterovic? On the bright side, if you have Malik Rose on a fantasy team you are gonna cash in on this for the next week or two. He'll probably be the main one to pick up the slack because would you trust guys like Anthony Carter, Hedo Turkoglu, Ron Mercer and Bruce Bowen to take more shots? Me either. Saturday, November 01, 2003
Tim's Wishlist I have two things I really want, but am unable to find them. Can anyone tell me where I can get 1) a Nick Van Exel Warriors jersey and 2) Any Mateen Cleaves jersey (colleg or pro, but must have his number). Drop it in the comments or in an email if you know where to get one. Martin Sprains Ankle At the time it looked like it may be worse, and with Kenyon Martin's injury history (the broken ankle his last year at Cincinatti), you almost kind of assume the worst. Turns out it's only a sprain. Also of note, Mark Madsen got hit in the face and didn't return. This begs the question, what was he doing in the game in the first place? NBA Opens Office in Shanghai This is interesting. Asia gets an office before Europe. Yao is a huhe part of that for sure. I wonder if the existing fan support is that much greater in Asia or if this is simply trying to capitalize on Yao. EIther way, the NBA world takeover is starting. First Canadam, then Shanghai, then the world!!!! Brand Suffers Hairline Fracture in Foot Elton Brand will be out 4-6 weeks. In other news the Clippers are gonna miss the playoffs again. Thursday, October 30, 2003
Why I Hate Kevin Harlan This was an exchange from tonight's Cleveland-Phoenix game on TNT: Doug Collins: Over the summer, Suns assistant Mike Iavaroni showed Amare Stoudemire tapes of [Karl] Malone running the floor and told him, "You'll be a star when you can run the floor like that." He used to just beat other power forwards down the court for easy baskets. Kevin Harlan: Iavaroni played with Malone in Philadelphia. Actually Kevin, that was Moses Malone. Collins was referencing Karl Malone. Shouldn't your lead announcer recognize references to the best POWER FORWARD in the game and realize it's not a center? It's bad enough Harlan screams all the time about minor plays. James Start Goes Off the Charts Don't get me wrong, that was a hell of a performance by LeBron, but I have two words for everyone: One Game. One game does not a Jordan make. I understand it's exciting, but putting this guy in the Hall of Fame for one very impressive game is a bit premature. Hell, Tony Delk has scored 50 points in a game - twice - yet no one talks about him for the Hall. So let's all calm down a bit and see what happens over the course of the season. New Record! EoTB got 100 hits yesterday for the first time ever. First off I'd like to thank all of you for reading this. It's nice to know that this blog isn't me talking to myself. I hope you enjoy it and keep coming back. Second, I would like to thank the 5 main reasons this happened in order from least to most influence on this happening: 5) NBA Season starting 4) Shawn Kemp, Willie Anderson and all their kids 3) Eric McErlain linking me on OffWing Opinion 2) Tony Pierce linking me on the BusBlog 1) Doug Christie and Jackie Christie and their incredibly odd relationship. For some reason I got about 25 hits from people searching for some form of #1. It was absolutely bizarre. They all came in one bunch. Pretty much 25 hits in a row were from that and they weren't all the same person or from the same search engine. It got to the point that I thought they did another article on how crazy the Christie's are and I went searching. Alas, therewas just a sudden flurry of interest in those nutty Christies. Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Bill Simmons NBA Preview Part I "7. Minnesota Timberwolves During a preseason feature this week, SportsCenter called these guys "T-mendous!" I love dopey graphics like that. If I worked for them, I'd be sitting around praying for Marshall Faulk and Kevin Faulk to rush for 150 yards on the same day, just so I could write the graphic "ClusterFaulk!"" ClusterFaulk! had me laughing out loud. ClusterFaulk!!!!!!!! Sorry, I'm okay. These columns are the reason I suffer through all the sappy ESPN Mag columns about the Red Sox. By the way . . . ClusterFaulk!! Tuesday, October 28, 2003
First Place Baby! (aka. Opening Day) Sixers beat the Heat 89-74. The one good thing about working tonight was that I actually got to see some of this game cause the store's dish gets Sunshine network. Dwyane Wade looked good and Allen Iverson was dropping dimes and bricks (until the 4th quarter at least) everywhere. Also, could whoever had 8 minutes in the "How long will it take Lamar Odom to get injured?" pool come claim their prize. Seriously though, when did Lamar Odom turn into Marcus Camby? Speaking of Camby, you think he'll go down 6 minutes into his game just to show Odom that he won't be replaced as the fragilest player so easily? I'll bet you he's awake right now in bed talking to his ankle saying stuff like, "You gotta come through for me. I can roll you, but I need you to meet me half way and get sprained." Stats have it: Brad Miller better in middle than Shaq "But the rating system — using last season's stats — that ranks players at each position against each other in 10 statistical categories doesn't weight any category more than another. Miller's consistency in all 10 — field goal percentage, free throw percentage, three-point shots made per game, rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots, turnovers, scoring average and team winning percentage — gave him the edge over O'Neal at the center position." Two things - 1) Does anyone believe that all ten of those statistical categories are of equal importance? The correct answer is no. So then why are they all weighted equally? 2) If your system rates Brad Miller ahead of Shaquille O'Neal, shouldn't that tell you that your rating system sucks? Hell, in the article it even says, "And though there isn't an owner or general manager in the league who would take Miller if they had a chance to get O'Neal, Miller more than holds his own." If it's obvious to everyone except your rating system that O'Neal is better, fix your rating system. Monday, October 27, 2003
