NBA Blog

When Ron Artest first made his trade demand, I called for Minnesota to try to trade for him.  I threw out several scenarios with the best being the Pacers getting Wally Szcerbiak and Olowakandi while Minnesota would take on Artest and Pollard.  It was a major gamble, and Minnesota wasn’t willing to take it.  Instead, Sacramento pulled the trigger and, as of right now, are in the playoffs. 

Minnesota, on the other hand, dealt the two aforementioned players for several players locked into long-term deals.  They got Mark Blount, who’s coasted his entire career, except for the two months when he needed to get a contract.  They got Ricky Davis, who plays little to no defense, and is shooting more than Kevin Garnett.  They got Marcus Banks, who is the ‘Wolves best point guard right now, and he’s terrible.  The best thing about Olowakandi was that he was coming off the books.  Now, Minnesota is locked into long-term deals with Hudson (perenially hurt), Jaric (perenially bad decision maker), Hassell (alleged defensive stopper who isn’t doing that anymore), Blount (lazy and bad hands), and Davis (crazy).  No wonder KG isn’t happy, and neither is anyone in Minnesota. 

If you want to hear this from someone who gets paid to write columns, go to the following link to see for yourself:

http://www.startribune.com/508/story/339505.html

The Clippers are scary.  I’ve watched them, and actually paid attention to them ever since they beat the Spurs a few weeks ago.  Now, I’m not a fan at all of reactionary journalism.  You know what I’m talking about, the type of press that comes out after an athlete/team has a great game and they are proclaimed as the greatest ever.  That stuff pisses me off.  However, I really think this Clipper team may be on to something here.  To prove my point, I’m going to give a little rundown of this squad:

Starting Line-up (as of right now):

1. Sam Cassell – flat out winner, and he’s never been afraid of the tough shot.
2. Cuttino Mobley – much better without Steve Francis.  Now his shots don’t seem forced, and I think there is an interesting corollary here between guys taking too many shots out of rhythm and playing with Steve Francis.  We’ll call it the Marbury corollary just to poke fun at the Knicks.
3. Quinton Ross – Poor man’s Bruce Bowen.  That is an excellent thing.  He’s coming back from a back injury, yet he’s still the defensive stopper who can knock down a wide open jumper.  When has that ever been a bad thing?
4. Elton Brand – puts up 24 and 10 every night, and is the best and most consistent player on the court nearly every game.
5. Chris Kaman – still highly underrated as a center in the NBA.  He finishes with both hands, and produces just enough for him to be considered efficient and better than most centers in the league.  If teams would go back to acknowledging centers offensively in this league, Kaman would post strong-to-quite strong numbers.

Bench:

1. Corey Maggette – he’s healthy and he’s on the verge of being awesome again.  I’m not a fan of trading for an injured player, but several teams missed the boat on this one.  Corey is a stud on the court in every sense of the word.
2. Vladimir Radmanovic – Poor man’s Peja.  Scores when he is open, just don’t expect him to hit the all-important game winner.  Still, it’s always good to have a scorer at your beckon-call.
3. Shaun Livingston – he’s going to be really good.  I mean really, really good.  He’s a 6’8’’ point guard who passes like LeBron should, which means he passes like an imitation of Magic Johnson.

NOTE: At this point, we’re talking about an 8-man rotation.  In the playoffs some teams don’t go beyond that.  Vlad can play the three and four.  Livingston can play the one/two, alongside Cassell or Mobley, and he can do it well.  Ross can play the two or the three.  This leaves Coach Dunleavy with several short rotation options come postseason time.

4. Zeljko Rebraca – Tough down low.  I think that his heart issue cost him a lot of money.  A few years ago, I thought he might become a quality player.  Just for the record, I really don’t recognize any differences between Zeljko and the amazing Darko Milicic, other than one has a bad heart and Darko hasn’t shown one yet.
5. Daniel Ewing – Superb athlete.  Still might not be a point guard, but he’s decent enough to eat some minutes while the others get some rest.  He can play both the one and the two and he can offer some defense and, on occasion, will light it up around the rim.

