1.http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/trad...=11~11~11~13~13 trade 1 is a trade between the lakers and the pacers (it works for both side salary - wise)
Pacers wouldn't do it. The 2 best players in this deal are going to LA, I don't understand why they would do it.
That would be a great trade but it wont happen. They dont want to give up danny granger especially for anyone in that trade.
They would be giving away O'Neal for nothing man. And Granger is better then anyone that you are trading from the Lakers. Wouldn't work man.
the only way i see that trade going down is if danny granger were switched with someone else and Lamar Odom was involved.
Here is a comparison of what you are offering but vice versa..... http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/trad...=11~11~13~13~13 1 superstar, 1 promising young rookie for 1 decent center, 1 decent wing, and 1 decent PG(although you offered 2 bigs-with one being one of the biggest busts in a long time). Except the fact that your trade is even more lopsided because of the fact that Granger is the 2nd best player in your trade, while Bynum isn't.
87 Reasons why I love the nba 87 REASONS I LOVE THE NBA more random NBA observations, part one Back in the day (you know, the good ol' days. February), I undertook something called "93 random NBA observations/musings", essentially a collection of the types of thoughts that go through my head whilst watching this friggin' sport, that I have absolutely no one to communicate to. Not one person I know in real (that is, non-computer) life has any interest in basketball, and no one is nice enough to pretend they give a rats ass just to pacify me. The gits. That's why I spend so long on places like this. You people are my outlet. Although this doesn't mean I like you. Anyway, here we go again, and this time with a different multiple of 3: 87. There is absolutely no reason or significance for this (that is, both the number chosen or the post itself). Note: I wrote this before the Champions League final. So do not be fooled into thinking I am in a good mood. I'm not. In fact I might kill someone. Recurring themes to watch out for - stupid names, stupid faces, playoff beards, a generally disgusted outlook on life, and Kendrick Perkins. 1: It would be downright silly of me to claim this as an original thought, so I won't. By now, we all know that Bonzi Wells has, by far and away, run away with this years Jerome James award - that is, the upcoming unrestricted free agent who all of a sudden becomes very good in the playoffs, which curiously enough is their final chance to impress any potential suitors in the following summer. The only man who can realistically catch him is Tim Thomas, who's having a damn good try at it, but has a serious disadvantage here - he did this same exact thing back in 2000. (My midseason pick, Keith Van Horn, can claim extenuating circumstances. I have an excuse for everything, me. Much like Keith Van Horn.) However, there's a second wrinkle to this that hasn't been spoken about much. On top of the Jerome James award, we've also got the Greg Buckner award to consider. This award goes to the occasionally useful backup to whom Sixers GM Billy King gives way too many guaranteed years to, before then inevitably trying to shift them within months of acquiring them (named after the All Time great of this award, Mr Buckner, who somehow got a 6 year $18 million deal from Billy just to be bought out after year 2). Last year, this award was claimed by Steven Hunter, who bagged 5 years and $15 million for his efforts, before then being traded (unsuccessfully, as it turned out) to New Orleans at the deadline. My pick for this years winner - Reggie Evans. I have no real reason for this. But full MLE here we come. 2: The following players have a stupid habit of falling away needlessly on their jumpshots - Antoine Walker, Bobby Jackson, Eddie Robinson, Kevin Garnett (no one's going to block it Kevin, so stand up). Combine them with can't-make-a-jumpshot-unless-my-entire-bodyweight-is-falling-forwards Andre Miller, and you have a useful if exasperating starting five. 3: After watching Antoine Walker take him off the dribble repeatedly, after having seen Shaq get whatever position he wanted on him and put it in, and after seeing the entire Heat team play off him on offense, I feel compelled to bring up the issue of Jason Collins and his epic terribleness. The guy is absolutely rubbish at everything. He can't shoot, back down, face up, rebound, block shots, or look in