Spittin Fire Lang Whitaker had suggested in today's Links that maybe this whole feud was setup by Phil Jackson in order to draw attention away from Kobe's situation. After reading the interview transcript (linked in the post headline), I would say probably not. Take the following for example: GRAY: Do you consider Shaq to be a leader? BRYANT: Leaders don't beg for a contract extension and negotiate some 30 million [dollars] plus per year deal in the media when we have two future Hall of Famers playing here pretty much for free. A leader would not demand the ball every time down the floor when you have the three of us [Malone, Payton, Bryant] playing beside you, not to mention the teammates you have gone to war with for years -- and, by the way, then threaten not to play defense and rebound if you don't get the ball every time down the floor. The rest of the interview had a similar tone from Kobe. I would think that for Lakers fans, the most distressing part had to be how he turned on Phil Jackson in the last quote there. Everyone knew Shaq and Kobe didn't get along (well, maybe no t to this extent), but now he's turning on the Zenmaster too. Not good times, bad times. Funny thing is that even if everyone hates each other, as long as they don't kill each other they'll still make the playoffs. Rockets try to stay focused amid Griffin situation Not looking so good for Eddie Griffin's option getting picked up. Eddie's accused of beating and shooting at a girl that was his grilfriend. His lawyers say she was trespassing. My question is that even if she was trespassing, how does that make it okay to shoot at her after you beat her? Either way, Eddie's got a big mess on his hands. No charges filed yet, but this is not what he needed. Sean Kemp who? Former Spur Willie Anderson is getting his cash taken for unpaid taxes and child support. However, that is not the reason for this post. This line is: "During court hearings in 2000, it was revealed that he fathered at least nine children by seven women." Sean Kemp has nothing on Willie. The best part is the "at least nine children," which implies that there may be more. I mean damn Willie, keep it in your pants. Friday, October 24, 2003
Riley Quits as Coach, Stays as President Pat Riley quits as coach of the Heat a week before the season starts. I know others probably agree, but does this seem a bit odd? A week before the season? He kind of leaves the team in a lurch. The best conspiracy theory I've heard so far is from Marty Burns at CNNSI.com. He says that Riley waited til now to quit so that the team wouldn't really have time to get an outside guy to be coach and so there wouldn't be any fighting from inside the organization when he named Stan Van Gundy his successor. There's also the free agent aspect. You think Lamar Odom signs on to play for Stan Van Gundy? Exactly. Either way, the players kinda get screwed (especially Odom) in this and the team is gonna be hurt by the timing. Monday, October 20, 2003
Guess Who's Back? CHARLEY ROSEN!!!!! ESPN.com finally cut his old, bitter ass loose, but the Sporting News picked him up. Check out the latest column where he shows his lack of knowledge while trying to sound like he knows what he is talking about. The best way I can describe it is the following: Same shit, different site. Celts Send Walker to Mavs in Five Player Deal Here's the particulars: Celts Get: Raef LaFrentz, Jiri Welsh, Chris Mills Mavs Get: Antoine Walker, Tony Delk In terms of outright talent, I think the Mavs got the better end of this deal. The reality is that this trade was getting rid of guys that management didn't want around anymore. It had already be stated that Danny Fortson (he of the DNP - CD last year in Golden State) will be the Mavs starting "center". This made LaFrentz an expensive, underachiever who was gonna be growing roots on the bench. It had also been reported that Danny Ainge wasn't happy with Antoine Walker. I don't know anyone who was happy with his Rasheed Wallace-like propensity to avoid the paint when shooting and his horrendous shooting percentage on so many threes. However, the worst part in the eyes of most people outside Boston and Dallas, is the plummeting fantasy value of Antoine Walker. The guy was a fantasy starter at F and now he is splitting time with Dirk Nowitzki and Antawn Jamison. As someone who had Toine pencilled in as the starter at SF, I'm not happy. At least I have plenty of guys who I can move around to fill the spot (hooray for multi-positional eligibility). Overall, this trade simply seems like a dump. Not really salary, except for Chris Mills, but personality/dead wood. Saturday, October 18, 2003
Sim League Basketball I found this link over at AllThingsNBA and it was very tempting. You make rosters of guys from any era and the computer simulates the games. If it weren't for the many things already on my plate, I would be all over this. It also raised many questions about how realistic the game really is. I mean do you get things like the following in your team news: "Your SG is out for 3 months because he is serving his domestic battery sentence." Or maybe, "Wilt Chamberlain out 1 week with gonorrhea." Personally I would want ot see stuff like, "Sean Kemp out 1 game to attend his kid's christening - not that one, the other kid." or "Sean Kemp sprains wrist writing too many child support check, out 1 week." The other key is whether Mateen Cleaves would have the same witchcraft like powers he does in real life. I could create a super team with Mateen, Donny Marshall and Mark Madsen all down at the end of my bench. That team would be unstoppable. I could also save roster spots by having two of them always out with "back spasms," or "sore knees" or something else undetectable like the real NBA. My team morale would never be low. I'm tempted to sign up just to test out my theory. Thursday, October 16, 2003
NBA Plans to Realign to Six 5-Team Divisions This shouldn't really surprise anyone. this is similar to what the NFL did recently when the Houston Texans came in. This simply balances the divisions out and the owners get to stick it to George Shinn for moving the Hornets. Actually they stuck it to him when he made the deal to move. The owners wouldn't let him move without him agreeing to get the team tossed over to the Western Conference when the expansion franchise came in. So Hornets fans, enjoy your playoff runs now because there probably won't be many if any after the move. Friday, October 10, 2003
And Back For It's Second Year . . . It's the EotB Fantasy Basketball League. Again, it's being run through Yahoo!. The league ID is 79435 and the password is "eotb". So sign up and tell your friends to sign up and tell them to tell their friends. Just don't tell them about how they'll be playing for second place behind me, cause then they won't sign up. Thursday, October 09, 2003
Why I love Nick Van Exel "The Warriors point guard Nick Van Exel is wearing No. 37, the spot at which the Lakers drafted him in 1993." Gotta love that. Also, I'm still pissed that i can't get my NVE #37 Warriors jersey yet. Get it together Warriors. I need one. Even more than I need this. Wednesday, October 08, 2003
New Link Basketball Rules - That green is brutal, but the links Rudy gives are definitely quality. Also gives you a quick line summary for most so you can get an idea of what the story is about. Check it out. Sunday, October 05, 2003
Suns sign G-F DerMarr Johnson This is actually from a couple days ago, and the signing probably won't make much of a difference in terms of wins and losses, but its good to see that Johnson has made it back from the horrific car accident. Saturday, October 04, 2003
Nets Set to Buyout Mutumbo's Contract This is the perfect example of a situation where the fan's point of view is way different than the player's. From my point of view, I see Deke getting paid $15M not to play. It's similar to the reaction I had to a similar situation that happened in baseball this summer. However, Deke probably sees it as the Nets saying his skills have eroded and leads him to worry about where his next job, if he gets one, will be and how much of a paycut he will be taking. Interesting to see how far apart the view points are. On a somewhat unrelated note, I wish someone would pay me not to play. Granted you gotta play pretty well to get the big guaranteed contract so that when you start to fall off (read: suck) they will want to pay you off not to play. Either way, I wouldn't mind getting a 10-day contract and getting it bought out. That'd be a sweet chunk of change. Friday, October 03, 2003
