Tonights Box Score Insights

A new feature to halfbloghalfmazing.  Here are observations on some of tonights games based solely on the box scores.  Note that not all of tonights games are finished.  Here we go:

Orlando vs. Philly

• Outside of Iguodola, I cant find any promising talent on the 76ers
• isnt it amazing how Hedo Turkoglu is outplaying Rashard Lewis on a nightly basis?  Yet rashard is Orlando’s 100 million dollar man!

New York vs. Toronto

• knicks actually won
• Eddy Curry played 9:29 despite having only 1 foul.  at the end of last year eddy showed all star potential.  isiah trades for zach and kills eddy’s confidence.  eddy cant play anymore and we will be lucky if we get .30 on the dollar

Wizards vs. Lebron

• Lebron beat the wizards tonight
• damon jones played his first good game  in 3 years
• even with arenas i dont like the makeup of the wizards

Denver vs. Chicago

• Is george karl just a really bad coach?  The nuggets have AI, Melo and Camby yet they still lost this game.  The AI Melo experiment is not working….
• call me crazy but steve blake was a very important piece of the nuggets core last year.  its a shame they lost him

Atlanta vs. Golden State

• Atlanta blowing them out right now.  Bibby was a fantastic pick up
• webber proving that he is worthless
• where is Stephen Jackson?

Boston vs. Phoenix

• Suns up 13 at the half and nash has only 2 assists!
• Shaq has 8 boards and 1 block at the half.  took only 2 shots.  I like this.

How is Ben Wallace the Answer to Lebron’s Needs?

Hes not.  He wasnt the savior in Chicago and he wont do much in Cleveland. And neither are Wally Sczerbiak or Delonte West (if west was that good why has he been traded to 3 teams in 2 years?).

I think this deal is more addition by subtraction.   Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes have got to be 2 of the worst players in the league.  Anything is better than having those two underachievers.

Can you imagine being a Bulls fan.  Season starts with high hopes.  Playoffs.  Kobe.  What could be better?  Then Kobe stays, the team implodes, skiles gets fired and Gasol goes to the lakers for peanuts.  That alone makes for a disastrous season.  The icing on the cake is they replace the Ben Wallace cancer with Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden.  If I was a bulls fan I would be vomiting.

Kidd Trade Part II

Phew.  I am happy to say that the Kidd trade is now on.  This is fantastic for the mavs, the league and all of us fans.  Kidd, Terry, Howard, Dirk and Damp make a formidable starting five.  I wonder who benefits more from this trade – dirk or howard?  Dirk actually won his MVP award after nash left him so I dont know if havintg an amazing point guard will do much for his game.  That leaves howard who already is having the best season of his career and things should only get better from here.

Devean George AKA DeLoser George Just Killed Us Fans

This afternoon I checked RealGM and saw that Kidd was traded to Dallas. WOW. As a huge NBA Fan, I was thrilled by this trade. Kidd, Terry, Howard, Dirk and Dampier make for a pretty nasty starting five. They are a starting five that fans want to see play together. They are a starting five that makes Lebron mad because his team didnt make the move for Kidd. Its a starting five that likely has George Karl and Greg Popovich nervous because they know that Dallas can win a championship this year with Kidd (and they know next year belongs to the lakers).

People that love the game know that Kidd is more than a playmaker who makes the game easier for his teammates. Kidd has the making of a winner. He has the mental fortitude that Dirk will never have. He gets punched in the mouth and, unlike the 18-1 Patriots, he punches back. He is probably the only player that can carry the Mavs players past their disastrous experiences in the playoffs the past 2 years.

So just as I was getting excited about the prospects of Kidd on Dallas, the shit hits the fan. As reported by ESPN, DeLoser George – a never was who is averaging under 4 points a game and less than 3 boards a game this year – vetoed the trade. Apparently DeLoser has a trade veto clause in his contract giving him the right to veto any trade to any team. So DeLoser gets to stay on the Mavs and his agent gets to pat himself on the back for a job well done. Meanwhile, the real losers in this non trade are, as usual, the fans. We are now forced to continue watching kidd decline in jersey and we have to watch a very good mavs team that no one really thinks can win it all (the scars of the past 2 seasons will never heal on their own. Ever.). That kind of sucks for us, dont you think?

Hey DeLoser George, thanks!

J Kidd – I hope you get out of that hell hole. Even in the glory years in NJ you never had the real fan support you needed. You deserve better. For the record, you should have played with duncan when you had the chance.

Lebron – for selfish reasons I hope you dont force management to get Kidd. I want to see you on the knicks in 2010.

