Shut up Stephen A.

The NBA draft on Thursday went according to plan for the most part, here are a few thoughts...

• Seattle--GM Sam Presti and crew get an A+ for their work on draft night. They get a franchise player in KD, another stud in Jeff Green, and two solid bench guys in Wally and Delonte West. However, where does Rashard Lewis fit into this team now? He and Durant are both natural SF's and are very similar in body type. If Durant is quick enough to guard 2's than it works, but I don't think he will be able to now, if ever. So we'll have to see what happens, it seems to me that it would have more sense to move Lewis than Ray Allen, and than KD could step into that SF role immediately.
  
• Portland--Oden was obviously the pick at #1, but what the hell happened with that Zach Randolph trade?! Channing Frye is decent and still improving [11 ppg, 5.5 rbs/gm], but Steve Francis? The guy is 30 years old, scored 11 points and dished out 4 assists a game, while shooting 40% from the field last year... those stats don't exactly jump out at you. Zach Randolph on the other hand, is a stud who averaged 23 and 10 last year, and while he has had off the court issues the Blazers should have gotten a ton more than Frye/Francis.
• Probably the funniest pick--Yi to Milwaukee! I can picture him right now sitting around Milwaukee in the freezing cold wondering what they hell he's supposed to do.
• Chicago--Uchhhh. That was my first thought when I heard all the talk about how the Bulls and Noah were a great fit and that at 9 he would be available. I'll give you the story from the beginning; I've never thought Noah was anything other than a player who hustles extremely well. He can't shoot--his form looks like one of those old two-handed set shots, except he's clearly not trying to shoot a two-handed set shot. He won't be able to handle the league physically yet as he's rail thin, and he doesn't even fit the bill of a "back to the basket" player that the Bulls are sorely lacking. He's an energy guy, not a low post scorer. Why not deal that 9 pick and one of your assets for a low post guy? Like say, Zach Randolph! Now if you're Kevin Pritchard, would you rather have the 9 pick and say, Ben Gordon or Channing Frye and Steve Francis? I would have loved Randolph here, that would have been a great fit--a proven low post scorer, not Noah.
• How much Oden and Durant are we going to see next year on TV? Being stuck out in the Pacific Northwest will be tough in terms of publicity, but with enough nationally televised games hopefully the east-coast media will get enough coverage and we'll be able to see them play plenty next year [even if the games aren't on until 10:30pm]
  
• I feel bad for Jason Smith. The center from Colorado State gets picked by Miami at 20--great! He's thinking "I'm gonna live down in South Beach, hang out with D-Wade and Shaq and live the life down there, awesome!" A few minutes later he is traded to Philadelphia for Daequan Cook. Philadelphia...were there's...um...jeez...that Rocky statue?
• Yi's interview with Stu Scott. I actually stopped listening half way through because I was so embarrassed for Yi. The time I was listening I couldn't understand a word he said--talking to Stu Scott makes it that much more difficult. He and blowhard Stephen A. Smith need to be locked in a barrel and sent adrift on the Atlantic.
  
• The dinner bet between Stephen A. and Dickie V. WOW, can we get Pay-Per-View for that? I don't think there's enough space in any one restaurant for ONE of those guys, let alone both at the same table! I would advise the people sitting near them to bring some foam earplugs.
• Stephen A. is out of control. Does he have voice-immodulation disorder, like Will Ferrell in that SNL skit? The guy can't speak under 75 decibels. Every time he talked I literally turned the volume down on my TV so it would be as if someone were speaking in a normal tone of voice, unbelievable. Besides that, he doesn't even make sense half the time, why does he have a job? I would like to nominate Jim Rome as a third party for the 'barrel in the Atlantic' as well.
• Greg Oden is great, he's my new second favorite player behind Nash. Go to Youtube and watch some interviews with him, he's a legitimately funny guy. He's gonna be great for the league.
• I have to go now, but I want to talk about the Celts trade later

thanks for checking in

Defend the Rock

Condolences to the family of Hep. After an 18-month battle with brain tumors he died Tuesday morning. He is survived by his wife and three children. Terry Hoeppner 1947-2007, he was 59 years old.

To Mamba or not to Mamba?

Kobe Bean Bryant aka The Black Mamba is on the market. After demanding a trade on Stephen A. Smith's radio show and then reiterating his desire to be traded on his website (kb24.com) GM's around the league are scrambling to put together their best packages to make a run at the most talented player on the planet.

Undoubtedly Kobe will not want to go to a team that cannot compete right away, and the teams that have quality spare parts and draft picks to offer are in the best position to deal with the Lakers. So who better than the Chicago Bulls to put together an offer that would appeal to Kobe [who has a no-trade clause and could veto any trade to a small market team that didn't appeal to him] and the Laker front-office as well?