any way normal. All he can do is dribble hand offs and play some mediocre, wildly overrated defense. His PER is, in all seriousness, 6.0. That's 6.0, people. The league average is 15. Even Mario Kasun could put up 9.2 here. The only rotation player with a worse PER than that is terrible Celtics backup point guard Orien Greene, and at least there they can claim injuries to Dickau and Banks. The Nets and Frank actually volunteer to start Collins. And then they wonder why their frontcourt gets dominated in game 5. Here's an idea - don't trade a fairly productive big body in Marc Jackson for a shooter in Bostjan Nachbar who you a) then never play, and didn't need, as Scott Padgett was adequately filling his minimal role. But hey, Jason Collins must have some kind of pull within the organisation. I really, really hope he's not a starter next year. It's a must. 4: Sam Cassell is this league's most underrated player. He's a definite vocal leader, and every team he goes to gets better. He's a step up and shut up guy in the fourth, and does this with unnerving frequency. He can shoot, pass, post up, and make the players around him better. He can't defend worth jack but nobody's perfect. The Clippers are just one more example of the impact he can have on a club. Remember, he's only missed the playoffs once, and that was last season in Minnesota. When he was injured. 5: Everything about Chris Kaman is old school. From the way he runs, to the way he jumps, to the way he dunks, to the way he shoots, to those things he wears on his leg - it all has a certain retro flavour. But as is my way, I'm here to discuss his hair. It's crap, isn't it? If you want to go old school with the barnet, then length is a good place to start. But there's also width and breadth to any attempted mullet that Kaman just has not worked hard enough at. Kurt Rambis, for example, had a deoth of hair that Chris doesn't approach, and he also had the most important aspect of any mullet - the kick outs at the back, the cheeky little flair behind the ears that makes that bad boy shine. Chris Kaman merely has girls hair. I bet he uses straighteners, too. The only other mullet in the NBA this season, Fabricio Oberto, has a similar problem. It's too shallow and narrow. However, his is saved by two things - there's some definite kick outs at the back, and his is greasy and Argentinian. The greasy Argentinian mullet is a genre onto itself, and Fabio carries this off well. 6: Speaking of Cassell and Kaman - is it luck, fate or irony that the league's two weirdest looking players wind up on the same team and coexist well? Or was it an alignment of all the planets or something? Did Kaman feel compelled to raise his level of weirdness once Cassell arrived? If so, this is just one more example of how Cassell makes his team mates better. 7: Have you seen Vince Carter's playoff beard? It's bad. When growing a beard, there's only really one simple rule - never have more hair on your neck than your head. Vince has failed this rule, as has Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The man can't grow a lick of hair on his head yet seems to have an entire field of sugar cane on his lower jaw. It's bizarre, offputting, and really, really bad. 8: On the subject of really, really bad, Pavel Podkolzin's career hasn't exactly been blinding. After being an unwilling victim of the Euo hype machine earlier this decade, Pavel somehow managed to get a first round pick and $4 million guaranteed, just to then miss most of the two seasons with injury. In his rookie year, he scored one point. In his second year, he scored three points. You can do your own maths on the cash-per-point ratio. It's pretty impressive. Can't be worse than Penny Hardaway's this year, though. 9: The New York Knicks need a new GM, a new coach, and a new point guard. Here's hoping (maybe even predicting) that Isiah Thomas will try to fill those three jobs himself this October. 