Today marks the first official day of the offseason. Free agency is wide open. Last night, Baron Davis and Etlon Brand both opted out of their contracs creating league-wide speculation (mostly westcoast interest, with a little bit of South Beach and brotherly love). 

The Lakers have two significant free agents in Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf. I will be starting with these two players and working my way through the entire Lakers roster giving them grades one their performances this year. 

The first entry is Sasha. 

There is that faction of people that will “diss” Sasha for getting “burned” by Ray Allen in game 4, the game that effectively sunk the Lakers championship hopes.

While he did get fooled by Jesus (“burned” is in quotes because Sasha played in-your-grill defense for 20 seconds, and then misjudged one juke. Let’s not forget, as I did before the Finals, Jesus Shuttlesworth, yeah, he got game.), it wasn’t that one play that cost the Lakers a championship.

Continue reading "Sasha"

I’m scrapping the grades for now. It’s a used up idea and too many other blogs do the same thing. Plus, it’s really too subjective for my tastes. So, moving forward, there is talk of perhaps trading Odom for Ron Artest and the deadweight contract of Kenny Thomas. While one cannot rule out a bounce-back effort from Thomas, at 6-7 he’s undersized at the 4 and would seal the fate of Turiaf going elsewhere.

And, I like Turiaf. On my team that is.

Kurt from the blog, “Forum Blue and Gold” had this insightful information on why he believed Artest is not a great fit. http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2008/07/05/lamar-odom-ron-artest/

While I agree with a lot of what he is saying, I can’t agree that Artest wouldn’t be a major upgrade to the defense. What Kurt fails to recognize in his blog (it’s a great blog don't get me wrong) is that Artest is usually matched up against the opposing players best player. That means he’s guarding Kobe. He’s guarding Paul Pierce. He’s guarding Lebron. Sure, Lamar takes some of those small forward duties occasionally, but as the starting power forward this year, he was usually banging with bigger guys.

Continue reading "No Thanks Artest"

Let’s not be too harsh to judge Chris Wallace. The more and more I study the Gasol trade, the better and better I think the Grizz actually made out.

Numbers tell a story.

Marc Gasol’s PER in Europe was 27.5. He averaged 16.2 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.3 spg, and 1.8 bpg in only 33 minutes while shooting a blistering 65 percent. Those per 40-minute numbers: 19 and 10 with over 2 blocks. The rebounding is still not where he should have it. He should be grabbing closer to 11 or 12 just based on his height alone. But, apparently he’s heard the criticism about his brother, and spent a great deal of time in the weight room. This kid’s a beast. 7-1 and probably closer to 275 than his listed 265 weight. He’s 23-years-old, so he’s got a couple of years on some of the other rookies, but those years have been spent perfecting technique and game smarts against polished professionals (not college teenagers). He shoots a scalding 37.5 percent from beyond the arc.

Continue reading "Chris Wallace is Smart!"

Bringing Marcus Camby into the fold, and to a lesser extent letting Corey Maggette walk, catapults the Clippers into the upper echelon of the best defensive squads in the league. A frontline of Camby and Kaman is not only large, but also block happy. Remember, Camby is only two years removed from his Defensive Player of the year award, and, statistically, actually had a better season last year.

Sure, he’s 34, but he will no longer have to always bang against the other teams’ centers, nor will he be the only starting presence out on the floor who can play defense.

I’ve gone over Eric Gordon’s physical nature and his penchant for playing defense and Baron Davis, when he wants to, can be a lockdown, physical, elite defender as well. Thornton has some issues, but if the team chooses to re-sign Quentin Ross (which is now a possibility due to the Camby signing), this team has got itself some JB and Kyle…Tenacious D.

Continue reading "Camby and Kaman"

Okay, first things first, been going through a few things these past two weeks so sorry this hasn’t been updated for a while. Thank you to all of those people out there who are still checking the site out. I promise that the updates will start coming more frequently (I’m shooting for at least 3 times a week) despite the fact that the NBA is in its offseason.

On to some news. First with the Clips. The Clips lost out on Kelenna Azubuike when the Warriors matched their 3 year $3 million offer. That stings a bit, but there are other options out there (Maurice Evans). Okay, so none of the other options are super tantalizing, but the positive note is that the Clippers were willing to spend their cap space and that they had actually zeroed in on a kid with talent and upside.

Continue reading "When Europe Calls"

So, apparently the Clippers have gone out and signed Ricky Davis to a multi-year contract. That's Ricky Buckets to those in the know, and it's buckets because that's what Ricky likes to do. Shoot and score.

Now, there's some good to this and some bad to this. The good is that the Clippers are amassing talent. Ricky Davis, for all of his shortcomings, is only 28 years old and has a deadly 3 point shot, is super athletic, and can legitimately play three positions (pg, sg, sf). The position flexibility will help ease ball handling when Eric Gordon plays. Ricky's averaged as many as 20 points a few years back with the Cavs, and two years ago, he averaged around 19.

Sure, last year, he played for the woeful Heat and had a down year like everyone else on that squad. Shaq even threw him and then teammate Chris Quinn (you know, the dude who looks like he's 13) under the bus in order to make himself feel better with his "real" NBA basketball teammates in Phoenix...those "real" teammates who helped Shaq get eliminated in the first round. But that's neither here nor there. Point is Shaq threw him under the bus, which shows some red flags about his character, but then, Shaq throws all of his ex teammates under the bus. So, take it for what it is...

Continue reading "Bucks for Buckets"

Man, what an offseason. Who would’ve thought that after the whirlwind season and trade deadline we just experienced, we would have an equally crazy summer?

In one year, we’ve seen moved: The Kid and Jesus, Pau, Shaq, Bibby, J Kidd, Big Ben, Wally World, Baron Davis, Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Jermaine O’Neal, Marcus Camby, Richard Jefferson, and T.J. Ford.

Whew. All of those guys, save Maggette and Ford, have been, at the very least, all stars. You can even argue that Corey and T.J. are all star level talents.

And that list doesn’t even include all of the other moves from guys like Larry Hughes (last year) to James Jones (this year) to the handful of defectors leaving for Europe, most notably Josh Childress. And, the guys going to Europe include a bunch of really talented players. Carlos Delfino, Juan Carlos Navarro, Jorge Garbajosa and most recently Nenad Krstic could all play.

Continue reading "Bad Dude = Bad News"