Tech Support Help Request If any of you know how to get rid of the annoying space between the page title and the top post please tell me so I can get rid of it. Thanks. Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Trade winds blow through training camp I've been pretty busy, so I don't really have the time, nor the interest, to go over the two minor deals that happened. So in place of my analysis, I give you the quality analysis of Marty Burns of SI.com. Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Woods in Traffic Trouble Here's a recap of the conversation where I learned about this with Friend of the Bench, Ben Matasar. What he said was funnier than anything I could have said, so I'll just let Ben speak for me: Ben: Another Blazer got arrested Me: It'd been awhile. Which one? Ben: Qyntel Ben: Driving with a suspended trading card Thursday, September 25, 2003
Iverson deal believed to be for $76.7M That's a ton of money, but you know the guy is gonna play his hardest every game and average at least 27 and 5 a night. I would like higher FG% and more consistency, but I have no problem with the extension. Allen is a franchise guy and he is getting franchise money. Fun fact of the day: Allan Houston will make more than Allen Iverson next year (the extension doesn't kick in til after the next season). Editor's note: Yes I am biased in this assessment, so feel free to voice your opinion on the extension, Iverson or anything else in the comments box or in an email to me. Monday, September 22, 2003
Michaels to do play-by-play for NBA on ABC this season Why? Why doesn't ABC/ESPN put the one good announcer they have (Mike Breen) as the lead guy on both networks coverage. The rest of their announcers suck and/or are not basketball guys. TNT has a stranglehold on the NBA coverage at this point. The ESPN coverage is just brutal for the most part. Thursday, September 18, 2003
Ex-guard making comeback as a ref Good story about Haywoode Workman and how his transition to refereeing after being a player. Friday, September 12, 2003
Getting their point? Jazz sign Terry to offer sheet No numbers given on the offer, so it is hard to really have an opinion on it. I like Jason Terry, but since he is a restricted agent, the Jazz probably had to offer him more money than he is actually worth. That's is why if I were an NBA GM I would be wary of going after restricted FAs. If the offer is fair the other team will probably match. If you offer enough that they won't match you probably overpaid. Just not a good situation. If I'm Terry, I also should realize that I'm not really a true point guard and that the people in Utah will have a hard time with the fact that I'm not John Stockton. If I'm a Utah fan I'm kinda hoping that Atlanta matches because my team probably offered too much money for Terry and he is gonna have trouble following the Pasty Gangsta. Wednesday, September 10, 2003
I'm Not Dead But . . . But the NBA offseason is. I could post about the big Voshon Lenard signing in Denver, but no one cares so I won't. I'll be back when the NBA is. Tuesday, September 02, 2003
Lack of posts Many things have been conspiring to create a lack of posts here. I thoght we'd list them: 1) Moving/no internet at home - I moved again and my internet doesn't get hooked up til Saturday morning. 2) Nothing happening in the NBA 3) School/work It will get better once #1 gets taken care of, although I'm not sure what I can do about #2. Thursday, August 28, 2003
Thomas out with one year left on contract Jermaine O'Neal is pissed off about this, but should he be? By all accounts Isaiah Thomas wasn't a great coach. He took over a team that had been to the finals not long before he took over. Granted a lot of names have changed, but there was a fair amount of talent there and Zeke couldn't figure out what to do with it. There's a lot of speculation that Larry Bird waited til now in order to screw Zeke so he wouldn't get a job. The reality is, Isaiah can sit home and twiddle his thumbs for the whole season and the Pacers still gotta pay his ass 5M. So does it really matter? No, but it is definitely interesting. Thursday, August 21, 2003
Warriors at it again Warriors get: "Uncle Cliffy" Robinson and Pepe Sanchez Pistons get: Bob Sura The first reaction I've heard from the media is from Rod Brooks on KNBR 1050. He likes this trade because "Robinson will give the Warriors some defensive presence and rebounding." I like Brooks, but he is obviously delusional. Uncle Cliffy providing defense and rebounding? Granted they only gave up Sura, but Brooks is still so wrong. Lemme break it down one time for you. Robinson is 6-10 and has averaged 4.9 boards/game for his career. When you're 6-10 you should grab 6 board a game by accident. Looks at this list of guys who rebound better than Uncle Cliffy. Yikes. Saturday, August 16, 2003
Trade helps Mavs' front court, Warriors' guard spot Here's the trade: Nick Van Exel, Evan Eschmeyer, Popeye Jones, Antoine Rigadeau and Avery Johnson for Antawn Jamison, Danny Fortson, Chris Mills, and Jiri Welsh. Personally I think that the Warriors came out on top here. Granted they had to give up Jamison, but the reality is that his play would never be worth his contract. On top of that they rid themselves of Danny Fortson, whose suspect attitude and bad contract had him growing roots on the bench. Chris Mills, he of blcking the Blazers team bus is now gone as well. Jiri Welsh . . . well, the reality is that I dunno about him cause he never played. From the Dallas side, they give up Van Exel who was a key in their playoff run last season and don't really help any of their weaknesses. Jamison scores and rebounds well and Fortson rebounds well, but they aren't great defenders. this move may help Michael Finley some since it makes him a big 2 instead of a somewhat small 3. But the Warriors get their legitimate point guard and the Mavs get some more scoring, which they didn't really need. Another problem for the Mavs is that they just dealt two of their three PGs and only got Jiri Welsh back in terms of ballhandlers. Who knows if Welsh can actually be relied on over a long tsretch to be the main guy handling the ball. In the end, I'm not sure that Dallas really helped themselves that much both now and down the road. On the other hand, the Warriors clearly helped down the road and also don't have to have Speedy Claxton starting at the point. Monday, August 11, 2003
