Last Night's Run - I See Promise

Can the Warriors get Gerald Wallace?
Before I get to last night's game, there was an article written yesterday that put a twinkle in Warriors fans' eyes.

The Sporting Blog talked about a potential trade which would net the Warriors Gerald Wallace and get rid of Al Harrington. Too good to be true? Probably.

Wallace would thrive in Oakland and give me a national holiday, while opening up PT for Brandan Wright. Al Harrington is kind of a bum, but he's also a 6'9" jump-shooter, which means on some basic level he'd fit with D'Antoni. And that buzz has been there for a minute.

But then not too soon thereafter, Tim Kawakami broke my heart worse than Hulk Hogan.

There’s a temporary–and perhaps serious–wrench in Al Harrington trade speculation:

His agent, Dan Fegan, says that Harrington has been nursing a back injury since late last month and that Harrington is scheduled for an MRI later today.

I'm still slobbering myself at the idea that we could get Gerald Wallace. But I won't believe it until I see it.

Warriors lose to the Grizzlies again
Rarely would I ever be in a good mood after the Warriors lost twice to the Memphis Grizzlies in one week. But after last night's ball game, while I was disappointed that they couldn't pull it out, I liked what I saw. They are still a Monta Ellis away from really competing at any decent level, but there was some young talent on that court last night. Brandan Wright, Anthony Randolph, and Andris Biedrins give the Warriors a long set of legs and arms to seemingly challenge any shot on defense, and dunk back any miss on offense. And though I've stated before that I'm not the biggest Jack fan when it comes to him controlling the offense and being the money guy, no one plays harder. While you cringe when he takes the "I have a dream" three pointer, you give him the benefit of the doubt because he plays so hard, guards the best perimeter player, and owns up to his mistakes.

We didn't play hard enough. Down the stretch I am the leader of the team, so I've got to be smarter and can't give up a wide open three to their best player at the end of the game.

They still have this logjam of odd guards trying to find time on the court. DeMarcus Nelson fits much better as a swingman coming off the bench for defensive purposes. CJ Watson looks like a decent back up point guard who can come in and spot up for jumpers. I'm not sure what Marcus Williams is quite yet, but at least Nellie let him on the floor.

If we can't get someone like Wallace, I'm not opposed to trying to bring in a starting point guard in a trade for Harrington. I actually like Ellis better as a two guard and it would allow Corey Maggette to come off the bench, where I think he'd excel.

More from last night
Devin Harris spoils AI's Detroit debut.
But Chauncey's homecoming goes a lot better.
The Hawks are 4-0. Where's Dominique Wilkins?
The Bobcats upset the Hornets. J-Rich and Raymond Felton each go for 20.

Last Night's Run - The Rims Get Small

The Warriors can't shoot
It was one of those games. But it wasn't supposed to be one of those games. It was supposed to be high scoring, up and down, not fundamental, and wild and crazy. But it was none of those things. It was one of those games. It was one of those games where the home team plays a bit harder than the other, even if there were tons of fans dressed like seats in the arena. It was one of those games where one team simply couldn't make an outside shot so instead of taking things to the bucket and getting closer, they just kept shooting outside shots. Because you know, the percentages should even out right? How's this for shooting?

Bad Shooter	FGM	FGA
S. Jackson	6	21
C. Maggette	4	16
A. Harrington	3	15
T. Hardaway	0	17

I know, Timmy didn't play tonight even though if he did, it would've been an improvement. But the reason I put Timmy there is because if you remember that game, the Warriors still won even though Timmy couldn't find the broad side of the barn. Why? Because he was only one player. Chris Mullin was able to bail him out and the Warriors won. Here, when you have three guys who feel the need to chuck up shots without much success, it's detrimental to the team. At least Andris Biedrins came to play as he scored 14 and pulled 22 boards. Also, we had an Anthony Randolph sighting for one minute.



