‘Tis a slow news day when you start off with Vince Carter opening up a restaurant with his Mom. I got a sneak-peek taste of the menu and there doesn’t appear to be much heart or effort put into the steak. When you first look at it you get a sense that it might have some potential but after a bite or two you realize its just your run-of-the-mill sirloin that you’d rather trade for some French fries.
Pat Riley is starting to sound more and more like he’s open to the idea of trading the #2 pick. Over the last few days the Miami media is imploring him to not even entertain the idea but Riley is bent on improving his team by acquiring “as many good players as we can”. Hmm, we got some “good” players on our team, feed him TJ Ford and his long lost love Jason Kapono and we’re suddenly on the table. Just a thought.
We’re all in general agreement that the SG position needs to be upgraded and Anthony Parker’s role/minutes reduced. Josh Howard has fallen out of favor with the Dallas Mavericks and is there to be had. Of the 15 trade proposals listed in the article the Raptors are nowhere to be found and with good reason – we have nothing they’d want. Howard’s a very good scorer and would lift some of the pressure from Bosh but he’s the last guy Colangelo would look at character-wise. Not going to happen, lets move along.
I love the parting shot taken by Jerry Reinsdorf at Mike D’Antoni. He’s saying D’Antoni got scared out of coaching the Bulls because Reinsdorf wanted the team to play defense and D’Antoni openly acknowledged that he tries to outscore teams and defense comes secondary to him. In the interview D’Antoni once again blamed the fact that his teams don’t play defense entirely on the personnel even though Shawn Marion, Raja Bell, Amare Stoudamire and Boris Diaw are all capable players. I just don’t like that guy and it shows.
Sam Smith’s mouthing off again and recommending Chicago trade Hinrich et al for expiring contracts to make a run at Dwayne Wade at the end of the 2009-10 season. I don’t know if you can build on those hopes especially when Wade’s got a 17M option for the 2010-11 season. Factor in Wade’s injury problems and you got Sam Smith coming up with a low-percentage plan that further reduces his reputation closer to mine.
Reports out of Houston say that the Rockets are looking to trade up in the draft to the teens (13-19) and there are teams willing to give their pick up or “trade out of the draft altogether” because of salary reasons. Apparently, the $1.8 million salary scale for those picks is too much for some GMs to bear. Strikes a little odd to me considering how deep the draft is.
Spurs are down but not out. They’re too good to go down in 4 or 5, I wouldn’t be surprised if this series ends up 2-2 and goes 7. Home-court advantage has been huge this post-season and although the Pistons bucked that trend, the Spurs’ experience and talent is too much to discount. Plus, you can’t expect Ginobili and Parker to play like crap for the entire series.
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Till tomorrow.