Odom hopes Clippers won't match offer Not sure why the Heat thought this was a good idea. Lamar Odom has great potential, but hasn't come close to realizing it yet. The guys has played 78 games over the last two seasons. He's had troubles with both injuries and "extracurricular activites" (read as "weed"). But despite all this, the Heat want to give him 67M over 6 years. The fact that Pat Riley wants to throw a big contract at him should be a sign to most. Brian Grant or Eddie Jones anyone? I like Odom, but I'm afraid that if the Clips don't match, Lamar could be the new Eddie Jones for the Heat. Deal may also include Mutombo and Patterson Kenyon Martin thinks he deserves the max for a contract extension. The Nets don't (and rightly so). Kenyon now wants to be traded. "The Portland Trail Blazers have been talking about trading Rasheed Wallace and Ruben Patterson to the New Jersey Nets for Dikembe Mutombo and Kenyon Martin, according to a newspaper report." Why are the Blazers even considering this? Mainly to try and revamp their off court image would be my guess, because this is a terrible basketball move for them. Martin is a good player and is improving, but there is no way he is worth the max at this point. Does anyone really think he is a top fivepower forward out west? You give the max to the guy who is gonna be the franchise. I don't think Kenyon Martin is that guy. This would be great for Rasheed Wallace though. In NJ Sheed wouldn't be expected to be the man. He would be able to be the #2 guy, which is what he's been trying to be his whole career anyway. However, the thing that makes this trade so horrible (if it happens) is Dikembe Mutumbo. Let's be honest. Mutumbo is a shell of his former self. He was never the same after Shaq bullied him in the Finals when Mutumbo was still a Sixer. Hell, Van Horn is gone and McCulloch can't play and I still think it was a good trade because of Mutumbo's contract. Can you say albatross? I know the people are pissed that the team has the off court problems. They'll still be pissed if the Blazers can't sign a free agent because Deke is making 18M per. For the sake of Ben, don't make this trade Portland. Thursday, August 07, 2003
Links Shake Up!!!! The NBA is slow, so you get a post about the changes I've made to my links section. I was looking at my referrer logs and noticed a lot of new sites. I was also looking at my link list and noticed there were some that didn't really belong there anymore. So I decided it was time for a passing of the proverbial torch. Before I go into the changes, some notes on how I do my links. Mainly, I only link stuff I think is good. If I don't want to go to a site, why should you? Anyway, on to the changes. On the Way Out Sports-Central - I cannot tell a lie. I only really linked them to get site of the week. I'm an award whore and I'm sorry. Alley-Oop.com - This is more a commentary on the state of the site and not the man behind it. Hollinger does great stuff, but when you haven't posted anything in a month and a half and haven't posted anything original(read: non-SI.com) in months you lose your link. You'll get it back when you start posting again John. RealGM - This site is good for the salary cap FAQ and the trade checker, but I haven't looked at it in weeks. Like I said, if I don't check it, why should you? The New Guys BullsBlog - Normally I don't like team devoted sites. They tend to go into more detail about the particular team than I really care about. However, this one is different. The posts are good. The design is good. And how could you not like that subtitle for the site, "There's plenty of room on the bandwagon." The NBA as Seen By Me - The baby of the bunch, this site is in its infancy. The design is very basic, but the posts are well though out and that's what counts to me. Hopefully Matt will be able to keep it going. HoopsJunkie.net - Been slow over the last 2 weeks or so, but so has the NBA. Solid posts and a good design. Check it out. All Things NBA - This is like the RealGM headline watcher except with out most of the articles getting excerpted, so you read what you want to. Seems to link a lot more stories from across the country. Check it out to scan the NBA related headlines from around the country. So there it is. Hope it made a dreary offseason a little better. Kerr leaves as NBA's most accurate 3-point shooter Steve Kerr is retiring and going to do some TV work. I think he'll be great as a TV guy. He's always been good for a quote in the papers, so why wouldn't he be on TV. I'll watch him. Especially since he'll be on TNT. Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Luxury item: Kings trade Keon Clark to Jazz Kings had one too many centers and someone had to go. Clark instantly becomes the third best player Utah has. That's not good for Utah. Monday, August 04, 2003
I'm still alive, but the basketball offseason isn't really The lack of posts is a result of a) my being very very busy the last two weeks or so and b) the lack of anything really suprising or of consequence happening. Hell, the last several days of The Links have been spent debating how one would conduct and determine the winner of a fighting tournament of animals including seeding and fair fight locations. Yeah, it's been a little slow in the NBA. When something actually happens, I'll be sure to let you know. Friday, July 25, 2003
The move that MUST happen before the season starts The Kings still haven't taken care of resigning their most important free agent signing. Yes, Mateen Cleaves is still not signed. Bad enough they almost traded him. They better resign him or the hit to the team's morale during timeouts could be catastrophic. Three-team swap includes Turkoglu, Mercer Who got the best of this deal: 1) Sacramento in a run away. They essentially turned Scott Pollard (rebounds well and is okay on defense, but does little else) and Hedo Turkoglu (the guy who lost hi spot in the rotation and despite the chance couldn't get it back) into Brad Miller. Hell, the Kings second team is Bobby Jackson, Jim Jackson (if they resign him), Gerald Wallace, Keon Clark, and Brad Miller. In all seriousness, that team could make the playoffs in the east and possibly have home court in the first round. 2) San Antonio getting Ron Mercer and Hedo Turkoglu. Not much good to say about this other than at least they didn't get Scott Pollard and Danny Ferry 3) Indiana. Speaking of Pollard and Ferry, this was simply the Pacers trying to get something, anything, for Miller before he left. But Ferry? Ewwwwww. Jackson, Robinson headed to 76ers Who got the best of this deal in order from best to worst: 1) Minnesota getting Latrell Sprewell. Not sure how the lineup will work without a real 4. My guess is that maybe KG lines up at the 4, which gives the starting five of Cassell, Sprewell, Sczewryuwerw, Garnett and Olowakandi. Which leaves Troy Hudson as the 6th man. Look for him to realize he's Troy Hudson early and not repeat the madness that was his playoff run. He'll be solid, but that stuff in the playoffs was crazy. They've definitely upgraded this offseason. 2) Philadelphia getting Glenn Robinson and Marc Jackson. This is goo mainly because they got rid of Van Horn and that awful hair cut. Robinson is basically Van Horn with a more consistent track record and Marc Jackson will do little, but who cares. 3) Atlanta getting Terrell Brandon's contract. It's over after the season and it clears cap space. Whether they'll be able to use it is another question. 