Marc Gasol, Pau's angry little brother, was the only player for Memphis to really play well, at least offensively. He went for 27 and 16 and looked smooth and rough at the same time, if that makes any sense.

OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay both went 6-13 shooting and neither got to the free throw line so Gay still leads Mayo by a large margin in shots taken.

I almost forgot. The Grizz won 90-79.

More on Iverson for Billups
Kelly Dwyer from Ball Don't Lie has a really good recap of why this trade is much better for Denver than Detroit.

Detroit's taking another chance, and though there's the possibility the team might whiff in free agency, it hardly matters. They've cleared cap space and developed even more options. If nothing happens this summer, then they can run the kids for a year before trying to clamp down on the 2010 free agent market. After all, only Tayshaun Prince ($11.1 million), Jason Maxiell (reportedly about $5 million), and the backcourt tandem of Stuckey and Aaron Afflalo (combined to make $4.7 million) will be on the books that summer.

Nobody, not even Joe Dumars or Iverson himself, will be able to anticipate what sort of impact his presence will have on this year's Pistons team. AI's game is that unique. But given the far-reaching implications of what this deal could do for Detroit, again, it hardly matters in the long run.

Geoff Lepper says that Denver might've received some short term cap relief, it won't help that much in the long run.

The Nuggets save some $8 million in the short term; Billups ($11.1 million) and McDyess ($6.8) represent more than $4 million in savings over Iverson's cost ($21.9 million), which is doubled because the Nuggets are — even with this cost-cutting move - slated to go several million over this season's luxury-tax threshold of $71.15 million.

The deal could get even sweeter if the team is able to negotiate a favorable buyout with McDyess, who reportedly won’t play anywhere but Detroit.

But unlike Iverson and his soon-to-expire deal, Billups is on the books for another $25.2 million in '09-'10 and '10-'11 combined (there's also a player option for $14.2 million in '11-'12) and McDyess - unless a buyout is reached - will pull down $6.8 million next season.

So, in exchange for some short-term relief, the Nuggets have cast their lot with a 32-year-old point guard who has never led an up-tempo attack before in his life.

Tim Kawakami says that Denver got better, even if it doesn't make them a lot better.

The Nuggets aren't good enough to challenge in the West, but the Nuggets weren't going anywhere with AI and, in their spot, desperately needing new talent around Carmelo Anthony, it’s probably better to add Billups and his longer money than it is to let AI walk away next summer just to save some cash.

If I have this right, since the summer, Denver basically has traded Marcus Camby (given away a few months ago for cash purposes) and Iverson for Billups and McDyess plus some extra salary savings to use on Linas Kleiza's new deal and maybe some other things.

Again, nothing spectacular, but it's better than Denver sitting around and letting that roster atrophy and watching Carmelo get nasty and pretty soon he's ready to get the heck out.

Joe Dumars Isn't Messing Around

The word around sports websites today is that Allen Iverson is going to Detroit in a trade for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess. Iverson is in the last year of his contract, and TrueHoop says that Joe Dumars' long term vision is to create cap space for next year when guys like Lebron James, Amare Stoudemire, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Ray Allen, Tyson Chandler, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Joe Johnson, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Redd are going to be free agents.

After Detroit lost to the Boston Celtics in last year's Eastern Conference Finals, Dumars stated that he didn't have any "sacred cows" and then fired coach Flip Saunders less than a week after the series loss.

For Denver, I'm not sure if it makes them all that much better, but it does show that the Iverson/Carmelo Anthony experiment didn't really work. Billups is more of a true point guard and he's a more dependable three point shooter (39% to 31% career wise) but Iverson's overall shooting percentage is higher than Billups'.

Also, the word is that McDyess might choose retirement over going to Denver.

Photo by bronwyn and shared via creative commons

NBA All-Star Game ‘08: Where’s B-Diddy?

