Erick Blasco

No he didn't, it's a telling indicator of Varejao's value. It's still very early to make anything concrete, but Vareajo's main competition is Carl Landry who is playing out of his mind, plus Crawford and Terry who can fill a scoreboard. Also, the four players are playing for good teams. Odom, Manu Ginobili, and J.R. Smith haven't been up to their usual heroics, Luke Ridnour doesn't have enough of an impact, Harrington is hit or miss on an awful team. I'd put Landry first, Varejao second, and Crawford beats out Terry for third.

:lol:

There might be scripture in NBA contracts prohibiting nonsense like this. If so, the Wizards may be able to void Arenas contract. He's not going to be punished too severely by the NBA yet because the NBA wants to wait before criminal investigations are concluded.

With the Arenas nonsense taking place, it would be best for Washington to blow up and rebuild. If the Wizards trade Miller, Haywood, and James I think it works out financially and I think Houston accepts but those players were expiring contracts already. No matter what, Washington will have to wait two or three years for cap flexibility. Arenas' contract is on the books till at least 2014. Damn.

It also means the Bulls' first sub at center becomes Aaron Gray who is awful. I think Chicago needs the spacing on offense more than a backup big man so I'd do it, but I'd like to see how the current team performs first now that they're all healthy and Salmons is on the bench. They've played well recently.

That actually isn't too bad, but would the Rockets want to take the chance that he doesn't opt out? It also leaves the Bulls painfully thin in the frontcourt.

Did not know that. I was just looking at the contracts on hoopshype to see where potential contract matches are. That makes it much harder because the Bulls would then have to send over someone like Luol Deng who the Rockets probably wouldn't want.

There's nobody out there that either has the expiring contracts that match McGrady's, have the players that interest Houston, or have the players that interest Houston but won't leave themselves with nothing. How is Washington getting him without giving up Miller, James, and either Butler, Arenas, Jamison (players with contracts Houston doesn't want), or Brendan Haywood (whose loss officially ends Washington's season). Washington plays with bad shot-taking, finesse jump shooters who don't defend (Butler is a bit of an exception to all counts)...McGrady helps how in the short term? The Rockets don't want Kevin Martin or any of Sacramento's players that aren't Tyreke Evans. Chicago makes the most sense because of Jerome James (Who'd be waived), Tim Thomas (who'd be waived), and Brad Miller who have big expiring contracts, but I don't know the details of James' contract, or how interested Houston is James Johnson or Taj Gibson. Houston doesn't want Nate Robinson. They're doing fine with the point guards they have and Robinson is only worth $4 million. Plus, the Knicks don't have the draft pick the Rockets would want and Houston doesn't need David Lee. Houston doesn't care about anyone else on the Knicks roster. Unless the Rockets are getting Iguodala, the Sixers aren't getting T-Mac. Unless the Rockets are willing to take on garbage, I'd bet they simply keep T-Mac and let his deal expire at the end of the season.

Chicago's got a nice little win streak since they switched their lineup around and got Tyrus Thomas back.

You can't not include him in MVP talks. There's still a long way to go though, and his inability to accept working off Andre Miller hurts him some in the eyes of the media. But the league notices Roy's greatness.

No statistical (and few objective/subjective) analysis will rank Carter and Iverson over Brand. They were never efficient enough, plus Iverson was abhorrent defensively. Brand was 20/11 nearly his entire career while shooting over 50% from the field. He blocked shots. He led the league in offensive rebounding rate in 01-02. His offensive and defensive ratings were sterling. Brand was a stud. The NBA hype-machine doesn't ride him as hard as other stars in other markets, but Brand was legit, especially considering the nobodies he played with once he became a veteran. Wallace is acknowledged as the best defensive player of the decade but he didn't do enough offensively to be in the top 10. Pierce is surprising. I'm a bit surprised the numbers aren't as high for him. Maybe because he's shared the spotlight with his best Celtic teams and was a part of some horrible Celtic teams that didn't win a whole lot? During Marion's heyday with the Suns, he was also putting up 20/10 with 2 assists, 2 steals, 1.5 blocks, and he's 8th in active defensive rating while shooting around 50%. Go find some of Iverson's shooting percentages. They're awful.

Right, and when the same players have had the same problem forever, eventually you have to realize that the players are the problem.

I was surprised he wasn't starting already. He's going to be a great defensive player very soon. I wonder what the Bucks are going to do with Redd though who looks awful coming off his injury.

