Small Market Love in Winston Salem

Last weekend, Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets held his third Winston-Salem Charity weekend in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The purpose of the charity event is to raise money for Chris Paul's foundation and of course to spend some time giving back to the community. You see Winston-Salem is Chris Paul's hometown.

Why couldn't he be from Bolivar, Tennessee? I would have loved to have something like this happen in my hometown.

Paul's charity event was kicked off with a concert featuring rapper/actor Ludacris on Thursday and followed up by the dedication of a learning center and the unveiling of 10 new computers at the local Boys and Girls Club on Friday.



On Saturday there was a charity pro-am bowling tournament, a sanctioned PBA event that teamed up some of the biggest names in small market NBA with actual professional bowlers.

Participating in the bowling event was none other than Paul himself, Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies, Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat, and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma Thunder. That's a heavy hitting lineup.

According to Sean Deveney/Tom Ziller of 'The Sporting Blog', the full event will be shown on ESPN in October so be on the lookout for that.

It's good to see people giving back to their communities.

It's even better to see these kinds of things happening in small towns like Winston-Salem and more importantly to the Jungle, involving our own small market NBA heroes.

Big ups to Chris Paul, Lebron James and everyone else involved in helping Paul make his event successful.

Title Talk in Cleveland

From what I've been reading via the web and other outlets, many think that the Cleveland Cavaliers could be legitimate threats to win the NBA title this year.

Of course any team with Lebron James on it has a chance to do something special each and every time they make it to the post-season. And we know they can win the Eastern Conference. They proved that back in 2007. With a lesser roster. But assuming this team does make it out of the East, are its newly acquired pieces strong enough to beat a Western Conference opponent?

I mean they did get swept by the Western Conference Champion San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals in 2007.

Keyword. Swept. Memphis Grizzlie fans could tell you how important that word is when it comes to letting you know exactly where your team stands in terms of its legitimacy.

You see Memphis is 0-12 in NBA playoff history. That's the worst post-season record in all of Pro sports. That basically means they never belonged there in the first place. If you can't win games once you get to the playoffs you should stay home.

Of course Cleveland had to have a great team just to be able to beat the Detroit Pistons and to represent the East against the Spurs, but being swept by San Antonio to me is proof that they were not REAL 'threats' to win the NBA title that season.

Yes they were contenders in the sense that if Duncan, Parker or Ginobili had gotten injured in the Finals, they very well could have been in that series and possibly even won it.

But I don't think anyone believed the Cavaliers would beat a healthy San Antonio Spur team in the NBA finals.

Which brings us back to this year's team.

They have the majority of players returning from last season's team that took the NBA Champion Boston Celtics to 7 games in the Eastern Conference Finals.

For years they have wanted to add a starting PG that could score, play off the ball (allowing Lebron to dominate it) and show consistency from 3pt. range.

For the past couple of seasons they have gotten huge play at this position from the surprising and possibly overachieving Daniel Gibson, their second round draft pick in 2006.

Still wanting to upgrade the position they have in the past tried to swing a deal for Mike Bibby only to last season settle for a player that would help serve as a one-two punch along with Gibson in Delonte West. The addition of West would pay off as the Cavs would make it all the way to the NBA Finals, an improvement on the previous season's outcome where they lost in the second round to the Detroit Pistons.

While Gibson and West are both very solid players, they are not ideal for the full-time starting PG position on a championship team so still wanting to upgrade the PG position, the Cavs this offseason swung a deal with the Milwaukee Bucks for Mo Williams.

On paper this should be a big upgrade for Cleveland.

They also signed a veteran big in Lorenzen Wright to provide leadership in the locker room and to help off bench. They still have their inside scoring big man Illgauskas, an old but still effective front court defender in Ben Wallace and one of the best bench bigs in the NBA in Anderson Varejao.

While their roster is much improved, I still think they will need to boost their SG position in order to be thinking title in Cleveland.