4) New York getting Keith Van Horn. Hey I got an idea. We only got 5 undersized power forwards to go with our utter lack of centers. Lets get another one. Even better, let's get one that is inconsistent and has a fragile ego to play under the NY media scrutiny. Great! Let's get it done! I hope they have another trade in the works. Piatkowski takes shooting stroke to Rockets The Rockets make a big free agent splash going into the new arena by signing Tim Legler . . . errr . . . Eric Piatkowski. He's a three point specialist for sure. Warriors' Arenas signs offer sheet with Wizards AND Speedy decision: Warriors sign Claxton to be new PG Don't let the door hit ya Gil. That's essentially what the Warriors said. Despite what Arenas' dad said, this was about money for Arenas. Chris Cohen could have had a damn parade through Oakland (complete with kevlar vests) and it wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference when Abe Pollin offered 4M more per year. In other news the Wizards still suck and the Warriors will miss the playoffs again. Lue expected to start over Gaines early in year Tyronn Lue signed with Orlando. I heard someone say that might happen but can't remember who it was. Oh wait, it was me. Monday, July 21, 2003
By(e) George Imagine that, a guy who's teams have underachieved for about 5 years parted ways (read: was asked to leave or be fired) with his team. They should call the Czar, Mike Fratello. I still can't figure out why he can't get a job offer. Utah goes after Brad Miller I like Brad Miller and he deserves to get paid. Glad to see one of the NBA's underrated players getting a payday. It'll be interesting to see what other teams in the running for Miller do. Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Posts to come in spurts For reasons I won't get into here, my internet has been cut off. So I come to you on type delay from the Moffitt Computer lab in the basement of the Moffitt library on the beautiful UC Berkeley campus. Needless to say that without internet in the home, my posts will come in bunches whenever I can get online. So here is a bunch to get you going. Clippers getting cut up in free agency Is anyone looking to stay with the Clippers? Michael Olowakandi is officially gone as he signed with the TWolves replacing Rasho Nesterovic, who signed with San Antonio. So much for Kandi getting the max. Can anyone believe that was talked about last year as a realistic possibility? Elton Brand has been given an offer sheet by the Heat. I suspect he will sign it. No one other than the Clips could give him more cash and we know the Clips won't give him anymore than they have to. I suspect that the Clips will match the offer on Brand. Apparently Lamar Odom is the Heat's plan B. Sterling could have to pick between the two. Andre Miller has gotten an offer sheet from the Nuggets. He's gone. Corey Maggette signed an offer sheet with Utah. I'm not holding my breath on this one getting matched either. In the end, the only FAs to stay with the Clippers will probably be Brand and Odom. Riley may throw a ton of money at Odom, but rumor has it that the Don is very attached to Lamar so if he can he would probably match it. So in the end, everyone who can get away from the Clippers is leaving or at least trying to leave. Just like the good old days. At least they got that monster Chris Kaman . . . Wizards jump into Arenas sweepstakes If Arenas wants to get paid, he should go to Miami. If Gil wants to win anytime soon though, he doesn't really have any options. His best bet for a winner may be the Warriors. The Clippers could jump into this too, but they have to wait to see what happens with their own guys. 76ers to announce Thomas' re-signing I like Kenny Thomas and all, but 50M? 7 years? Probably not a move I would have made. Although neither was making Randy Ayers the head coach. Howard's deal worth at least $28 million Gives them a nice scoring 1-2-3 with Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard and Drew Gooden. Doesn't really help defensively and they are still weak at the guard spots. We'll see what they do about a PG in the days to come. Perhaps Tyronn Lue will fall into their laps. Magic moving on with other signing options This hurts Orlando for obvious reasons. They still need a PG and now have less money to use to get one. Maybe John Gabriel can get creative. Saturday, July 12, 2003
In other news, Doug Christie still tethered to wife As Lang Whitaker said, "I think the picture with the story tells a thousand words.". Kidd to re-sign and take Zo with him Jason Kidd resigns for 99M (not all in one season of course). This was done for two reasons as I see it. Alonzo Mourning pretty much said he would go where Kidd went and the Kidd's odds of getting to the Finals are much better in the East. Also, everyone is denying that he demanded for Byron Scott to be fired. Maggette still in talks with Nuggets Chad Ford is reporting that Corey Maggette will sign with the Nuggets. The Clippers could match, but what are the odds that will happen? Slim and none. And slim has left the building. Maybe this is the challenge Dunleavy sees? Another interesting note in the article involves the Nuggets quest for a PG. Apparently Gilbert Arenas is asking for 9M per. He better have learned to walk on water in the offseason if he is asking for 9M. Especially when Andre Miller is looking for 6-7M. Wednesday, July 09, 2003
Payton puts his money where his mouth is And your paper champions for the 2003-2004 NBA season are the LA Lakers. Gary Payton says he's down to take the Lakers mid level exception. This in turn probably means Karl Malone will play for the minimum next year in LA as well. Does this make the Lakers very good on paper? Well, sort of. The bench still kinda sucks, but that's a hell of a starting five on paper. The key words there are on paper. That doens't mean this will work and they are guaranteed a ring like some people seem to think. Are they the favorites to winit all next year? Probably. However there have been plenty of teams that looked good on paper, but couldn't get it done in reality. The Trailblazers in the playoffs are one example. There are many other instances throughout sports history. In other news, is anyone else concerned that Mitch Kupchak needed the help of Karl Malone to make his first big free agent signing ever? Monday, July 07, 2003
Missed option deadline makes Carter a free agent This kind of changes the free agency landscape a bit. The Heat now have more cap room since Carter is off the books. Two main thoughts: 1) I bet Pat Riley did a little happy dance upon hearing the news and 2) What is the over under on days before Anthony Carter fires his agent? Can I put down money on this? Sunday, July 06, 2003
