I cant help myself. I spent about 600 words on C WEBB this morning and I thought that would tap me out on the NBA for a week. But there have been a flurry of deal this afternoon and I just couldn't wait to offer my thoughts.
My favorite trade of the afternoon has the Celts trading Gary Payton to Atlanta for Antoine. As a tepid Celts fan, I am not too happy about bringing the cancerous toine back to Boston, but I think its hilarious what Danny Ainge did to Payton. The Glove asked to be dealt to a winner and so what did Ainge do? He sent him to purgatory. As the immortal Johnny C once said, if the glove don't fit, it gets tossed in shit. I say there is a good chance Payton refuses to report. He thought twice about reporting to Boston last year and Atlanta is a much worse situation then Boston. I can't say I am too thrilled by Walker's return to Beantown. He was shipped out for a reason and I can't see how that reason has changed. Walker is a first class loser and I pray Ainge and Doc keep him as far away from Al "the future of the franchise" Jefferson as possible. On the flip side, this move allows Ainge to quiet those critics who say he got ripped off when he dealt Walker for Raef LaFrentz two eyars ago. Ainge now has both these losers and the only guy he lost in the process was another loser - Chucky Adkins.
So what else do we got on the transaction wire. How bout the Baron going from one terrible situation to another? Of course I am talking about Baron Davis getting shipped from New Orleans to Golden State in exchange for Dale Davis and Speedy Claxton. You know you were in hell when being traded to Golden State is considered a reprieve. Baron has built up some ill will in recent weeks and it seems the Hornets were getting real tired of his crap. So what did they do? They exported him to one of the most dysfunctional organizations in basketball. The Hornets are now left with the greatest collection of crap we have seen since Fred Sanford's junk yard was declared a Superfund site. Their backcourt is made up of Dan Dickau, Claxton and 19 year old JR Smith. That isnt exactly Byron Scott, Magic and Michael Cooper. And upfront, they now have Glenn Robinson and Dale Davis to pair up with PJ Brown and Jamal Magloire. That is the four horsemen of the apolypse if you ask me. At least Davis and his $10 million dollar contract expire at season's end and that may allow the Hornets to go out and get a bit of help. God knows they could use it. As for the Warriors, they will have a pretty good backcourt if and when Davis gets healthy. But the Warriors problem is really up front where they have no size and little skill. I think Mullin longs for the old days when he, Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway made do without much up front but somebody should remind Chris that those teams didn't scare anyone.
In other news, Keith Van Horn got traded again and when he suits up for Dallas, it will be the fifth team he has played for in four seasons. He was a Net, a Sixer, a Knick, a Buck and now a Maverick. Keith seems to be moving westward and so I am predicting his next stop will be in either Denver or his home state of Utah. Did someone in the crowd just say Van Horn for Mehmet Okur?
Lastly, the Knicks were active today and once again it looks as if Isiah Thomas doesn't know a thing about being a GM. The Knicks ended up making deals with Houston and San Antonio that netted Maurice Taylor and Malik Rose, some future picks and a whole lot of salary. To justify such a bounty, the Knicks parted ways with Nazr Muhammed, Vin Baker and some other guys whose mothers don't even know what they do for a living. Malik has to be fuming. He goes from the brink of winning an NBA Championship to four years at Rikers Island. I would equate being dealt from the Spurs to the Knicks to a porn star being dealt from Vivid to Joe's Wonderful World of Beastiality. And as far as Thomas goes, I have read Rose and Taylor have big money coming to them so the Knicks impossible salary structure just got worse. Moreover, the first round picks Thomas obtained and hopes to build around are from the Suns and Spurs. Unless Tim Duncan gets shot and Steve Nash losses his Visa, these picks will never end up being valuable lotto shots. Way to go Zeke.
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2 comments:
I bet the situation that GP had in Seattle is starting to look like a pretty good one at this point. At the end of his Seattle reign he was disruptive and not willing to take a lesser role for the benefit of the team. Now he gets to lose in front of 62 people a night.
Nice comment from the second to last triple crown winner. Lot of talk GP is goign to be bought out by the Hawks and return to Boston. Its time for the Hawks to end the experiment and move back to St. Louis.
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