Right now they only have Sasha Pavlovic and Tarence Kinsey at that position.

While they are both good young players, they won't be winning any titles giving those guys the majority of the minutes at shooting guard.

They really only need a slight improvement at this position to be taken serious OUTSIDE of the Eastern Conference.

It's a given they can beat the Washington Wizards come playoff time. I mean they do every year.

Their roster has improved from last year after having taken an aged Boston team to 7 games so it's possible they could even dethrone the Celtics.

But what will happen when they have to face San Antonio, Houston, or the Lakers in the NBA finals?

If they don't want to become the victims of another Finals let down, then they will need to address the SG spot.

Because in order to be a CHAMPIONSHIP team you have to be built for the entire journey.

You can't scream victory unless you are at the very top of the mountain.

Bobcats Lose out on Landry

It took the Houston Rockets less than 24 hours to match the offer sheet outstanding on restricted free agent forward Carl Landry.

The offer sheet had been extended to him by the Charlotte Bobcats the day before.

Worth approximately 9 million dollars over the next 3 seasons, the offer from the Bobcats was right at the assumed market value for the free agent.

A second round pick in 2007 out of Purdue, Landry burst onto the NBA scene as a rookie last season averaging over 8 ppg and nearly 5 rebounds per game in 17 mpg. Shooting a very impressive 61% from the field.

He was able to seize on an opportunity provided to him when the Rockets lost Yao Ming for the remainder of the season back in February and proved to be a very serviceable frontcourt player.
With the NBA salary cap for the 2008-2009 season set at $58.68 million, the offer signed by Landry from the Bobcats would seem to be the most they could have offered under the current NBA cap restriction as Charlotte's current salary cap figure is right around $55 million according to Hoopshype (which has the most up to date salary numbers I can find for the Bobcats).

Extending the offer to Landry made alot of sense for Bobcats management as the Rockets are currently over the luxury tax with their current salary and there stood a very good chance that they would not match because of the implications.

Having matched the Rockets will now not only pay Landry an average of 3 million dollars over the next 3 seasons but, for at least this upcoming season, they will have to pay an additional 3 million dollars in luxury tax penalties as a consequence of retaining Landry's services.

I applaud the Bobcats for seizing on an opportunity to snag a good player and doing as much as they thought prudent (spending up to the cap) to try and add another serviceable player for Larry Brown to work with next season.

Unfortunately, this big catch was snatched off the hook by Rockets GM Daryl Morey.

Bucks SHOULD Get In

Yep.

I'm gonna do something I don't normally do. Make a prediction.

You see to me making predictions are a waste of time. Especially those made by people who aren't skilled or use some kind of system to make them or get paid to tell them to you. People like myself.

If my prediction is right, then so what. If I'm wrong. Then so what to the Nth power.

But since this is a blog and that's what 90% of blogs are constructed to do (waste time), I will make a prediction here today.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that the Milwaukee Bucks will make the post-season this year.

Earlier today, while wondering if the trade of Bobby Simmons and Yi Jianlian to New Jersey for Richard Jefferson would ultimately be looked at as more than just a blah trade for the Bucks, I also began to take note of their other roster moves AFTER that trade.

Don't get me wrong, RJ is a good player who puts up good solid numbers at probably the 3rd most important position in basketball (behind PG and C), SF. He runs the floor and finishes as well as any player in the league. He plays defense, can handle the ball and from all indications seems to be a very good teammate.

But he does not come without his weaknesses. Of these probably his outside shot is his biggest. He's only a career 33% shooter from downtown. You would ideally want your SF to have better numbers than that from long range.

He has played his entire career with Jason Kidd. How will he play with another PG that maybe doesn't lead the break as well as the Hall of Famer which really helps to emphasize RJ's strengths?

