NBA Free Agent Action is Hot!

Take a few days off to catch some fish at the cabin and you miss like, 1 million free agent signings in the NBA.  I'm going to hit a few of the highlights.  Or lowlights.

1.  Might as well start with your precious T-Wolves, who signed Kevin Martin and Chase Budinger in a move to try to surround the Ricky Rubio/Kevin Love nucleus with as many poorly defending shooters as possible.  You take those two, J.J. Barea, Rubio, Love, Luke Ridnour, and Derrick Williams and add Shabazz Muhammad to the mix and the Wolves might end up being the worst defensive team in the league next year, especially if Kirilenko isn't back.  Nikola Pekovic, who it sounds like they're going to do everything to keep, is a decent post defender but not a rim protector in the slightest, which taken all together means that Giorgui Dieng is the only true paint defensive presence on the entire team.  You know, the guy whose job it is to discourage guys like Lebron and Tony Parker and Russell Westbrook from driving past all those white guards over and over again.  Sounds like a recipe for success!

2.  Dwight Howard is going to Houston.  Howard turned down more years and more money to stay with the Lakers and play with two (possibly 3) other future Hall-of-Famers, which is a stunningly good decision given Howard's track record the last three years.

Apparently the Howard signing isn't loved by everyone, as incumbent starting center Omer Asik has said he doesn't want Howard there, doesn't want to back him up, and doesn't want to play next to him and might want out of Houston.  Well guess what Omer?  I got news for you: I'm pretty sure they were exploring trades for you already.  Outside of free throw shooting his entire skill set is Dwight Howard extra lite, he offers nothing complimentary to Howard's game, and he's good enough where they can get something nice back for him most likely.  Sorry Omer, but you're not Dwight.

And make no mistake - Dwight Howard is still really, really good and it seems like everyone is forgetting that.  Last year was horrible, yes, but

1.  He was returning from a back injury, which for a player like him who relies on his athleticism and specifically his ability to jump quickly that is a tough one to play through.
2. The system he was playing in last year sucked for him, and playing with Kobe Bryant made him miserable which, because he's an immature person, made him sulk and affected his play.
3. People around the country hated, or at least had a strong dislike for Howard and the way he got Orlando's coach fired, then pushed his way out,then got Mike Brown fired with the Lakers.  Dwight is an immature person, and being disliked made him extra miserable and see #2.

Basically Howard is an immature baby who is mentally weak and who is going to sulk and suck when he's not happy.  He still averaged 17 & 12 with nearly 3 blocks per game while being only half engaged.  You don't think he's going to be better next year with his co-super star as James Harden, who knows about deferring when it's time to defer? He's still just 28 years old.  What if he actually realizes he has an amazing opportunity to learn from two of the best big men in history (Hakeem and McHale) and embraces it?  He could be a monster.  Going to be a big year for Houston.  Big.

3.  Sticking with the Rockets, they also traded your best friend Royce White to the 76ers.  Clearly Philly succeeded so well with one troubled but talented young big man in Andrew Bynum that they were super excited to try it again. Since Royce is pretty much afraid of everything, he's started walking to Philly from Houston and expects to be there by time training camps begin. Also, I really think trading Jrue Holiday is going to end up being a mistake for Philly.

4.  In what was, to me, the most shocking development of this period Brad Stevens (formerly of Butler) has agreed to become coach of the Celtics.  I was up at the cabin with Snacks and news was on in the background because we only get one channel up there and when the banner "Stevens to Boston" came up we had to yell and shush everybody else up and do you know how hard it is to shush up three women and one old man who've been hammering wine since mid-day?  It ain't Ninja Gaiden hard, but it's hard.

