Three days later and I still find myself staggering. A lot went down in the basketball world last week.
The big headline: Pau Gasol’s being traded to the Lakers. Coup did an excellent job covering it below. That trade was a shocker and still is. While everyone and their mom (myself included) were jumping all over themselves about how good the Lakers were going to be…I had a thought. Can Pau handle this? Then when I read that Pau was “shocked and saddenned” when he got the news I had to scratch my head. Either he loved Juan Carlos Navarro a bit too much or maybe he really didn’t want out. It would be easy to point out (like Chris Sheridan did here) that Pau has yet to win a playoff game and choked in the Euroleague. At the end of the day, does any of that really matter? Pau doesn’t have to be the man in LA. Gasol is so much better than Kwame Brown it isn’t funny. Ditto if you replace Chris Mihm or Ronny Turiaf. There should be no pressure on Pau because a) Bynum is coming back, b) he’s not in Memphis anymore and c) whenever he doesn’t want to shoot he can just throw it to Kobe. For essentially nothing, the Lakers have gotten an All-Star big man to solidify their depth and immediately return them to the upper level of the Western Conference. What don’t they have? Exactly.
The undercard had veterans signing with teams. Golden State got Chris Webber…that’s been covered. I was very interested watching SportsCenter highlights and seeing C-Webb with his big grin (which had been replaced by a scowl for the last 5 years) although in my head it seemed like he was saying ‘Man there’s no way I can run with these guys.’ The Spurs signed Damon Stoudamire, sweeping him away from the Suns, Celtics and Raptors. Questions may be raised about whether he fits into the Spurs system. Those are stupid questions: Jacque Vaughn played significant minutes for them and they won a championship.
The Blazers came back from their rough road trip and looked…well rough. They got out-toughed by the Rockets, outlasted the Hawks, out LeBron’d by…LeBron and got lucky that Isiah Thomas is a horrible coach. And it’s true, Isiah is a really bad coach. The Knicks should be in the poo-poo platter of teams that are 2.5 games out of the playoffs not 6 games out. He plays all the wrong guys…why Balkman and David Lee don’t start on that team is beyond me. Also, why Thomas gave the last shot in regulation to Jamal Crawford (who was 0 for his last 8, with Jon Barry annoyingly reminding us of that fact with every shot in the 4th quarter like he was trying to jinx the Blazers) instead of Zach Randolph (who was murdering us) is also beyond me.
Alright. That was me catching up and settling in.
- The Jazz apparently have their eyes on Jeff Foster, but are now playing the ‘aww shucks this trade is unlikely’ card. A card that in my eyes has been decimated since the legit shocking Pau trade. Anywho, using the Trade Machine I’m not really sure it would work either to be honest. I doubt the Pacers would take Jarron Collins and Jason Hart’s expiring contract for Fisher which would give Troy Murphy solid playing time and open the gates for Ike Diogu while setting up next year. Nah. Highly unlikely.
- Cavs GM Danny Ferry is apparently trying to deal but more than likely has not looked at his roster recently and realized that no one wants any of those guys. Word on the street is he wants Mike Miller. I’m not sure if it is because he thinks Miller is really good or just because he sees the Fire Sale going down in Memphis. It might be too late although if I were Memphis I would read this, offer Miller and Kyle Lowry for Ira Newble (expriring contract), Shannon Brown (expiring contract) and…hm….Drew Gooden. Why the hell not I mean I’m waiting for a team to finally say screw it and just really rebuild mid-season. Memphis may be my only hope.
- By the way…remember that annoying talk of tanking all last year? Miami should tank. They’ll have D-Wade, Shaq, Really Good Rookie and whoever they get in the off-season because they have to tear it all down.
- Ladies and gents I have seen it all now: Devean George wants to be traded. Do you hear Raef LaFrentz or Austin Croshere complaining? Absolutely not…they are happy that not only are they in the stealing money phase of their career but are on semi-successful teams. You have the rings…you’re getting the money…Dallas is far from bad…why complain? Especially outloud to the public?
- Outside look of the Blazers. Any reporter who even thought up a trade rumor involving the Blazers should be forced to read this over and over and stare at a picture of Travis Outlaw for hours.
- Bad sign for the Eastern Conference: The Celtics…are smart.