What should have happened

Addendum to my previous entry concerning the Hawks.

How much better would the Hawks and Mavs be if the trades for Mike Bibby and Jason Kidd had been switched?

First the Hawks, I would argue that Bibby isn't right for this team at all. He's not the kind of point guard that creates opportunities for other players. He is a better shooter and ball handler then the Hawks previously had but that isn't what the team needs out of it's point guard. They need someone who can push the ball up the floor, penetrate and dominate the ball which isn't Bibby's game. Enter Jason Kidd. While he doesn't help the Hawks dismal outside shooting he does create easier shots for others, controls the tempo of the game and provides veteran leadership on the floor and in the locker room. He dominates that ball, which is fine as the other Hawks players aren't great passers. In addition, he attracts fans and potential free agents this summer.

Second the Mavs, Kidd isn't really hurting the Mavs, but he also isn't making them any better. Dallas isn't a team that looks to push the tempo of the game and in a half court set defenses sag off of Kidd and dare him to shoot, which makes things harder for the other Mavs players. (Note given the Hawks personnel with Kidd they would be a team that would look to push the ball at every opportunity). The Mavs already had great team ball movement before Kidd and now that he dominates the ball the movement has come to a halt. This doesn't nessesarily kill the Mavs it just makes the game harder for everyone. Enter Mike Bibby a solid ball handler, great shooter and good passer in a team passing game. Bibby could hit the outside shot to take pressure off of both Dirk and Josh Howard and still get the the rim enough to keep defenses on their toes. He wouldn't need to create shots for others, Dirk and Howard can create their own shots. He also could be a part of the team instead of being expected to be a team leader. This is something that isn't working with the Mavs since Dirk is obviously the man, which is something Kidd isn't used to.

The bottom line: We need a do-over. The Hawks need a point guard to push the tempo, create shots for others, dominate the ball and provide leadership. The Mavs need a point guard who can hit the outside shot, handle the ball, and fit into their team passing game.

~Viggy

Why aren't the Atlanta Hawks any good?

The theory put forth has been that Atlanta was a talented team a point guard away from being a contender in the East. They have a fantastic scorer in Joe Johnson, explosive wing players in Marvin Williams and Josh Smith and, in my opinion, the Rookie of the Year in the middle in Al Horford. When they traded for Mike Bibby in February I assumed like everyone else they were a lock for the sixth seed in the East. Instead they've been battling with the Nets and Pacers for the eighth and final seed. I see four big reasons behind the Hawks failure to be any better.

1. They have no bench. Josh Childress isn't bad, but one guy isn't depth. A good team has a rotation of at least seven usually eight. After Childress you are looking at: Acie Law (an inconsistent rookie), Mario West (simply not that good), Solomon Jones (ditto) and Zaza Pachulia (a big white guy who sorta takes up space). No bench means the starters play heavy minutes which wears them out not only during the game, but also over the course of the season.

2. They can't win on the road. The Hawks have won just nine road games all season which ranks 23rd in the league. Hawks coach Mike Woodson had this to say about winning on the road, "You've got to control game tempo when you're on the road and you've got to defend and rebound. You do those three things, you put yourself in position to win." Which brings us to our third point.

3. They are deceptively terrible on defense. All of the Hawks starters are capable of locking down on defense, but the effort isn't there. Josh Smith is second in the NBA in blocked shots and 14th in steals and the Hawks still give up almost 100 points per game. This isn't that bad compared to the rest of the league, but when you only average to score 97 point per game it hurts. For our final point,

4. They can't shoot from behind the arc. The Hawks average 4.4 made 3's per game which is good for 27th in the league. This isn't terribly suprising considering most of their players are strong slashers. Unfortunately it allows opposing teams to sag in the middle of the floor which makes it tough for Horford and Williams to get easy looks.

I suspect the Hawks will sneak into the playoffs as the eighth seed as the Pacer and Nets continue to suck. The Hawks first round pick belongs to the Suns this year so they will have to address these issues in the free agent market. I've heard rumors that some guy who plays in Washington is planning to opt out. . .

~Viggy

- I know very few people care about the Hawks, but I felt like writing about a team that is ignored by most of the sports media . . . for good reason of course.

Get well Mr. Yao

~Viggy

-Thanks Yaysports, some day I too will learn to use Photoshop to add funny captions to NBA photos.

Yao Out...

