beav

I think that seattle would want more than that for barry... what is the deal with Haslem? I remember at least one article that stated that he was a pleasant surprise... I'd rather have haslem at a minimum contract than oakley who was washed up 2 years ago or Willis who would want more money than haslem and has less than a gallon of regular in his tank... So how long is CC supposed to be out anyway?

It seems like a lot of folks here are loving to wildly speculate about Dickau... that's what this board is all about... however most (if not practically all regardless of their claims) have actually only seen the guy play 1-6 times in their lives... this is laughable to hear someone sound like an expert about the guy and at the same time deride the conference that he is in... were you guys rushing off to your local sports bar to see those WCC games.... admit it... you are not.... It is not dan dickau's fault that the idiots in the national press are saying that he is a projected PG and is a better PG than JT... Also to address a few other things... While the last month or so has seen a couple of folks throw around the level of competition of the WCC being low (well obivously lower than major conferences) they want to conveniently ignore the fact that gonzaga actually *did* schedule a few games outside of their conference... here is a list of teams from last year: Illinois, St. John's, Texas, Marquette, Fresno State, Washington, Wyoming, New Mexico... In 2000 they made it to the sweet 16 losing to purdue after beating St. john's and Louisville... In 2001 as a #12 seed they lost to michigan state after beating virginia and indiana state... Guys it really is no skin off if you don't want to like dickau and no skin off if you think that the national press overrates him... but at least objectively look at things a little bit... gonzaga played games and won games outside of the wcc gonzaga as a lower seed has had very good success in the ncaa tournament dan dickau *was* named as a first team all american last year so obviously *someone* in the know liked what he was doing....

I would also greatly prefer Ira over Kevin Willis or *shudder* charles oakley ... here's hoping that his contract demands come down out of the stratosphere...

