Well Smokey, I'm jumping the gun. We're past the off-season and the draft!

I've taken the liberty of quoting your partial predictions from the other thread. I can't tell you how much I've been awaiting them!

"My predictions so far:

Worst of the West: Grizzlies, Thunder and Kings
Least of the East: Knicks, Pacers, and Bobcats

Best of the West: Hornets, Jazz, and Lakers
Elite East: Celtics, Cavs, and Magic"


My comments: In the Worst of the West, I'd still include the Wolves. On paper they are now better than the Kings, but Ill be skeptical about them until Kevin McHale is history.

Worst of the East: The Nets!! I guarantee you Vince Carter will either get traded or "injured," and the rest of the team will struggle to average 50 points a game. In fact, they might now be a worse team than the Grizzlies/Thunder, but playing in the East they'll probably end up with a better record.

Best of the West: I think I agree with your top 3, although the actual order is a crap shoot. Something in me doesn't believe in Utah, even though the Hollingers of the world can show statistically why they should do so well. A lot of people would put Houston in the top 3, but I'm sure that McGrady and Yao will combine for as many DNPs (Inujured) as they do wins.

Best of the East: Scratch the Magic. I think they overachieved last year and other than phenom Dwight Howard, no one there is getting much better this year. Detroit will have a better record. The 76ers should, although I feel like they overachieved last year too. But with the addition of Brand, they're a better team than the Magic.

Larry,

I picked who I think the Division winners will be, and who will be the worst in each division. I'm afraid I didn't make myself very clear. I agree with you the T'wolves will be bad, but the Thunder will be the division's worst.
I really like the Magic, plus I believe they will win their division. I almost picked the 76er over the Celtics for the Atlantic, though. The Celtics are a couple of injuries away from the middle of the pack.
I can't disagree with any of your analysis, except on the Magic. They will make a minor trade (good-bye Bogans or Redick) and will be in the hunt for one of the best records in the east.

My prediction are:

The East:
****Atlantic ******Central******Southeast
1. Boston -------1. Cleveland ---1. Orlando
2. Philadelphia --2. Detroit ------2. Washington
3. Toronto ------3. Chicago ------3. Atlanta
4. New Jersey --4. Milwaukee ---4. Miami
5. New York ----5. Indiana -------5. Charlotte

The West:
***Northwest****** Pacific********Southwest
1. Utah ----------1. LA Lakers ----1. New Orleans
2. Portland ------2. Phoenix ------2. San Antonio
3. Denver -------3. Golden State -3. Houston
4. Minnesota ----4. LA Clippers ---4. Dallas
5. Okla City -----5. Sacramento --5. Memphis

Actually, my mistake -- I should have realized you were doing it by division. As usual, I like your picks. My changes would be:

East: Flip the Knicks and Nets, flip Milwaukee and Chicago, and I'd put Miami #2 - Wade is back to prove he's just as good as Kobe and LeBron; Beasley is the big question mark. I agree with Orlando winning the division, but that just means they're the best of a mediocre lot.

West: flip Houston and San Antonio. Actually I'd put Dallas ahead of San Antonio too. The Spurs are a better team, but they need to pace themselves, and Ginobli is going to be out for a while. Funny, the Southwest is ridiculously stacked and the Southeast is ridiculously mediocre (at least until Beasley + Wade hit their stride).

for larger view:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2320/project3iy5.jpg

I think the Grizzlies are making me lazy. Oklahoma City is having their Open Practice tonight. I was going to go, until I found out they were expecting 15,000 for the general admission event. I didn't feel like fighting with that many people, just for a practice. I don't think Memphis had over 2000 at theirs and it was crazy. I can't imagine 15,000.

There isn't much else to do in OK City -- they'd probably get 15,000 to watch a weight lifting session.

Only 3000 showed up. PJ was off about 12,000. Going to the Grizzlies Tip-Off Luncheon, tomorrow. It's always a fun time.

I never thought I would feel sorry for Isiah Thomas, but I have to say I do now. I'm not sure what's the worse part. The fact that he (according to one report) is claiming that it was his daughter who OD'd and not him? Or the fact that I don't believe anyone takes 10 sleeping pills by "accident," no matter how the police report characterizes it. Sad, sad, sad,

Alright!! Here it is. Let's get this season started off right.