I'm just totally blown away because I assumed Stevens was going to be at Butler until he was lured away by Indiana or Duke or Kentucky or one of the other big-time college programs - I never ever thought he'd be going to the NBA for some reason.  I think part of it is because I thought we were done poaching college coaches and trying to make them NBA coaches since basically everybody has been a failure (seriously who is the best coach to make the switch?  I think it's P.J. Carlesimo which is like whoa).  Also this surprises me because Stevens is only 36 and has zero NBA experience.  People threw enough of a fit over Rich Pitino getting hired to coach kids at 30, but now Stevens is going to handle grown ass millionaires at 36?  I know it's a young team after trading Garnett and Pierce, but their best player is a total head case in Rajon Rondo.  There's almost no way Rondo spaz out by midseason. I'm not saying Stevens won't work out for sure, I'm just saying he won't with Rondo around.  FACT.

5.  The Hawks and Bucks got into a big fight over Kyle Korver.  Looking at the teams involved, you'd probably guess that this was an idiotic fight to get in to, and as usual you're right.  There were no winners in this fight, except of course Korver who ended up with a 4-year, $26 million contract which, considering he's going to be 37 at the end of that deal and he has exactly one discernible skill seems like a bit of an overpay, but then again J.J. Redick got 4/$27 and Jose Calderon got 4/$28 apparently that's the running rate for a one dimensional player who is really good at that one dimension and terrible at everything else.  For some reason, this seems terribly unfair.

6.  The Warriors are getting interesting.  First, because Dawger will point it out anyway, despite all my misgivings Steph Curry has completely proven me wrong and is a very, very good NBA player.  He's not as good as Bill Simmons thought he was during the play-offs, but he's an all-star, I will admit, and there's no doubt that he and Klay Thompson are a pretty dynamic duo.   Next season Harrison Barnes will be a year older and a year better, and he started to show some pretty dramatic growth in the playoffs and he gives the Warriors three pretty good wing players who can score in bunches. 

Now, via free agency, they've added Andre Iguodala, who doesn't score in bunches the way the other three do but is still averages 15 ppg for his carrer, is an absolutely outstanding defender, and can handle the ball and create well enough the Curry will get more chances to run off the ball, which will only help.  The plan seems to be to go with all four in the lineup at a time quite often, which will work if Barnes can defend and rebound at the 4 (remains to be seen), but even if not that's a pretty potent lineup, and Andrew Bogut (if healthy) is a good enough interior defender to make up for some defensive mistakes.  Really though, having four players who can all dribble, create, and shoot is something few teams have, and any time all four of those guys are on the floor it should be fun to watch.  Possibly on both ends.

7.  Milwaukee, oh Milwaukee.  First they made a trade towards the end of last season to acquire J.J. Redick, giving Tobias Harris to Orlando.  Harris, who averaged less than 12 minutes per game with the Bucks, was given starter's minutes in Orlando and went on to average 17 pts and 9 rebounds per game.  The Bucks just traded Redick (in a sign and trade) and received two second-round picks in return.  Then Monta Ellis opted out of his deal, which might actually be a good thing, but also means the Bucks have to find a way to replace some production all while with the handicap of selling Milwaukee to free agents.

Their big moves so far have been to sign O.J. Mayo, Zaza Pachulia, and Carlos Delfino - essentially a sixth man and two back-ups.  Brandon Jennings, Monta Ellis (he gone), and Mike Dunleavey (he gone) were the team's top 3 scorers last year and now all three may be gone depending on what Jennings ends up doing.  Essentially the team is a bunch of so-so big men (John Henson is probably the best or at least has the most potential depending on what you think of Larry Sanders whose name does not actually have to be capitalized nerds) and Ish Smith.  This is either completely pathetic, or a genius realization that they're never going to be able to build a contending team through free agency and are in full on tank mode.  Given that we're talking Wisconsin, they're probably just drunk.

8.  We all know that the Lakers are somehow going to end up with Andrew Wiggins in next year's draft, right?  That's just how it happens.  If their smart they'll amnesty Kobe (since he is taking up nearly half of their cap room) trade Nash to Dallas for the heart warming Dirk/Nash reunion, trade Gasol and World Peace for whatever they can get and completely bottom out and hope for Wiggins.  What they will do is continue trotting out a lineup completely mismatched to D'Antoni's system which will be mismatched because Kobe will rush himself back by the season opener and they'll end up missing the playoffs by just a couple games and then win the lottery anyway because the NBA is rigged and everybody knows it.  Fact.

