Thursday, August 5, 2010

Shinin

The sun is shining on the 'real' witnesses...

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Partial NBA Schedule

The NBA continues its tradition of releasing the 'marquee matchups' a week before the entire schedule comes out... Knicks on Christmas Day!

Heat open at Celtics, and Rockets at Lakers to open the season Tuesday, October 26th. Less than three months!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Lebron finally thanks Cleve... I mean Akron...

Lebron James marketing team continues to do a bang up job of managing his image. This time they've taken out an ad in the Akron Beacon Journal - NOT the Cleveland Plain Dealer - thanking the residents for their support over the years. The article quotes James as he explains his connection to Akron with his 'lifelong friends and mentors,' that provided 'guidance, encouragement and support.' Maybe with the CORRECT mentors, guidance and encouragement he wouldn't be in the position he's in now.

Note to every celebrity, athlete, or aspiring business person: based on the handling of this whole situation.... Akron is NOT the place to find smart business minds.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Drama Already Building in Miami

The Great Headband Debate in Miami... will he or wont he be allowed to wear a headband given the long standing tradition of Pat Riley not allowing his players (save, Jermaine O'Neal) to wear headbands? The drama builds in South Beach...

Sunday, August 1, 2010

How to leave Cleveland - by Z.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas played his entire 14-year career in Cleveland up until this summer when he left to join Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. Why is no one in Cleveland bitter toward Big Z? Here's why.

I wanna go fast!

CP3 Trade Scenarios

A lot of time has been devoted to the new Big Three down in Miami, but now I want to talk about another big three.... CP3. Although he voiced his support for the franchise and said he wants to stay a Hornet, it's clear Chris Paul could be on his way out of New Orleans anytime between now and the February 2012 trade line (just months before his current contract expires). It wouldn't make sense for him to come out directly to the public and announce his trade demands because that would ultimately lower his value to the Hornets and became a PR nightmare (see: The Decision). Whether he meant it or not, he had to buy his current team some time to field offers and throw his support behind his new coach and general manager to save face with the fans.

I found the timing of all this very suspicious after I heard that Paul had left Octagon and moved to CAA's Leon Rose, who is also LeBron James' agent. Paul has been nothing but a model citizen in New Orleans, reviving basketball there after Hurricane Katrina and going above and beyond with his community involvement. Suddenly, within weeks of switching agents, he now wanted out and had a preferred list of teams to be traded to? It all seems pretty fishy to me.

On the other hand, Paul is one of my top three favorite players in the league and is the sole reason I adopted the Hornets as my non-Knicks NBA team to follow. I understand why he'd want out of New Orleans and join a team contending for a championship right now. Can you imagine Paul and Amare Stoudemire running pick and rolls all night long a la Nash-Stoudemire and Paul-Chandler? What about Paul teaming up with Dwight Howard? Paul and Brandon Roy? Paul and Dirk in Dallas? Are you kidding me?

There's something different about being a point guard and wanting to join forces with another dominant player, especially a post player. Throughout history very few point guards have been the best and go-to man on championship-level teams. Steve Nash. Isiah Thomas. Magic Johnson. That's the list the last thirty years and Nash still hasn't been to a Finals. Stockton had Malone. Parker had Duncan. Kobe had Shaq and then Pau. Even Magic had Kareem. It makes what Jordan and Pippen did without a true post presence absolutely remarkable (even LeBron and Wade will have Bosh).

I'm assuming the Hornets will indeed move Paul, possibly this season depending on his health. If he plays well through 50 games and the Hornets are already out of the playoff mix in a hotly contested Western Conference, the Hornets will be hard-pressed to hold onto him for another summer, when they still won't have very much cap flexibility. They will lose Peja Stojakovic's $14 million off the books, but are already over the cap heading in to this season and will have pay increases going toward Paul, Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton.

So in light of all the back and forth I think they'll move Paul this winter, barring a great start and serious playoff contention. Below are links to trades using the ESPN Trade Machine  to each of Paul's four requested teams. In any effort to move Paul the Hornets will almost look to move Emeka Okafor's monster four-year $52 million remaining contract, and/or James Posey's two-year $13 million albatross. They'd also want young talent they can build around and draft picks as compensation.

