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Walter, Obviously my timing is bad in regards to the proximity to your impending procedure. At the very least I would recommend reading about TMS and Dr. Sarno just for medical education purposes. Or even check out the forum tmshelp.com. You see, what many of us are learning is that terms like degenerative disk disease and annular tears really end up being buzzwords given out by us physicians to assign a label to chronic nonspecific back pain. No matter what, 15 years of debilitating low back pain is a rough go of it. You deserve a break from it. And, I wish you success with the procedure and all other treatments. It's too bad for you that they're only doing the single level replacements in the U.S. currently, but at least you get a nice trip out of it. Good luck. parfait

Walter, Did you ever consider the possibility that your cantankerous nature is the CAUSE of your back pain and not the result. Do a search on "Tension Myositis Syndrome" (TMS), and Dr. John Sarno, M.D. from NYU, before it's too late. Best of luck. Parfait

By the way, where is this rumor about Denver "buckling" and giving up Miller coming from anyway? It's not on Hoopshype or ESPN Insider. The only article remotely applicable states that Denver is officially a "major player" as of yesterday. How about a source or a link before this argument spirals out of control (I think it already has!).

Another reason that Al should be tradebait was actually alluded to by Diesel. It is becoming more apparent that JChillz is actually more of a SF than a SG, especially with his putrid jumpshot combined with his fearless beelines for the basket. I think that if Al is traded, you can slide Chillz into the SF spot with Marvin, and probably slide Donta back into the mix at SG (or someone like Veshon Lenard if he comes in the deal). That once again leaves us teeming with talented swingmen and then you get to finally add a talented, young, bigman with, by all accounts, a good attitude to the mix in Nene. I really think this deal makes us better without losing much aside from the rest of this season. Imagine Nene and David Andersen joining the frontcourt next season (and who knows, maybe Ben Wallace too), and Rondo joining JJ, Salim, Donta, and, ugh, Lue too, in the backcourt. That is well-rounded, talented, and deep.

This is the latest from today's chat on ESPN.com with Chris Sheridan, the new Chad Ford: Chris Sheridan: The latest and greatest is this: Donnie Walsh is being extra meticulous on this one, and he continues to believe a better deal is available than anything that's been put on the table. The Al Harrington three-way trade nearly got done, but I'm told the Hawks did not want to take Earl Watson from the Nuggets. Indiana can get a couple of deals done immediately if ownership agrees to take on additional payroll, but so far they've shown no signs of taking on an additional financial burden. So the waiting game continues. I guess this further underscores the fact that BK did not want Earl Watson this past summer, and he doesn't want him now. Is there anyone else on the Nuggets roster that would fit salary-wise that is perhaps an expiring contract? By the way, what is Nene's contract anyway? Do we even need anyone added to his contract to make the salaries line up with Artest and Harrington?

Here's another interesting yet realistic Artest 3-way idea, this time with Denver. Denver gets Artest. Indiana gets the object of their desires, Harrington. Atlanta gets Earl Watson and a #1 pick from Denver. Similar to the Sacramento scenario that I painted in another post, we could try to shake down Denver and Sacramento for a #1 pick EACH since we don't have to make a trade while the other two teams are the eager ones, especially Indiana. However, as grumpy and testy as BK is, he doesn't seem to exhibit the same attitude when it comes to extracting trades from other teams.

I would never (and BK would never, for that matter) trade 3 young building blocks for Artest (or for any player). But, how about this trade. Indiana and Jermaine O'Neal seem to really want Al Harrington. Sacramento seems to really want Artest (they've had discussions about him for the past 2 years). If Atlanta can make both of these things happen, and make both teams happy, then how about they compensate Atlanta accordingly. Here's the trade: Artest to Sacramento, Harrington to Indiana, and Peja to Atlanta. But here's the kicker: for Atlanta to grant both of these eager playoff contenders their greatest desires, each of them forwards a 1st round pick to Atlanta. So, each playoff team gets a vital, and still young, piece, while Atlanta gets 2 #1 picks, and a player that they can still trade at the deadline or in a sign-and-trade. I think it makes an unreasonable amount of sense.

I agree that getting Artest has no place in our long term plans. But, what if...we got Artest, and Indiana got Harrington back (to return triumphantly as their starting small forward), and Indiana threw in their #1 for this year. Of course it doesn't make sense that Harrington would be worth Artest and a #1, but there is otherwise little chance of Indiana getting a starting caliber SF back for Artest in the middle of the season. And, if our goal was to get at least a #1 for Harrington, then we get that now and then spin Artest off for more at the trading deadline or in the summer when a team can use him for a playoff push and he has hopefully further rehabilitated his rep and pushed his value up further. It would be a rental, and of a volatile player at that, but would it be a good stock transaction? Just a thought.