RJ has also been given the tag of 'injury prone' due to missing significant chunks of games 2 out of the last 4 seasons. His most recent stint was during the 2006-2007 season where he missed 27 games following ankle surgery. RJ did however show that he was completely back by playing in all 82 games last year and having one of his best statistical seasons of his career averaging 22, 4 and 3.

But even this also emphasized another one of his potential weaknesses. Does he help your team win ball games?

Despite having one of his best seasons in 2007-2008, the New Jersey Nets finished 34-48 and that Nets team was not devoid of talent.

Now this is as much an indictment against his then teammate Vince Carter as it is RJ, but right now if you ask some whether RJ can take a team to the next level, they will tell you no.

I do not fully believe that to be the case. He will need help to do it but I think he can be a piece.

To me he has firmly cemented his value in the NBA as a premium 3rd option on a very very good basketball team. A team capable of winning a championship.

What I like most for Milwaukee is what they have done SINCE trading for Jefferson. They gave up a very good young scoring PG in Maurice Williams opting for a PG with lesser talent in Luke Ridnour but that is more team oriented and will defer the scoring to Jefferson, Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut (who both look to be borderline number 2 options themselves).

In addition to acquiring Adrian Griffin in the deal for Ridnour, this offseason they signed Tyronn Lue, Francisco Elson, and Malik Allen. These would seemingly represent the veterans that any and all playoff teams need both in the locker room and on the floor.

They have the bench for the job.

A re-focused Charlie Villanueva (who is also in a contract year) and solid role players like Charlie Bell and Ramon Sessions will play a huge factor in the level of the team's success.

They definitely have the coaching staff.

HUGE huge fan of both Scott Skiles and Lionel Hollins as coaches.

So why not the Bucks right?

Here is my prediction:

Pencil in the following teams in the East for the playoffs -

Detroit, Boston, Cleveland, Washington, *Toronto, Philadelphia and Orlando

That leaves one spot open (potentially two as I see Toronto needing to be completely healthy all season long to make it, thus the asterisk) and it can and will be Milwaukee's. If Toronto is out..slide in the Heat. But the Bucks will finish in the top 8.

The Atlanta Hawks have done nothing with their roster to make me think that they will be strong enough to make a return trip to the playoffs.

The Bobcats don't have enough pieces and the Heat still have no PG or center in addition to there being too many question marks as to how they will mesh. Both of these teams are at least one year away from being playoff contenders in my opinion.

So there you have it. Prediction made. Your time wasted.

That last playoff spot is yours for the taking Milwaukee.

Go out and play your game and you should get in this year.

A Bench Fit for a King

As I combed through the roster of the Sacramento Kings (nothing else to do at work today), slotting players based on where they project in the lineup this year....starter or bench player, I could not help but wonder if the Sacramento Kings have not assembled one of the best young benches in the NBA.

Projected starters for Sactown.

PG - Beno Udrih
SG - Kevin Martin
SF - John Salmons
PF - Mikki Moore
C - Brad Miller

With a trade having sent Ron Artest to Houston, John Salmons becomes the full-time starter at small forward for the Kings.

Starting the more defensive-minded Mikki Moore alongside your best center, Brad Miller makes the most sense for your frontcourt if you are head coach Reggie Theus. Moore's strengths as a decent shot-blocking PF that runs the floor well and is an active defender can be emphasized alongside the I-Can-Do-Summa-Everything-Including-Shoot-3s game of the King's number one big man Brad Miller.

Sacramento's biggest problem in their frontcourt though will be that their starters are too old and their bench is either too young right now or they suck.

It's no secret they would STILL love to move Kenny Thomas (not as desperate now though as in the past) and that Shelden Williams....just has little to no NBA game. So when I refer to the quality of Sacramento's bench, please, do not think that I am referring to these two.

I am moreso referring to their newly acquired young talent in Jason Thompson, who they drafted seemingly out of nowhere in June, and Donte Green, who they officially acquired in August from the Rockets in the Ron Artest deal.