And just to show that I am still paying attention . . . I normally try not to post on stuff like this til there are better details, but Kobe Bryant got arrested. While most are saying this is out of character for him and that they doubt he did it. The reality is that while I hope he didn't do it, I don't know the guy and for all I know he could have. As Ben Matasar reminded me, everyone thought Kirby Puckett was a nice guy too and look how that turned out. So we'll wait and see on Kobe. Plot thickens among Malone, Payton and Lakers This is interesting. Malone is recruiting for the Lakers without even being on the team. This would definitely make the Lakers a formidable team next year if it happens. 4 probable Hall of Famers on the court at once. Payton and Malone as options 3a and 3b. Most teams they would be option 1 or 2. Even if this happens, the Lakers still need to address the bench. Devean George and Derek Fisher would pretty much be the entire bench. something else to consider: How well would Malone and Payton fit in the triangle? I think for a ring they owuld find a way to fit, but it is always a question with that offense. Tuesday, July 01, 2003
2003 Free Agent List Here's everyone who is a free agent this summer. The biggest name for me on that list: Mateen Cleaves. Who'd you think I was gonna say? I'll be crushed if Mateen doesn't get signed. 'Detailed discussions' with Jordan prove fruitless Turns out my theory on the Sam Cassell trade doesn't work out anymore. I was probably right about Ernie Grunfeld though, as he's accepted a new position with the Wizards Friday, June 27, 2003
Welcome to the NBA Funny column by Eric Neel on advice he'd give some of the draft picks. Definitely go read it. Cassell will play at both guard spots for Minnesota The Minnesota Timberwolves traded forward Joe Smith and guard Anthony Peeler to the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday for guard Sam Cassell and center Ervin Johnson. My first reaction was, "What were the Bucks thinking?" My second reaction was, "This is so bad, Michael Jordan , front office demolition man, must have had a role in this." How could you trade Sam Cassell and only get Joe Smith and Anthony Peeler? "Joe Smith gives us a talented, athletic and experienced big man," general manager Ernie Grunfeld said on the Bucks' Web site. "He gives us versatility up front by being able to play all the front-court positions." I think Ernie knows that's a load of crap and probably knows this is an awful trade, but that the order came from above. I mean, there's no way he actually believes Joe Smith is a "talented, athletic" big man who is "able to play all the front-court positions" right? I guess it depends how you define "play". In the end this probably means Gary Payton will re-sign and be backed up by TJ Ford. You can't do this if you're the Bucks and don't have Payton in the bag. Although, where there's an MJ there's a way. We'll see. Either way this trade is awful for the Bucks. It's just a matter of how awful. THE DRAFT POST!!!!!!! First things first. The ESPN talking heads kill me. Anything with Dick Vitale and Stuart Scott is bound to make your ears bleed and Jay Bilas isn't among my favorites either. That being said, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. It was no TNT though. Anyway, on to the picks. 1) Cleveland - LeBronn James: No kidding 2) Detroit - Darko Milicic: . . . 3) Denver - Carmelo Anthony: . . . 4) Toronto - Chris Bosh: Joins the "I need to eat meat club" with the charter members from last years draft, Juan Dixon, Jared Jeffries and Tayshaun Prince. Described as being "raw", which really means athletic but the basketball IQ of a rock. Toronto needed size though, so it seems like a good pick. 5) Miami - Dwyane Wade: I like Wade. I think this was a good pick by Riley. Now all he needs is some minutes. If I'm Eddie Jones, I'm seeing if there's a penalty to get out of my apartment lease. I wonder if anyone would actually take him (probably not). 6) Clippers - Chris Kaman: The Clippers drafted a tall stiff? No way. I guess with Michael Olowakandi on his way out they needed to pick one up to meet their quota. 7) Chicago - Kirk Hinrich: "Jay Williams got hurt?!?! Quick hit the panic button!" Hinrich at 7? Right . . . He can play and all, but 7th? 8) Milwaukee - TJ Ford: Look out below!!! Ford dropped hard and fast. This guy was supposed to be top 5 and he wasn't even the top point guard taken. He's short and can't shoot and the Bucks have two All-Star points (assuming they resign Payton), so where do the minutes come from? Can you say three guard lineup!!! You don't think Cassell can play the three? Me either, but wouldn't it be fun to watch? 9) New York - Michael Sweetney: In a very Clipper-esque move, the Knicks picked yet another undersized 4. 10) Washington - Jarvis Hayes: Breakikng from recent tradition, the Wizards drafted someone with muscles between the bones and skin. The Wiz resigned Jerry Stackhouse so we have a nother case of drafting full positions. I don't get it. 11) Golden State - Mickael Pietrus: Another instance of crowding. Now they have a bigger surplus of athletic guys who can score. Hooray! Also, the guy averaged 9.4 pts in the French League. "Euro Jordan" couldn't hit double digits in a French League? Makes you wonder. 12) Seattle - Nick Collison: The safe pick. Not super athletic, but you know he can play because the track record is there. Probably could use a steak or two. 13) Memphis - Marcus Banks: Dick Vitale at the end of a rant to Greg Anthony about Banks; "he's also a good defender and like another guard we know out of UNLV [Anthony] he can't shoot coming out of college." Got traded to Boston. Good move for Boston, bad for Memphis. I'll explain why later. 14) Seattle - Luke Ridnour: my favorite line of the night was from Jay Bilas describing Ridnour; "He couldn't guard the chair I'm sitting on." Runner up for best line involving Ridnour goes to Bill Simmons who said, "they're stockpiling white guys to go clubbing with Brent Barry." 15) Orlando - Reece Gaines: The Magic needed a PG because Jacque Vaughn obviously isn't the answer and Darrell Armstrong is one his last legs. Gaines should fit in nicely. 16) Boston - Troy Bell: Traded to Memphis. What the hell was Jerry West thinking. The entire deal was Bell and Dahntay Jones (picked at 20) for Marcus Banks and Kendrick Perkins (high school forward picked at 27). I hate to question The Logo, but Bell and Jones are second rounders. Right now, it loks like Boston swindled Memphis. 17) Phoenix - Zarko Carbarkapa: No idea who this is. Next. 18) New Orleans - David West: Good pick. NO is pretty soft inside and West is strong and can play down low. If you needa PF, seems that Xavier is a good place to look. Ty Hill, Brian Grant and now West. 19) Utah - Aleksandar Pavlovic: See pick 17. 20) Boston - Dahntay Jones: See pick 16 for my take on the trade involving Jones. 21) Atlanta - Boris Diaw: I think the Hawks actually made a decent pick for once. Diaw is a good ball handler with size and passes well. He could be a good compliment to Jason Terry in the backcourt. Diaw does the ballhandling and Terry throws up 20 shots a game while shooting his normal .430 FG percentage. 22) New Jersey - Zoran Planinic: Coming off a serious car accident. HAs good size, but questions remain about his comeback from the accident. Unselfish with size, so he should fit in NJ nicely if he is in fact fully recovered. 23) Portland - Travis Outlaw: If I hear the jokes involving his last name any more I'm gonna start throwing things. Outlaw has a good background, so this could signal a change in the Blazers philosophy regarding personnel decisions. 24) Lakers - Brian Cook: He instantly becomes the teams third best player. Lakers fans wish I was joking. 