Who could say no to this?

Week in Review - 03.07.2011

I can't think of a single relevant thing to say about Gopher basketball right now, other than this is easily the most disappointing season I can recall - period.  Injuries played a part and so did a couple big defections, no doubt, but even with what was left and based on the start to the year this team should have been able to get a bid into the NCAA Tournament.  At this point the NIT even looks shaky.  What's more prestigious, the CBI or the CIT?  Let's just move on.  Lots of good basketball going on.

WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Belmont Bruins.  Yes!  I know Coastal Carolina lost to Asheville so they won't be in the tournament, but they were just the second most interesting small college in play - Belmont was #1.  I mentioned it in my conference tournament preview, but I don't think anyone actually reads those so I'll mention it here - Belmont is ranked as the 20th best team in the country by kenpom.com.  It's all math and there's no eye test involved here so Belmont jumps up because of it's complete domination of the Atlantic Sun (30-4, average margin of victory around 25 points), but it's intriguing just because of how bizarre it is.  For reference, last year's top non-major or mid-major team was Murray State who was ranked at #50.  The year prior it was Siena at #59.  Teams like Belmont are never ranked that high, and I'm intrigued.  They played three good teams this year (Vandy - lost by 9 and Tennessee twice - lost by 9 and by 1) so they don't have any real great wins, but I'm very, very excited to see what they can do in the first round.

2.  Jon Diebler.  As much as I hate to give credit to a guy with one skill, Deibler had a hell of a week shooting the basketball.  He was 10-12 from three in the Buckeyes 82-61 win over Penn State and then followed that up this weekend going 7-8 as they dismantled Wisconsin.  Ohio State is a dangerous team no matter what - maybe the best team in the nation - but when Diebler is on they're basically unstoppable.  Obviously nobody can keep up that level of shooting accuracy, but he won't need to.  If he can hit even 50% in the tournament they're going to be almost impossible to beat.  Can a team with only six players really win the national title?  I guess we'll find out.

3.  Virginia Commonwealth Rams.  I believe from what I've seen of VCU that they belong in the NCAA  Tournament, even if their resume maybe disagrees.  That's why it's awesome they beat George Mason in the Colonial semi-finals (the Patriots are in regardless), not only do they get a chance to play Old Dominion tonight for an auto bid, but even a loss might put them in thanks to the quality victory they picked up.  They're 22-10 and 13-6 in a very good CAA, with an RPI of 56 and a SoS of 99.  They have wins over UCLA, Wichita State, ODU, and now George Mason.  They do have a couple bad losses (Georgia State, South Florida) but in a year with a whole bunch of weak bubble teams they stick out to me.  It would serve them better, of course, just to beat the Monarchs again and get the auto bid, but I think they deserve to be regardless.  

4.  North Carolina Tar Heels.  Guess who is suddenly the hottest team in college ball?  Two hugely impressive wins this week (@ Florida State, vs. Duke) run their win streak to seven, and they're now 26-4 overall with an ACC record of 14-2, and are in line for a two seed.  Basically Harrison Barnes has figured it out (averaging 17 and 6 during the streak) and Kendall Marshall has really blossomed since Larry Drew departed (10 pts, 7.5 assists per game the last seven).  The Heels are suddenly looking really, really tough.  Makes me cry with anger that the Gophers beat them.  Why separate knob?!  Why separate knob?!!??!

5.  Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  I'm going to help you out with your bracket.  This is a guaranteed Elite 8 team.  I'd say Final Four, because I think they are, but I can't guarantee a win over Ohio State, Pitt, or Kansas.  Here's the important thing to remember though - they're upset proof.  Too smart, too good, too disciplined, and too balanced.  They aren't going to lose to a bad/mediocre team - they're just not.  And they just finished up the season on an 11-1 run through the Big East.  They very well might be the best team in the nation.  Go ahead and put them into your Elite 8 - in ink.  Guaranteed.