10: It's game 5 of the Heat vs Nets series. On a Heat miss, Kidd takes the outlet and tries to run at the defense, before Alonzo Mourning grabs him and stops him. The refs called the foul, and the crowd boos wildly (they did call the foul on Wade for some reason, who gave him a little trip, but that wasn't the issue here). On the same possession, Vince Carter slashes to the basket and gets hit in the head by Alonzo, who is called for a flagrant. The crowd even more vociferously, and then fire up a "Refs you suck!" chant. It is apparently irrelevant that both were blatant fouls that deserved to be called. Do refs make bad calls? Are the refs influenced by the crowd? Are the crowd influenced by the players? Do refs call games to agendas? Do refs give bail outs calls and make-up calls? Does Joey Crawford look like the neighbour in the Gas Man episode of Bottom? The answers are yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. But how about we criticise the refs for the bad calls they make, and not just every call they make? 11: I'm not subtle or embarassed about my hatred for the Pacers starting pillock Stephen Jackson. To me, he embodies everything that is wrong with the NBA today. He has a massive mouth that he opens at every possible opportunity, he thinks he's great but he's not, he wants to fight everybody, he's overpaid, he's a turnover waiting to happen, he takes teams out of their offense and not in a good way (that is, he takes HIS team out of their offense), he has stupid hair and wears a headband for no reason, he is ugly and has a stupid moustache, he never smiles, and mainly he's just a twat. If I ever met him, I'd probably want to deck him. Now you might think that that sounds a bit like I've just prejudged him based on his face, and you'd be correct in thinking that. Stephen Jackson makes people want to punch him. He just does. So if any of you ever do meet him, please do lace one on his big fat blackhole of a mouth. I'll buy you dinner and a car if you do. 12: On that same subject, how the hell do Indiana rebuild? Bird keeps saying it's on the cards, as it ought to be, but there's a lot of bad cheese that's been given out by Walsh and Bird over the years, and now they've handcuffed themselves. They fell for Jamaal Tinsley's contract year act and are now stuck to his big deal. They overpaid for Jasikevicius who just isn't that good. Jeff Foster has a big deal - if he didn't, he'd be a nice sweetener to package concerning other players. Peja might walk, and if he doesn't (he probably won't), he'll need his pay day. Croshere's big deal expires next year so this might work to their advantage. Fred Jones is a free agent, and then there's good old Stephen, for who I cannot think of even one potential suitor. It won't be easy. Maybe they can tempt Atlanta into Tinsley, but I doubt that very much. 13: Hey there, British basketball fans! Let me introduce you to the fun and exciting "Andre Alleyne drinking game". Simple, really. - buy 8 large bottles of Kilroy (Kirov) vodka. - suddenly get lots of friends. - turn on Channel 5 at about 1.15am every Tuesday. - drink yourself into a stupor. Take one drink every time he says "well this is it" (and that will be a LOT of drinks) Take a drink every time he leans forward and bashes his hands on the desk Take two drinks every time Mark Webster talks over him saying "absolutely right" Take an entire pint every time he leans backward and laughs like Frank Bruno Take a drink for every sentence he states, very slowly and deliberately, in iambic pentameter And take a drink every time Webbo says something so overly and disgustingly cockney that you want to take his arse down to your local open air fruit and veg stall, and have him shout "come on there darling, get ya Swedes, four pahnd for a pahnd!". By the end of the night - actually, scratch that, you won't make it to the end of the night. Probably won't even make it to the end of the first quarter - you'll be so trollied that the coverage becomes watchable. With the remaining Kilroy vodka, of which there will be much, you can use that to clear the vomit off your walls the following morning, or perhaps strip your entire floor of varnish. That stuff has some serious power to it. They should use it to get oil off ducks. Also, note that Webster has also grown his own playoff beard, though it's more of an old woman's muff than a beard. Alleyne appears to be trying to counter balance this by not growing a beard of his own, but by shaving even more than before off of his eyebrows. They are now freakishly small and form two perfect equilateral triangles above his eyes. Something like this: ^ ^ O O c ____ ___/ 14: I am fully aware that I've used both "vociferously" and "iambic pentameter" in the same post. Next up: "onomatopoiea". English was the one subject I did well at, see. As you can also see, art wasn't. 15: Dwyane Wade is becoming increasingly guilty of the Jalen Rose art of lollygagging, or, as my mum calls it, "diddlarsing". That is, getting hit, not getting the call, and either standing down that end shouting at the refs, or becoming so self indulgent and stupid that you just walk back slowly to the other end, forcing your team to foul on the ensuing break. I don't particularly like or dislike the man right now, but if he keeps this up I know which way I am going. 