About the Blazers and the Nets

Portland TrailBlazer - These guys aren't making it to the playoffs this year but expect them to perform impressively this season. I think after the Celtics the Blazers have the best corps of young talent. Telfaire is a stud and so is Khryapa. Watch the development of Travis Outlaw, he has the tools to be a good pro in the league. The Przybilla movement should be in full swing at Portland this season. Theo Ratliff's stock has be steadly declining in Portland. Look for Przybilla to start most of the games this season. he was a monster in the games he did start, he doesn't have much of an offensive game but is a great interior defender, if he polishes up is O he is going to be a 10 pts 10 reb and 2 blks player. The only thing blighting the the future of the blazers is their past. Miles and Randolph are head cases. Pure and simple. I mean Ruben Patterson, who would be the full blown headcase on any other team barley even get a mention on this team. Hopefull strict coach Nate Macmillian will be able to get these guys in line and make them play with in the system. Also the Blazers have salary cap albertross in the form of Patterson's and Ratliff's contract that they need to get rid off. My advice to GM John Nash would be to simply give a call to the Knicks, I'm pretty sure you could convince Thomas that they need another Center and a G/F.

New Jersey Nets - Ah! the New Jersey Nets, how I love thee. let me count the ways.....
1. Jason Kidd
2. Jason Kidd
3. Richard Jefferson
4. Vince Carter
5. Nenad Krstic
Can some one please explain to me why the hell aren't the nets getting any buzz at all. Everybody seems to agree that they will end up winning the Atlantic. BUt what about beyond that? The Pistons are not going to be as good as they were under larry. Flip Saunders is a good coach but is a better offensive guy than a defensive guy and the Pistons aren't a very good ofessinve team. This leaves only the Pacers and the Heat for the Nets to contend with. If the hear team was unchanged from last season I would have given the heat the edge but with so many new comers and so many ball hogs there is now way the Heat are goin to be effective. This leaves only the Pacers as the only true hurdle between the Nets and the Finals. This is my pick for the Eastern COnference Finals. Nes vs Pacers. Just you wait.

The Aftermath

Well the dust has settled down on this crazy NBA trading deadline. As the stats inform us 10 deals, 29 players and 7 former All Stars got traded. I am going to join the plethora (gotta love that word) of other people in trying to guess how these trades are going to affect the rest of the NBA season and, more importantly, the playoffs. While trades such as Walker ending back in Boston and Webber being dealt to the 76ers have garnered most of the headlines these, I believe, are not the most important trades. While significant and amazing all that these trades do is ensure that the team will go deeper in the playoffs. (Or in Boston's case perhaps make the playoffs). I am going to take a look at some of the smaller deals that will I think will affect the over all picture more.

Nazr Mohammed to the Spurs.
San Antonio has put together one of the best teams of all time and they have done it without having an outrageous payroll. [Insert generic Isiah Thomas joke here]. The Suprs made another great move yesterday by signing Nazr Mohammed in exchange for Malik Rose. Nazr is in the midst of a career year. he is scoring 10 ppg, hauling down 8 rpg and swating away 1 shot per game. in fact he is better than Malik Rose in every single category, except for assists where Rose has a 0.3 advantage and 3PT% where both are tide at 0%. Nazr Mohammed also earns a significantly lower salary as compared to Rose. And to top it all off he is also taller than Malik Rose so he can spell in for relief for both Rasho Nesterovic and Tim Duncan. In fact Mohammed has been playing so well of late that he could even challenge Rasho for the starting job as the center.

Mike James to the Houston Rockets.
The Rockets have had point guard woe all season long. Jeff van Gundy has tried out 6 different players at the spot but apart form Bobby Sura none have played well. With Sura in the lineup the Rockets had finally started resembling the championship contenders that many thought that they would be during the off season. However with Sura battling injuries the Rockets have struggled to find a viable replacement. The latest example of this was the Rockets-Spurs game on last Wednesday. Despite of keeping it close all through game (the Spurs in fact didn't have their first lead since the 1st quarter until mid way through the 3rd) atrocious guard play in the fourth doomed the Rockets. They couldn't execute on the offensive end and couldn’t stop Tony Parker at the other. The Houston front office hope to address the point guard woes by signing Mike James. James has had a good year with the Bucks where he is averaging a career high in points. He has also had playoff experience at the highest level, he was a solid back up guard with the Championship winning Detroit team. With this signing I think the Rockets are able to get a point guard who will tide them over until Bobby Sura can play and then provided a viable back up option for them too.