WHO SUCKED

1.  Virginia Tech Hokies.  Has any team every pissed away a huge win quicker than the Hokies did to their big victory over Duke?   That win gave them the signature win they needed desperately, and with just two games to play they looked to suddenly be in solid shape.  They had BC at home and then traveled to Clemson, two fellow bubble teams, needing to win just one in order to feel pretty confident in their chances to get a bid.  Of course because it's Va Tech, they couldn't just take care of business and lost both.  And they weren't close with BC beating them by 15 and Clemson by 9.  They lost to a mediocre BC at home by 15 in a must win game.  Yuck.  Now they likely have to win two in the ACC tournament to avoid just missing the NCAAs again.  But really, who cares?  If they get in over VCU I'm going to burn the whole system to the ground.

2.  Maryland Terrapins.  The Terps were sort of supposed to be a bit of an ACC sleeper this year, but that clearly never happened, and they couldn't have put more of an upside down exclamation point on their season than they did this week dropping games to both Miami and Virginia (both by 14) to drop to 7-9 in the conference and making damn sure nobody put them anywhere near any bubbles of any kind.  Just ugly.  Apparently Jordan Williams (16.9 points, 11.6 rebs per game) can't do it all, and you actually need guards of some kind in order to win.  I guess we maybe kind of saw some of that this year at Williams Arena.

3.  Baylor Bears.  There are a lot of disappointing teams out there this year:  Maryland, as mentioned.  The Gophers, who make me cry.  Michigan State, who might sneak into the tournament anyway, and plenty of others with NCAA bid aspirations who are going to fall short.  No team, however, was as bad as Baylor this year - a team with National Championship aspirations who isn't even going to make the tournament.  An elite 8 team last year losing just one key player but gaining a consensus top-5 in the nation freshman?  How could they lose?  Well, in every possible way, culminated by losing four of their final five including two this week, @ Oklahoma State and Texas at home.  One they couldn't lose and the other they needed to win, but of course neither happened.  The only good news about all this is that maybe we'll get a chance to see them in person at the Barn.  That's an NIT CBI game I would actually show up for.  

4.  Klay Thompson.  Let me see if I have this right.  You've just won a huge game over one of the better teams in your conference on the road, a big enough win that it takes your team from "no way is this an NCAA Tournament team" to "maybe this is an NCAA tournament team."  You have one game left against UCLA, one of the two best teams in your conference and a good enough team that if you beat them on the road you suddenly jump to "this is probably an NCAA tournament team."  Huge game.  Monster game.  You're also the best player on your team and it isn't even close.  So what do you do?  Get busted for marijuana possession ON YOUR WAY HOME FROM THE USC GAME.  Seriously?  Jesus Smokey, wait until you get to your hotel.  Suspended for the game, which Washington State lost in overtime.  Do you think Thompson, who averages 21-5-4 per game, would have made a difference in a tight one?  Nice work, Marley.

5.   Gopher basketball.  Just because I want to put them in here one last time.  Unfortunately there's nothing left to say.  I was impressed by Blake's transformation from one-trick pony to do it all everything guy, and nobody gave more to the team than him.  I loved watching Mbakwe's terror show in the paint, not since Courtney James have the Gophers had a power forward like him, and Trevor's even better.  I hope he's back for another year.  I liked what I saw from Chip Armelin - an incredible athlete with a drive to score.  On a team full of guys who wait for the game to come to them, he goes out and grabs it - a little over enthusiastically at times, but at least he does it.  And I though Maverick Ahanmisi showed he could end up being a decent back-up PG some day, which is far greater praise than I expected to be giving him.  And that's pretty much it.   I can't come up with any other positive words to say.  So I'll just stop.  For now.