16: What does Ryan Bowen actually do? 17: The one person who didn't vote for Chris Paul as rookie of the year was Utah Jazz TV analyst Ron Boone. This, along with the whole seeding problem we're currently experiencing in this year's playoffs, were two glaring omissions from my list of things I'd improve if I was commish. D'oh. 18: Family fun time: who has the worst hands in the league - Tyson Chandler, John Thomas, or Etan Thomas? Personally, I'm going with Brian Skinner. 19: Am I the only person who gets Mike Fratello and Jeff Van Gundy confused on color commentary? The difference, obviously, is that Fratello is 40 times better and isn't a prat. But voice wise, it's a common mistake. Then again, I used to do this to Steve Snapper Jones and John Thompson, so it's more a measure of my rank stupidity than anything. 20: Favourite weird looking player of the moment: Detroit rookie Alex Acker. That to me is what a human skull would look like if you soaked it in coffee overnight and gave it a mild degree of hair. Incidentally, the aforementioned Brian Skinner serves only to prove my point about beard/hair ratio. 21: This is Jarrett Jack. Ever since first spotting him, something about him and his person struck me as looking a bit odd. I wasn't sure what it was. I'm still not. Any help? I think it's the eyebrows. Or the fact that his eyes are so perfectly central compared to the height of his head. Either way it bugs me. 22: For those who care, which is probably no one, Bobcats rookie Kevin Burleson finally had his missed shot streak end up at 36 after making a three point play vs whoever it was that he made it against. And I'm happy to say I watched it live. The streak went from January 13th to March 22nd, and getting that monkey off his back obviously opened floodgates of some sort, as he went 8-19 the rest of the way, to finish at a blistering 25% for the year. That's my homeslice right there. 23: More offseason predictions - Dwane Casey gets fired, Iverson gets traded, Garnett and Jermaine O'Neal don't, Paul Silas gets back into the NBA with Charlotte, the Knicks franchise gets folded, no one at all signs Michael Olowokandi, Eric Piatkowski retires, someone overpays wildly for Francisco Elson after forgetting to look up his age (he is 30, and that someone is probably Kevin McHale), Bernard Robinson Jr becomes this summer's free agency theft of the year, and Rudy Gay will be drafted way higher than expected. 24: Player who, quite clearly, has had cosmetic surgery done on their face: Ben Handlogten. His face looks like one of those people who have had to have serious reconstructive surgery after a near fatal accident. I even read once that this was the case, but cannot find evidence. Either way, he's seriously lucky to be alive or seriously unlucky to just naturally look like that. 25: Player who, quite clearly, needs to have cosmetic surgery done on their face: Eric Williams. Braces are your friend. 26: Some things cannot be measured in stats, regardless of how much we try. These include, but are not limited to: - Players who don't hustle back because they're shouting at the refs (yes you Dwyane) - Those who can't, or won't, repost - Players and/or teams who swing the ball around the perimeter from one corner to another - Movement off the ball - Tipped balls - Tying someone up for a jumpball when you had no business being in the play - Changing shots on defense by both getting a hand up and by hustling back on fast breaks - Making easy shots unnecessarily difficult (like Eddie Robinson's aforementioned moral compulsion to fall away on everything) - Speaking of Eddie Robinson - inability and/or unwillingness to penetrate - How soft and girly your screens are - Backtaps (sometimes credited, not always) - Floor burns - Ability to bring the ball up court: measured in turnovers, yes, but there's plenty of ways to cock it up without a turnover being credited to you - Double teaming, both on offense and defense - Dunking preference - Josh Smith, for example, misses a lot of scores by dunking things that should be layed in. - How many offensive rebounds and/or putback are off your own shot. - Deflected passes, leading to broken plays - As above, but tipping it out of bounds, particularly useful when late in the clock (measured on NBA Live as a turnover for some reason) - Lateral foot speed - Charges taken (unless you