I read this article on a site called alleyoop.com... bucks information is highlighted with stars.... FROM THE BASELINE March 22, 2002 Small Forwards Hey everyone. Today I'm continuing a discussion that I started two weeks ago by looking at the defensive stats for the league's small forwards; we'll have only the centers left to discuss next week. As you may recall, one thing I've done is look at how the top ten players at each position have done against each team. I rate their performance on a per-minute basis, looking at points, missed shots, assists, offensive boards and turnovers, and then compare it to that player's averages for the season. Teams are rated by how players do against them compared to their average. As I've said before, it's an imperfect system, but it does give us some useful information on where team's strengths and weaknesses are defensively. Having said that, let's take a look at the numbers. Here's the teams that did the best and worst against the top 10 small forwards in the league this season (the 10, by the way, are ****Glenn Robinson****, Michael Jordan, Rashard Lewis, Shawn Marion, Tracy McGrady, Paul Pierce, Jalen Rose, Latrell Sprewell, Peja Stojakovic, and Keith Van Horn): SF Defense: The Best San Antonio -5.98 Seattle -5.36 Toronto -3.46 LA Lakers -3.20 LA Clippers -2.68 SF Defense: The Worst Denver 3.85 Atlanta 3.13 Houston 2.85 Cleveland 2.75 Utah 1.81 Some interesting numbers here, and puzzling ones as well. Let's start at the top. I don't think it's any surprise that San Antonio rates the best: Bruce Bowen is a fantastic defender, after all, and he's got Duncan and Robinson to help out if he gets beat. It's the next name on the list that raises eyebrows: Seattle??? Rashard Lewis isn't anybody's idea of a great defender, and although Desmond Mason certainly plays solid D off the bench you wouldn't expect them to rate so highly. The same goes for the number three team on the list: Toronto. Jerome Williams is a fantastic defender and has seen big chunks of time at small forward this season, so perhaps that's been enough to overcome the token resistance that Morris Peterson provides. This is especially true since I focused on the top 10 players at the position, which would be the games that they'd be most likely to sit Peterson and let Williams get the bulk of the minutes. The two L.A. teams aren't a big surprise. Rick Fox and Devean George are both very good defensive players for the Lakers, and the Clips' Corey Maggette has an excellent reputation as well. When Maggette goes out he's replaced by either Darius Miles or Quentin Richardson, both solid defenders in their own right. Two teams that finished out of the top five also caught my eye. One is Chicago: Ron Artest enjoys an outstanding defensive reputation, but the Bulls were in the middle of the pack. However, a lot of the minutes Artest didn't play were picked up by poor defenders like Fred Hoiberg and Ron Mercer, which may be balancing out the total. (Yes, I know Artest was traded, but he's still played more minutes at small forward for the Bulls than anyone else.) *****Also noteworthy were the Bucks, who were ninth. Glenn Robinson and Tim Thomas don't enjoy great defensive reputations, but perhaps we should cut them a little slack.***** Looking at the bottom five, the biggest surprise is probably Utah. Andrei Kirilenko racks up some pretty impressive defensive stats in terms of blocks and steals, but he can also be posted up because he's so ghastly thin, so the Jazz are still pretty easy to score on at this position. Denver makes sense as the bottom team. James Posey is a decent defender, but guys like George McCloud and Ryan Bowen have seen just as many minutes and are very limited. Atlanta's poor showing is thanks to "ion" Glover and Toni Kukoc, neither of whom would get a vote for the all-Defense Team even if the rules stated you had to vote for all Hawks. I'll be interested to see how much Ira Newble improves this mark between now and the end of the season. Houston has played musical chairs at small forward all season, although Eddie Griffin now looks to be a long term solution, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them move up between now and year's end. Meanwhile, I didn't think Lamond Murray was such a bad defender for Cleveland, but maybe Ricky Davis is just pulling down the average. Nonetheless, I'd expect the Cavs to live with Lamond's defense given his scoring prowess. Overall, one of the things that sticks out about the small forwards is how many teams have a great defender and an awful defender who split the minutes. Detroit is a perfect example. Their overall score is right around the middle, but it's because half the time they play Michael Curry, who's a very good defender, and the other half they have Corliss Williamson or Jon Barry playing there, both of whom are very limited. Chicago, Toronto, Dallas (Adreian Griffin and Johnny Newman), and Charlotte (Lee Nailon and Stacey Augmon) are other teams who fit this profile, and I may have missed a couple. Of course, that makes it harder to divvy up the credit and the blame. I think this method works really well for identifying weaknesses on a team level, but there's still more work to be done to dig out the defensive impact of individual players. Pot Shots I went to UVA, so as you might expect I'm a card-carrying Duke hater who was doing cartwheels last night after they lost to Indiana. At the same time, I give their coach Mike Krzpgflhvxzcsfyzewski a lot of credit for refusing to whine about the officials despite three very shaky calls that went against his team in the last minute. Two have been talked about: the no-call on Carlos Boozers' putback, and the foul call on Indiana's last possession when it appeared Chris Duhon had a strip. One the announcers completely missed was that the Indiana guy inbounding the ball on their last possession moved both feet, which is a violation. Not that the officials weren't terrible both ways in this game--they must have gave about six questionable out of bounds calls to Duke in the first half... While I'm talking about last night's game, can the networks all agree to ban [censored] Enberg from ever doing basketball again? Do you ever notice how many times you hear, "they change the call," or "now they'll say it's traveling," when Enberg does games? The refs don't really change the call, he just gets confused a lot. Every time he hears the whistle he just assumes it's a foul, and if it's a three-second call or something it takes him about 20 seconds to figure it out. This happens at least three times a game, every game he does... The Dukies' Jason Williams had a disappointing tournament and a disappointing junior year, but looking at the big picture you still have to think he's one of the top three picks. Sure, his shot selection could use a little work and his foul shooting is poor for a guard, but he also averaged 21 points and 5 assists a game on 46% shooting during an "off" year...Bigger story has to be Indiana's Jared Jeffries. The fact that he had such a huge game against Carlos Boozer may have scouts less worried about his scrawniness, which in turn may persuade him to come out for the draft this year. Overall, five guys from last night's game (Williams, Boozer, Jeffries, Mike Dunleavy and Chris Duhon) will be NBA first round picks... Moving back to the NBA, Gilbert Arenas hung 32 on the Clips last night on 11 of 15 shooting, for a game score of 25.9. I think we can safely say that pick is working out. Also, add another point guard to the list of "guys the Hawks passed on in this year's draft."...The T-Wolves signed Robert "ice" Pack this week, which I suppose is a good move when your other options are Felipe Lopez and William Avery. The downside is that Pack is going to get hurt; the only question is when. (Side note: Can we get a pool going on this? I have April 7th.) The Wolves are just hoping he can stay in one piece until May.