... for the season. Sucks. I really like Houston. Just wanted to mention this because I've been meaning to talk about how ridiculous the west is right now. 10 teams deep?! Are you serious? Granted Portland has fallen off a little and now that Yao is out, Houston will most likely follow suit making Denver and Golden State the likely 2 to round out the last playoff spots. But how crazy is it that only a few games separate the 1st and 9th teams in the conference? Insane. Denver (currently 9th in the West) would be in 4th place in the East and have home court advantage. That's sick. Flip Saunders said he would like to see the top 16 teams make the playoffs no matter what conference. I really like that idea but still think that conferences are also a good thing. Maybe just move some teams? I don't know.

-Swami

NBA Trade Deadline

From ESPN -

Cavs get Wallace from Bulls, Szczerbiak from Sonics

The Cleveland Cavaliers appear to have beaten the NBA's annual trade buzzer to get LeBron James some of the fresh help he's been openly craving. In a three-way, 11-player trade with Chicago and Seattle that has been submitted for league approval, NBA front-office sources say that Cleveland will come away with four new teammates for James, headlined by Ben Wallace from the Bulls and sharpshooter Wally Szczerbiak from the Sonics.

The league office was notified of the deal before Thursday's 3 p.m. ET trading deadline, sources said, and is currently reviewing the trade details as required for formal approval. After Cleveland watched two longstanding trade targets land elsewhere -- Mike Bibby in Atlanta and Jason Kidd in Dallas -- sources say that the deal calls for the Cavaliers to receive Wallace, Szczerbiak, Seattle point guard Delonte West, Chicago's Joe Smith and a future second-round pick from the Bulls.

The Bulls, apparently abandoning their gamble on Wallace less than two seasons into the lucrative four-year deal they used to sign him away from Detroit, would get Cavaliers forward Drew Gooden and swingman Larry Hughes along with Cavs reserves Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown.

The Sonics, shedding Szczerbiak in the name of additional payroll flexibility, come away with the expiring contracts of Cleveland's Ira Newble and Chicago's Adrian Griffin as well as Cavs veteran Donyell Marshall.

I'm not a fan of the Cleveland Cavs, but thankfully they seem on the verge of at least becoming more interesting to watch. Which is good, because much like the Lakers they are always on national TV. As a Hornets fan I'm much more excited about this.

From ESPN -

The Hornets, Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies finalized a multi-player swap that sends Mike James and Bonzi Wells to New Orleans, with Bobby Jackson, Adam Haluska and a second-round draft pick going to Houston.


~ Viggy

Observations from the Wizards game

I attended the Wizards/Knicks game last night at the Verizon Center. I'll be honest I knew it would be terrible going in, but the free center court ticket ten rows from the floor was too good to pass up. Plus I had to get a first hand look at the train wreck that is the Knicks.

Observation #1.

Eddy Curry is fat.

I know this has already been noted everywhere, but you have to see him in person to really understand how bad it is. It literally looks like he is wearing an inner-tube under his jersey. He is big guy, but all of his weight is in his hips, stomach and ass. Curry wasn't even defending Brendan Haywood he was simply leaning on him to catch his breath.

Observation #2.

This whole "keeping the non-basketball fan interested" has gone too far.

During the second quarter the Wizards ran a promotion for Chipotle. It consisted of the mascot having a huge box of burritos from which his "helpers" proceeded to throw burritos into the crowd. Seriously? I don't want a random burrito from Chipotle that you threw at me. On the plus side Eddy Curry seemed visibly upset that he didn't manage to snag a few.

Observation #3.

The "Kiss Cam" is still great.

The highlight of the third quarter came when Jared Jefferies and Nate Robinson appeared on the "Kiss Cam" together while on the Knicks bench. When Jefferies made a face the camera quickly moved over to Eddy Curry and Isiah Thomas. That brought the crowd to its feet.

Observation #4.

Watching the Knicks play more then once could drive you insane.

I have never seen a more disorganized or disinterested team. Somehow they did win the game in OT, but that was because too many of the Wizards key players were injured and because David Lee actually got some playing time and was killing everyone. He had 19 points on 7 of 8 from the field and 5 of 5 from the line. He's really benefiting from the fact that Curry can only make it up and down the floor about 20 times in the game. Zach Randolph also played well, but I'm still waiting for him to get traded after the he gets into some trouble in a New York hotel room.

I had some other observations which had more to do with the NBA in general, but you'll have to wait as I'm tried of typing and I need to get back to work.

~Viggy

-Thanks to Yaysports for the photos.

Just had to break away from the Obama freight train . . .

From ESPN:

For the second succesive year, Dwight Howard's proposal to have the rim raised to 12 feet during the annual dunk contest at All-Star Weekend in New Orleans has been rejected by the NBA.

