Atlantic Division: First Team To 40 Wins, Wins

With Marcus Williams joining Josh Boone and Eddie House on the shelf, the Nets look to open the season with three excellent starters, two average starters and no good bench players. They may be giving up their margin of error in the Atlantic without Kidd, Carter, or Jefferson missing a game.

Antoine Wright (whom I was high on prior to his disappointing rookie season) figures to spell both Carter and Jefferson. Soon-to-be 40-year-old (and three years removed from his last good season--four if you're not feeling generous) Cliff Robinson and Mikki Moore should take the leftover minutes in the post. Ersatz feel-good subject Jay Williams will attempt to follow up on his predictably disappointing rookie season of four years ago as Kidd's backup. He could even see some minutes alongside Kidd at the 2 if Wright fails to show improvement once the games start to count.

It is not unreasonable to wonder if Bostjan Nachbar, Hassan Adams, Mile Ilic, and/or Matt Walsh could make this team's rotation. It wouldn't be a bad idea for Lawrence Frank to keep his resume updated should he ultimately take the fall for Rod Thorn's poor roster construction.

PJ Tucker Watch, Episode #3

With Chris Bosh resting a sore left heel, PJ Tucker got extended pre-season minutes for the first time on Sunday, scoring 18 points in a 119-110 win over the Nets. Surprisingly, Tucker grabbed but two rebounds and refrained from turning the ball over.

Reports from Toronto are positive, though Sam Mitchell's nickname for Tucker, "Baby Mule," doesn't do it for me. In Mitchell's defense, my preferred nickname for Tucker, "The Man Who Will Repatriate Joey Graham," isn't especially catchy and carries a sell-by date.

Mitchell, saying what I've been saying for months:

"I don't know what position he plays ... he just plays. We're working him at the three (small forward); he played four (power forward) today and we feel like he can guard some twos (shooting guards), most threes and fours. This kid just battles."

Revisting the Bulls' Rotation

The fine folks at Blog-a-Bull pointed me toward an article I'd missed when preparing my earlier post.

From KC Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:

With seven new players, Bulls coach Scott Skiles has said he might begin as early as Wednesday's exhibition opener against Washington to try to establish a rotation.

In another breath, he has talked about being cognizant of possibly playing into late May or even June and the inherent need to keep players fresh.

"We're a pretty deep team," Skiles said after practice Monday. "The fact we may play a lot of guys on Wednesday may end up how we play. We may play 10, 11, 12 guys most of the season.

"I'd like the guys to settle into some sort of routine they can expect every game. We have so many guys who are good players, but all do something a little bit different that nobody really jumps way in front of anybody. We think that's a strength, our versatility. I'd be foolish if I don't try to use all that."

"There may be two or three guys that are very valuable to our team that play for a week and the next week don't play that much," Skiles said. "But they're there when we need them and for certain matchups, we'll get them out there. We're trying to sort all that out now. It's very difficult."

Thoughts While Perusing Exhibition Box Scores From October 10th

I'm still going back-and-forth on whether or not to compose a post delineating what I'm for and what I'm against regarding the 2006-07 NBA season. My pre-season posts may make all that clear, but a one-stop clearinghouse for all my predictions and predilections may prove useful to friend and foe alike.

I'll start with a game I watched.

Philadelphia 103 Phoenix 100 (Cologne, Germany)

Amare Stoudemire (6 pts, 6 reb, 4 PF, 5 TO in 17 minutes) does not look like his pre-microfracture self. Paul Coro in The Arizona Republic reports Stoudemire grading himself as "85 percent healthy." If that's true, we won't ever see the promise of Stoudemire's 2004-05 season fulfilled.

Orlando 109 Charlotte 90

Adam Morrison offered no surprises on his debut. He scored 19 points on 14 shots and made no other contributions (one defensive rebound, no assists, no steals, and no blocks).