Finally, a shout-out to the Optimator, who won our first ever Big Ten Fantasy College Basketball League, smoking Snacks in the Championship game.  His team of Jordan Taylor, Verdell Jones, Aaron Craft, JaJuan Johnson, and Jeff Brooks took it home.  Nice work, nerd.

Week in Review - 12.27.2010

Merry Christmas and all that.  FYI - I'm off all week, so you can probably expect either a lot of posts or zero posts.  I'm probably going to be pretty busy watching Eastbound & Down, Community, and Parks and Rec DVDs or reading Pillars of the Earth, The Girl who Kicked a Hornet's Nest, or Moonlight Mile.


WHO WAS AWESOME

1. Butler Bulldogs.  Just as everyone, myself included, are questioning if Butler is any good this year they head out to Hawaii and take down the Diamondhead Classic.  They beat Utah, Florida State, and Washington State, and that's probably two wins over NCAA Tournament teams.  The only negative would be that they didn't get a chance to face Baylor, but they did beat WSU, the team that beat the Bears.  Butler needed good wins in the worst way after pissing away every chance, so this was huge for their at-large chances.  With Cleveland State looking pretty studly in the Horizon, Butler gots some competition, so they're going to need everything they can get to help them out in case they can't get past the Vikings in the conference tourney. 

2. USC Trojans.  I think it might be time to recognize USC as an actual halfway decent team, which, along with Washington, Arizona, and Washington State gives the Pac-10 four potential NCAA teams.  After a very, very shaky 4-4 start that included some embarrassing losses, they seemed to start to hit their stride by beating Texas and then Fordham transfer Jio Fontan joined the team and made them immediately much better, giving the Trojans an outside threat to go along with stellar inside dudes Alex Stepheson and Nikola Vucevic.  Fontan, who scored 15 points per game last year for Fordham, has scored 15, 13, and 21 in his three games. leading the Trojans to wins over Tennessee and Lehigh and a near win over Kansas.  Official Pac-10 sleeper here.  Which doesn't mean much, to be completely honest with you.

3.  Klay Thompson.  Ok, so I just assumed Thompson wasn't all that good and people were just all spazzy about him because of his dad, but I watched him play this weekend and the guy's pretty good.  He scored 28, 20, and 31 points in their three games in Hawaii, and he's not just a deadeye shot who can't leave open, although you can't, but he's also good with the ball, can drive and score, and also has a nice mid-range game.  In short, he's a really good scorer.  His zero rebounds against Baylor is a bit disconcerting since he's 6-6, but he's a pretty good defender overall from what I saw.  Very impressed by him  Believe the hype.

4.  Dwayne Bowe.  Confession time.  I traded away Bowe in a keeper league.  I really needed a young, franchise type running back and nearly had a trade in place for Maurice Drew, but the other owner couldn't quite pull the trigger.  After a couple weeks I put together a different trade with Snake for Ray Rice, but he insisted I include Bowe, who I didn't have to include in the trade for Drew.  I emailed the first owner to say I had a trade in place and if he wanted to move he had to make up his mind.  I waited four days, he never said anything, and so I made the trade for Rice.  The next morning I get an email from owner #1 who says "I came in to work today and was going to accept the trade for Drew, but I see you moved on."  Well, suffice it to say, every time Bowe has a good game (like this week's 153 yards with a TD) I die a little inside.  

5.  Colorado State Rams.  Well you can chalk this up as a pretty freakin' big surprise, because I was pretty well convinced this team was terrible, particularly because they lost to Sam Houston State, but they went to Cancun and ended up winning the Cancun Governor's Cup tournament which is a real thing.  It wasn't exactly a loaded field, but they did beat two pretty decent teams in Ole Miss and Southern Mississippi.  This is the part where I'd usually saying something smart about the players involved, but I don't know a god damn thing about Colorado State this year so I'll just post this picture instead:

 

WHO SUCKED

1.  Gopher Basketball.  Seriously, I'm so sick of this team right now I can't really even write any words.  If they keep doing this crap where they don't play defense or play hard and let the other team dictate the how the game is going to be played and fall behind early they are going to get absolutely destroyed in the Big Ten play.  It's been fine since they've played a bunch of crap schools over the last few weeks, but we're about to start conference play and I have zero confidence that they're going to do anything other than get destroyed.  I can't even talk about it right now.