Jason Thompson, whom the Kings selected with the 12th overall pick, is relatively unkown having played at Rider during his college years but has all the tools you would want in an NBA PF and the college stats to back it up. The size, the length, the versatility. The double-doubles. As a late bloomer and despite being a Senior when drafted he still exudes enough tangibles and talent that would hint at the potential to show much improvement down the line.

He was a bit of a risky pick because of all of that but from what I've seen it's a good risk by the Kings as they are looking towards rebuilding and Thompson will have time to develop his game there. Even with his limited experience, I could see him supplanting Shelden Williams off the bench behind Mikki Moore by season's end. Because Shelden Williams sucks.

The standout of the Kings bench however would be non other than Donte Green.



Green is your prototypical small forward with a scoring ability on a level of Tracy McGrady's in my opinion. That's who he reminds me of. He's almost unguardable. He has also drawn comparisons to Rashard Lewis or Marvin Williams. I do think he can be better than those two if he so chooses. He will however have to work on a few weaknesses. Mainly his defensive focus and his feel for the game. Offensively there is nothing this kid cannot do. Sky is the limit for Mr. Green.

You factor in the returning bench play of Francisco Garcia (who will be playing for a new contract), a great pickup at the PG position in Bobby Brown, and another year of NBA experience for Spencer Hawes and Quincy Douby and I would not be surprised at all to see Sacramento's bench perform extremely well and make a statement in the league as soon as this year.

Spurs Finally Sign Hill

Ok so the Spurs signed 1st round pick George Hill to his contract yesterday.

That's only 12 days before the season starts.

All I can say is...about time.

Now here's to hoping that I can get this blog up and running by the start of the season.

Spurs Sign the Other Stoudamire

The Spurs have signed combo guard Salim Stoudamire, formerly of the Atlanta Hawks (where he averaged close to 6 points per game in a little over 11 minutes this past season), and I must say as an outsider that I am a bit puzzled regarding this signing for San Antonio.

Stoudamire is an undersized combo guard who's biggest asset is probably his 3pt. range (which didn't look as good last year as in years past). If you are a team like San Antonio you can never have enough shooters to knock down shots when the opponent is double-teaming Tim Duncan, but what else does Salim Stoudamire bring to the table?

He's not a good defender mostly because of his size and lack of physical tools to be of much help defensively and he's yet another player in the NBA that has been tagged as a malcontent during his stint with the Hawks.

Grant it, it would be frustrating to most any athlete to be associated with that Hawks organization the past few seasons but nonetheless, he acquired that label.

And if you are the Spurs, didn't you sign Roger Mason in the offseason to take the place of one aged and departing Stoudamire (Damon) already?

I hailed this signing when I first read about it.

I thought he was a perfect fit for San Antonio.

He is a combo guard capable of pointing points on the board and has already proven to be a capable runner of a team from the PG position. Much more so than Salim ever has. At 6'5" he has the ideal size you would want from a combo guard. Mason also is a great shooter from downtown making almost 40% of his attempts last season. That's significantly better than Stoudamire last season.

The Spurs currently have a backcourt that includes your starter Tony Parker, a quality backup Jacque Vaughn, and a 1st round draft pick in George Hill at the PG spot in addition to Mason.

Now they add Stoudamire to the mix when their frontcourt is what seemingly needed more attention as Tim Duncan is on the decline, you have a dinosaur in Kurt Thomas playing next to him, and you lost another dinosaur at the 4 in Robert Horry. Oberto's a very solid player but he's not going to step up his game enough to make a significant impact. Tiago Splitter's not coming over. Mahinmi's not ready.

In my opinion the Spurs need more frontcourt help than guard help and should be looking to fill that need as opposed to one on the perimeter.

Even more specific, they need youth at the 4/5 slot. An energy guy that can put up some points off the bench would be ideal for San Antonio.