Boston 109 Cleveland 93

One thing a for-and-against would make clear is that I'm not against Bassy, I just think Rajon Rondo is a better basketball player. After one game that doesn't count for anything, I appear to be right. Rondo played well in Cleveland last night, shooting 3-7 from the floor, 5-6 from the line, with 5 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals, and just one turnover. Telfair managed to negate the value of unexpectedly scoring 12 points (4-6 from the floor, 4-9 from the line) by adding a single rebound and a single assist while turning the ball over 5 times and committing 3 fouls.

The box score linked above has Rondo playing 35 minutes and Telfair just 10, but according to that box the Celtics as a whole only played fewer than 200 minutes last night which I consider unlikely.

Dallas 81 New Orleans/OKC 84

The supposition that Chris Paul is talented enough to make Tyson Chandler into an offensive threat took a hit last night. Chandler attempted one field goal (he made it) and two free throws (he made one) in 21 minutes.

Cedric Simmons and Hilton Armstrong both struggled, but promising backup power forward Brandon Bass went for 8 and 8 with 2 blocked shots in 24 minutes.

Memphis 75 Houston 69

The score indicates a prematurely micro-managed game from Coaches Fratello and J. Van Gundy, but it was played at a faster pace than either team averaged last year in the games that counted. The teams combined for 49 turnovers, 87 missed field goals, and 64% free throw shooting.

Rudy Gay, perhaps overreacting to long-standing criticism about his perceived passivity, attempted 18 shots in 23 minutes (approximate), making 5.

Three of the candidates to join Rafer Alston in the Houston guard rotation played (Luther Head and Bonzi Wells did not) with none of the three making a strong case for minutes that count. Little John Lucas went 2-11 from the floor with two assists and one turnover. Kirk Snyder started, shooting 2-7 from the floor, missing both free throws, and grabbing a single offensive rebound. Vassilis Spanoulis was 2-6 from the floor, missed all four of his three-point attempts, and turned the ball over five times. I think it's unlikely that any of those guys made up for it on the defensive end, either.

Detroit 84 Miami 64 (San Juan, PR)

Per Will Miami Win 50 Games?, I present the Heat bench from last night, in order of minutes played: Dorrell Wright, Wayne Simien, Jason Kapono, Antonio Burks, Earl Barron, Michael Doleac, and Chris Quinn. In 119 minutes (approximate) they combined to score 36 points on 42 field goal and 7 free throw attempts.

PJ Tucker Watch, Episode #2

PJ Tucker was not among the 11 Raptors to play in their 93-88 win at Washington.

Anthony Parker started alongside TJ Ford and Morris Peterson in a three-guard set. Joey Graham, Kris Humphries, and Andrea Bargnani were the only frontcourt players to get time off the bench.

Toronto was killed on the glass, grabbing just 17.8% of possible offensive rebounds and 71% of possible defensive rebounds.

How Inclusive Will Chicago's Rotation Be?

Granted, the type of positive training camp stories linked herein are endemic to every team, but Scott Skiles has demonstrated a willingness to play a lot of guys. Eleven Bulls played at least 50 games last year and each one of them averaged over 11 minutes per game. Some of that time got spread around because none of Mike Sweetney, Darius Songaila, Malik Allen, or Othella Harrington ever made a strong case that they deserved the bulk of the minutes at the 4, plus all four players had to fill in at the 5 because of Tyson Chandler's nightly battles with foul trouble.

Still, it's possible that one of those guys would have played better had they been given a consistently defined role and the accompanying minutes. Furthermore, I refuse to believe that the 11th guy in Skiles' rotation, Jannero Pargo, needed to play a career-high 643 minutes last year.

Pargo, Chandler, Songaila, and Harrington are gone, replaced by Ben Wallace, PJ Brown, Tyrus Thomas, and Thabo Sefolosha which appears to make the Bulls just as deep, numbers-wise, but with a better collection of players. With Viktor Khryapa (who is already earning compliments from Skiles) and Adrian Griffin, useful players both, replacing Eric Piatkowski and Eddie Basden at the end of the bench, Skiles will have the opportunity to use 12 legitimate NBA players every night.

Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, PJ Brown, and Ben Wallace figure to start with Chris Duhon, Thabo Sefolosha, Adrian Griffin, Andres Nocioni, and Tyrus Thomas likely comprising the second unit. Khryapa and either Sweetney or Allen (more likely Allen as Sweetney's conditioning does not appear to have improved) will fill out the active roster most nights.

That much quality depth will help Chicago survive the minor injuries that impact any NBA team's season and provide a reasonable level of insurance should any key player miss significant time, but the NBA playoffs almost always reward concentrated, front-line talent over depth. The Bulls could easily end the regular season with the East's best record (especially if Ben Gordon really has turned into even a competent defender and rebounder) and still find themselves as legitimate underdogs to Miami or Detroit in a second-round playoff matchup, especially if Chicago's two promising first-round draft picks fail to make an immediate impact and get stuck at the back of the rotation, stunting their development.

PJ Tucker Watch, Episode #1

I am completely serious when I say that PJ Tucker was one of the ten best players available in the draft. I'm even more serious when I say that Tucker was the best University of Texas product that Bryan Colangelo acquired this off-season.

I think any hopes of TJ Ford developing into a miniature Jason Kidd have been extinguished. Ford's upside now appears to be Avery Johnson minus the defensive awareness. Ford will struggle, as he did in Milwaukee with Mo Williams, to get significant minutes ahead of Jose Calderon.

I'm not sure who exactly Tucker is competing against for minutes. Today's glowing article in the Toronto Star claims that Morris Peterson, Fred Jones, Anthony Parker, Joey Graham, and Tucker are all competing for minutes at small forward. I'm sure that's somehwat true, but at least Jones and Parker figure to get minutes at the 2, and, if Toronto wants to go small, Tucker could be effective backing up Bosh and Bargnani at the 4. Toronto will probably struggle early in the season as Sam Mitchell sorts through the various combinations of largely interchangable players at his disposal. The sooner Tucker moves ahead of the one-dimensional Joey Graham in the Raptors' rotation, the better.

Mitchell is beginning to figure this out:

"Joey can't — none of (the small forwards) can — relax when they come to practice, not with (Tucker) around. He's not smooth and he's not stylish in what he does. ... He's one of those guys, the game is getting ugly, and you may put him out there for three or four minutes and just say, `Just go throw your body around, see if you can get some offensive rebounds or tip-ins ...'"

Tucker's playmaking ability is underrated. He's similar to Ron Artest in that the brute strength of his offensive game overshadows his guile. Tucker possesses a nifty spin move and is a good passer. Last year, as Daniel Gibson struggled to run the Texas team, Rick Barnes ran more and more of the offense through Tucker.

Should Tucker ever develop an effective jump shot, he would become a near-unstoppable offensive force, overpowering small forwards and beating power forwards off the dribble. Unlike Artest, Tucker never figures to become enamored with the three-point shot and waste possessions in futile pursuit thereof.

JR Smith Watch, Episode #1

Sometime within the next 24 months, John Paxson is going to get a lot of criticism for trading JR Smith for two second-round picks. The criticism won't be entirely fair. Acquired from New Orleans in the swap of Tyson Chandler's long, expensive contract for PJ Brown's short, expensive contract, Smith had little chance of playing in Chicago. Not because he's the malcontent that Byron Scott made him out to be, but rather because the Bulls had already put together a guard rotation with which they were happy: Hinrich, Gordon, Duhon, and Sefolosha (the sooner those last two names swap places in the rotation, all the better for Bulls fans).

Getting two second-round picks for JR Smith does not constitute getting equal value in return for Chicago, but trading him to Denver, where he has an immediate chance to fill their opening at shooting guard, makes the world a better place. For that, I congratulate John Paxson.

Early reports from Denver are positive.

Will Miami Win 50 Games?

It's not necessary they do so in order to achieve their goal of winning another NBA Championship. They only won 52 games in the regular season last year. Neither of the prohibitive favorites for the best record in the East (Cleveland and Chicago) would definitely be favored in a seven game series against the Heat (presuming both Shaq and Wade to be reasonably healthy). If Shaq and Wade aren't both healthy, none of this matters.