25) Detroit - Carlos Delfino: Billed as a stronger, slightly slower Manu Ginobli. Isn't Ginobli known for his quickness? If you're a slower Ginobli, doesn't that make you average? I'm just sayin . . . 26) Minnesota - Ndudi Ebi: Now if I'm Minnesota, I have a draft pick for the first time in about a decade and I'd be looking for someone to help me get out the first round. I got it! Let's take a high schooler who won't do anything for 3-5 years. Wha? 27) Memphis - Kendrick Perkins: Traded to Boston. See pick 16. 28) San Antonio - Leandrinho Barbosa: Ummm . . . he's Brazilian. Next. 29) Dallas - Josh Howard: A First team All American, ACC Player of the year. Well rounded. Think younger, better Adrian Griffin. Or maybe a Raja Bell that actually can play on offense. BONUS DRAFT POST - ROUND 2!!!!!! For your reading pleasure (I hope), I bring you a bonus this year and give you orund 2. 30) New York - Maciej Lampe: Lampe must have been rockin the cement shoes at the draft because he sank fast. People were talking about him at #5 . . . overall. Word came from the league that his team was being a pain in the ass about releasing him from his contract, hence the drop. Could be a steal for the Knicks. 31) Cleveland - Jason Kapono: How does a guy who hasn't improved in 4 years get drafted? Kapono is the same player he was as a freshman. He shoots and that's about it. This is bad, even for Cleveland. At least they got LeBronn. 32) Lakers - Luke Walton: He becomes the fourth best player on the team. Again, Lakers fans wish that was a joke. 33) Miami - Jerome Beasley: 6-10 and the NCAA leaidng scorer last season. Good pick at this point. I wonder how he'll like this country after playing in North Dakota. 34) Clippers - Sofoklis Schortsanitis: I can't lie. I had to use copy and paste to get his name right. Gotta love the Greek guy named Sofoklis (pronounced like Sophocles). I wanted the Lakers to take him so we could have the Big Sophocles playing next to the Big Aristotle. Oh well. Looks like the Clips just get another tall stiff. 35) Milwaukee - Szymon Szewczyk: Should have gone to colege to play for Mike Krzyzewski. They could take spelling lessons together. 36) Chicago - Mario Austin: I thought Austin might actually slip into the first round, but it wasn't to be. Now he gets to sit behind Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler. 37) Atlanta - Travis Hansen: Was Utah's 24th career scorer. Who were the other 23? 38) Washington - Steve Blake: The Wizards are back to drafting with the idea that they have to pay by the pound. Despite this, I like the Wizards to win the ACC this year. How can you bet against Blake and Dixon? What? They're not in the ACC? Shit, they're screwed. 39) New York - Slavko Vranes: Yeah, uh huh. Okay next. 40) Golden State - Derrick Zimmerman: The Warriors did the worst possible thing here. They picked a PG. So now they might piss off Arenas, but they only have a second round caliber guy to replace him if they did. They should have gone PG in the first round or not at all. 41) Seattle - Willie Green: Traded to Philadelphia. Scoring 2 guard to back up AI. More likely to be glued to the bench. 42) Orlando - Zaur Pachulia: He's tall. That's all Orlando needed to know. 43) Milwaukee - Keith Bogans: Seems kinda skinny. Also, why did Milwaukee draft another guard? 44) Houston - Malick Badiane: Houston took an African big man. I doubt this one's is anywhere near as good as the last one though. 45) Chicago - Matt Bonner: ESPN says he's smart and can shoot. Read: Can be the 7th man on a below average NBA bench. Has some Steve Kerr potential. Hopefully he will be half the interview Kerr is. 46) Denver - Sani Becirovic: Kiki keeps his basketball UN going. 47) Utah - Maurice Williams: John Stockton he's not, but he could be a decent backup. 48) New Orleans - James Lang: High schooler. A big guys who can score and rebound. Always a gamble with high school players, but could be a steal for New Orleans if he develops. And yes, I know you could say that for anyone after pick 20 in every draft. 49) Indiana - James Jones: Just what the Pacers need, another SF. 50) Philadelphia - Paccelis Morlende: Traded to Seattle for Willie Green and cash. I like the cash's odds of making it in the NBA for either of these guys. 51) New Jersey - Kyle Korver: Korver ended up with the Sixers, but I'm not sure how. Either way, he plays about as much D as Ridnour. Great shooter, but no one cares if you can't guard a tree. 52) Toronto - Remon Van de Hare: Things working against him - 1) No one has ever made it in the NBA with 3 spaces in their name and 2) Has no draft profile on ESPN = wasn't supposed to get drafted = probably not that great. 53) Chicago - Tommy Smith: Skinny as hell. Let me put it this way, he has 14 inches on me but only about 30 pounds. And I'm not that pudgy. Maybe they'll save money on travel with him by faxing him from city to city loike the Sixers used to do with Manute Bol. 54) Portland - Nedzad Sinanovic: He's 7-1 and that's enough at the end of teh second round. 55) Minnesota - Rick Rickert: Early entry guy. Think he regrets his decision? At least he can keep his apartment from college since he's playing in the same town. 56) Boston - Brandon Hunter: Listed as PF, but is only 6-7. Seems a bit bulky to be a three also at 260. 57) Dallas - Xue Yuyang: I'm pretty sure he got traded to Denver to be the Asian representative at Kiki's UN meetings. 58) Detroit - Andreas Gliniadakis: See pick 54. Bill Simmons Draft Diary I know you all want the EotB draft post. It's in progress. To tide you over I give you Bill Simmons. Monday, June 23, 2003
Mock Draft.com How can you name the site mockdraft.com and not have exactly zero mock drafts completed 3 days before the actual draft? Just threw this one in cause I liked the irony. CBS Sportsline mock draft Ridnour at 11 to the Warriors seems high. Brian Cook seems a bit high at 14 also. I would expect them closer to 15 and 20 respectively from the other stuff I've seen. Saturday, June 21, 2003
CollegeHoopsnet.com Mock Draft Had some of the people who withdrew in there. Also, these people are on crack. Havethe Knicks taking David West at 9 and called Mike Sweetney the "most polished offensive player in the draft." Don't get me wrong, Sweetney can play. But the most polished offensive player in the draft? Seems like a bit of a reach. InsideHoops.com Mock draft Seems to be a lot of names in there towards the middle and end that I don't recognize. Friday, June 20, 2003
Let the draft fun begin Here's my mock draft: LeBronn James, Darko Milicic, Carmelo Anthony . . . that's as far as I'm willing to go. But others are willing to go farther. So just like last year I'll be posting a mock draft(s) each day from various sources with some comments if I fell there are any to make. So wthout further ado . . . ESPN Draft Index Mock draft on the main page with various articles, player bios, etc. Have Chris Kaman going to the Knicks at 9. You know he's at home praying to get taken by anyone but the Knicks. Isn't being a 7 footer in New York a recipe for disaster if your name isn't Ewing. Think of the last 10 years. Chris Dudley, Frederic Weis, Michael Doleac. Elite company for sure. NBA Draft.net Beware, still has players in there that have since withdrawn from draft. Mainly Pavel Podkolzine. Hoopsworld.com Update their mock draft weekly. New one should be up tonight I believe. Williams in hospital with unspecified injuries Jay Williams wrecked his motorcycle. Details are pretty sketchy at this point. Hope he has a speedy recovery. Ayers hired by Sixers Ayers was not exactly known for discipline in his years at Ohio State. Kind of concerns me with this team, but we'll see. Sunday, June 15, 2003