Jiri Welsch to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Cleveland has been desperately seeking a three point shooter all season long. With rookie Luke Jackson out for the rest of the season the Cavaliers don't have a threat from deep to stop opposing teams from collapsing on James or Ilgauskas in the paint. It has only been James extraordinary passing skills that have kept the opposing team's defense off balance. Jiri Welsch brings a career 36% three point shooting average to Cleveland and should hope fully see more burn than he did in Boston. I think Jiri is a far better player than his stats would indicate, the Czech however has looked lost under Coach River's system. However with a Cavs he should be able to do what he is best at hang around 20-22 feet away from the basket and knock down the open shots that James and the Big Z create for him. Even if he doesn't perform great in the regular season, mark my word, Welsch is going to knock down some important three's for the Cavaliers in the post season.

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggg!!!!!!!!!

Are you kidding me! Are you kidding me!

More deals. Even more deals. Make the maddness stop.

Ok no analysis on these freakin deals. Just read about them.

Baron Davis to the Warriors :- Link, Link

Van Horn to the Mavs :- Link, Link, Link

GP and walker Exchanged?????? :- Link Link

One word. Isiah :- Link Link

Sixer's make some more deals

The Sixer's today pulled of another deal, just beating the Thursday trade deadline. The deal (predicted by ESPN's Mark Stein) sees Glenn Robinson being shipped from the Sixers to the New Orleans Hornets for Jamal Mashburn and Rodney Rogers. The Sixers will hope that Mashburn (who like Robinson hasn't played this season) retiers at the end of this season so they will be able to write off his salary from the books. In Rodney Rogers the Sixer's have a decent young prospect at the forward spot. Read Joe Lago's analysis about the trade here.

In other deadline beating news, Boston dealt Jiri Welsch to Cleveland for Ainge's favouraite trade comodity a first round draft pick. I swear to god Danny Ainge is addicted to hoarding draft picks like a fat kid is addicted to candy. Of course this not a bad thing. Rebuilding through the draft is the cheapest way to go about rebuilding, especially if you hit pay dirt like Ainge hit. On the other side of the coin this deal should benefit Cleveland too. Welsch brings his career 35% 3 point shooting percentage to 'Bron's team which badly need a perimeter shooter to spread the floor. Originally it was hope that rookie Luke Jackson would fullfil that role but Jackson has been injured most of this season and won't play until next year.

The Houston Rockets also made yet another move to address their point guard woes by dealing with the Milwaukee Bucks for Mike James (and Zendon Hamilton) in exchange for Reece Gains and 2 future second round picks. With Bobby Sura once again injured Houston's point guard problems continue. They have already accuried Rod Strikland, Jon Barry, Wesly Pearson and have Andre Barrett but none of them can really replace the injured Bobby Sura. They have even had T-Mac handling the ball but to no avail. Hopefully Mike James who played with the Pistons Championship team last year can help the Rockets in this department because, dear God, do the Rockets need help. At last nihts game the Rockets tried out just every possible combination at the point but couldn't execute anything. At one point, on three consecutive possesions the Rockets lost the ball without even completing a single pass.

Tell me More, Tell me More

Read more about the Webber deal, here, here, here and here.

Yet another blockbuster deal in the making as reported by ESPN's Mark Stein is that baron Davis might be traded to the Golden State Warriors. Which forces one to ask what is it about injury prone point guards that makes them irresistible to the Warriors. First it was Van Excel, then Derek Fisher and now Davis. While this deal might help the Warriors out (Davis and Richardson in the back court is an exciting prospect) this leaves the Hornets with Dan Dickau as their premier offensive weapon followed by J. R. Smith.

Ah! The madness never ceases.