Live draft next Saturday morning (you don't have to be present, you can auto-rank). Out league will begin head-to-head play a week from this Monday.

Here's the link:
http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/...sportschallenge

i.d. 126950
password: NBA

I'm so ready for the season to start!




....then again, maybe I'm not!

Sorry, Patrick. Ewing Jr. cut by the Knicks.

Meanwhile, George Karl's son Koby is waived by the Lakers.

Marc Gasol looks like Davey Crockett.

Is Greg Oden jinxed? Missed all of last season and gets injured in the first game this season. Out 2-4 weeks.

And in the first game under Mike D'Antoni (120-115 win over the Heat), both Stephon Marbury and Eddie Curry get DNP-CD.

At some point you've got to start wondering about his long-term durability. He also broke his hand and missed a year (or part of one) in college. Hopefully, it's all just a fluke.

26 points for Derrick Rose in the Bulls' victory last night...

HUGE trade news...Allen Iverson to the Pistons for Chauncey Billips and Antonio McDyess.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3679931

The Pistons are giving up. They weren't winning anything this year anyway, so it's a salary dump (Iverson's huge contract expires after this year). Plus, McDyess won't play for Denver, so he'll get waived or bought out, and then re-sign with Detroit (cute).

AI to make his Piston's debut tomorrow night in Toronto. Both the Raptors and Pistons have started out the season 3-0.

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Just checked yesterday's box score and noticed this eye-popping line: Marc Gasol, 27 points, 16 rebounds, 3 blocks, 1 assist, 1 steal (and 6 turnovers). In only his 4th game in the NBA he's put up PAU Gasol-like numbers. All that said, in the same game Andris Biedrins had 22(!) rebounds.

Biedrens is a rebounding machine, and could put up big numbers regularly if Wacky Don Nelson would only play him.

I think Marc Gasol is a keeper. There have been a lot of celebratory articles in the LA press about how shrewd Kupchak was in being able to keep Sun Yue (the "Chinese Magic Johnson".... yeah, right), who Memphis supposedly wanted. But Kupchak's focus was misguided -- he should have tried to keep Gasol instead. Marc would be the perfect backup center to Bynum, with his ability to be physical on the floor. When Bynum goes out of the game, the Lakers will have no physical presence at all, which was their undoing in last year's finals.

Although Iverson supposedly came to Toronto with the Pistons, he was not cleared to play as Billups hadn't passed his physical yet so the trade was not official. AI will wear #1, as Rodney Stucky has #3.

Yowza, just checked the line on Amare Stoudamire in the Suns 113-103 victory over the Pacers: 51 points (18-22, 15-15 from the line), 11 rebounds, 6 assists (Nash got only 5 assists), 5 steals, 2 blocks. (Edit: they've just changed the box score. Amare gets 49 points on 17-21 shooting.)

==============

Meanwhile, in double OT Tony Parker drops 55(!) points (22-36), with 7 rebounds and 10 assists vs. T'wolves.

Lebron scores a mere 41 points in a win over the Bulls.

The Knicks picked up a real cutie in Danilo- how did I miss that!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...mp;lid=tab5pos2

Former Phoenix Suns star Kevin Johnson just got himself elected mayor of Sacramento.

Was watching a bit of the Miami-San Antonio game the other night and couldn't help but notice new Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: the man is fine.

I was curious about his ethnicity and apparently he is half-Filipino, and as such, the first Asian-American head coach of an NBA team. His father is Dutch-Irish and his mother is Filipino.

Erik is also the youngest current head coach of an NBA team, 70 days younger than the Nets' Larry Frank.

He was a point guard at the University of Portland. He "is the son of Jon Spoelstra, a long-time NBA executive who has guided the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets and New Jersey Nets. His grandfather, Watson, was a Detroit Tigers beat writer for many years."

Am watching the Bobcats-Raptors game and Holy new look Adam Morrison!

He used to look like some guy doing time in the big house.


Now he looks almost hot.

Has his game gotten any better?

NO!

The Spurs look to be a dead team walking. Ginobli isn't expected back until mid-December and now Tony Parker is out for at least a month. Rumors are swirling that they may acquire Stephon Marbury. And the economy is really going to impact many of these small market teams in all sports.

I'm thinking they need to tank like they did the year David Robisnon went down for the entire season and they were able to land Tim Duncan in the next draft.