know of 82games.com, and most fans don't) - Jumpshot effectiveness (same) - Ability to use the off hand - Players who cheat too much on defense, like Nocioni - Boxing out ability if you don't then get the board - Locker room presence, or lack of - Towel waving ability - Short length - Lane violations on free throws, both as the rebounder and as the shooter (how many you cause) - Injury history - Hardiness (whether they do an Okafor or a Duncan. It's under games played in extreme cases, but I'm talking about players who constantly go out there with niggling injuries and act like they haven't) - Selfishness (selfish players can average 6 assists per, or even two field goal attempts per assists. It doesn't mean they aren't selfish. Example - Jeff McInnis' career) - Pick and roll defense - Pick and roll offense - Inbounding (apparently, harder than you'd think) - Passing lane defense (do they cheata lot?) - Lateral quickness, or any form of athletic ability - Missed defensive rotations - Ability to catch the ball off tough feeds - Three second violations, both ends - Erm - I'm just padding it now There was no reason for me putting this, but it was fun to think about. 27: I feel obligated to say something interesting about the playoffs. So here goes. These playoffs are interesting. Actually, that's a lie. They're not. For whatever reason, I'd much rather watch a mediocre meaningless baseball game right now, or that show Mythbusters on the Discovery channel, or one of the 45 optional poker tournaments on telly, than any game 4 or 5 matchup in an interesting series. I do not know why this is. I think I've gone from being a Bulls fan over a basketball fan. After years of having very little action to watch, now I get to watch loads. And for whatever reason, it isn't as much fun any more. 28: After seeing Doug Mientkewicz hit in the three spot for the Kansas City Royals this week, it made me think: who is the worst player ever to start an NBA game? The worst player I've ever seen with my own two eyes in an NBA game has to be Ruben Wolkowyski, who had absolutely no reprehensible basketball skill whatsoever and just ran around with his hands up. And I've seen some epically bad players in my time. I make a point in watching them. It's fun. Dalibor Bagaric, Martynas Andriskevicius, Junior Harrington, Kevin Ollie, Zach Randolph.......I've seen them all and taken great joy in them displaying such great levels of ineptitude for an impressively excessive level of pay. But Ruben could be the answer to the question here, as he started once back in 2000 for Seattle (God knows why. I wonder how he did.) He's also an alarming looking man, too. The kind of man who would go home and beat his wife for not having dinner on the table, then drink himself into a stupor and rinse and repeat the cycle. 29: The thing I am most proud of that I have ever done in my message board career is when I had, by far and away, the longest AOL Instant Messnger conversation that anyone of us mere mortals has ever had with Ben Gordon. There's you lot all having your one word answers, and suddenly there's me and him having a good ol' reminisce about John Amaechi. I will never accept that I'm wrong on this. However, a weird thing happened to me the other day, and you can use this as a barometer to measure how deeply troubled I am. This is all true, by the way. Hey Shinky - this might get long. Look away now. Or, skim read it, then go to the bottom and tell me which bits you didn't read. Whichever you want. The important thing is that you're happy. 30: Bill Walton's teeth are so white, they're blue. (On a similar note, Jason Kidd is so white, he's black. Yes, this still angers me.) Walton, though, is truly blue, and not a natural blue. This also applies to baseball play by play guy Gary Thorne, and is soon to apply to color commentator Joe Morgan, whose teeth have gone from a natural teak colour to a sparkingly brilliant in only one season. Either he finally learned to brush with toothpaste and not Ronseal, or he's living the high life. 31: I am not not entriely convinced that Jarron and Jason Collins aren't the same player. They are both overwhelmingly useless. 