Stoudamire would seem to be slotted somewhere behind Manu Ginobili and Michael Finley (and possibly even Mason) at the SG spot but if they were deadset on signing a perimeter player I would think that they could have found a better player out there that would have more to offer in addition to some shooting (perhaps some defense as well as Finley is old and Ginobili is taking a toll with injuries) and also one that would come without the label of 'malcontent'.

Juan Dixon is still out there to be had. Not the best defender but better than Stoudamire.

Fred Jones. Although he's not a 'shooter' he can make shots and has good all-around game.

They both also bring more experience to the table.

Perhaps this is just a move to fill out the roster.

Or perhaps George Hill not being signed this late into the offseason is not a good indicator of San Antonio expecting to have him signed by the start of the season and Stoudamire is the beneficiary.

Finally, San Antonio could be setting themselves up to make a minor trade to help out in the frontcourt between now and the start of the season.

Not likely but RC Buford has earned the benefit of the doubt over his tenure so I will give him that and wait and see how this latest move pans out for San Antonio.

Beasley Finally Gets His Paddling

Ok...let me first say that I fully recognize that this web photo is most likely the product of a photoshop done by some kid in Saginaw. Pick one. Michigan. Texas. It doesn't matter. I just like the name Saginaw.

But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post it because it's just TOOOO relevant to the topic.

ESPN is reporting that Michael Beasley of the Miami Heat has been fined a whopping $50,000 for his involvement in the incident involving his teammate Mario Chalmers and Memphis' Darrell Arthur at the NBA Rookie Transition Program earlier this month.

All I can say is it's about damn time.

Anyone who is familiar with Michael Beasley's propensity to be a prankster and his seemingly preparedness to 'mess up' as he put it in this pre-draft interview conducted by Matt Kamalsky of Draftexpress.com, would have known from day ONE that his role in this incident was a lot bigger than initially reported.

I knew it. Yeah I said it. I knew it. I said as much the very next day on numerous NBA messageboards.

The fact is there was the smell of marijuana in the room.

The fact is there was another person in the bathroom who would not unlock the bathroom door when hotel management and security gained access to Darrell Arthur's room that night. That person was also said to be flushing the toilet repeatedly.

When hotel management entered the room, Darrell Arthur and Mario Chalmers were both present with at least two women, so it's quite clear where their person was from the get-go. Michael Beasley's name has been linked, although discreetly, to this incident since it first happened but no one has been able to clearly defined his role in it.

Yet today we read, HE has received the heftiest fine of all 3 players.

Chalmers and Arthur both received $20,000 fines.

Sounds a bit suspicious.

Their reasoning is Beasley's failure to cooperate. I don't believe that is fully the case.

Perhaps Chalmers and Arthur are pressuring the NBA to investigate this further because they feel they were treated unfairly.

Not that they were completely innocent or did nothing wrong but before this fine was announced, they were the only two players punished in this incident. And it's a certainty that Beasley was present.

I mean it is a bit early in their careers to be taking the fall for a future NBA superstar isn't it?

The NBA and David Stern aka Napoleon reacted too quickly regarding this incident. First by becoming so enraged that he dismissed Arthur and Chalmers from the program and not Michael Beasley. He could have purposefully omitted Beasley. Could have been a lack of information. Either way, it was too quick a decision and obviously a mistake. In this scenario you either remove all three or none at all.

As a result, Chalmers and Arthur will both have to repeat the program next season.

They even took it one step further by completely absolving Beasley from the incident intially and now you are fining him 50 G's.

Chalmers and Arthur both apologized for their wrong-doing in the matter, particularly for violating the visitation policy by having the women there and having erred in judgement considering the circumstances involved, but they BOTH denied any use of marijuana.

I have no problem believing Darrell Arthur in relation to the stickiest of the icky and I also lean towards believing Chalmers' denial as well. So that would point to Michael Beasley as the potential partaker of the green leaf. That is of course unless the women were the only smokers in the group, which while possible is unlikely in my opinion.

