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8th March, 2010 - 12:46 pm
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| Current Features |
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PLAYER RANKINGS: NBA Rookie Review – Version 2.0
After a strong run by Brandon Jennings in the first month of the season, Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry as the clear leaders to take home the hardware.
TEAM RANKINGS: NBA Team Rankings For Early March
While the Cavaliers are an immovable force at the top of our rankings, the Jazz are now ranked second ahead of the Celtics, Magic and Lakers.
STANDING 10: The Best 90 NBA Jam Nominees
In what will be (and already is) a hotly-debated topic on basketball and video game sites and forums, let's go through each of the NBA's 30 teams and "suggest" who should be featured in what will be one of the most anticipated games of the year.
MOCK DRAFT: 2009 NBA Mock Draft, Version 11.0 (Draft Day Edition)
How will the 2009 NBA Draft shake out? We're only hours away from finding out.
LOCKER TALK: Nash, Cleveland, & Orlando
Steve Nash could draw trade interest this summer and Cleveland isn’t overlooking Orlando…
CLASSICS: Hakeem Vs. Ewing: Who Was The Better Center?
Born within six months of each other in opposite corners of the world, two seven footers who are finalists for the Basketball Hall of Fame this fall are two of the best ever to play the center position.
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The dust has settled on the first few games after the NBA Trade Deadline and we're in an exciting time between the start of the playoffs and looking towards the offseason of the draft and free agency.
Deputy Editor Andrew Perna sat down with Executive Editor Christopher Reina our second-ever 'Talking Points' interview.
Frequent 'Talking Points' from Andrew will be forthcoming in this space, with Jeff Risdon on football and Nick Obergan on hockey.
AP: Which trade do you think made out the best following the trade deadline?
CR: I think the Mavericks were the biggest winners at the deadline. By adding (Brendan) Haywood and (Caron) Butler, they went from a fledgling middle of the pack playoff team to a true title contender. Their defense has upticked very nicely and they can now match-up really well with any team, especially the Lakers and Magic.
Cleveland's acquisition of (Antwan) Jamison is less impactful and more of a move they did just because they could.
Tyrus Thomas to the Bobcats was a move that was lost amongst all the others on deadline day, but he has played really well and I think he'll stick in Charlotte as a middle class man's Josh Smith.
It will take several years to sort out the New York, Houston, Sacramento trade, but I admit that I've been shocked with how effective and healthy Tracy McGrady has looked.
AP: What deal, or deals, really made you scratch your head?
CR: The Darko Milicic for Brian Cardinal swap was surprising when it came down, but what has happened since then has been downright shocking. I know it shocked Darko, but it has been fascinating because Minnesota has been able to better evaluate their pieces due to giving Kevin Love a true center to play beside.
Teams that are out of contention too frequently just play out the season in a meaningless way where they want to get out of the way quietly, but I really admire the work done here by David Kahn and Kurt Rambis to actively try new things and get a better grasp on what will eventually work and won't. I still expect Darko to return to Europe this summer, but the Wolves clearly have given themselves an edge heading into the offseason that they wouldn't have if not for making the deal.
AP: If you were the Thunder would you sign Kevin Durant to an extension this summer or wait until 2011, when he becomes a restricted free agent, to see what happens with the CBA?
CR: There was some doubt, mostly characterized as fleeting doubt, that Durant could play out his rookie contract and then become an unrestricted free agent. I was mildly shocked to read Durant's comments about wanting to sign an extension because I figured he wouldn't commit strongly until a max contract was offered.
His commitment to the franchise is admirable and I think he's too special of a player to mess around with in any kind of way. I don't think the Thunder will ever let him dictate things the way LeBron James does in Cleveland, whether it is directly or indirectly, but it also isn't in his nature, at least not at this point. Because of that, the Thunder have a great situation and are a playoff team despite being so young.
There are many more factors working against the Thunder to wait on an extension for the new CBA.
We don't know when the new CBA will even be agreed upon after the players cave during a lockout, so it can back up into 2012 where he is just a few months from being unrestricted and could then roll the dice a little bit more.
Some members of their core could either stagnate in their development or become injured. Case in point would be Brandon Roy's extension last summer and Greg Oden's injury this season. The Blazers title potential took a hit with that injury and could have factored into Roy's decision-making if they didn't have him inked.
Not giving an extension under the current CBA could turn a very amiable relationship into a contentious one.
I wouldn't anticipate the savings to be too extraordinary. I expect the new CBA to continue to reward the game's best players, while correcting itself for the mid-tier and marginal players.
AP: It will be a few months before we know exactly what this year’s draft class will look like depending on who declares, but given the projections how would you compare this year’s class to previous ones?
I see a lot of similarities between this draft and the 2007 class. That class had Durant and Oden up top, followed by quite a few real low ceiling uncertainties behind them.
I have a couple more questions about John Wall than I did at the time with Oden and Durant, but he is every bit as unique of a talent and I would build a franchise around him the same way Presti has with Durant.
The only other player I would trust to become an All-Star from the class is DeMarcus Cousins, even though there are a lot of things about him that make him untrustworthy.
I'm of the opinion that Evan Turner, Derrick Favors, Wesley Johnson, Cole Aldrich, Al-Farouq Aminu, Patrick Patterson and a few others in that range are merely role players. Guys like Hassan Whiteside, Greg Monroe and Donatas Motiejunas are the high end projects, but they're far from bankable.
The 2007 class had Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry and Marc Gasol all go late and would now be easy top-10 picks. I think we'll see a lot of that from this class when we begin to judge it with NBA experience in a few years.
It will be a year where I'd rather bet with multiple picks in the second half of the first round or even early in the second than with a pick in the seventh or eighth range.
AP: Is landing the first overall pick, and in turn adding John Wall, vital to the Nets ability to turn things around quickly?
CR: It would absolutely help them because the NBA is all about having one of those six or seven superstars, something Wall could become. But both Cousins and Turner would fill needs for the Nets as an athletic big and a pure scoring wing and have a ton of upside to be very good second options on a good team.
The Nets could draft either player and head straight into free agency with much of their current roster in tact, but if they do trade Wall that would precipitate a trade of Devin Harris and I don't think he has a ton of trade value at the moment. It would be a better problem to have, however, to figure out how to rearrange things for Wall.
AP: Working off your gut rather than thinking about all the factors that may come into play, where do you see the following players next season?
CR: We usually have a fairly reliable notion of where the free agent class will end up, but so much of it is dependent on what happens in the playoffs and how one individual decision impacts another. I don't think LeBron James would come to New York unless another free agent also comes and I also don't see Dwyane Wade remaining in Miami unless he can recruit another one. You could see Wade recruit for Miami, strike out and sign with Chicago for instance.
LeBron will be the first domino and I expect everyone to clear out of his way and not really be active until he signs because each player will want his own moment in the free agency sun.
-LeBron James: New York
-Dwyane Wade: Miami
-Joe Johnson: Chicago
-Amare Stoudemire: Miami
-Chris Bosh: New York
-Carlos Boozer: Utah
-Tracy McGrady: LA Clippers
-David Lee: Toronto
-Rudy Gay: New Jersey
-Allen Iverson: Barry Bonds retirement, where he receives no offers. |