The league office confirmed to ESPN.com on Tuesday that the Orlando Magic's All-Star center has again formally requested to have the rim hiked from the regulation 10 feet to 12 feet for at least one of his dunks, as Howard continues to seek ways to prove that his leaping ability is no less impressive that the hops possessed by shorter rivals.

Yet as with last February in Las Vegas -- when Howard was planning to wow judges with a 360 dunk at 12 feet and an attempt at 11½ feet which called for him to shift the ball between his legs in mid-air -- league officials balked.

They've ruled that changing the height of the rim, while easily done mid-contest with the help of hydraulics, clashes with their intent to apply as many standard NBA rules to All-Star Weekend contests as possible.

This is just stupid. The NBA is concerned about "applying as many standard NBA rules to All-Star Weekend contests as possible?" I mean WTF? Honestly there aren't too many unique ways to dunk a basketball that haven't already been done. If I wanted standard NBA rules I would just swing by the Verizon Center and watch the Wizards. In fact I wouldn't mind seeing the NBA raise the rims to 11 feet for regular season games. At least when a player dunked it might mean something. . .

~Viggy

God, Chris Webber looked really old

The picture above of Webber jogging through the pre-game introductions was the fastest he ran all night.

~Viggy

Shaq keeps it hot

Orlando, Los Angeles, Miami, and now Phoenix. I must admit considering 70% of the NBA teams reside in cold weather climates it's fairly amazing a player who has been on four different teams in his career has managed to stay in the south. As far as the trade is concerned I actually like this for both teams although I think it will work out better for Phoenix in the short term.

Why Phoenix made the trade:

1. Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash didn’t get along with Shawn Marion and it was screwing up the team chemistry.
2. If Phoenix didn’t make the trade Shaq was going to end up in Dallas.
3. If it doesn’t work out Shaq’s huge contract will come off the books in two years same as Steve Nash and Phoenix can start over building around Stoudemire.
4. Shaq will give them the big, physical presence they sorely lack on both ends of the floor.

Why Miami made the trade:

1. Shaq has a huge contract and the team needs to start rebuilding around Dwayne Wade.
2. Shawn Marion can opt out of his contract after this year helping to get Miami under the cap. If not he's only under contract for one more season.
3. So yeah, Miami was basically in it for the money.

I understand that Shaq is old, injured and slow, but I believe Nash's ability to get him easy baskets and the chance for Stoudemire to move to power forward will greatly benefit this team. They have players that can begin to replicate what Marion provided in Grant Hill and Boris Diaw while Shaq can help improve the defense and rebounding in the paint. For those concerned about the Suns running you have to remember it doesn't take five players sprinting up the court to run a fast break. They will miss Marion's perimeter defense, but again having Shaq around will rim will help. Finally getting rid of a player that the other players couldn't stand to bring in a guy like Shaq who has an outstanding locker room presence might be the biggest benefit of all.

Miami can now move into their "rebuilding" phase. They should end up with a top five pick this summer and plenty of cap room in 2009. Maybe Wade can convince Chris Bosh or his boy LeBron James to ditch the cold weather of the north and move to Miami. A team of Derrick Rose, Wade and Bosh/or LeBron could be fairly ridiculous.

~Viggy

PS- I'm still convinced LeBron, Carmelo, Wade and Bosh should sign small contracts and play together when their current deals are up.

The greatest organization???

"Also, the Pistons are the greatest organization in the history of sport."

-Swami

An excerpt from the Associated Press this morning.

Pistons narrowly miss lowest point total in team history

DET (28-10) 65
NYK (10-26) 89 Final
7:00 PM ET, January 13, 2008
Madison Square Garden

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was so ugly, Chauncey Billups had to do some heavy scrubbing to put it behind him.

"I just got off the shower, washed it off," Billups said. "I washed it right off on that shower. Got to forget about that one. That was bad."

At least when one of their worst nights ever was over, the Detroit Pistons finally could go home.

Detroit needed a three-point play by Amir Johnson with 13 seconds left to avoid finishing with the lowest point total in franchise history. The Pistons shot 30.7 percent (23-of-75), matching the NBA low for field goals made in a game this season.

With the Pistons playing the finale of a four-game, five-night road trip and coming off a 103-100 overtime victory in Charlotte on Saturday, the Knicks rolled to their most lopsided victory of the season, giving coach Isiah Thomas a rare easy night -- against his former team, no less.

"We knew they would be pretty tired and we tried to play with as much energy as we possibly could and I think we caught them on a good night," said Thomas, who led the Pistons to two NBA titles. "They were a little flat and we played a good basketball game."

I'm not saying the Pistons aren't a good team and probably the eventual 2008 Eastern Conference champion, but only scoring 65 against the Knicks is unacceptable.