The NBA, if they were to pursue it further, would only be able to verify whether Chalmers and Arthur were being truthful by drug testing them, but according to league rules specified in this article by ESPN, drug testing can only be peformed during the season and this incident did not happen during the season.

I suppose that after the incident they did gain probable cause to test them after they were caught around it, but what if they had tested Arthur and Chalmers and not Michael Beasley? That of course would have drawn immediate criticism.

Or what if all 3 were tested and both Chalmers and Arthur tested negative and Beasley's test came back positive as the infamous flusher's most likely would. He would then become the primary focus of the incident and as one of the future stars of the league, you would think a very image sensitive NBA would try and keep things like this from becoming mainstream media fluff as much as it can.

That's why I believe it only ended up with fines for all the players. No suspensions.

But they should have given Beasley's sooner as it was obvious to anyone with a brain that he was most likely the main perpetrator in the entire incident.

All in all it looks as if this incident has worked itself out and will ultimately go away. Cast aside as no big deal. I just hope that all the parties involved have learned a lesson from this.

Especially the NBA because I think they committed some errors in their handling of this incident. Next time it may not be something so trivial as marijuana and girls.

Jefferson Sprains MCL

Quick blurb:

The Pioneer Press is reporting that Minnesota Timberwolves forward Al Jefferson has suffered a mild strain of his medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee and is expected to be sidelined for 2-3 weeks. The injury was confirmed via an MRI on Wednesday.

If that timeline holds, he would be available and healthy by the start of the NBA regular season.

No worries.

Good thing his name's not......Gilbert Arenas.

Nene is From Brazil

Is that about the best thing he has going for him now?

Or is it the 43 million and change owed to him by the Denver Nuggets over the next 4 seasons.

Hmmm. Let's see.

43 million dollars or......

A country full of these?




















Tough choice. But those would be some great options to have.

Focus. Focus.

Back to Nene.

He did beat testicular cancer. That takes a lot of fortitude.

Plus one for the big fella.

And he does go by one name. Nene. That's something a lot of people wish they were cool enough to do. So I guess all in all, he has a lot to be thankful for.

But what about the Denver Nuggets? What about Nugget fans?

I know it's not Thanksgiving YET but isn't it about time that some of Nene's thankfulness blossomed in the form of production that could help the Nuggets have a solid 2008-2009 NBA season?

A few things have changed since he last suited up for Denver.

They have added the 'Great Renaldo Balkman', the infamous first round pick of Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks. Nuggets' brass could be looking at Balkman as a move to replace the production and grit of Eduardo Najera at half the cost, being that Najera was up for a new contract and has since signed a 4 year, 12 million dollar deal with the New Jersey Nets.

They also made a move that could essentially be looked as a downgrade by trading Marcus Camby to the Clippers to try and save some money, and opting to fill his position with a guy who has a history with the organization in Chris 'Birdman' Andersen but hasn't played consistent NBA basketball in over 2 and a half years thanks to his violation of the NBA's drug policy. And even when he was in the league, throughout his career he's been nothing more than an energy guy off the bench more known for his athleticism (which he showcased in NBA Slam Dunk contests back in 2004 and 2005) and his appeal as a 'white boy with hops'.

This is without a doubt a downgrade considering you give up your best defender and front-court anchor in Marcus Camby. And it was also a trade that, according to the Denver Post, Nene was none too thrilled to see go down.

What does this all mean for Nene?

Well for one, I hope it means that they have faith that he's going to be healthy this upcoming season because they will need him in the lineup with only Kenyon Martin and Steven Hunter as their only other signficant bigs. And let's just say these guys aren't the toughest when it comes to being available to play and staying healthy.

This also slots him into the full time starting Center position, which at his size, is doable although he is also effective at the PF slot. It may be better for him long-term being that his skillset is more suited for the 5 in my opinion.

More importantly, it would also indicate that the Nuggets organization is all but insisting that Nene steps up and earn his pay because the way they have their roster structured now, if they do not get solid production from him, then that team could be in shambles by December.