The Caron Butler Award Dan Lewis is starting this award which is "given to the US-born, non-juco, non-prepster in the NBA Draft who falls the furthest. Named for Caron Butler, the projected top 5 guy who all-but-inexplicably fell to #10 last year." Personally I think the award is misnamed. Caron Butler should have received the 2002 Paul Pierce Award, but that's just being picky. I think its a good idea and it will be interesting to see who people pick. Follow the headline link to check out who the basic rules for determining the award winner and who Dan thinks are the likely winners (losers?). And that's all she wrote Spurs win in 6 as many predicted. The story not many people have really talked about much is David Robinson going out on top. Kind of cool for one of the classiest guys to play in the NBA. How many stars could have handled becoming second banana like he did when Tim Duncan got drafted? And speaking of Duncan, his line from game 6 was just silly: 21/20/10/8 in pts/reb/ast/blk. Think he wanted win? The guy was two blocks short of a quadruple double in the clinching game of the finals and one his second Finals MVP of his career. Plain and simply, Tim Duncan is gangsta. Also interesting and of note, the Spurs had a 19-0 run and Duncan scored exactly zero of those points. Hell there was even a Speedy Claxton sighting. The guy who had managed only 24 total points in the first five games came up with 13 in teh game and 5 during the aforementioned run. This one wasn't all that pretty, but it was better than the previous couple. In the end, the Spurs get their rings and the attention now turns to the draft and free agency. Thursday, June 12, 2003
Nets find right tempo to beat Spurs Tempo my ass. They just shot good enough to win and no better. At least the game was tight. I understand that both teams were playing good defense, but you odn't shoot .289 (Spurs FG%) and .359 (Nets FG %) solely because of good defense. It was an ugly ugly game. The only redeeming quality was that it was close up to the end. Tuesday, June 10, 2003
My name's Tim and I've been a lazy blogger Sorry folks. The beginning of the layoff was me being busy, the end was me being lazy. I'll try not to let it happen again. Anyway, to attempt to make up for itI have a bunch of things to hit on, so read down. Pistons have second pick, will keep 25th While this seems odd at first it actually does make sense. The Pistons can'ttrade future picks til they are out of draft pick debt and the Kings don't really want to pay another draft pick (see: Dan Dickau, 2002 NBA draft). This way the Pistons have all their pick debts settled and can include future picks in any trades they may want to make andthe Kings don't have to pay some rook to come sit the bench with Mateen Cleaves. Spurs continue to prove their worth on the road Spurs win game three. The momentum (what little there was) swung to the Spurs when Malik Rose just totally posterized Dikembe Mutumbo. Good defensive presence Deke. Nothing like getting hammered down on by a guy who is probably about 4 inches shorter than you. The Nets kept it fairly close, but the Spurs held on with Manu Ginobli hitting some key shots down the stretch. On the topic of that Rose dunk. Check this exchange between Steve Kerr and a reporter: Reporter (with perfectly straight face): "Have you ever dunked on Mutombo like that?" Kerr (with perfectly straight face): "Years ago, when I was younger." I love when reporters ask uninformed questions and the athletes respond back with stupid answers. We all know that Steve Kerr probably couldn't dunk on me at any point in his career let alon a 7 footer, but that reporter obviously didn't. Happy Rockets GM 'jumping up and down' Jeff Van Gundy signs with the Rockets. Looks like I (and most others) called this one. Floyd's base salary: $4.8 million for three years There was no one better available for Charlotte? Nothing like trading in Paul Silas for the losingest coach in NBA history. Apparently a .205 career winning percentage as a coach gets you just over 1.5M a year. Where do I sign up? Owner Bob Johnson chooses Bobcats nickname The other options were "Flight" and "Dragons". At least flight sort of made sense for the area. Why not just pick Wildcats? The NCAA has like 30 teams named that. Might as well have one NBA team named Wildcats. Sloan, Malone moved to tears in tribute to No. 12 "Now that it's over, it's great. It was kind of like a hard workout," Stockton said after the ceremony. Stockton, known throughout his 19-year career for his modesty, admitted he would have much rather gone off into retirement quietly, but Jazz owner Larry Miller and Stockton's wife, Nada, talked him in to agreeing to the emotional event." Typical Stockton. He deserves the accolades. Sunday, June 01, 2003
Rating the NBA Swap Shop Bill Simmons with this years trade values column. Just as with most of his NBA columns, this one is very good. Give it a read. The coaching carousel is spinning and it makes me dizzy So there has been a lot of coaching news over the last couple days, so I'll try to recap it all. Silas to accept Cavs' coaching offer I didn't think the Hornets should have let him go, but the point is kinda moot at this point. He now gets to coach LeBronn and the dysfunctional crew that is the rest of the Cavs. I think this was a good hire if Van Gundy wasn't gonna come. Doug Collins got fired Is anyone actually surprised by this? As you all remember, Larry Brown resigned This was followed by . . . Rick Carlisle getting canned Which was followed by . . . The Pistons about face on Mo Cheeks talking to the Sixers Coincidence that these events happen in that order? I think not. I would guess you end up with the following: Brown to Detroit, Carlisle to Portland and Cheeks to Philly - like a little three way trade of coaches. That would probably leave Van Gundy in Houston and DC, New Orleans, the Clippers, Toronto and the ATL out in the cold. The guy those teams should consider is the Czar, Mike Fratello. Fratello's teams may be boring as hell, but he gets results. He did in Cleveland and those teams weren't all that great. However, Toronto has a list which reportedly (according to Lang Whitaker) includes Craig Neal, Brian James, Kevin O'Neill, Dwane Casey, Mike Woodson, Sidney Moncrief, Sam Vincent, Randy Wittman and P.J. Carlesimo. The Clippers obviously have no plan because they are the Clippers. That leaves DC, NO and Atlanta to their own devices to find a coach. Who knows who they will turn up? The carousel is spinning quickly though. The draft is at the end of the month and teams need to get coaches before then, so expect these vacancies to fill within the next two weeks. |