Webber Webber Webber

I want to call somebody right now. I want to talk to them and discuss this. I want to share my amazement with somebody. This is insane. This is fucking nuts. Chris Webber is now going to paly for the 76ers!!!!!!!!!!! I know is bad form to include more exclamation marks than one after a statement but HOLY SHIT. This is a freakin' league changing deal. This is unbelievable. The race for the Atlantic Division crown just finished. As much as I love Jason Kidd and Vince Carter and Nenad Kristic (I am serious this guy is going to turn into 15-10 player). As much as I adore Tony Allen, Al Jefferson, Ricky Davis and Gary Payton (Give this guy some love. He has been the perfect vet on this team. Getting into Paul Pierce's ear and get him to toe the line as much as any one can). Chris Webber and Allen Iverson on the same team in the Atlantic Division? It's over. It's over. Of course there are going to be problems as far as ball sharing is concerned. Major problems. AI likes to have the ball and so does Chris Webber plus AI is the point guard and the 76ers are HIS team. So of course they are going to be problems but still with AI and C-Webb on the same team th 76ers will have a hard tine not capturing the pathetic Atlantic Division'.

While the regular season maybe a lock for the Sixers the playoffs will be a different thing. Where ever shot counts who gets the ball last? Webber? AI? How does it all work out? The answer to all these questions lies with Iverson.

First off, I don't think Webber wanted this deal. He was comfortable in Sac town. Despite Mike Bibby's and Brad Miller's strong performances it was still his team. Now he is in NBA's worst division and on a team that struggles to make .500. Where does this leave us? It brings us back to AI. He has got to be the man. Iverson has shown tremendous maturity in recent times. Whether it be his performance at the Olympics or giving up game winners to Korver or playing like the second coming of Nate 'Tiny' Archibald (well almost). He has got to go out there and set the tone. Integrate Webber into the offence maybe even make him play a bit of defense. Get him to use his low post passing skills to help set up other guys. If (and that is a gianormous if) he can make this happen then the 76ers can make a deep play off run. This deal is so amazing for so many reason. The obvious one being that no one saw this coming. There had been rumors involving Odom and Peja or Odom and Boozer but none seemed likely. In fact most of the people thought that nothing was going to happen after the crazy off season most people believed that the major wheeling and dealing was over. And then this happens. It is like a Mac truck materialized out of no where and hit the NBA. Of course the Sixers have a history of making such February deals. The most recent being in the 200 season when they landed Moutombo who helped them to reach the Finals. Which brings us to the next question what do the Sixers hope to get out of this deal? Sure this deal means that not only will they make the play-offs guaranteed but have a good chance of getting to the 2nd round. But honestly do you take on Chris Webber's massive contract (3 years and $60 million) and immensely bad knees on your team so you can make it to the Eastern Conference semi-finals? Really you'd do that?

Another effect this deal is goin to have is on the 76ers rookies. The Sixers after the Celtics have perhaps the most promising rookies. They have a emerging shot blocker in Samuel Dalembert, and dead eye marksman in Kyle Korver, a offence machine (hopefully) in Willie Green and a highly exiciting player in Andre Iguodala. And the inclusion of Chris Webber is adversely goin to affect the development of all of them. It is going to mean less 3 point shots for Korver, more pine time for Iguodala and Dalembert. Dalembert and Green will be the two rookies least affected by this deal. Least here of course being a relative term here as the entire league is going to feel the revibrations of this deal. All this for what? At best a shot at the Eastern Conference title. And even with Webber I still don't think that the Philly has the ability to beat Maimi, Detorit or Cleavlend. Hell if they meet the Wizards in the first round they'd have a tough time beating them.

What makes this deal even more baffling is that the other end of it was orchestrated by Geoff Petrie, one of the finest front office people around. He has now three average players with big contracts. His deal for Cuttino Mobely suddenly makes more sense now as Mobely's offensive production will some what off set Webbers loss. Last year the Kings showed that they can play at a high level with out Webber but they no longer have Vlade Divac nor is Peja playing at the same level that he was playing at last year. The only consolation is that the individual contracts of the 3 players will be easier to peddle than the solo contract of Webber. I still believe that that the Kings can make it to the play-offs but can you say 'First Round exit'? On the plus side this means that there is going to be more play time for my man Darius Songaila. While Songaila in all probability will never play as well as Webber he has the possibility of becoming the Corliss Williamson of this generation. perhaps the X Factor on a championship team.