Still, 50 regular season wins are far from assured as the Heat seem intent on making things as difficult as possible for themselves this season. In addition to the reasonably assumed absences of Shaq and Mourning from 15 games each (minimum), and Wade from ten (he's getting an MRI on his right hand soon), Jason Williams postponed his knee surgery long enough that he will be out until at least mid-November, Pat Riley did not sign anybody of note this summer to back up James Posey or the rapidly disintegrating Williams/Gary Payton tandem, and Riley is apparently counting on Dorrell Wright (career minutes played: 160) to play productive minutes at all three perimeter positions depending on the circumstances at leastr until the remains of Shandon Anderson are healthy enough to pass a physical (see Jason Williams story linked above).

With Cleveland, Chicago, Boston, and Orlando figuring to gobble up most of the wins that Detroit and New Jersey give back to the field this season and New York, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Toronto each possessing reasonable hopes of cracking the 30-win mark, Miami, despite having two of the top ten players in the entire league, risks finding themselves amidst a tight six-team fight over the third through eighth seeds in the East. All the question marks that hover over Miami's regular season campaign are more likely to create post-season complications if they attempt to win three or four successive series without home-court advantage.

Most of the time, teams make gradual steps toward a Finals appearance. This off-season, Miami and Detroit have not just allowed Cleveland and Chicago to build teams that look better suited for the long haul of 82 games, but have failed to supplement their outstanding frontline talent such that anything that deviates unhappily from the organizations' respective plans will open the door for an Eastern Conference team to make a tremendous leap forward and earn a shot against whoever is left standing from the Western Conference.

Eddy Curry Will Never Satisfy You

Howard Beck writes as positive an article as one can about Eddy Curry in today's New York Times. Beck uses the old trick of mentioning Curry's excellent shooting percentage while ignoring all the possessions that end with a Curry turnover, assigns Larry Brown blame for not playing Curry more last year (though Curry played the second highest number of minutes in his five-year career), and reports that Isiah Thomas "vows" to give Curry more minutes as he's arrived to camp in the best shape of his career.

The best shape of his career is judged on a generous curve, as this sentence from the article's final paragraph attests:

[Curry] lagged behind teammates during end-of-practice sprints Tuesday morning, but Thomas said he was extremely satisfied with Curry’s conditioning.

Curry is what he is: an above average scorer who can't pass, rebound, or defend. I don't think Curry's a bad kid (see his quote in Beck's article about getting more playing time this year, "If I show him (Thomas) that I can play the whole game, I’ll play the whole game.") but he's never learned to work hard or translate his size and athletic ability into a useful set of basketball skills.

Curry should be the poster child for improving player development in the U.S. He went straight from playing against boys in high school to men in the NBA. Through no fault of his own, he was drafted by a dysfunctional organization then traded to another. Eddy Curry hasn't made himself better. I doubt he ever will. He hasn't had much help, though, either.

Let's All Take A Deep Breath

Everyone is predicting, if not real improvement, at least a better record for the Knicks this year. The reasoning is solid: Isiah Thomas, for all his faults as a GM and limitations as a head coach, won't actively try to sabotage the team to prove a point. I'm on board with the Knicks winning more than 23 games, but refuse to go overboard and pick them to be more than 10 games better in the win column. This is still a poorly assembled team whose overpaid veterans don't have much interest in doing anything that's asked of them.

To wit, Frank Isola in today's New York Daily News:

"Isiah Thomas mailed letters to his players in August suggesting that they arrive in New York after Labor Day for informal workouts, which is common for NBA teams. Thomas' plan was to encourage his team to begin building camaraderie while removing the ugly memory of last season as soon as possible.

In theory, it seemed like a great idea. But on the day following the holiday, only four players, including Channing Frye and David Lee, bothered to show up for work, according to a team source."