They are pretty much sending a signal to George Karl and his staff that they will have to find a different way from how they operated in the past to get the job done . If they can get back to the playoffs this year, then you are without a doubt looking at a legit Coach of the Year candidate in George Karl.

But if they don't, and Nene doesn't produce, I'm not quite sure what this could mean for the future of the Denver Nuggets.

So How Goes it Pacer Fans?

You just shipped the guy who has been the face of your franchise for the past 8 seasons off to Canada in Jermaine O'Neal, ushering in the official start of the Danny Granger era in Indianapolis.

Your team was very active in the offseason having participated in several summer blockbuster moves that netted you 7 players. Don't ask me why Rasho Nesterovic is not in this picture. Maybe he had problems with his ....um Passport. Yeah. That's it. We'll blame it on airport security.



Despite those moves you still have three fairly undesireable contracts on your hands in the form of Jamaal Tinsley, Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and Troy Murphy.

As I see it the Pacers are most likely stuck with Tinsley. At best I could see them moving Jamaal in a deal that would include them taking back a bad contract from some other team that is possibly a year shorter, but no more. If that opportunity presented itself then I think the Pacers would jump at the chance to move him, now having T.J. Ford as their starter. But in what looks to be a fiscally conservative NBA for the 2008-2009 season, I don't see it happening unless a team gets desperate enough to offer up one of their own semi-bad contracts for the injury prone PG. And for that level of desperation to set in around the league would warrant an injury before the trade deadline to a team with playoff aspirations in my opinion.

Both Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and Troy Murphy are fairly productive players but both overpaid. With that said, they may have some suitors at some point if a team is willing to take on a bit more salary to get either of them to fill a need. For instance the Memphis Grizzlies are in need of rebounding and a starter at the PF position. I could see them offering up something for Murphy to plug in as their starter with talks of the Knick deal that would have sent Zach Randolph to Memphis now having cooled. Especially if the Grizzlies could still move Marko Jaric or Darko Milicic in the process.

Murphy might be an ideal candidate for this type of move as he is a big man that puts up decent numbers and because of that has value in the leauge. Plus he's only 28 years old and his contract doesn't include huge increases.

A deal I like with Memphis:

Troy Murphy/Shawne Williams/Josh McRoberts/2010 2nd round pick to Memphis

Darko Milicic/Greg Buckner/Hakim Warrick to Indiana

This helps both teams. Memphis gets more rebounding out of their starting PF and Indiana sheds some payroll.

They also get two useful pieces in Warrick and Milicic to try and build with alongside T.J. Ford, Brandon Rush, Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert.

Even though...yes, Darko is pretty much damaged goods, he has value in that he only has one more year after this one on his contract, which should be appealing to Indiana.

They could be sitting pretty as early as 2010 from a cap perspective and Warrick might fair better next to a couple of big men with real size in Roy Hibbert and Jeff Foster.

As far as the Pacers future, I would feel better about it if they had kept Jerryd Bayless.

I think he has star potential in the NBA. On a Gilbert Arenas level.

On a team that desperately needs a talent upgrade, you take one of the most talented wing players in the draft and trade him for a guy in Brandon Rush who should be a very solid NBA player but does not have the ceiling that Jerryd Bayless has.

I hope they don't look back and regret that trade in 5 years.

Here's hoping Larry Bird got one right this time.

Does OKC Make Memphis Look Bad?

What does the Oklahoma City Thunder having sold out their season ticket packages (13,000 of them) in a mere 5 days, mean to the Memphis Grizzlies?

Let's take a visit back to 2001. The inaugural season of the newly relocated Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis.

Michael Heisley is dead set on relocating his franchise, which was reportedly expected to lose $40 million dollars the 2000-2001 season, from Canada to the U.S.