2.  Michigan State Spartans.  Tom Izzo and the Spartans have earned quite a bit of latitude on slow starts, seeing as their MO seems to be starting slow, grabbing a 3-6 seed in the tournament, and then making the Final Four.  So when they lost to UCONN nobody panicked, especially seeing how the Huskies were playing at the time.  Then they lost Duke and Syracuse, and everybody was ok with it because those are two of the ten best teams in the country.  They struggled to a one-point win over Oakland, and we shrugged.  But Wednesday night they again faced a good challenger in Texas, this time in East Lansing, and they got completely and totally shredded.  And although Texas may be a good team this was not another case of a good team getting beat by a really good team.  This was a case of Michigan State playing like crap:  lackluster on offense, mediocre on the boards, and just all-out terrible on defense including getting beat down the floor for easy Texas lay-ups.  This isn't the same thing we've seen before, this is far more dire - like getting AIDS instead of the clap.  Both suck, but one is annoying while the other can really wreck your year.

3.  Baylor Bears.  This team is good enough and had a good enough year that there's no need to panic or call the Hawaii trip a disaster, but it was definitely a huge disappointment.  The won their opener against San Diego easily enough, but then lost a surprising one to Washington State and got beat by an unranked, but good, Florida State team as well.  Coming on the heels of a loss against Gonzaga and there are some warning flags being tossed about here.  One thing that would really help is if they could shoot from the outside.  In their last four games they've shot just 25% from behind the line, not helped at all by Lace Dunn who went 4-20 in their final two games in Hawaii.  Twenty three-point attempts in two games?  Hey Dunn, you do realize you don't have to just shoot behind the line, right?  You can actually get closer to the hoop.  Who do you think you freakin' are, Rick Rickert? 

4.  Northwestern Wildcats.  I've talked about it on here before, but I really don't get Northwestern's schedule.  In a year where they have a very good chance of making their first NCAA tournament, they schedule like crap out of conference (293rd strength of schedule in the nation, easily the worst in the Big Ten) and set it up so their only chance to get a decent non-conference game was this week in the MSG Holiday Tournament against St. Johns.  But they lost, and they lost bad.  So now they sit at 8-1, and it's a completely empty 8-1, and they are guaranteed that their best out-of-conference wins are going to be Georgia Tech, a bottom ACC team, and Creighton, a mid-level MVC.  And a bunch of wins against sub-200 teams.  In other words, all the other Big Ten contender type teams can aim for 9-9 and be assured of a bid, where Northwestern is going to need 10-8, or maybe even better.  Good luck, nerds.

5.  Renardo Sidney.  The #16 overall recruit last season and #5 power forward, Sidney is a 6-10, 250 lb. beast who by all accounts is extremely skilled.  The problem is he can't get on the court.  He had originally committed to USC, but late in the process there was a "mutual agreement to end the recruiting process" so he landed at Mississippi State.  Where he was then ineligible all last season due to receiving improper benefits while in Los Angeles, and had to sit out the first nine games this year.  He finally played against Virginia Tech, scored 12 points in 25 minutes, and was then immediately suspended for a violation of team rules.  He went out to Hawaii with the team, played in their second-round matchup against San Diego, put up 19 points and 6 boards in 20 minutes, and got in a fistfight with a teammate and was suspended indefinitely.  This guy is a complete mess.  Kind of what I imagine Zach Randolph's college career would have been like it he hadn't been under Izzo's capable watch.  Footage of the fight is below.  Pretty sweet.  Freakin' Buster Douglas and shit.