Frye and Lee certainly weren't part of the problem last year. I'd like to know who the other two players were. If they were Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford, that'd be reason for optimism (though not irrational optimism in the spirit of Bench Renaldo's Knicks preview). I think the team source would have mentioned Curry and Crawford prominently had they been there. I'm guessing it was more along the lines of Mardy Collins and Elton Brown hanging out with Frye and Lee.

Is The NBA Season Peaking Early?

Between this picture...


...and the news that should-have-been Team USA member Gilbert Arenas has converted his home to "Colorado altitude," I wonder.

Quoth Agent Zero:

• "I had my house converted to the Colorado altitude, so I am always above sea level."
• "I had to put a tent in one room, and then they are going to come during training camp and fix the whole house."
• "You know, that's kind of weird."

No, Gilbert that's why we love you.

Unfortunately, Arenas backed off his earlier, uniquely reasoned vendetta against Team USA assistants Mike D'Antoni and Nate McMillan: "I said some things, and I vented out against Phoenix and Portland, but those teams actually had nothing to do with anything. That was wrong of me. I really want to say sorry for it and I want to say sorry to Mike D'Antoni."

The good news is that Arenas doesn't need a reason to go for 50 against anybody, that's just something he can do.

Bob Hill Talks Sensibly

I met Bob Hill once, almost 25 years ago, when he was an assistant under Larry Brown at Kansas and lived down the street from my under-6 basketball coach. Hill's magnificent head of hair, arguably even more impressive in the days before it turned silver, must have had an impact on me as I've had something of a fondness for Hill for no good reason ever since.

The disastrous end to Hill's tenure with the Spurs and his sunsequent failure to create a competitive basketball program at Fordham have overshadowed his NBA record. Hill has coached teams into the playoffs five teams: all four of the full seasons he's coached (two in Indiana, two in San Antonio) plus the first Indiana team he took over from Dick Versace (taking a 9-16 team to a 41-41 finish and the Celtics to the brink in their first-round playoff matchup).

Hill isn't a great coach, both Larry Brown (in Indiana) and Gregg Popovich (in San Antonio) had to build on Hill's work to get to the Finals, but I think he's good enough to get the Sonics back in the playoffs this year.

Seattle's defense last year was awful last year. They were last in the league, a point-and-a-half worse per 100 possessions than 29th-placed Toronto, six-and-a-half points worse than 25th-placed Milwaukee, almost nine points worse than the league average, and four points worse than their own, fourth-ranked offense. If Hill can get the Sonics to approach mediocrity defensively, they can improve by the 5 to 10 games necessary to challenge for the final playoff spot in the West. Hell, with a five to ten game improvement, they'll probably challenge for the Northwest Division title.

That assumes that the team's defensive improvement doesn't sacrifice offensive efficiency. I think that's possible. Radmanovic's minutes (1088 before the trade) almost have to go to someone who is a better defender. Wilcox and (especially) Collison should both fare better defensively if one of Swift, Petro, or Sene allows them to stick to guarding opposing power forwards. Most importantly, though, Hill has the option of replacing one of the worst defensive point guards in the league, Luke Ridnour, with one of the best, Earl Watson. Hill seems willing to do so:

"I like Luke starting and getting us into games, because he's very good at that, and I like Earl coming in behind him because he speeds the game up and there's more unpredictability when Earl comes into the game, but I'm not married to that, because Luke needs to play better defense."

Watson is unlikely to shoot over 40% on threes again this year, but if he can improve on his career 34.8% standard, he'll allow the Sonics to play 5-on-5 on both sides of the ball. Ridnour makes for an excellent backup. His assist-to-turnover ratio is better than 3:1 for his career and, unlike Watson (67% for his career), Ridnour is a good free throw shooter, 87% for his career.

Watson and Ridnour's skills complement each other nicely. Even better, their respective weaknesses might force Hill to platoon them late in close games, effectively keeping neither one from monopolizing important minutes and preventing an out-and-out benching and (possible) subsequent complaining.

Bonzi Wells to Sign With Houston

Ric Bucher reports that Bonzi Wells' agent, Merle Scott, says that Wells and the Rockets have agreed to a 2 year, $5 million contract.