A lot of it has to do with the differences between the soviet union and russia... most of the great players were from former soviet republics of which there were quite a few (over a dozen I know)... sarunas marculionis, sabonis were from lithuania for example... I also believe that the draft pick from denver (tskivili? sp?) is Georgian which is another former soviet republic... A great portion of the soviet unions population was also in these republics... for example eastern russia is relatively desolate population wise... also you can factor in visa issues that would not happen with western european countries...

I like Wells a lot and really think that he would thrive with a change of scenery but no way would I trade terry for him... nazr makes a lot of sense given that the blazers desperately need a center though.... all of that could change if sabonis comes back though... I know that whitsitt tried to get him to come back last year but he refused... I think that he would like to come back to portland but I don't think that he would play with rasheed again...

"Bird was a better player than me, but I always felt when I was in the game I could do things against him. But McHale? Best damn player I ever played against man-to-man. He gave me fits with those damn long arms and his agility. He could score on me and he could guard me." "I tried hard to concentrate on defense once, but all I did was hurt myself. I was terrible. But I was as good as Larry. That man couldn't guard a chair. I loved Larry. I made the mistake of going drinking with him one time. He did nothing but drink Budweiser the whole night. Any man who drinks Bud the whole night can drink." This is a quote from Charles Barkley... not too bad for a bird chested guy eh? I've got another newsflash for ya... if red auerbach made a big trade for a guy, that guy can play...

Well, the blazers are only going to make a trade to get a center... Davis is a PF playing Center for them and you can get away with that a lot more in the east than the west... I wouldn't make the trade just to make the trade (of ratliff for davis), but if we could force them into giving up bonzi without us giving up much in return (2nd round picks, or even unloading crawford) then I think that it is an incredible deal for us... So, I think that there is no way that we are getting wells without giving up ratliff... but like most trades it sounds like just a rumor, so it is fairly wild speculation anyway... according to espn insider the blazers are looking hard at lafrentz now... so my guess is it is probably much ado about nothing...

that bonzi and davis for ratliff and a throw-in would be robbing us? that is perhaps one of the most ludicrous things that I have ever seen posted on a message board... once again if you look at the career numbers between davis and ratliff they are quite similar... ratliff has not even played in 1.5 years too?!?!? there is only 3 years difference in their ages too... you can say whatever you want about dale davis but he is physically and mentally tough (something that the hawks could use) and he shows up to play every night... throw in a young scorer with tremendous game and upside like bonzie wells to the deal and... well I really don't see how you can even argue the point soberly and/or with a straight face... oh well! that is what opinions are about I suppose...

DD and Bonzi for Theo sounds more like robbery. I guess a steal *is* robbery isn't it? What do you mean IF they throw in Bonzi, surely you aren't implying you'd do Theo for DD straight up. I wouldn't trade Davis for Theo straight up, no. But that has more to do with the fact that Davis is 3 years older. If you look at their production over the years it is pretty even(except for the notable exception of theos lead in blocks). If you look at their toughness and playing games, well davis has a considerable lead in that area. About the only thing the Blazers have that we would want is Bonzi or Derek Anderson, and neither of them would cost us Theo. Well, OK I can't argue with that well-formed logic. BTW, Nazr would break out with a 15+ point game here and there also and he's about 50 years younger. Well this isn't quite as relative to this particular discussion...Nazr wasn't proposed as being part of the trade... I'm perfectly fine with Nazr as a starting center as long as we have a good PF next to him...

Actually I was fairly impressed with DD last year... he struggled a bit his first year but he was right... it was due to his coming off of the bench... Davis is still in his prime... he gave tough rebounding, tough defense, an enforcer attitude and occasionally he would break out with a 15 point game here and there... he is most definitely not just a role player... He was playing out of position at center for the blazers all year too... I'd love to see Davis here... and if they threw in Bonzi, it would be a steal...

Nash is a canadian citizen and played for canada in the last olympics... along with todd "the animal" Mccullough of the Nets... why can't they get rick fox to play?