Glad it finally worked for you. I have no idea what the problem could have been. If it were Rose's left ankle that was troubling him, I'd be concerned because you usually push off your left ankle to shoot if you're right handed. Since it's Rose's right ankle, I don't think it affects his mechanics too much. And with his struggles in the paint, I just think he's fallen in love with his floater and being a finesse guard. He has the body to be a difference maker on drives to the basket and it's frustrating watching him shoot driving fallaways 12 feet from the rim. He should get out of it eventually, but that's not how he should play. If you're, arguably, the most athletic point guard to play the game since Magic, you should be using it better. I've never thought about doing video full time. Maybe I'll consider it after I'm down with these team breakdowns.

He's had great stats and a lot of impact on very good teams the entire decade. He's been one of the most consistent forces of the decade, especially when you only factor in regular season like this article does.

Why? He's contributed a ton to making teams better. Those T-Wolves teams were only winning games because of him, plus he's been terrific for generating wins on the Celtics. Who do you want as number 1? Kobe was a question mark at the beginning of the decade and hardly did anything for mediocre Lakers defenses in the middle of the decade. Shaq hasn't been Shaq for five years. LeBron is missing the first three years of the decade. And for the record, while the numbers are close, Pelton says in his second paragraph that he tips the scale to Duncan over KG making Duncan 1 and KG 2.

People forget just how good Brand was on the Clippers. He rebounded, was a dominant scorer, and played good defense. If he played the way he did on LA's other team, he would have a lot more recognition.

If you've ever heard Payton talk, you'd know that he has no idea what he's talking about. Even on something which may have truth (Bosh being overrated), he has no idea what he's talking about.

http://www.basketbal...p?articleid=841

Not only starter money, can you believe that the duo is making over 21 million this year. Next year it will be over 23 million. For two catch-and-shoot players who play the same position. Okay, Hamilton already had that contract, why are you paying his backup nearly the same amount?

I could accept the Iverson trade if it were just a one-season gamble and the Pistons used the cap space to retool, or tore things down and started to rebuild. Villanueva, Gordon, and Wallace aren't good enough, and don't fill enough needs to be considered as parts of a retooling process, and they certainly aren't players you rebuild around. What Detroit is is a bad veteran team with no cap flexibility coming anytime soon. They're going to irrelevant for a LONG time unless they win the lottery in the draft.