This is a great deal for the Rockets. That's obviously great value for a player of Wells' talents (Sacramento reportedly offered a 5 year, $36 million contract that he turned down earlier this summer) and not so much money that they'll be damaged if they have to tell Bonzi, as Memphis did, to go away.

At this point in Tracy McGrady's career, the Rockets must assume the need for a pretty good player to step in on the nights when McGrady can't answer the bell. Before signing Wells, the Rockets were looking at Kirk Snyder, Vassilis Spanoulis, or (his body willing) Bob Sura to play heavy minutes in the 10-15 games McGrady must be expected to miss. Wells is an obvious upgrade over that trio.

Houston still needs to figure out who is going to play the important minutes at point guard. Rafer Alston is at his best with the ball in his hands but he's unlikely to find himself in that circumstance too often playing alongside McGrady and Yao. Little John Lucas doesn't figure to be more than a decent backup at best, and one whose value skews to the offensive side of the ball. Houston's best hope is that Luther Head proves he can play the point passably, at the very least when McGrady is doing most of the ballhandling.

Breaking Down Guys Who Will, In All Likelihood, Soon Be Cut

Sekou Smith went to the Hawks' practice facility Monday to check out who has gained weight (Josh Smith, weighing in at a muscular 240, how gaining muscle will improve his jump shot is an unanswered question), lost weight (Tyronn Lue, down to 177), and who is going to training camp with little or no chance of making the roster.

There are some interesting guys participating, a couple of whom could be useful should they get to play in games that count. Obviously, Joe Johnson, Speedy Claxton, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, Zaza Pachulia, Lorenzen Wright, Josh Childress, Tyronn Lue, Shelden Williams and Salim Stoudamire are making the team. Future Arkansas RimRocker Solomon Jones, probably will also. So the Hawks can keep up to four more guys, with useless duo Royal Ivey and Esteban Batista both already under contract.

Greek center Andreas Glyniadakis played reasonably well in the D-League last year (22.2 mpg, 10.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.2 bspg, 53.5 fg%, 81.6 ft%). His size (7-1, 280) and Esteban Batista's ineptitude make him the most likely to stick.

Lionel Chalmers shot the ball horribly in limited minutes with the Clippers in 2005. His college career leads one to believe that he has the ability to do better than that. He played pretty well for Phoenix's summer league team and is (like so many others) undoubtedly a better point guard than Royal Ivey. The Hawks will probably find some dumb reason (like not wanting another small point guard) to keep Ivey over Chalmers.

Cedric Bozeman was once better point guard than Ivey, too. Injuries have severely limited Bozeman's athleticism and versatility to the point where he didn't even rate a draft bio (there were 120) on NBA.com this summer.

Shawnee Mission West product Matt Freije can shoot, or at least he could in college. His 57% true-shooting percentage at Vanderbilt didn't translate in his brief trial with the Hornets in 2005 where his TS% fell to 35.6. He'll never get to the line in the NBA as often as he did in college and he'll probably never rebound enough to survive a cold shooting week.

For reasons I don't understand, Sekou Smith is enthusiastic about Kaniel Dickens, a small forward with the game of a college power forward. I doubt there's room for him behind Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Josh Childress, and Marvin Williams.

Andre Brown is basically Shelden Williams if Shelden Williams didn't block shots or make free throws. Unlike Batista and Solomon Jones, the franchise has nothing invested in Brown and won't keep him around.

Hawks May Start Another Season Without a Decent Point Guard

Speedy Claxton broke a bone in his left hand and is out for 5-6 weeks.

The Hawks do have other options at the position. They have a veteran in backup point guard Tyronn Lue, one of the league's best pick-and-roll players. Third-year point guard Royal Ivey started 66 games last season and could also fill in.