Chicago and Kobe seem like a great fit; it's a major market, the team would be able to compete right away, and the weak Eastern Conference would seemingly be there for the taking. But who to give up in order to get The Mamba? I believe that Ben Gordon is a nice player, but he gives very little on the defensive end and he is undersized to begin with [listed at 6'3'' but probably smaller]--so pairing him with 6'3'' PG Kirk Hinrich is asking for trouble from the teams that have big guards at the 2 [Detroit-Rip, Cleveland-Larry Hugues, Miami- D-wade, etc]. Unlike Kobe, who is not only a great size for 2 [6'6''], not only the greatest scorer on the planet, not only the most competitive, driven player in the league, but do you realize he has been elected to First Team All-Defensive honors 5 times? and second team twice? Sounds like another 6'6'' 2-guard that used to play in Chicago.

So Ben Gordon is expendable. I love Luol Deng. I think he is a sure-fire future All-Star with a great mid-range game, he's athletic, he can get to the basket, he's great in transition, and he has a chance to be a top-notch defensive guy with his quickness and length. Not to mention the fact that he is only 21 years old! This is where it gets tricky...Luol Deng is the type of player who would make this deal work, but do you really want to trade him and effectively blow up the nucleus of a young, still-developing team to trade for Kobe--who for all his talents will be 29 on August 23rd and has already been in the league for 10 years? How long is Kobe going to play for? I could see him playing for another 6 years, before one of two things happens. 1) He becomes mentally fatigued after 15-16 NBA seasons and doesn't want to go through the grind of preparing for and executing a long 82 game schedule. Or the less likely but still probable 2) At 35 Kobe will not be your average 35 year old. He will have endured the highest level of competition for 16 years. With today's training regiments and the level of attention elite athletes pay to their diet I'm not saying Kobe's body will be in some sort of advanced deterioration, but his body may just simply wear out.

If you are John Paxson are you willing to give up on the current team for a probable window of 5-6 years with Kobe to make a run at a championship? To best answer this question let's look at the roster if the Bulls/Lakers pull the trigger on a Gordon-Deng-Ben Wallace [for cap purposes]-9th pick in 07 draft for Kobe-Radmanovic-19th pick in 07 draft trade. Starters: Hinrich, Kobe, Nocioni, Ty Thomas, any one of a few guys [draft pick--take a flyer on Aaron Gray or Josh McRoberts or someone like Thaddeus Young if he's still there at 19, PJ Brown, Malik Allen, a guy from Lithuania with an absolutely unpronounceable name--Martynas Andriuskevicius]. I know this leaves them woefully inept at C, but in the Eastern Conference that really doesn't matter. The Bench: Radmonavic, Duhon, Sefolosha, any of the big men who don't start, Adrian Griffin, Victor Kryhapa, 19th draft pick.

Another option: Lets look at the roster w/o Kobe, but instead what if they traded Gordon and 9-pick for a big guard like Jason Richardson or crunch-time scorer with size like Paul Pierce? I like a Ben Gordan-9th pick-cash for Paul Pierce deal; here's the roster--Starters: Hinrich, Pierce, Deng, Ty Thomas, Wallace. Bench: Nocioni, Thabo, Duhon, PJ Brown, Malik Allen, Sweetney, Griffin.

One other thing factoring into this equation before I make my decision; Ben Wallace is clearly already on the decline. He'll be 33 in September and he averaged 6.4pts, 10.7rbs, and 2blks per game and was voted All-Defensive second team. Good but not worth 60 million/4 years. Wallace will be gone in 3 seasons after his contract expires, but by then another center may already be lined up-we can't know.

Drum roll pleeeeeease...ok Johnny Pax, let's roll the dice. Gordon-Deng-Wallace-9th pick for Kobe-Radmonovic-19th pick. I'm not fluent enough with the NBA salary cap rules to know if this is even possible, maybe one of my more informed readers can do the math. Let's get Kobe, pick up a center and a SF in the draft or through free agency and put out Hinrich, Kobe, Nocioni, Ty Thomas, and whoever, with Radmonovic, Thabo, Duhon, and PJ Brown, and draft picks on the bench. Let's get the most exciting, dominant player in the game and let's win a championship [or two or three]. Let's bring Kobe to Chicago.

One more thought: In 3 years when Wallace's contract is up and he retires I would rather go to war with Hinrich, Kobe, Noc, Ty Thomas, and the new center and virtually the same bench; as opposed to Hinrich, Gordan, Deng, Ty Thomas, and the new center.

In the beginning...

The only people who are reading this already know me fairly well, so I'm not going to run down my life story; but I will tell you that [like me] this blog is going to cover a wide array of topics--sports (when I feel like doing some research), movies, books, fashion, dogs, religion, and hell, whatever else I feel like. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for taking the time to check it out. Feel free to comment on anything and I will do my best to clear up any confusing bits and answer any questions.