Now they just need to stage an accident for Duncan to go down. On the plus side, maybe Parker and Ginobli will return well-rested and they squeak into the playoffs with momentum, as the team no one wants to face. Problem is they have no bench, so Duncan is going to get worn down no matter what. In a way, it serves them right for giving Scola away for nothing.

The Mike D'Antoni Knicks knocked down 136(!) points over the Grizz, incl. 19 treys. Knicks now 5-3.

Lakers are now 7-0, following 93-86 win over the Hornets.

Meanwhile, the Celtics are 8-1, with back to back 30+ point games by Paul Pierce.

Not to be outdone, Dwayne Wade has scored 30+ for 4 straight games.

You may enjoy Eric Millegan's NBA Trash Talk. He was a regular on the first 3 seasons of the TV series Bones, and is openly gay to boot. I blogged about it.

Eric had me pulling for him until he said he was pulling for the Knicks, because of Z-Bo and he would like Z-Bo to be an All-Star.
Eric, be glad your beloved Trailblazer got rid of that knucklehead and the rest of that Jailblazers crew, and got you a real team that you can be proud to root for. That wanna-be thug, Zach Randolph, is no All-Star and you should be glad he is no Trailblazer, either!

Here's another episode of Eric Millegan's NBA Trash Talk. Maybe someday he'll mention the 76ers and I'll care a little more. Not that I'm alone in that regard, apparently. Right now the Sixers are averaging just 12,601 per game, which is 28th of 30 teams. Only Memphis and Sacramento are lower.

And Oklahoma City is only 12th. Aren't you supposed to sell out every game when you steal another city's team?

Well, it would help if they won more than one game this season.

The economic crisis is not helping ticket sales, either. Various teams (incl. Bucks, Kings, Sixers) are offering $10 tickets. "The Philadelphia 76ers are now offering a limited number of $10 tickets in the mezzanine level for all remaining home games at the Wachovia Center in November and December. There will be 2,000 specially priced $10 tickets available per game, with the November games courtesy of the Sixers 2008-09 season presenting sponsor Revolution Card, while in December the offer is courtesy of team sponsor Taco Bell and KFC."

(Apparently the Detroit Red Wings will be selling $9 upper bowl tickets in Dec/Jan-- despite being 3rd in home attendance in the NHL) Teams are hurting all over...

===========

Shocker! The New York Knicks are actually making some good moves.

(1) They've sent Jamal Crawford to Golden State for Al Harrington. Harrington has good size (6-9) and should thrive in the new Knick's up-tempo high-scoring style. He can score from inside and out, and is currently averaging 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds/game. Not sure why the Warriors would want Crawford when they have rising star Anthony Morrow, Stephen Jackson, Corey Magette, Kelenna Azubuike... and Monte Ellis. How many of the same type of player do they want?

(2) More importantly, they unload Zach Randolph by shipping him and Mardy Collins to the 2-9 Clippers for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley. "All three of the players coming to the Knicks -- Harrington, Thomas and Mobley -- have contracts which expire before the highly anticipated free-agent summer of 2010, when the likes of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade are expected to be on the open market."

===========

And will Mark Cuban be sent to the big house (a la Martha Stewart) for insider trading?

Gutsy moves by the Knicks. If they don't end up with any of LeBron, Wade or Bosh in 2010, they'll be doormats for years to come. I guess it's worth the risk, since they aren't going anywhere as presently constituted. But they picked up 3 cancers in these trades -- just cancers with shorter contracts.

I LOVE this for the Clippers. I know Randolph has his issues, but he was playing his ass off for D'Antoni. He's an instant 20 - 10 for a Clipper team whose front court was utterly decimated with the departure of Elton Brand. Tim Thomas is a disgusting slug -- I'd take Randolph over 50 TT's any day -- so I couldn't be happier that he was offloaded. And Mobley is overpaid and going downhill fast. None of the LeBron/Wade/Bosh trinity was coming to the Clippers anyway, so who cares if they took on longer contracts. (And Harrington is a jerk too -- he thinks he should be the star on whatever team he's with.)

WOW! Donnie went to work. The Clippers now have 2 of the NBA players I like least: Z-Bo and Ricky Davis.