32: Remember San Antonio's "amazing" and "deep" bench? Game 7, elimination game, goes to OT......and their bench combines for 2 points. Nice. 33: How the lottery will pan out, says me: Toronto: LaMarcus Aldridge Chicago: Tyrus Thomas Charlotte: Adam Morrison Portland: Andrea Bargnani Atlanta: Rudy Gay (leading to a Childress deal pretty much straight away) Minnesota: Rodney Carney Boston: Marcus Williams Golden State: Randy Foye Seattle: Brandon Roy Orlando: Mardy Collins New Orleans: Shelden Williams Philadelphia: Patrick O'Bryant Utah: JJ Redick And, since I am a gambling man, I am willing to bet $7,000 that this will not be the case. Note: this is not necessarily what they SHOULD do, but what I think they will. And what I think counts for nothing. You heard it here first. 34: What is Devin Harris good at? I wonder this sometimes. Every time I watch him play, I look for something that makes him stand out, and don't see it. Yet, he is quite good. This is the complete opposite of what I like to call the "Scott Proctor Effect". Proctor, a Yankee relief pitcher, is crap. I'd paint a juicier picture, but it's hard to do so, because he's not very good. However, every time I watch him play (which, like Devin Harris, totals about 7 times. For some reason we're getting incredibly little coverage of the playoffs here, and I didn't watch the Mavs much in the regular season by choice), he looks sharp, hitting corners, throwing hard, and getting good movement. For example, tonight (June 1st), he just threw three scoreless innings versus Detroit. However, this does not mean that he does not suck: it just means that it's a rather large coincidence. This is seemingly what is happening to me and Harris, who, whener I watch him, can't make a jumpshot to save his life, nor keep anybody out of the paint, fouls way too much, and usually finishes with stat lines of 12 minutes, 0-2, 1 assists, 2 points and 2 fouls. I guess I've got a hex on him without realising it. 35: On the same lines, I swear that Chauncey Billups shoots 85% from three point range. I don't think I've ever seen him miss. Again, it's just a coincidence: I don't have a guiding influence on the life and times of Chauncey Billups. Though if I did, I'd make him shave. 36: What's the record for most full seasons spent in a league whilst averaging less than 2 points per game for your career? DeSagana Diop is through 5, and averages 1.8 for his career. He has two guaranteed seasons left. Is this record pace? And what's the salary record for the same criteria? Lasagna must be hurtling towards that now, with over $16 million in cheese earned in his career. Heh, earned. What a bad choice of word. 37: Michael Redd stat of the day - he is the all time least turnover prone player in NBA history. Sort of. http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/ToR_career.html This stat measures turnovers per 100 possessions. And there be young Mike, representin' at the top. It's not surprising in a sense, as when he gets the ball, he's shooting it or turning it over. And missed shots don't count as turnovers. Maybe they should. By the way, the previous Michael Redd stat of the day - that he was on course for over 3000 minutes played without recording a block - was stymied when Michael the Redd went on a tear to finish the season, recording 5 total blocks. Bitching. 38: Pat and Raven Riley would make a great couple. As would Antawn and Jenna Jameson. Or Busta and Leann Rimes. 39: I have met, I think, four celebrities in my life. David Seaman (my childhood hero, Arsenal goalkeeper. Met him at a dog track when I was 13 or so. Signed my football shirt. Unfortunately, it was the shirt of another team. In my defense, we didn't know he was going to be there. He was amazingly shy, by the way. And yes, it's never good to go to dog tracks at that age), Ken Livingston (Mayor of London. Walked past him at a station in London. Surprisingly small head), Donal Macintyre (yes, THE Donal Macintyre. Same station, different day), and Paul Reaney (former England footballer. Was taking football coaching lessons at a holiday park we visited when I was 5). I've also, apparently, met Shayne Ward, the winner of X-Factor talent contest thing, at my local bowling alley, although I had never heard of him nor recognised him. Besides, even if I did, I would not have cared - I thought they said it was Shane Warne who was there, so my hopes were raised by that. Therefore I would have been unimpressed anyway, even if I had known or cared who Shayne Ward was. (Shane Warne's a god, even though he's an Aussie. That tempts me to start a "top ten things Australia has given the world", but to be honest I can't think fo 10. Or rather, I could, but it'd just be a list of the fit ones in Neighbours down the years. And that would get dull.) Anyway, the point is: I have never been awestruck meeting a celebrity. It does not phase me. Even when I met my childhood hero