- The Orlando Magic are... well... not the same squad today that they were on Saturday morning... they made 2 trades... combining to swap Rashard Lewis, Vince Carter, Mikael Pietrus, Marcin Gortat, and their 2011 #1 pick for Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, and Earl Clark... First of all, I honestly can't remember a "contending" team transforming it's core roster this drastically in one day mid-season.. now that I've said that... let's break it down... I'm in favor of the moves overall simply b/c I am not someone who backs "standing pat" with a team that can't win the title... and they weren't winning it IMO... Rashard and Vince were giving them next-to-nothing, and while the Gortat loss hurts them, if there was ever a team that doesn't need a backup center? It's Orlando... Hilariously, I think Jason Richardson is the best player in this entire trade... that assumes Gilbert is the 2010 version and not the 2004 version... but still... I think the Nelson/Arenas/Redick/Richardson/Turkoglu five-some is better than Nelson/Duhon/Carter/Redick/Lewis and that's what this boils down to... They'll need alot out of Brandon Bass to make this work (not a slamdunk), but I kind of applaud them for taking a shot... I will say this, however... they're going to need to add another warm body up front AND get Ryan Anderson back quickly... their front line currently consists of Howard, Bass, and homeless men....
- Now, the other two teams... Phoenix takes a small step back IMO... I think J-Rich is the perfect 2-guard compliment to Nash, and while they improve up front with Gortat (who's a nice pick-n-roll partner for Nash), they take back Vince's corpse who I don't think can play well in that system at this point, and further logjam their wing spot with Pietrus... on the bright side? They rid themselves of Hedo, who never made sense to me in Phoenix in the first place (check the NBA preview) and was generally ineffective... at any rate... Free Steve Nash... Washington had to make their move... flipping Gilbert (owed $60+ million for 3 more years) for Rashard (owed $44 million-ish for the next 2 years) makes financial sense because of contract length, and some basketball sense in turning the reins over to John Wall completely, and giving him a semi-adequate wing shooting option... They had to do what they had to do to get rid of Gilbert's albatross contract from the day they won the lottery to take Wall, and they've done that now...
Elsewhere...
- Zach Greinke to the Brewers? Sources reporting a deal including Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar (the Brewers top major-league-ready prospects in CF and SS) among others for Greinke... seems like a light price-tag to me, but the Royals wanted to move him right away...
- Tim Tebow to start for the Broncos... Didn't know this at the time of print on the preview... but this makes sense to me... Denver is bad and non-contending... why not play your 1st round pick QB?...
- NBA Box Score Check - Kevin Love is an animal!... 43 points and 17 boards last night despite falling by 2 in Denver.. I don't know what to even say.... Tony Parker dropped 37 and 9 in an OT win over Memphis... San Antonio is 23-3!... Get out of the way everyone... The Wizards collapsed in a 1-point loss in Miami in their first Gilbert-less game... Nick Young had 30 and Kirk Hinrich had 12 dimes, but they seemed interested in running everything through Andray Blatche... good luck with that... Orlando loses by 8 at home to Philly while dressing exactly 8 guys... defensible loss but Howard threw up a 26 and 20 to try and keep it together... Break up the Clippers! Back-to-back road wins (after starting the season 0-11 on the road) as they beat the Noah-less Bulls behind Blake Griffin's 29 and 12... Derrick Rose is that dude though... 34, 8 and 6 in the loss...
- NCAA Hoops! - Jared Sullinger may be the best player in America... the Ohio State freshman PF threw up a 30 and 19 on Saturday... Florida beat up on hapless K-State who shot 27% from the field... Frank Martin for COY... lol... Gonzaga shows signs of life! I'm an unabashed Zags supporter, so it was nice to see them win a quasi-road game against #9 Baylor in Dallas.. that's a nice win...
What to watch for (Non-NFL)...
- Hawks @ Nets - 1:00 SportSouth - Always think crazy stuff happens in these 1:00 tipoffs... anyway, an interesting road test for the Hawks... and I'm quite riveted to see how Joe Johnson looks in game #2 back...
- Suns @ Thunder - 7:00 NBA-TV - the new Suns roster should be there (and the fans should prepare their Vince chants accordingly), and that's reason enough to watch...
Enjoy the slate...
1 comment:
So what happens when Dwight gets in foul trouble? It's gunna happen at some point down the stretch and they're gunna think.. God gortat would be huge here..
With that said, I still like it.. Just hope Dwight can control himself
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