Bye, Bye PJ!

http://www.newsok.com/oklahoma-city-thunde...ead_story_title

Well, I agree with you about Ricky Davis. I was hoping they were going to be able to unload him too as part of the trade, but then I remembered that they just signed him this summer. The Clippers are doormats for a reason! Zach needs to be surrounded with good character guys, and Ricky is toxic.

By the way, although I'm not much of a Charlie Rosen fan, I think he's spot on here (mainly because he agrees with me!):
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/8828790...ncertain-future

Goodbye Eddie Jordan! The Wizards fired EJ. NBA coaches are going down faster than twiks on a Saturday night. I still think the Thunder made a mistake letting PJ go this soon. Oklahoma City's roster is terrible. Nobody is going to win with it. PJ would have helped structure the young kids. Bad move, Clay!

Someone always has to take the blame, and it's usually the coach (you can't fire the players). Eddie Jordan is a great coach, so the Wiz are making a big mistake too. Not so sure about P.J. As much as I hate Sprewell, I think there's a reason why he got choked.

Anyway, Durant isn't flourishing in his 2nd season like so many expected. Not that I want things to change -- OKC is one of the very few teams the Clippers can beat!

Former NBA player Rodney Rogers is paralyzed from the shoulders down after an ATV accident. Just awful!

http://www.comcast.net/sports/russakoffrul...ogersparalyzed/

T'wolves' Randy Wittman becomes the fourth NBA coach to be given the boot this season. Kevin McHale will take over managing the team he put together. Good luck. Outside of Al Jefferson's 21/10, there's not much to talk about on that roster, esp. considering the tough Western Conference competition.

Yup. McHale may not have sexually harrassed anyone, but he's got to be one of the worst GMs in sports.

It's funny how the great players don't make even good coaches/GMs. Bird is only average, Jordan is a complete failure, Magic lasted 12 games, and Isiah and McHale have (had) been busy embarrassing their teams for years. Jerry West would be the big exception to this rule.

http://www.nba.com/grizzlies/video/2008/12...=team&q=MEM


This has been the hightlight of the Grizzlies season so far, and Iavaroni still has a job!

Now, the Grizzlies have traded JCritt to get back the pick we gave up to get Juan Carlos, plus gave up a 2nd rounder to New Orleans. Man, I wish I could FIRE Wallace and Iavaroni!

http://www.nba.com/grizzlies/news/grizzlie...ton-081210.html

Much movement going on in the NBA.

Suns send Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and Sean Singletary to Charlotte for Jason Richardson, Jared Dudley and a second-round draft pick.

The above-mentioned deal sees Washington acquiring Mike James and Javaris Crittenton, the Hornets receiving Antonio Daniels, and Memphis gets a first-round pick (their own, which they had traded away).

I think the Suns/Bobcats deal is one of those weird trades that doesn't make sense for either team. Charlotte trades away one of its few scorers (although a volume scorer) for two role players. Bell and, particularly, Diaw, were perfect in Phoenix's system (at least D'Antoni's system) but will be marginal for Larry Brown. As usual, Larry Brown is working on trading away all his players, only to end up with a roster he'll like even less.

I don't like it for the Suns either. Having traded away Marion last year and now this, they have no one left who can defend. Shaq will be in constant foul trouble with all the opposing teams' penetration into the paint. And I've always thought of Richardson as a bit of a ball hog. With Stoudemire already bitching about the ball going into Shaq all the time, that's the last thing Phoenix needs. Richardson has had some major health issues, and is said not to be the player he used to be. Now he's mostly a jump shooter. I guess that could be OK if he's willing to hang out on the perimeter and wait for Shaq to kick the ball out to him, but I don't see him going for that. Way to poison the Suns' chemistry a little more! God, I feel sorry for Steve Nash.

Smokey, I feel your pain. I think Crittenton is going to be real good. I wish the Lakers had been able to keep him!

And as for that video, Darko needs some hair on his chest.

Sixers fire Maurice Cheeks--now the 5th head coach to be sacked this season.

Word is around Memphis that Wallace plans on signing Darius Miles. Not sure if he's trying to screw over the Trailblazers or force Pritchard's hand in a trade. Either way it's sure to bite the Grizzlies in the butt- we get Miles to destroy what little team we have (if Darius had anything left in his tank, he would be playing for Boston) or we'll make another enemy, or BOTH!