In the year after the Golden State Warriors shocked the basketball world and beat the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs, one would think that they would finally get their due, especially after winning 32 games in the first half of this year. But no. Not only do they have the third best record in all of basketball since getting Stephen Jackson back in the lineup, but they also have possibly the most exciting team in the league. They definitely have the most exciting back court duo. So when it’s Baron Davis’ turn to be on the All-Star team, he’s passed by. Maybe Baron will use the frustration to help him when the Warriors beat someone in the first round of the playoffs again. You know it’s happening.

Also, no Young Randall, no Eddy Zucko, no HJ, and no Luchadors. They were with me last year, but this year, it’s just little old me.

Predictions:

I think the West will win, Carmelo Anthony will win MVP, and Antawn Jamison will win the Tyrone Hill award for least minutes played in the game. Kobe could possibly win it, but I think he’ll play at least 10 minutes.

I’m not sure that the Western team’s b-boy pose after the introductions can be topped. The smile on Yao’s face was priceless. The NBA, where “what do I do with my arms?” happens.

And before we actually get to the game, we might as well show the best part of last night’s All-Star Saturday Night. Superman was in the house.

• Every All-Star game I’ve blogged, the West has won. So you can pretty much bet the house tonight on the West.
  
• I wonder if Jason Kidd will accidentally pass it to Dirk Nowitski, thinking that he’s supposed to be on the Mavs?
  
• The East scores the first six points and all on dunks. Let’s just say defense isn’t on the mind of the Western squad.
  
• Kobe only played the first three minutes and I’m not sure if he touched the ball.
  
• So far, the story of this game is that the West likes to settle for jumpers and the East likes to dunk. Guess who’s winning?
  
• Thanks to Melo and AI, the West is back in this thing.
  
• Rip Hamilton is so old school, he caught an alley-oop and instead of dunking it, he laid it in.
  
• TO is in the house, but I don’t see any tears. I guess no one made fun of Tony Romo.
  
• David West is in this game? Oh yah, he took B-Diddy’s spot.
  
• The youngsters Brandon Roy and Chris Paul are working it together. By the way, Roy and West are the two guys in this game I couldn’t pick out in a police lineup.
  
• There’s been a Chest Hair Boozer sighting. He just grabbed a rebound.
  
• The East just threw three alley-oops on one play. I think it was Joe Johnson to Jason Kidd to Lebron James to Dwight Howard.
  
• David Aldridge mentioned earlier that it looks like the Jason Kidd trade is on. All they have to do is convince Keith Van Horn to play again after not playing for over a year as he’s a part of the deal. While they’re at it, why don’t they get Jimmy Jackson and Jamal Mashburn to come out of retirement and trade them as well?

 

Bring This Guy Back So You Can Trade Him

• Rasheed just nailed a three pointer from the top of the key. No biggie right? But he shot it left handed.
  
• At the half, Lebron has the Magic Johnson All-Star game stat line with triple double definitely in sight.
  
• Looks like Kobe and his pinkie finger are done for the rest of the game.
  
• AI is trying his hardest to keep the West in this, but Lebron and company have other ideas.
  
• If Chest Hair Boozer would make his layups, this game might be closer.
  
• Has Byron Scott always had the porn stashe going? Dude needs to buy some little scissors to trim that dirty thing.

 

The Dirty Stashe

• Paul is bringing these guys back. Amare Stoudamire looks like the East Dwight Howard and Dirk is finally playing well. The West just took their first lead.
  
• Big Play Ray Allen is killing it and wearing the new Jordan’s at the same time.
  
• Brandon Roy is getting some definite crunch time play over AI, Melo, and Stevie Nash.
  
• Thanks to a Lebron dunk in traffic and a D-Wade layup where he hit the floor and got the foul (what’s new?), the East is back up by four with 30 seconds to go.
  
• Big Play Ray and LBJ put the game away, though the West made it fun in the end. Lebron is the MVP and he just missed a triple double. And my predictions were terrible.