Dwayne Wade Makes A Great Commercial For Converse

Big ups to Katomate for bringing this video to my attention. There is no question that Wade is one of the 5-10 best players in the league. When his game is on, its a thing of beauty. He is also one of those players that you can tell genuinely loves the game and that’s what makes this commercial so damn good.  Props to Converse’s creative agency. Anyone know who it is?

Bet you were thinking I was going to give a full blog about the Shaq trade, huh? Good guess but thats for my next post.

Shaq Makes His Super Bowl Debut

I thought this was one of the better commercials from last night. Along with the etrade baby, this was one commercial when everyone got quiet.

And now that I have incorporated the Super Bowl into my NBA blog I can wish the Giants a big mazel tov and thank them for bringing much nachas into the lives of all new yorkers. Go Giants!

Pau Gasol And Mitch Kupchak Now In Kobe’s Fave 5

ESPN, Yahoo! and others broke the news yesterday that the Lakers traded Kwame Brown plus some draft picks for Pau Gasol.

Yes. You read that right. Pau is now a Laker and Kobe just updated his Fave Five.

I am still kind of in shock over this trade – mostly because the Lakers gave up so little and got so much back. Seriously, if this were my fantasy basketball league I would be raising hell trying to veto that trade. Overnight, the Lakers went from being a really good team (with Bynum healthy of course) to a legitimate title contender for years to come. After all the bitching and moaning that Kobe did this past summer, he better seriously love his GM Mitch Kupchak.

Now if I am in shock over this trade then I can basically guarantee that every player, GM, coach and fan in the western conference yelled “f#$*k” when they heard the news. Winning the West just became infinitely harder. And how about Bull’s fans that were teased all summer with rumors of Kobe or Gasol going to the Bulls only to see them both on the Lakers? They must be furious with John Paxson.

At this point, I wonder how can anyone argue that the Laker’s new starting five isn’t amongst the best, if not the best, in the league. Lets take a look:

1. Fisher -He gave the Lakers the veteran leadership this year that they were missing last year. He’s a proven winner with 3 championships under his belt.

2. Kobe – the self-proclaimed Black Mamba. Listen to how he describes why he picked Black Mamba as his nickname and tell me you wouldn’t want to go to war with this guy. “The mamba can strike with 99 percent accuracy at maximum speed, in rapid succession. That’s the kind of basketball precision I want to have.”

3. Odom – a supremely talented player that never had the heart or the head to be the go to guy. Truth is, I don’t think he ever felt comfortable being the number 2 guy either. This year, Bynum became the number 2 guy on the Lakers and Odom just plain crushed it when that happened. When Bynum went down, so did Odom’s game. With Gasol on board, Odom becomes the 4th option on the offense and I am sure that suits him just fine.

4. Gasol – the consummate good player on a bad team. He brings to the Lakers career averages of 19 points, 1.8 blocks, 3 assists and 8.6 rebounds while shooting over 50% from the field.

5. Bynum – My favorite player in the game right now. He is the 2nd best young center in the league right now behind D Howard.

Take that starting five, add in Best Coach Ever (BCE) candidate Phil Jackson as the coach and throw in one of the deepest benches in the league and you get an instant title contender. If Jerry Buss is willing to pay the salary tax to keep this team together they will be contenders for years to come.

Now I’ll go on the record here and say that I don’t think the Lakers will win it all this year. Because of Bynum’s injury (which I hear isn’t healing well), there wont be enough time for the new starting five to develop any sort of chemistry. Gasol also has to learn nuances of the triangle offense, which I hear can be difficult. And lets be real, no team that has questionable chemistry and a key player that is unfamiliar with the offense is beating San Antonio. Don’t believe me? Just look at what happened in the Nuggets/Spurs series last year.

And finally, since today’s post is about the Lakers, lets just quickly look at the brilliance of Mitch Kupchak since his infamous Shaq trade (thanks hoopshype for the info):

• Draft 2005: Selected center Andrew Bynum (10th overall pick), forward Ronny Turiaf (37th overall pick)

• Draft 2006: Selected guard Jordan Farmar (26th overall pick)

• July 12 2006: Signed forward Vladimir Radmanovic

• October 27 2006: Exercised the contract options on guard Sasha Vujacic and center Andrew Bynum through 2007-08.

• July 20 2007: Signed guard Derek Fisher.

• October 29 2007: Exercised the contract options on guard Jordan Farmar and center Andrew Bynum through 2008-09.

• November 20 2007: Traded forward Brian Cook and guard Maurice Evans to the Orlando Magic for forward Trevor Ariza.