I don't disagree about your points on Kruger and he was far from my first choice either, but I definitely was not in favor of thomas being hired by the Hawks! I remember a number of posters here were excited about him (thomas) mainly due to the fact that he could attract star free agents(I believe that was their main reasons but memory might not serve me correctly)... I would have rather kept Lenny than have hired Thomas... The Hawks seemed to be pretty focused on taking a college guy since they threw so much money at Izzo and settled for Kruger not too long afterwards... I don't remember Lowe being offered the job but I certainly could have missed that... My grade on Kruger? about a C+... we could have done better but certainly could have done worse... I'm hoping that a 2 year learning curve in the NBA will help him improve.. I was generally impressed with him keeping the team focused enough after that awful first half to finish fairly strong in the second...

My guesses... 1. Pistons 2. Hornets 3. Hawks 4. Bucks 5. Pacers 6. Raptors 7. Bulls-Cavs tie Bulls have once again added good young talent but how many non-mich state 6-9 point guards make a real impact their first year? The Cavs stink and why in the world did they get rid of Person for a wad of used chewing gum last week? I just can't understand how a team that lost what was it 13 in a row with their "superstar" can then turn around and win what was it 13 in a row without him? If I never have to watch another Lenny-coached raptors snooze-a-thon again it will be too soon... can directv block objectionable content? As someone else posted the Pacers do indeed have the most talent in the EAst IMO but also may have the worst coach... for thomas to barely scrape into the playoffs with that talent and keep his job is due to some serious cashing in of college days credibility... This will be the year that we find out if karl has really lost his mind after his bizarre meltdowns or whether or not he was just in severe need of a Paxil prescription for a while... the bucks have the talent and experience and the moves they make in the next few months could obviously affect this spot... The Hawks? Hey I'm a homer! I'm very optimistic about this team doing well in the east... probably too optimistic but sue me... It stands to reason that if the Hornets played as well as they did in front of 500 fans they should play even better in front of 15,000... just keep tractor traylor away from the food and drink and... aw! who am I kidding! go nuts! On paper the pistons don't have any business being any higher than 6th but there coach deserved coach of the year honors and I'd take joe dumars over anyone (west included) at this point in so far as acquiring retreads ready to play...

take away isiah thomas and add jerry sloan to that group and you are on! thomas is horrible! nate mcmillan is an incredibly good coach... what he did with the sonics with the talent they had was amazing... did you know that the sonics had more 2nd round picks on their roster than any other team?

I can understand having doubts about players that come from weaker conferences... there are always questions about the levels of competition... I believe that gonzaga is an exception for a few reasons however... they played a number of solid D-1 teams last year (illinois, fresno state, marquette, st john's, texas, washington) Also how many teams from weaker conferences have consistently had NCAA success like gonzaga? (they went to the elite eight the year before dickau I believe)... Coach Few is an excellent and well-regarded coach that is excellent at coaching fundamentals... I suppose that it is obvious that I have seen dickau a lot and like his game a ton... but remaining objectively I see him as being a good to great pro... hell we wasted a lottery pick on keefe and only gave up a late first rounder for dickau too, so that should hopefully put us somewhere out of the debit column...

are you basing comparisons of dickau to adam keefe and bobby hurley on anything other than wild conjecture? and most honestly how many times have you seen him (dickau) play? the last time I checked adam keefe was a PF anyway...

I'd be very skeptical of Marshall... I lived in the bay area for 2 years and saw a lot of warriors games... he was awful... he would put up numbers but constantly made bone-head plays and played absolutely *zero* defense... he was the worst defender on that team! I think that his improvement on defense in Utah (actually moving his feet! I'm not being funny that improved his defense incredibly) is as much of a measure of jerry sloan being the most underrated coach in the nba... that being said however he has always had the rep of being a decent guy... I'd consider him for the MCE for a one year deal.... absolutely no more... If I were the Hawks I'd look at rodney rogers first and foremost if the celtics can't/won't resign him.... other possibley players... bryon russell (he's getting old but still effective and a solid player), matt harpring (you've gotta bring in fans somehow right?), and maybe eduardo najera if dallas would let him walk (doubtful, but stranger things have happened)...

I'm pretty sure that stockton was a mid-late first round pick... around 18th I believe... Layden caught a lot of flak for it initially actually....