No Blood No Foul

If you watched Dallas in last year’s playoffs, you know they needed a post player - bad. Dampier (who wasn’t available when Dallas was upset last year by Golden State) is really the Mav’s best post option right now, but he’s still coming back from injury…and let’s face it, Dampier’s not exactly a dominating presence. While Dirk’s post play seems to have improved, he seems a little soft to really bang in the paint. In other words, Dallas still needs a post player.

Dallas knows they don’t quite have enough to get over the hump right now, so they’ve been exploring a trade for Jason Kidd. While I’m a huge fan of Jason Kidd, I don’t think he makes Dallas a championship team because he doesn’t help them in the post. But what about Shaq? Riley has hinted that he might be available saying that a contending team would “value Shaq’s production” (then quickly denying a trade is possible - ya right). (more…)

Phoenix keeps winning games, but something is different this year. Nash and Amare look great, and Grant Hill looks better than he has in 10 years, but something is still wrong. They’re not the team they were last year.

Part of the problem might be the “been there, done that” feel the regular season must have for the Suns. They have demolished teams in the regular season for the past 3 years, but they kept coming up short in the playoffs. Maybe they’re thinking the regular season isn’t too important. (more…)

Enough with the “weak schedule” talk. It’s just the easy way out for crap basketball analysts who haven’t taken the time to watch the Celtics and break down their strengths and weaknesses.

The Celtics have absolutely crushed most every team they have faced. They have played every good team in the east including Orlando and Cleveland twice. They have demolished so-called contending west teams like Denver and L.A., and beat a damn good Jazz team in Utah’s building.

Furthermore, they have embarrassed teams to the point that they have resorted to cheap shots to salvage their pride. (more…)

I hope everyone in Boston watched the fourth quarter of tonight’s Celtics-Pistons game, because it perfectly highlighted everything that’s wrong with the Celtics.

1) Rajon Rondo is the weakest link. Sure, he had a good game stats wise, but how badly was he abused by Chauncey Billups? Don’t get me wrong, in two or three years Rondo is going to be one helluva player, but it’s much too soon to expect so much from someone so young.

2) The Celtics bench is weak. I’m amazed that anyone ever thought any different, but amazingly some people seem to think Boston has a good bench. Tonight’s game showed quite the opposite — Boston’s bench only scored 5 points and shot 22%!! A terrible performance. (more…)

As we all know, December 15th is an important date as far as making an NBA trade is concerned. By rule, it’s the first day that free agents signed during the summer can be traded. Typically, this flexibility opens up a lot of trade possibilities and triggers some shuffling. So, without further delay, here’s my list of the ten NBA players most likely to be traded beginning Dec. 15th. (more…)

OK — first, let me say this is a totally unsubstantiated conspiracy theory and that it has very little basis in fact.

But considering how smart Riley is, and his predisposition to Machiavellian behavior, it seems likely that he would interfere in a conference rival’s free-agent negotiations if he thought it would help his team.

Here’s how it happened (or at least how I would have done it if I were Riley): (more…)