First up is the Knicks. The Knicks are one of the few teams that won't balk at absorbing bad contracts - just look at the past decade. Therefore taking on Okafor and Posey is worth it to get Paul. All of the players going to New Orleans would be on one year deals, thereby allowing the Hornets to clear as much space as possible (bye bye Eddy Curry!). They'd also get some good young talent in Gallinari and Anthony Randolph plus a backup point guard in Toney Douglas to fill in behind their new starter, Collison.

The Knicks trot out a starting lineup of Paul, Bill Walker, Posey, Stoudemire and Okafor, then scour waivers for minimum level players to fill out the lineup.

The trouble for the Knicks would be including draft picks to sweeten the deal, since they don't have their 2012 first round pick and subsequently cannot trade their 2011 or 2013 picks.

Next we have the Magic. This is an enticing deal since it still allows New Orleans to compete with the pieces they'll get back. The Magic could also include some picks in the deal, but they are unlikely to be great picks with the Magic set up to go to deep into the playoffs year after year. This trade allows New Orleans to keep selling tickets and jerseys with Carter and Nelson joining the fold, and gives them the opportunity to develop their young players and be a great cap situation in 2012 - the year Paul will be a free agent anyhow.

The Magic get rid of Carter's contract and upgrade from Nelson to Paul and become the immediate #1 contender to the Heat's dynasty. They may already be the #1 contender, but having Paul and Howard gives them major advantages at the two places on the floor where the Heat will struggle.

The Blazers could make an interesting play as well. They would have to give up LaMarcus Aldridge in this deal, which would be a major blow, however for a team that's been searching for a point guard for years, it may be worth it to get CP3. The Hornets would then have a new franchise cornerstone and someone to pair with Thornton and Collison as the wave of the future. They'd also get Andre Miller to bring Collison along, Greg Oden and promising young forward Nicolas Batum.

For the Blazers they pair Paul with Roy and go for the gold in the West. They'd be a little light on the wings, but Okafor and Camby would be a pretty solid rebounding and defending tandem down low.

Dallas would be an incredible spot for Paul to land, assuming Dirk still has enough left in the tank for deep playoff runs the next 3-5 years. Although this trade is not legal at this point, by the trade deadline in February Tyson Chandler could be included in a multi-player trade. The Hornets receive Chandler's expiring contract, essentially erasing the Chandler-Okafor trade they made, plus Caron Butler's $10 million contract. They'd also get a reasonably priced Shawn Marion, although he does still have four years left on that deal. Young point guard Rodrigue Beaubois would be sent to New Orleans as well. The Mavs would have no problem taking on the deals of Okafor and Posey, and would have their point guard of the present and future to replace Jason Kidd. Kidd would become their back up and have his legs saved for the post season. Dirk would be able to cede the spotlight to Paul come crunch time and Okafor would only be counted for rebounding and defense.

Using these trades as examples, I'd say Portland would have the best chance to nab Paul from the Hornets because they are giving up the best non-Paul piece in Aldridge. The Magic are interesting, but I think their best shot would be next summer when Carter is an expiring $18 million contract. The Knicks can take both Okafor and Posey and offer up a a good mix of expiring contracts and young players but there's not a blue-chipper in there to sell to New Orleans, unless Gallinari plays lights out the first half of the season. The Mavericks are also interesting, but again their draft choices are virtually useless and they're not giving up a blue-chipper either.

If New Orleans does end up trading CP3, they need to make sure they get back the right mix of draft choices and young players in order to rebuild around Collison and Thornton, or they have to make a blockbuster move to try and get close-to-equal back for Paul.  Otherwise, they'll be right where there are now, in salary cap hell and missing the playoffs... which is this reason Chris Paul wants to be traded in the first place.

Heat Fire Sales Staff

The Heat fired their entire ticket sales staff because they "no longer require a season ticket sales team to sell tickets." Gotta feel for those people that went from guaranteed to be at every home Heat game to out of a job.

More on the Lebron Story from Dan LeBatard

Dan LeBatard of the Miami Herald talks about journalism in the Twitter, camera-phone, everyone-is-a-reporter day and age. He also touches on the difficulty for ESPN of reporting the news while airing the same games it reports on.