It's really hard to believe that someone once gave Matt Carroll a six-year contract. In his best season he was a below average player whose only talent was shooting.

Also, the D'Antoni hire has started the Pau trade rumor machine up again.

It seems to me that Pau makes more sense with D'Antoni around. I know he doesn't love going big, but there will be plenty of chances for him to slide over to the 5 instead of having a real backup center. If he plays 15 minutes per game behind Dwight and 18 next to him, I think the team will be better anyway.

I guess I need to recalibrate my expectations from the Buss family.

The Busses would have made a good network mini-series back in the 1980s, and they might fly as a reality show now. But there is not a lot of evidence that they are stupid when it comes to running the Lakers (Jerry's DUI was life stupid but not basketball stupid, and admittedly Jim certainly has plenty of years ahead of him to mess everything up).

It seems to me that Pau makes more sense with D'Antoni around.

I hope you're right; Pau is my favorite guy on the team. But he is slow, so a lot of people think that will be an issue.

The Onion article was plausible until about halfway through...which makes for a pretty good Onion article.

Though it might not be that far off the mark: Phil Jackson thought it was his call

I can buy into the narrative from the earlier poster that he didn't really want the job, and played it so that the worst that could happen to him would be to have to coach a championship contender #zenmastered

By the way, Andrew, sorry about Budinger. That sucks. Fortunately, Shved combines Louis Amundson's hair choices with Michael Jordan's skillset, so the Wolves are doing just fine anyway.

Fortunately, Shved combines Louis Amundson's hair choices

Did you not get the memo?

By the way, Andrew, sorry about Budinger. That sucks. Fortunately, Shved combines Louis Amundson's hair choices with Michael Jordan's skillset, so the Wolves are doing just fine anyway.

Yeah, it looks like Love, Rubio, Barea, Budinger, and Pekovic will all be out of action for the next game against Charlotte. That would be an ok starting 5. My dad and I were gushing about Shved last night over the phone, then he threw cold water on it by pointing out that he'll just tear up his knee in the next few weeks anyway.

More than anything, he played like Wade down the stretch last night, and he was the whole offense. He had the ball in his hands constantly, always looked to get into the lane, did so easily most of the time, got to the line constantly, found open shooters when they were there, and made enough jumpers to keep the defense honest. He was on the court with Ridnour, Cunningham, Kirilenko, and Amundson, and he held off a charge by Dallas.

Also, Shved cut his hair for some reason. I think it was that the announcers kept confusing him with Amundson when they were on the court together.

Yeah, it looks like

Love, Rubio, Barea, Budinger, and Pekovic

will all be out of action for the next game against Charlotte. That would be an ok starting 5.

And awesome in its collective whiteness.

I really enjoyed watching Budinger play for Arizona during those lost-in-the-desert years as Lute Olson's career ended. Any Arizona fans here?

Also my mind is blown that "Shved" is not a nickname or shortening of a name.

Also my mind is blown that "Shved" is not a nickname or shortening of a name.

It's short for Shvedsanity, which is sweeping the nation.

So I'm experiencing Shvedsanitysanity? If DW(DWTDD)D catches Shvedsanitysanity, we're all in trouble.

I think Shveducation works better.

"You didn't know? You best Shveducate yourself, son..."

I just heard that Miami is trading Lebron, Wade, Ray Allen, and Udonis Haslem to the Raptors for Jonas Valanciunas and a future draft pick.

Edit: Wrong sport thread.

Extremely bizarre finish in LA. Danny Green mad a 3 to go up 2 with 9 left. Lakers ran an inbound play to Pau, looked like mwp forgot the play, and Kobe couldn't get free so Pau had to shoot the three and missed it. LA played Dwight, Pau, Jamison, mwp, Kobe down the stretch,

LA played Dwight, Pau, Jamison, mwp, Kobe down the stretch

No point guard. Of course, neither Nash nor Blake was available. So who would you nominally call the PG there - Kobe?

Went to Cavs-Nets last night, some thoughts:

1. First time seeing Kyrie Irving in person and it was thrilling. Every time he got the ball in isolation you could feel/hear the crowd hold its breath in anticipation of him unleashing his crossover. Defense was every bit as bad as advertised. It's tough to play D as a PG in this league at this point, but Irving was generally lazy on screens/chasing his man around. I felt like he had pretty good closeout technique the few times he engaged but he also failed to put a body on his man following the shot, leading to a few OREB chances for the Nets.

2. Brook Lopez was brutal. I love Anderson Varejao and think he's a very good, albeit never healthy, player. However, when Varejao is calling for the ball against you or grabbing the rebound and instead of taking it straight up pulling out so he can go ISO gainst you because he knows you have absolutely no shot at stopping him? That's a problem.

3. Joe Johnson did a whole lot of nothing before hitting a bunch of garbage time 3s. Was not impressed, but I've never been a big Joe Johnson fan.