...Eric Musselman. I think you'll see the classic case of a coach learning from his first job to become a well-rounded coach the next time around. I live in the Bay Area, and he really had the Warriors running on all cylinders during his time here (before they got Baron Davis and a couple of other players), but he rode the players too hard and alienated a few of them. I'm sure he has learned how hard to pull on the reins since then, and he has gotten some valuable experience as an assistant to step back and see what he could have done better. He would be my choice. Otherwise, I would go with Del Harris as a stop-gap teacher and organizer before having him hand over the reins to someone else. I don't want Lenny Wilkins or Chuck Daly, they have nothing left to offer. Paul Silas is intriguing, but I'm a little troubled that he's been fired at least 2 times now, and he couldn't make it work with LeBron?!

Boy, that would be one package of crap from the Knicks! But, yeah, if Denver is talking KMart then they probably could put together a package with him, one of their points, and some picks. It certainly is far-fetched for us, but only a couple of teams could actually put together a viable package, and I wouldn't consider that one from NY to be remotely viable.

Just an intriguing thought for a monday morning. A couple of sportstalk hosts in Sacramento briefly mentioned that GM's around the league are monitoring the situation in Minnesota and keeping all trade talks on hold in case the situation is such that KG asks for a trade this season. Now, it is questionable that he would allow a trade to a team like Atlanta, but in terms of tradable assets we could be at the front of the line. A package that I came up with off the top of my head was: JSmoove, Harrington, Lue, and Delk (I don't know if we can even discuss sending a #1 pick with the conditional picks due Phoenix). That would leave a starting 5 of: Zaza, KG, Marvin, JChill, and JJ, with a thinned out bench consisting of Salim, Donta, Batman, JEdwards, and Royal, with David Andersen arriving next year to help out the frontcourt. Pretty darn interesting!

My UNLV analogy was admittedly an off-the-cuff one, but I believe their downfall was their inability to succeed in a half-court set. Athletes like Stacy Augmon and Greg Anthony went wild on the break and on defense, but couldn't hit a J against a fundamentally sound team that played good team defense and hit their shots like Duke. If you look at the Hawks current roster, they've now got 6 guys in their rotation that can be called at least solid shooters: JJ, Tyronn, Salim, Marvin, ZaZa, and Collier. And, you've got a strong post-up player in Harrington. The ability to shoot and get post-up scoring help a team succeed in the NBA half-court environment especially when the slashing lanes are closed. Now, I'm like you, I want a beast in the middle. That may be the difference between being very good, which we can be, to being great. But the ingredients are there to be athletic on the break, strong defensively, diverse on offense, and in general very good.

So, I think we are zeroing in on the truth of the matter. I agree, I don't think BK is using the 90's Knicks or even the Pistons as the blueprint for a Defense first, second, and third type team. It appears that he is gunning for a long, athletic, aggressive team that guards the perimeter and the passing lanes, but also runs the break like mad. Not a team full of Bruce Bowens, but an innovative hybrid of swarming defense and athletic offense. It kind of gives me visions of the early 90's UNLV teams. That is the beauty and ingenuity of BK's vision.

We're going from one extreme to another here. First, the board is trying to state that we've got a "Defense-first" team assembled. Then, Diesel is trying to say that BK is trying to assemble a "NO-defense" team like the Mavs, Suns, or Kings?! What he is doing is assembling a team with the capability of becoming a very good defensive team. First, you admitted that JChill is a smart, sound positional defender. And, JSmoove has mad hops, but needs to learn the positional aspects of defense. That gives them both the POTENTIAL to become above-average defenders in this league. Especially when they have a defensive-minded coach in Mike Woodsen. That is called player development. Add that to Joe Johnson, who is at the very least an above-average defender, as is Tyronn Lue. And, Diesel, you poo-poo Salim's defensive reputation, but it is real. Buzzard was accurate when he stated that Defense was not his problem at Arizona, it was his surliness and pouting with the coaching staff, which disappeared the latter half of his senior year. Marvin is another one with the MAKINGS of being above-average defensively. That is not overstating things. The thing that you stated that is accurate is that we have no interior defense outside of JSmoove who is still learning. By the way, what's up with Hotlanta?! Diesel comes out with the out-of-left-field notion that BK is secretly building a "No-defense" team, turning the Hawks into the Atlanta Maverick-Sun-Kings, and Hotlanta instantly accepts it as the truth and starts calling for BK's head?! What's up with that?!