My case for Tony Parker as an MVP candidate…

I caught a lot of flack for being a homer when I nominated Tony Parker as a starter in this year’s all star game.  Now, finally, somebody has included him into MVP consideration.  All I can say is that it’s about darn time.  Steve Nash proved last year that it is not all about statistics. 

Parker has been the best player on the Spurs ALL YEAR LONG.  He is their leading scorer, leading shooter, and this year has not been bailed out by Bruce Bowen on the defensive end.  In the previous two years, Bowen would guard the best player on the court, even if it was a point guard.  Not this year.  Parker has regularly guarded the best guards in the league and outplayed them.  He’s made Marbury look foolish, which Parker had not been able to do in the past.  He showed how amazing he was when the Spurs beat up on the Suns just a few weeks ago.  He has carried this team despite the fact that Duncan has been running on one leg all year, and Manu Ginobilli has missed long stretches of time. 

Also overshadowed is the fact that Brent Barry, until recently, and Michael Finley have not been knocking down the wide-open threes.  Check their shooting percentages and you will see that I am absolutely 100% correct on this point.  That has taken away from Parker’s assist numbers. 

The Spurs are ahead of everyone else in the West at this juncture and they are playing in the MOST difficult division in the NBA.  There is no way there is a better division in professional basketball.  Nash deserves a ton of credit for this season, as does Dwyane Wade and Chauncey Billups.  However, despite Nash’s awe-inspiring work, they still aren’t better than the Spurs.  Wade has the Golden Ticket in Shaquille O’Neal.  Billups is one of five players who have not missed a start all season.  Despite all of this, and the endless run of injuries incurred by Duncan, Horry, Ginbobili, an out of shape Nazr to start the season (not his fault by the way, I love that guy despite the fact that he can’t catch a cold with those hands), Van Exel, and Finley’s and Barry’s inept shooting, Parker is putting up career numbers in every category.  AND, he is in the top five in points in the paint and shooting percentage.  All I do is watch NBA games on television.  Parker’s shots don’t all come in transition.  He breaks down defenses and attacks the rim in the half court set anytime he wants. 

He should be in the top six players for consideration for MVP.  That is my short list.  It includes the following in no specific order:

LeBron James
Dirk Nowitzki
Kobe Bryant
Tony Parker
Steve Nash
Dwyane Wade

No one else warrants mentioning in my book. 

I had the pleasure of watching the “Inside the Actor’s Studio” episode where James Lipton interviewed Dave Chappell, and (quick impersonation of Lipton in an overly-dramatic drawn out prose) “let me tell you, it was astounding.” 

The Dave Chappell episode of “Inside the Actors Studio” may be one of the greatest television shows I have ever seen.  Dave smoked a total of 893 cigarettes during the show.  You could tell that he was feeling the aftershock of his trip to Africa.  The man did not look comfortable to say the least.

It was so surreal that Dave couldn’t even comprehend it.  He completely lost it when James Lipton started discussing his character, Sir Smoke-A-Lot.  This show has interviewed the greatest actors on the planet, and James Lipton was talking about the Chappell Show and showing clips of the Chappell’s character who was the blind black man who was a member of the KKK.  His name slips my mind right now, but if you’ve ever seen the show, you’ve got to laughing out loud just at the thought of it. 

Eventually, Lipton made Chappell dance, as he does every actor he interviews.  But in a twist that would only fit with this episode, Dave Chappell broke it down ol’ school and passed it back to Lipton out of the Robot.  Of course, James Lipton hit us up with some ballet.  I mean, it was like the greatest Will Ferrell skit on Saturday Night Live EVER, but it was for real. 

If you EVER have the chance to see this episode, you must do it immediately.  I haven’t enjoyed television this much since Geraldo took a chair to the nose while I was at my buddy Mikey Guttierez’s house, and his old Mexican grandmother (who taped every episode for kicks) kept rewinding the chair bouncing off of Geraldo’s face and shouting/laughing hysterically at the television set. 

Now that my friends is C O M E D Y.