4. CLE was down 25 or so in the 3rd but closed it to about 12 heading into the 4th. Byron Scott then sat Irving and Varejao for about the first 4 minutes of the 4th and that's where the game was lost because the CLE bench is truly terrible. Outside of Irving and Varejao there's just really nothing there, young or old, so I think we can look forward to Kyrie bolting as soon as he gets the chance.

5. The arena was exceptionally nice (I went to one of the Jay-Z concerts but this was my first basketball game there). Fans weren't into the game at all though and it wasn't a packed house. Loudest cheers in the introduction were for Williams, Irving and Varejao.

It does not look like it's going to go well for Royce White in Houston

It does not look like it's going to go well for Royce White in Houston

Yeah... and it seems like the Rockets have bent over backwards for him¹, so I'm not sure at this point what more he could expect. Open to more info, though.

¹ As far as accepting the anxiety issue, anyway. For whatever reason, they haven't actually been playing him (I think he had migraines for a day or two, but they haven't used him otherwise, either), and perhaps that's part if not all of the tension.

5. The arena was exceptionally nice (I went to one of the Jay-Z concerts but this was my first basketball game there). Fans weren't into the game at all though and it wasn't a packed house. Loudest cheers in the introduction were for Williams, Irving and Varejao.

Thanks for the report; I was curious. I'm hoping BKN turns into a spillover destination when you want to see a visiting team, or just a "filler" NBA game, but don't want to pay Garden prices. By mid to late afternoon yesterday, tickets were $40-$50 for lower corner on Stubhub, which is a good sign. The arena doesn't come across as electric on the YES broadcast, or really anything close.

I think fans are going to start seeing more of the Blatche/Evans combo as the season goes along. Cavs had 60 points in the paint last night, which is ridiculous.

The talk about the Lakers' lineup and Russell Westbrook's lack of assists got me thinking about something- what if the Lakers told Kobe when he got drafted that he was going to be their PG, and he just stayed there for his career? What would his career have looked like? Robin has talked about how he does not have elite vision across the rest of the court, which would certainly play a part. What would he have been like?

Memphis/OKC is looking interesting.

Milwaukee is beating Indiana by 30 and while I do strongly feel that Milwaukee is a legit (lower level) playoff team, Indiana has not looked good this year and they need to get their #### together quick.

I feel like the score board is wrong in pheonix no way can it be 57-51 right now

Not that its too many but i swaer boozer hit 2 shots once they were at 56

The Bobcats are now 4-3.

Also, Arnovitz has a piece up on Memphis maybe taking the next step, and they certainly picked up a nice W in OKC tonight.

Does James Harden score more on nights that OKC loses?

Some thoughts on the Bulls OT win in Phoenix that included an blown 2nd half 18 point lead by Chicago due to a Telfair led run:

-Scola (24&11;) and Boozer (28&14;) must love playing against each other. Their offensive moves are so much more effective against guys who always bite on the first fake.
-Beasley: Bad. Had a mini-run in OT, but oh so bad. Virtually no basketball instincts.
-Watching Hinrich play is slowly draining the life out of me.
-Butler needs to play more. Only 9 mins tonight, 12 per on the season. He's good enough defensively already, and the offense looks better than last year.
-Broken record time, but Noah (42mins) and Deng (46mins) are going to be ground to dust by the All Star break. I'd love to see Noah play in the All Star game this year, but quite frankly, he could use the time off.
-Looking at the box score and I see Jermaine O'Neal is on the Suns roster?!?! I feel like I vaguely remember this, but also think that could be something that might have also happened 5 years ago.

a Telfair led run

Phrases I wouldn't have expected to see...ever?

Bynum hair

The Bobcats are now 4-3.

Which tells us everything we need to know about teams like Memphis and the Clippers taking "the next step" based on 7-8 games. Not to say that they might not, just that some people need to chill a bit on making rpnouncements about teams making the leap. Let's give it 20-30 games at least. No one has proven anything nefore November (or even December) ends unless they are like 15-2 or something. I feel like we go through this every year and everyone always forgets.

turner and wright combined for 9 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal on 2/11 shooting over 43 combined minutes last night. if they keep doing that, and bynum remains unable to run, this is going to be one hell of an ugly team.

No one has proven anything before November (or even December) ends unless they

are the Timberwolves and manage to stay around .500 with the crapload of injuries they have faced. But your larger point is of course 100% correct.

Wolves sign Josh Howard to a 1 year Vet minimum.

so, the sixers lost last night to the winless, 0-8 detroit pistons. by 18 points. at home. yeah, noone's gonna come out of that smelling like roses:

1, the sixers had 4 turnovers on the game, which might be a franchise low, but they also shot 30% from the field, and you're not gonna do that and win. the pistons came in to this game allowing 100+ PPG. the sixers scored 76. just...awful.