• December 12 2007: Signed head coach Phil Jackson to a contract extension.

• February 1 2008: Re-signed guard Aaron McKie and traded him with guard Javaris Crittenton, forward Kwame Brown, the draft rights to center Marc Gasol and first-round picks in 2008 and 2010 to the Memphis Grizzlies for forward Pau Gasol.

Since his Shaq trade, there has really been only one bad move – the whole Kwame Brown for Caron Butler debacle. But, given all the moves listed above, I think he’s redeemed himself.

So now I’m calling out all you yardbarkers, ballhypers, fantasysportsmatrixers and random NBA fans – What do you think of the trade and do you think the Lakers win the title this year, next year or no time soon?

Now excuse me while I look pray for Sports Guy to become the new Knicks’ GM and make the necessary moves to put us in a position to sign Lebron in 2010.

Zach Randolph Should Coach The Knicks

Zach R and Isiah T (aka Worst Coach Ever or WCE for short) just cant get along.

The NY Daily News is reporting that Zach is unhappy with WCE’s decision to go small against Golden State. In the Golden State game, Zach and Eddy C played a total of 13 minutes together – Gross! Sure part of this had to do with foul trouble but a lot of it had to do with WCE reacting to Nelly’s small ball approach.

When asked if he agreed with WCE’s decision to go small, Zach said: “Nah, that ain’t the right way. The right way – how I know, coaches I had in the NBA and in college – they tell me we don’t care how we match up, they gotta match up to us. That’s what I learned playing in the NBA and college.”

As a Knicks fan, it is so refreshing to see this kind of thinking from one of our players. Sadly, the Knicks have no identity and this is all because of WCE. WCE traded for Zach so that he could pair him with Curry and have a monster front line. As a fan, I bought into it – especially after our home opener against the Nuggets when Zach and Eddy were incredible together. Since that game, however, WCE has slowly but surely abandoned the concepts of team identity and team chemistry.

Regarding playing Zach and Eddy together – Why not give it a full season to see if it works? Give them the chance to develop some game time chemistry please. Messing with the lineups and giving them sporadic minutes does nothing except ruin chemistry and piss the players off (not to mention the fans). Please, just please, give some stability to the fans. We are smart enough to understand that teams go through down years. All we want, and all the players want, is a solid game plan that we can all rally around.

Zach obviously cant coach the knicks but hopefully we will find someone that can. I want a coach that will stick with his lineups for a whole season (barring injury); someone that will rally the players and fans around the GMs game plan; someone that will skillfully navigate NBA egos and get the most out of his players; and someone that the players will actually respect. Too bad there isnt a way to trade for Gregg Popovich.

Webber Will Play Critical Role In Warrior’s Playoff Run – NOT

RealGM, ESPN and others are reporting that Golden State has agreed to sign Chris Webber for the remainder of the season. This makes perfect sense for so many reasons:

• Chris is a proven winner. In his heyday, he couldn’t lead the kings past the lakers. He is mentally weak and hasnt shown a love for the game in years
• Chris will fit in well with the Golden State style. Ha! Watching him in the playoffs last year against the Cavs, it was clear that Webber could barely move. Playing for a run and gun team like the Warriors is a disaster in the making.
• Chris is a “team” guy. Double Ha. Off the top of my head, he has played for golden state, the bullets/wizards, sac town, 76ers and detroit. At every stop he complained, whined and cried about his role with the team. My favorite was when he told Jim Obrien that he “doesnt do the low post thig anymore.”

I guess what I am saying is that this move doesnt make sense. The warriors are playing pretty good ball right now and are a respectable 27-18, good for the 7th best record in the west. Bringing in a washed up power forward for extra depth doesnt work. It didnt work last year when the pistons signed webber and it wont work this year with golden state either. If I was a warriors fan, I would rather go to war without C-Webb.

Thank G d the Knicks werent one of the teams he would play for……

Shaq Is Smarter Than You

In the history of the NBA, has there ever been a better quote?

“The difference between those three is the Godfather trilogy,” O’Neal said in classic Shaq-speak. “One is Fredo, who was never ready for me to hand it over to him. One is Sonny, who will do whatever it takes to be the man, and one is Michael, who if you watch the trilogy, the Godfather hands it over to Michael. So I have no problem handing it over to Dwyane.”

Shaq was obviously referring to his relationship with Penny, Kobe and D-Wade. The analogy is so good, so on point, that I am kinda jealous that I never thought of it. And yes, I know, Bill Simmons wrote about this quote already here. Doesnt matter. Its still great.

What are you some of your favorite shaq quotes?