Peek-a-boo!Hey, Utah -- on the bright side, now that your team has lost
all of its identity, now would be a perfect time to change names to something that makes more sense for your geographic location!
Worst of the Night in Pictures: Is "jamming your opponent's nose into his brain" a legal defensive tactic? It's soooo cold in Denver now Do we need to explain to Pau how to hang on the rim? Lamar Odom is not comfortable with thisNationally Televised Games:Thunder at Spurs, ESPN, 7pm: Hey, all right! A good start to the ESPN double-header!
Clippers at Hornets, ESPN, 9:30pm: ...And we follow that up with a Clippers road game? Damn it all. Yeah, Blake Griffin will do Blake Griffin things, but we all know how this one will end up.
All The Other Games:Rockets at Cadavers, 7pm: So it appears that Gerald Wallace is heading to Portland, even though the Cadavers had been talking to the Bobcraps for several weeks as well about trying to get Wallace. Because yes, Gerald Wallace is the missing piece that would have gotten this Cleveland franchise turned around...
Pistons at Pacers, 7pm: The Pistons actually beat the Pacers in OT a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what happened there, since these teams have been going in opposite directions otherwise for awhile now thanks to the Pacers' dead coach bounce.
Kings at Magic, 7pm: I couldn't help but wonder if a matchup like this right after the All-Star break might result in the Magic coming out lethargic and not really into it, resulting in a surprisingly close game. Then I remembered these are the Purple Paupers we're talking about. It doesn't matter how lethargic the Magic look.
Wizards Generals at 76ers, 7pm: The Sixers need to win this one to split the season series with the Generals, and to keep from being the butt of every joke for weeks if they should let the Generals win a road game to take the season series. That would suck. A lot.
Bulls at Craptors, 7pm: Joakim Noah. Finally healthy. Thank God.
Bucks at Knicks, 7:30pm: So, is
this the Bucks' team bus?
Oh, and I almost forgot: Carmelo Carmelo Carmelo Carmelo Carmelo Carmelo Carmelo Carmelo (deep breath) Caaaaaaaaaaaaarmelo.
Grizzlies at Timberwolves, 8pm: Better way to spend your time instead of watching this game:
Five Seconds of Every #1 Song Ever. (Well, as long as "ever" means up until 1992.) I especially appreciated the harsh transition from Rick Dees'
Disco Duck to Chicago's
If You Leave Me Now.
Jazz at Mavericks, 8:30pm: Apparently Deron Williams first heard about being traded by watching SportsCenter. Do you think anyone planned to tell him he was traded, or did they just plan on catching him at the door when he showed up at the stadium tonight. "Uh, Deron, buddy... we need to talk..."
Hawks at Suns, 9pm: And the Hawks continue to be stuck in that zone of being just good enough to be in the playoffs, but not good enough to actually be good, and not bad enough to get good draft picks... Their offense has looked pretty ugly lately. Not Western Conference in the Null-Star game ugly, but still ugly.
Lakers at Frail Blazers, 10:30pm: Brandon Roy might be back for this game! Enjoy him while you can, Portland fans. I'm afraid of stat-cursing this, but the Blazers could lock down their longest win streak in three years tonight.
Labels: Bawful After Dark, Carmelo Anthony, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz
Only downside to the trade is Harris. Mainly because if he says something along the lines of "playoff team" everything could go downhill really fast.
Big fat w/e.
Denver gave up a one-dimensional star and an aging (but still pretty good) player and got 3 guys who can definitely play NBA ball, 2 prospects, a decent pick and an early 2nd, and saved a boatload of money and will probably have a decent bit of cap space next season. I'm not real high on the star potential of any of their new guys, but they got younger, bigger, cheaper, and the guys they got are character guys who I think will mesh together. They won, but still not real big.