The list of potential suitors at the time included New Orleans, Las Vegas, St. Louis, Louisville, and Anaheim but Memphis became the favorite after a group of Memphis investors offered to buy up to 49% of the Grizzlies and officials promised that public funds would be used to build a new $250 million downtown arena.

With a very lucrative deal secured, Michael Heisley immediately began to make plans to move the team to Memphis and the NBA approved the move in July of 2001.

After an initial report in the Memphis Business Journal that commitments for season ticket sales were doing well, the Memphis Grizzlies had to start selling 11-game 'power pack' tickets to try and move units. According to an archive found at RealGM, the Grizzlies season ticket sales had stalled at the 7,500 mark.

That is HALF of what the Thunder sold in just 5 days.

Season ticket sales for the Grizzlies had went on sale in May and they could only muster 7,500 season ticket purchases in 4 months.

That is not good.

Not when such huge financial commitments had just been made to Michael Heisley and the Memphis Grizzlies by bringing them here.

Both by Pitt Hyde and by the City of Memphis (and its tax payers), because of the City's agreement to use public money to build a new arena.

Now there could have been external factors involved in such low sales in the Grizzlies' case and such high sales in the Thunder's.

Oklahoma City in 2006, did have a higher median income than what Memphis had back as late as 1999 . So that means a bit deeper pocket for the Thunder to dig into.

Memphis also has a higher poverty rate than OKC.

OKC has a bit more star power in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook than we had in Pau Gasol and Jason Williams.

Finally, it had been widely speculated for over two years that Oklahoma City would eventually get an NBA team after the love they showed the post-Katrina New Orleans Hornets in supporting them financially.

So not only was this a good indicator of potential success if they were to get a team, the citizens of Oklahoma had much more time to prepare for the arrival of their team, save money and do other things necessary to be ready to make the commitment of purchasing tickets. The Seattle SuperSonics have been the property of Clay Bennett's group for over 2 years now.

Due to Michael Heisley's reluctance to stay in Canada any longer, the Grizzlies were rushed to Memphis and the city needed to step up almost immediately to fork over hundreds/thousands of dollars to support a brand new product.

Not only that, it was still unsure until sometime in May whether we would be buying season tickets to the Grizzlies or the Hornets as they both had applied for relocation here. So they had been marketing ticket sales without any endorsements from any NBA players. And, to top it off, there was no pricing structure finalized early on to help fans in deciding how to properly spend their money and incorporate such an expense into their budgets.

On the flip side, Memphis is a larger city, is more metro and has a much stronger corporate base which is very significant in professional sports.

As a fan of the Memphis Grizzlies, I for one just hope that the lack luster activity that we saw 7 years ago when the Grizzlies moved to Memphis and what we now see with the Thunder's move to OKC, isn't a further indictment on Memphis as a 'Sports Town' and more importantly, not another event that we could look back on to predict the eventual demise of the Grizzlies and the NBA in Memphis.

If you take a look at floundering ticket sales through two losing seasons over the past 5 years and what some would term mediocre fan support even while the team was winning, then you have to come away feeling a bit...uneasy.

Thunder Fans Making Early Noise With their Wallets

It is being reported via a press release obtained by RealGM that the Oklahoma City Thunder have sold out their available allotment of season tickets for the upcoming 2008-2009 NBA season. In only five days.

The Thunder had 13,000 season tickets of which they were allowing would be season ticket holders to purchase, keeping the remainder (some 4,000 tickets) available for single game sales, group sales and partial-season plans.

This is to allow the organization flexibility in distributing the remainder of their tickets on a per game basis.

For those who were unable to be among the 13,000, the Thunder have started a waiting list for the 2009-2010 season. Purchasing a partial-season package this year will give you priority on the waiting list for next season.

As a fan of a small market team in Memphis I just want to say kudos to the fans of Oklahoma City for putting their money where Clay Bennett's mouth is.

I'm sure he appreciates it as much as you all will appreciate having an NBA team to cheer for for years to come.