Billy Knight, if you're reading, I haven't had an NBA team to root for in over twenty years. I would like to become a Hawks fan. I cannot, however, become a Hawks fan if you continue to waste a collection of intriguing young wing players by employing Tyronn Lue as your point guard. His entire NBA career is built upon getting away with holding onto Allen Iverson's jersey as he ran around screens in the 2001 NBA Finals. I used to watch Ryan Robertson dominate Lue regularly in college. Lue's only skill is shooting the ball. He does that with far less effectiveness and panache than his teammate Salim Stoudamire.

Also, there are at least 15 freely available short men who would make better 3rd point guards than Royal Ivey.

Heal fast, Speedy.

Transaction Roundup: September 11th

Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics sign Kendrick Perkins to an incentive-laden, four-year contract. Perkins is young and injury-prone but he's an impact rebounder and shot blocker when he's on the court.

Jeff Clark at CelticsBlog calls it "a no-lose situation" for the team. I'll go one step further and say that both sides have minimized their risk while still creating for themselves a potentially advantageous deal. Perkins should share minutes with Theo Ratliff at the 5 this season.

Charlotte Bobcats

Charlotte adds Argentinian forward Walter Herrmann for the 2006-07 season. Herrmann is 27 and shot the ball well from the international three-point line in the World Championships. hpanic7342 at APBRmetrics calculated Herrmann as having the 29th best PER in the World Championships, right behind his teammate Andres Nocioni.

Herrmann had 7 points, 4 rebounds, and one turnover in 18 minutes in an appearance for the Bobcats' Summer League team in Orlando. He will compete with Matt Carroll, Bernard Robinson Jr., and Alan Anderson for minutes backing up Gerald Wallace and Adam Morrison.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Cleveland officially takes the necessary step of re-signing Drew Gooden. At 3 years and $23 million, Gooden is a bargain assuming they don't give too many minutes to the Brazilian Ryan Bowen. I think Nikos Zisis and I are on the same page regarding what Varejao takes away from the game of basketball.

All credit to Cavs beat writer Brian Windhorst for honestly discussing in the blog entry linked above Varejao's tendencies for both flopping and taking cheap shots:

"I feel like I know Andy and his game. I know that sometimes it appears he plays absent minded, but actually I think he's fairly sharp. If you remember last season he took a shot at Rasheed Wallace and got ejected in Detroit and did it without looking like he was trying to. I've watched the Zisis video numerous times and I think that play in Detroit is comparable. I don't think Andy wanted to inflict such damage to Zisis' face and certainly he didn't mean to him (sic) him as hard as he did. But I there's a good chance he came in high with his elbow to send a message."

Danny Ferry was himself quite adept at landing some innocuous looking cheap shots in his day. I continue to presume that this is a root cause of the Cavaliers' unhealthy fascination with turning an adequate backup who can play both the 4 and the 5 into a co-equal of Gooden and Ilgausaks.

Transactions, News, Notes Finally Sputters To a Conclusion

Toronto Raptors

Bryan Colangelo has certainly made a successful first step toward constructing an unrelentingly up-tempo attack. I think the Raptors lack the shooters to score a lot at this point but they should still be interesting to watch for the following reasons.

• Kris Humphries' odd brand of selfish finesse play and rebounding might actually succeed in a wide-open attack featuring lots of missed shots.
• The multi-faceted non-finesse of PJ Tucker's game rendering Joey Graham unnecessary.
• Early indications as to whether or not Tucker is a better basketball player than Andrea Bargnani.

There, I said it.

PJ Tucker will be a big presence on Hoopinion for the next 9 months.

Utah Jazz

The Jazz will reap the benefits of Orlando, New Orleans/OKC, and Philadelphia inexplicably passing up on Ronnie Brewer. The crowded backcourt situation (Question for Jazz partisans: Does trading for Derek Fisher at all undermine your desire to believe that Deron Williams is the equal of Chris Paul?) will likely impede Brewer's Rookie of the Year campaign but less violently than Brewer will impede CJ Miles' professional basketball career.

Dee Brown undoubtedly has a place as a good bench player in the NBA. I seriously doubt that that place is on Jerry Sloan's bench. Free Dee Brown!

