What's up people? I know you're still recovering from that Big Game (I won't use the official title because I don't the NFL Nazis to come flying over my house in their black helicopter to serve me a cease-and-desist order, but there's still some NBA news to take a look at. Mainly All-Star stuff, and a HUGE trade (but apparently not the last one). Let's hit it!!
Final All-Star Team Roundups!
The reserves were announced, so now we have full rosters the All-Star Game in New Orleans. As I am prone to do, I'll show you guys just how bad my predictions were, but I'll throw in the bonus of a final analysis on each roster.
Here were my East predictions (Asterisks indicate guys I later said should be starters):
Guards - Jason Kidd, Dwyane Wade*, Chauncey Billups*, Joe Johnson
Forwards - Kevin Garnett*, Lebron James*, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh
Centers - Dwight Howard*, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
And the actual team:
Guards - Jason Kidd*, Dwyane Wade*, Chauncey Billups, Joe Johnson, Rip Hamilton
Forwards - Kevin Garnett*, Lebron James*, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Paul Pierce
Centers - Dwight Howard*, Chris Bosh
So how'd I do? Ten and a half out of twelve overall, and four out five on the starters. Ilgauskas missed it for me, with Chris Bosh getting the backup center spot (I'm giving myself half a point for putting Bosh on the team but at the wrong position) and Rip Hamilton being chosen as a reserve guard. So, do I agree with the full team? Well, based on what I've been reading about Kidd, you'd think he shouldn't be there at all. I'm not sure about that, but I do believe now that Billups should start over him. He's the leader of the second best team in the East, and while he doesn't hand out assists or rebound like Kidd does, he's shooting a career high from the field, scoring at his second highest career level, and turns the ball over significantly less than Kidd does now. I haven't been the biggest fan of Chauncey's over the years, and I thought that Chauncey for MVP push a few guys were making two years ago was a joke, but he's earned the right to start in the All-Star Game this year. Hamilton I'm OK with if you're going with the reward a winner argument, but I'd dump Johnson and replace him with Jose Calderon for the exact same reason. Hedo Turkoglu should be rewarded as well, for having an outstanding season to date on a division leading team. Who would I bump for him? After close consideration, I'd say.....Kidd. Yes, it seems like sacrilege to leave the guy leading the conference in assists off the team but no one made that argument when the league assist leader was Mark Jackson, (1996-97), Rod Strickland (in 1997-98), or Andre Miller. None of those guys made the All-Star team the year they led the entire league in assists, so leaving Kidd out this year would have a precedent. So here's my final team, based on who I think deserves it most:
Guards - Dwyane Wade*, Chauncey Billups*, Jose Calderon, Rip Hamilton
Forwards - Kevin Garnett*, Lebron James*, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Paul Pierce, Hedo Turkoglu
Centers - Dwight Howard*, Chris Bosh
And for the West my calls were:
Guards - Kobe Bryant*, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Baron Davis, Chris Paul*, Deron Williams
Forwards - Tim Duncan*, Dirk Nowitzki, Carmelo Anthony*, Josh Howard
Centers - Yao Ming*, Amare Stoudemire
The actual team:
Guards - Kobe Bryant*, Allen Iverson*, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Brandon Roy
Forwards - Tim Duncan*, Dirk Nowitzki, Carmelo Anthony*, David West, Carlos Boozer
Centers - Yao Ming*, Amare Stoudemire
Not as good here, but no so bad, either. I hit on four out of five starters, but only nine out of twelve overall. Roy and West are surprises to me. I totally expected Roy to get the 'wait your turn, young man' treatment this year, especially with Baron Davis having such a big year and Deron Williams doing so well. (Williams is building a resume of slights, by the way. He got jobbed on Most Improved Player last season and now this.) West is very good, but I wasn't thinking All-Star for him. Boozer definitely deserves it, and I need to get my head examined for even suggesting Josh Howard over him. I'm flip-flopping on Stoudemire; I said yes to him a few weeks ago, but now I say no. Yes, he scores a lot of points and he's on a division leader, but he's not playing better than Chris Kaman this season. Kaman darn near doubles him up in rebounds on many nights, and is only a few points off in the scoring department. Kaman is playing on a bad team, but he's definitely not an empty numbers guy. Amare is good, but I really think that you could swap him for Kaman or Al Jefferson and get better results on most nights, whereas he wouldn't be as good if he were stuck on the Clippers or T-Wolves. Hey, that's just my opinion, though. Feel free to rip me. So here's my final West roster, based on who deserves it most:
Guards - Kobe Bryant*, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Baron Davis, Chris Paul*, Deron Williams
Forwards - Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer
Centers - Yao Ming, Chris Kaman
Trade of the Season?
OK, not quite. The Garnett deal still ranks number one, but I believe this Pau Gasol deal might be second. The Lakers get a legit 20 point, 10 rebound post player in Gasol and all they have to give up is Kwame Brown (one of the all-time draft busts ever), Javaris Crittendon (a rookie who looks to be at least a year away from making a major contribution), the rights to Aaron McKie (who's pretty much retired now), the rights to Pau's brother Marc (a guy who hasn't played an NBA game yet but is supposedly a great prospect), and two first round picks (which will likely be in the 20s)? Wow. To call this a steal would be an understatement. This is outright grand theft. Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak has officially been released from the lousy GM list with this deal; he was already on parole thanks to Andrew Bynum's rapid improvement but now he's free. Gasol can hold the fort down at center until Bynum gets back from his injury, and then the Lakers will have a devastating one-two punch at the power forward and center positions. And for that they parted with a guy who stinks, another who hasn't proven himself yet, another who isn't playing anymore, and three unknown guys who may be good but might be awful. This deal literally changes the face of the Pacific division race, and the entire Western conference as well. If Bynum is able to play at the level he was at before he got hurt, then you have to consider the Lakers the favorite in the West. Wow.
On the other side of the coin, you have Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace, who was a card carrying member of the awful GM club during his tenure in Boston, and has now reclaimed his lapsed membership. Wallace's official explanation was that this was the best deal they saw themselves getting, so they went with it. Uhhhhh......right. Chris, there are over two weeks left until the trade deadline. You have a 27 year old seven footer who can score twenty and rebound ten every night, and is under contract for a few more years. That my friend is very valuable commodity. Any contending team who is willing to pay his salary will be willing to give up even more the closer you get to the deadline. You really think that you couldn't have gotten some better actual players for your guy and not just some prospect? Now either Chris is lying or he's a moron. My guess is that he's lying. After all, Kwame Brown's salary comes off the books after this season, all nine million dollars of it, and the rest of those players are either making low money (Crittendon) or no money (the future draft picks). Which means we're looking at a good old fashioned salary dump here. Whether it's to create cap space for future signings or to just save money, getting Gasol's big salary off the books is the priority here. So maybe it was the best deal they could get; sure, there were deals out there that could have gotten them better players, but apparently they didn't want that. What they do have now is possibly the worst collection of talent at the four and five spots in recent memory. Along with Kwame they have the also newly acquired Jason Collins and my man Darko! That's two of the biggest draft day busts in history and another guy who managed to stay in the Nets starting lineup despite not being able to average five of anything in his entire career. Wow.
That's all for this week, guys. As I'm finishing this Shaq is being dealt to Phoenix for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. That will the big story for next time. Until then.
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