The Knicks gave up 4 proven NBA players, a prospect, and 2 pretty decent picks for an all-star with bad defensive awareness to pair with their other all-star with bad defensive awareness. And each of them will take about 1/3 of the Knicks' cap space, leaving them to fill out the remaining 10ish roster spots with almost no money. IMO they came out of this as big losers.
The Nets gave up 3 unproven commodities and a stat curse for an all-star PG (who happens to also be a bitch, but he's a bitch who wins.) Plus they suckered their archrivals into giving up too much for a guy whose weaknesses will be exaggerated in 'Antoni's system next to Apostroph'e. Going forward, the Nets should have a boatload of cap space to fill out the roster around DWill and BLo, and they still have some extra picks.
I'd rank the outcomes this way:
Nets > Nuggets > Jazz >> Knicks
Shortly before that, Utah representatives stated they informed DWill of the trade via a 9am, 30 second phonecall. They also mentioned Sloan would not be contacted to retake his coach position and the deal would have been made even without his resignation.
The next NY, Utah, NJ and Denver games should be very interesting. Maybe even Minnesota. Okay, probably not them.
Jazz FO handled that about like inviting him to a prison scrub game and leaving him behind!
Pushed over the bench and abused!
Deron is a good ball player, has the potential to be one of the best. But he also has a massive ego problem, I'm sure he and Avery will get along well with that eh?
But one thing you can't do is tell the world you are the best they've ever seen and then NOT back it up! He has been flat and lack luster all season, his on court whines have gotten way out of hand.
I don't like losing him, but he did this to himself.
The Other Chris will be happy for once, at least.
Lots of crazy shit going on, now I'm reading Portland might get Gerald Wallace for Przybilla and a bag of (more) crap? Dammit, had they known he was that available Spurs could have offered Matt Bonner + filler
The draft picks are worth the trade, and while I certainly don't think their new PG is the team's future, I'd be willing to bet a few pesos that he's not starting on their roster next year.
Pumaman went 11 for 12 from the charity stripe tonight!
...but the Purple Paupers win by SIX POINTS!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!
(Though I still contend you can't blame me for the Bulls shitting the bed tonight)
... and the main thing going for them is the Bucks don't play in or near the paint on offense. That's the only reason the Knicks have a lead, and it's only a few points late in the fourth.
Dajuan Summers had a killer Trillion. I'd like to call it a Trillionth. He played 1 second. Yep, 1 total second and no <a href="http://www.nba.com/games/20110223/DETIND/gameinfo.html>stats</a>
Will this be the beginning of the end for Baron Davis? I see him getting fat and unmotivated in Cleveland, while only chucking up 3's.
I do understand LA's financial motivation, but not Clevelands. Why take a 31-year old guy with a big contract if you are rebuilding? Can and will they buy him out?
ScrumptiousSoda (Northmass) has new clips on...
Dwight Howard the Pumaman losing to the paupers
Delonte returns!
Seems like the Jazz got the Beaubois brothers...
TURNING POINT: Not only were the Jazz without Williams and his 21.3 points and 9.7 assists per game, they didn't have the services of the two Nets acquired in the deal: point guard Rodrigue Beaubois and rookie forward Rodrigue Beaubois. Rodrigue Beaubois (toe) and Mehmet Okur (back) were out with injuries, leading to heavy minutes for the starters.
Anyway... no way the Jazz would get William's value... only shot was to trade him either to Phoenix, NO, and no way they would improve a Western opponent. So, dumping him to a lesser team was the easy choice.
Harris is a scorer... and Favors helps with size (hope). And a NJ draft pick is always a good bet...
Things went sour when mr. Williams started to bitch around loosing players to free agency, and the game book being too complicated for the newcomers. Clearly, he was NOT staying. So...
Douglas ain't gonna go 10-12 each game. Nothing better than disappointment bawful. <3
"Korver was sometime on LB [Leandro Barbosa], sometime on DeMar. I was trying to find the guy being guarded by Korver and play the pick and roll with them.”
So much for Gay Elf Defense.
Ak for NJ for Deron Williams!!!