Washington Wizards

The Wizards will be decent again and Gilbert Arenas sublime. Not much has changed. Darius Songaila has been brought aboard to make some 18-footers and match Jared Jeffries' near-total lack of rebounding for a man of his size. DeShawn Stevenson and His Amazingly Improved SAT Score will improve on Jeffries' performance as the guy who doesn't score, rebound, or pile up assists so he must be a defensive stopper. Unlike Jeffries, Stevenson (at times) actually is a defensive stopper.

Lightning Round (Part Two): Transactions, News, Notes

Portland Trail Blazers

Portland is a long way from doing anything as fun as contending for a playoff spot, but they have more talent on the roster now than they had in early May. Kevin Pritchard may never be officially named GM but he'll still always be the last player I pretended to be on the playground before I got too old for such fantasies. Aldridge (once healthy), Roy, and Jack are potential All-stars. If they can get a role player who does even one thing well in exchange for Darius Miles, all the better. If they feel compelled to trade Zach Randolph, it will be almost impossible to get an equally talented basketball player in return. That's the rub with Zach Randolph.

Sacramento Kings

The Kings best players are aging (Mike Bibby, Brad Miller, Shareef Abdur-Rahim), unsigned (Bonzi Wells--and re-signing with Sacramento doesn't appear to be an option), or crazy (Ron Artest). Though Kenny Thomas and Kevin Martin are the start of a good bench (if Martin starts ahead of John Salmons, then Thomas is the start of a good bench), there's not another veteran you'd want your team to put in the game. There is, however, Quincy Douby.

Everybody knows that Douby scored a bunch of points for Rutgers last year. I don't think everybody knows that Douby took 38% of his team's shots while on the floor while shooting over 51% inside the 3-point arc, and 40% from beyond the arc. He made 85% of his free throws, led his team in assists, and had a 7:4 assist-to-turnover ratio. Rutgers was as close to a one-man team as you could find in major college basketball in recent years. Opposing teams recognized it, keyed their defenses to stop one man, and that man foiled their efforts in terms of both production and efficiency. Douby is a dark horse Rookie of the Year candidate and could be the saving grace of a disappointing season in Sacramento.

Seattle Supersonics

The Sonics have opted to give a full season's try with the roster they had at the end of the season. I think there's a good chance that results in an improved record (their team defense almost has to improve) but I doubt it's the recipe for play-off success. This is a decent roster; they should finish within a couple games of .500.

Watson and Ridnour form a good point guard tandem, especially if Watson plays a majority of the minutes. Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis provide one great and one good scoring option on the wings. Wilcox and Collison should make for a nice power forward rotation alongside a potentially improved Swift/Petro platoon. If they continue to get decent production from Damien Wilkins on the wing then anything they get from Gelabele, Halperin, Felix, and Sene will be gravy.

Lightning Round (Part One): Transactions, News, Notes

The last ten teams in the NBA (alphabetically) suffer, with my apologies, the indignity of having their transactions lumped together. I've got to get this done and get ready for the season previews.

Orlando Magic

Signing Keith Bogans and re-signing Trevor Ariza should make up for the loss of DeShawn Stevenson. JJ Redick wasn't (anywhere near) the best player available with the 11th pick, but Orlando may be the best fit for Redick and his particular talent. The Magic should make the play-offs. The Magic will definitely be a regular part of my League Pass rotation.

Philadelphia 76ers

A: The Philadelphia 76ers are so bad...
B: How bad are they?
A: The Philadelphia 76ers are so bad they'll miss John Salmons this season.

To be fair, the Sixers have a fairly interesting (not to be confused with productive) second unit: Louis Williams, Rodney Carney, Willie Green, Shav Randolph, Bobby Jones, and Steven Hunter. Being interesting is not going to help them win any games but I foresee a lot of entertaining garbage time in 2006-07.

Phoenix Suns

Letting Tim Thomas go was a no-brainer. Too many people got far too excited over the twenty decent games he played in the post-season. To expect similar production from Thomas after he signs a new contract would strain credulity. Let's hope that expecting a healthy Amare Stoudemire does not engender a similar strain.