2, evan turner and dorell wright: 9 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks. i'm not quite sure whether this is a chicken or an egg type thing, but they both set season lows for minutes played last night.

3, dispencer hawesome update: 5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist. i'd say that's 3% hawesome.


and lastly, the sixers defense is basically what the celtics offense was last year. they're allowing a very high percentage of shots to be made (44/36), but they're killing it on the glass (77% DRB%) and they're forcing a ton of turnovers (17 per game), and all told, they're 3rd in the league in D-rating. the offense is ####### horrendous, though.


and actually, since i made the statement a while back that this sixers team right now, without bynum, is basically about the same as last year's sixers, i'd now like to amend that to say this sixers team, without bynum, is basically the same as last year's team -- except, for the difference between lou williams and nick young. now, i really hope that nick young isn't this terrible for the entire season, but right now, the difference between these two teams is that lou came off the bench and scored 15 PPG, whereas young is coming off the bench and scoring 8.

so, the sixers lost last night to the winless, 0-8 detroit pistons. by 18 points. at home. yeah, noone's gonna come out of that smelling like roses:

The Sixers have my permission to lose tomorrow night at home as well. After that, feel free to start winning again. :-)

Wolves sign Josh Howard to a 1 year Vet minimum.

Haven't made the corresponding roster move, but it appears that Will Conroy's partial deal will be waived. Makes sense to dump Conroy- he doesn't help with the glut of wing injuries (the stretch where RA tried Shved, Lee, and Conroy last night was the worst stretch of the game) and what's the point of appeasing Brandon Roy if he's the worst player in the league?

It was really depressing to be behind by 14 all of last night, then stage a furious run, tie it up after a Chris Webber timeout turnover (I think that's the official name for that rule, right?) then give up a crazy jumper to Kemba to win with .7 secs left. The Cats made so many off balance long twos last night that I figured we were doomed from the start. It was a gut punch to come back and lose to the same thing anyway.

Hoping some combination of Pek, Roy, and Barea is ready for Friday.

Wolves sign Josh Howard to a 1 year Vet minimum.

They're just doing that to shut up Tyrone Terrell, right?

Another triumph for the Pistons, the whitest team in the league.

Yes, a lot of people think the Twolves are the whitest team just because they have a lot of white guys, but they could have an entire roster of Kevin Loves and Rubios and it wouldn't add up to the total whiteness provided by Jonas Jerebko and Kyle Singler.

Yes, a lot of people think the Twolves are the whitest team just because they have a lot of white guys, but they could have an entire roster of Kevin Loves and Rubios and it wouldn't add up to the total whiteness provided by Jonas Jerebko and Kyle Singler.

The T-Wolves are imposters. They aren't white, they are European.

We are a nation of immigrant basketball players.

Z-Bo and Perk supposedly got into a verbal confrontation last night after they were ejected. No punches thrown (come on, it's an NBA "fight"), but the NBA is investigating. The police have already found nothing to press charges on.

Robin Lopez at Splash Mountain (h/t Grantland).

---

Perk ran out of there and down the tunnel quick after his ejection; maybe he was trying to get to ZBo before he left. Perk looks less scary and demented with a full goatee, btw.

Running out of reasons NOT to talk about the Knicks. I can only fight it so much longer.

playing over their heads - obviously over their heads - but getting your hopes up is seeming more and more fair.
also, mike woodson.

shaun livingston is back in the league - w/ dc, pargo cut to make room.

Was an interesting game. Knicks definitely impressed. Any ideas where it's all coming from? It seemed like long range shooters with Tyson chandlers D makes them pretty though when the shooters are landing shots. This with a pretty poor game from melo.

[446] There is a guy on Knickerblogger who called this. His theory was that even if the Knicks didn't improve in any way from last year's poor offensive showing as far as shooting/converting shots into points, the offense would be vastly improved because the TO% was going to be so greatly improved. He also strongly believed that Novak+Smith was the greatest combination of high volume and high % 3 point shooting in the NBA. Finally, he felt Jason Kidd would be crucial to moving the ball after the intiial penetration and finding the shooters.

RT @Monroe_SA: Stephen Jackson on NYK: "They went from 2 guys shooting all the balls to team everybody has confidence in everybody else”

I thought Melo played well. Most impressive, as Stephen Jackson seems to note, is their confidence in Woodson's game plan and thus each other. Melo moved the ball very well yesterday. With the caveat that things look great when you're winning, I've really been impressed by Felton so far. His timing with the entry pass is much better than Lin's. Grunwald's moves look good and Woodson really has the team bought in.

But, Amare.

But, Amare.

Well if they keep this up or something close to this, he'll return when they're around 15-5 and I think Woodson will have enough power to make him a bench player. I can see him being useful in that role even if it pisses him off.