By trading Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson, the Detroit Pistons began the process of dismantling the core of the team that lived in the Conference Finals this decade in order to bring in cap flexibility, and along with it, the potential of new talent. However, by keeping Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton (as well as bringing back Ben Wallace), and adding in Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, the Pistons created a disharmonious roster. Some are too old (Wallace, Prince, Hamilton, Chucky Atkins), some are too young (Rodney Stuckey, rookie Jonas Jerebko, rookie Austin Daye). Some are finesse players (Villanueva, Gordon, Jerebko), and some are brutes (Stuckey, Jason Maxiell). Some are defensive minded (Prince, Wallace, Maxiell), while some are defensively impotent (Villanueva, Jerebko, Gordon). Some rely on offensive continuity (Hamilton, Gordon, Prince), while others strictly want to go one-on-one (Villanueva, Stuckey). With such a poor mixture of players, it’s no wonder why the Pistons were blown out of the water by the New York Knicks 104-87. Detroit started the game by running various baseline cross screens, then down screens, that were ineffective because of the Knicks habit of switching all screens. Instead of establishing open shots because of the screens, the Pistons gained no advantage. Even mismatches were hard to come by since the Knicks start Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, and Jared Jeffries, three players with comparable size. Forced out of their continuity, Detroit was forced to attempt various isolations and post ups from a standstill. Too bad that’s not Hamilton, Prince, and Stuckey’s game. No wonder when the smoke cleared, Ben Gordon entered the game, and Detroit made its first real adjustments, Stuckey was 1-4, Prince 1-2, and Hamilton 0-5. Hamilton was noticeably rusty after missing much of the season due to various ankle and hamstring injuries. Of Hamilton’s 6-21 performance, he went a combined 0-5 on two post ups and three isolations. While going one-on-one was never Hamilton’s forte, he only performed 2-9 on catch-and shoots whether spotting up or on the move. Hamilton’s other attempts came on a curl (1-1), various screen/rolls or handoff/rolls (2-5), and in early offense (0-1). Prince played okay defense and was never a factor on offense—1-4 FG, 2 PTS. The worse the roster the Pistons field, the more Prince doesn’t fit in. Stuckey—6-13 FG, 8 REB, 5 AST, 1 TO, 15 PTS—has trouble getting Detroit into second and third offensive options and is best served as a scoring guard off the bench. Stuckey’s strong enough to bull his way to the rim and has a decent enough jump shot (2-4) to make him a complete offensive scorer, but he’s not quick enough to play the two and not sufficient enough to play the point. The failure of Stuckey to develop into a prototypical point guard is one of the myriad reasons why the Pistons offense has been so stale the last pair of seasons. Aside from a steal of David Lee in the backcourt, Wallace simply went through the motions defensively and was embarrassed by David Lee. Wallace can still rouse himself once every two weeks into a standout performance, but the more he realizes that the team is going nowhere, the less effort he’ll bring. It’s a wonder why he was brought back, except for nostalgia purposes. Jerebko plays defense like a rookie, was pushed around on the boards, and didn’t do much of note on the offensive end besides finishing broken plays—4-9 FG, 9 PTS. He even had his shot blocked in transition, a telltale sign of a lack of athleticism necessary to succeeding in the NBA. Wilcox offered no defensive resistance and his athletic one-handed alley-oop slam reminded NBA watchers of his fantastic athleticism and his fantastically disappointing career. Atkins made his open jumpers—3-4 FG, 1-2 3FG, 7 PTS—period. Daye can run and jump but needs to work on his jump shot, and needs to get stronger. Maxiell played hard, but didn’t accomplish much—zero rebounds in 12 minutes. Whenever Charlie Villanueva touched the ball, he shot it—0-4 FG, 0-2 3FG, 0 PTS. Fortunately for Detroit, his teammates didn’t pass him the ball very often. Defense, passing, rebounding? Nope, Villanueva only plays with the ball in his hands. How did a team give this loser a 30 million dollar contract? Indeed, Gordon was the only player aside from Stuckey who could create his own offense—6-9 FG, 2-3 3FG, 17PTS—and Gordon succeeds at most of the same catch-and-shoot schemes that have been in Detroit for years thanks to Hamilton. Too bad Gordon is in the perfect role for him as a sixth man, and can’t do a thing about fixing the starting lineup. It’s hard to figure out what Joe Dumars’ plan is for the Pistons. With roughly $50 million in salaries committed to next year, they aren’t going to be players in this offseason’s free agent bonanza, especially when Gordon, Prince, and Hamilton will be making over $10 million. Is the team still a team based on defense and execution? Do they want to be an isolation team? Do they consider themselves potential contenders, or are they concerned with the future? Nobody knows what the Pistons are, except a bad basketball team.

If you want to improve the defense, don't add knucklebrain Blatche to the starting lineup. He's a wanna be guard who tries to do things he can't. For a team that needs more effort, I'd dump Blatche from the rotation and play McGee more. McGee has no clue how to play basketball, but whatever he does, he does it all out. With Arenas and Jamison in the lineup though, no matter what you do, you're giving up uncontested shots. That's the sin of people being too impressed with their potential 20 point per game averages.

Ollie's a nice player but he's not talented enough. Worse, since he's up there in years (He's been playing since 97), he doesn't have any long-term value. The Thunder will need a veteran in his mid to late 20's who is willing to be a backup. Someone like Chris Duhon, Luke Ridnour, Steve Blake, or Kirk Hinrich. I trust Ollie as a third stringer, but the Thunder are in trouble if they have to play him more than four or five minutes in a Game 7 of a playoff series. Etan Thomas would work. The Thundder have the cap room to think bigger, but there are so few centers available. Brendan Haywood would be a very nice fit as someone who is competent offensively and is a plus defender.

1) Andray Blatche or Javale McGee? 2) If you were about to get hit by a truck and die, but DeShawn Stevenson saved your life, and then in his next game shot 2-15, how would you feel about the guy? 3) Favorite Dinosaur? 4) Rank These Arenas: Gilbert Arenas, the Amway Arena, Javier Arenas, the MtG card Magus of the Arena, or Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena. 5) A bottle of Jameson or Alfred the Butler? 6) Rank these Movies: Return of the Jedi, Avatar, The Godfather, Up, Digimon the Movie, The Dark Knight, Twilight, Terminator 3, Anchor Man, Amistad 7) Johann Sebastian Bach, Amadeus Mozart, or church hymms? 8) Favorite band? 9) What are your impressions of Gerald Wallace's rebounding? 10) Favorite song that begins with the letter P?