and a man I had worshipped my entire life, I wasn't bothered. But there are two celebrities that I think would absolutely strike me dead with awe: Rick Brunson and Keira Knightley. I have no idea what I would do if I met either of them. Particularly Keira. I'd probably just hump her leg. 40: With every last ounce of interest I can muster for these NBA playoffs, I am hoping for the Phoenix Suns to win the NBA championship, just to stick it up the arse of everyone who says that you cannot win like this. Oh yes, yes you can. And they are. The side effect of this is that Tim Thomas gets a ring, whereas all that man deserves is a slap. But more on him later. And one more thing - can we debunk this "Phoenix doesn't play defense" myth? Because they do. They're not that good at it, and don't exactly have the personel for the job, but D'Antoni has a definite system in place to combat this. It's much like the Chicago Bulls system that they run to disguise their own lack of interior defense, except less effective. They double on penetrators, keep their hands out ready, make you take outside shots to win, rely on closeouts on shooters and help on post players. They give up many points per game, but if you look at the more relevant points per possession stat (Phoenix games have more possessions than other teams. We know this by now), they are middle of the pack. The problems with their defense are defensive rebounding, and most scoring big men matchups, though Shawn Marion does his best. However, it's not this big gaping weakness it is made out to be. So go moan about something else. 41: By the way - in part one, I devised and announced the Andre Alleyne drinking game. Well, just so's you know - it's a bad idea. On Tuesday, I took a running tally of how many drinks would have been involved if I were playing, and came up with the intriguing total of 47. And 47 shots of anything, let alone Kilroy vodka, is enough to cause a coronary, or at the very least make you piss like a shire horse. Since neither of these things are fun, it's probably best you don't play this game. This public safety announcement was brought to you by Aflac - ducks you can trust. 42: It appears that the Minnesota Timberwolves are to hire former Raptors GM Rob Babcock, not to replace Kevin McHale, but to work with him. Now, there are an assortment of joke possibilities here. However, none of them are especially funny, so I'll avoid them. I will say this, though - how can it be that such inept personel get recycled in the NBA? It happens with coaches, too, as even Tim Floyd got a second go around despite being so fundamentally and irreprehensively bad. Why is this? How hard can it be? Why not, instead if hiring people with business acumen, media skills and a loose basketball background, don't owners hire general managers who know how to win at basketball, yet who are also visionary and not blindly stupid? Can there really only be seven people in the American professional basketball world who qualify as this? 43: I have never played basketball in my entire life, neither organised nor recreationally. This means that I have a better free throw shooting technique than Tyson Chandler. 44: Is it sweet, ironic, sickening, predictable or just plain damn annoying that Tim Thomas is doing what he is? I'm on the side of "infuriatingly predictable". Swing the ball....swing the ball.....swing the ball around that there perimeter.........oh look, there's Tim Thomas. Oh look, he's taken a shot. Oh look, he's grabbed three rebounds in 36 minutes. Cool. We should run a sweepstake on who can most accurately predict what it is that he will say to stab the Suns in the back once he leaves. Considering their system allows him to play this way whilst also allowing for the major flaws in his game (which are often masked by, but not nearly nullified by, his points tally in box scores), and considering that their class as a team is allowing him to do this on the big stage, you'd think that he might quite like it there. And I'm sure that, right now, he probably does like it there. One day, though, and hopefully a day that's coming up quite soon, Tim will leave. And as history has proven, he will do this with a parting shot. It's his way. I think it'd probably be an insult directed at Steve Nash and about how the whole team is predictaed around him, stifling second tier stars such as himself. I hope I'm wrong, and that he can't be stupid enough to actually say this, but you never know. The man sets himself new heights, repeatedly. Or should that be lows?
