3-2 on the west coast stretch

Nets just ended their 5 game road trip with a blowout of the Utah Jazz. They end the trip 3-2, with the wins coming against GS LAL and UT, and the loses coming against SAC and PHO.

Vince has been terrific, getting 30 pts in consecutive games. But even more impressive has been Vince's passing. He's gotten his teammates open shots. In the last 8 games, he 's had 6 games with 7 assists or more, including the last three games with 10, 9, and 9.

They're fun to watch and hopefully they can keep this run going.

Billy Thomas

The nets extended their free agent (mid season) pickup
Billy Thomas from his 10 day contract to one for the
rest of the season.

He's surprisingly gotten the backup 2 guard position
immediately and watching games i was thinking "who is
this guy? how'd he slip into the rotaion right away".
The commentators said he played with jersey in
summercamps and stuff so he knows the rotation.
Anyway, i really like him, he's a really smart player,
doesn't try to do too much, and plays solid defense.
Plus he used to be teammates with Jacque Vaughn at
Kansas so they've played well together in the
backcourt. I've seen him in post game interviews and
he seems like a really good guy and it's a happy story
that he got a position on the roster and rotation.

Now that he's been extended for the rest of the season
the NY papers are writing about his perseverance for
working and working the past few years to make it to
the NBA. And i was reading one of them when it
mentioned that he also played for TANDUAY in the
Philippines. haha.. another reason to like him. :)

http://www.nypost.com/sports/nets/39371.htm
http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-4/1106892604150630.xml

ok then

-carlo

RJ's out.. what are the options...

RJ's out for the season with a wrist injury from their game last dec vs the pistons, which he reinjured vs the bucks. MRI revealed a tear, so rod thorn says that including rehab time, he should be out till May.

So unless something amazing happens and kidd and carter take it to 4th gear, i don't see this being a successful season. Jersey's only 3 games behind boston for the 8th seed, but their injury-full team doesn't look like it'll be very effective. Mercer's still out till about early Feb, Scalabrine's out for a few more games with his hamstring, Planinic is rehabbing his broken wrist and should be out another couple weeks. They're very very thin at this point.

So what will they do? If they don't make the playoffs, they could have a good pick in the draft, a place where Rod Thorn has shown his ability to steal players. I'm not sure if they have salary space, i know they did before Vince, but i'm not sure if they have it right now. Signing a PF like shareef in the offseason is a possibility because he's been wanting to play with kidd.

On the other hand, the nets may decide to trade Kidd. The spurs are thriving and won't risk it, the mavs are doing well enough and cuban is reportedly afraid of kidd's salary with the possible new luxury cap rules next season. The most likely destination is Minnessota. The wolves have been terribly disappointing this season and look like they need some sort of jumpstart. Sprewell and Cassell have been thorns in the side of management because of their complaints about not being given contract extensions. From what i know, Cassell's contract expires this season, and maybe sprewell's as well. Trading cassell or spre with someone else to jersey would give Minny kidd who they've been coveting (esp in the preseason), and jersey would get an expiring contract which they could use next season to sign a PF like shareef (if he still wants to play even w/o kidd). Or jersey could go after chandler or another not too expensive solid big. They have depth at PG with best, vaughn, and planinic and should be ok.

Despite kidd not wanting to go to Portalnd, they look like a good option as well, because of Shareef, and young PG sebastian Telfair. There have been rumours all season long of a possible three team hook up with por sending telfair and shareef to jersey, kidd to minny, and maybe wally and someone else (cassell?) to portland... hmm.


Jersey still has their trade exceptions which accdg to den, expire in july. so they have to make a move asap, probably before the trading deadline. I don't know if por would trade shareef for the exception, because that money would be freed up in the offseason anyway. so that doesn't really make sense.

we'll see what's up.

Why Trade Christie?

latest news is that sac town trades christie to Orlando for Mobley and little used fwd Michael Bradley.

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i don't understand Sacramento's reason for the trade. Mobley is an excellent shooter, but Christie is such an integral part of the Kings. He was their heart and soul in last year's playoffs, diving for loose balls and hitting clutch shots. He's also an excellent passer and an overall smart player .

It's not like Sacramento's full of good defensive players, Mobley's an excellent shooter, but i don't see the need for a redundant three guard combo of bibby, bobby jackson and mobley. I don't understand why sacramento would trade defense for offense, especially when Bibby and Peja provide a more than adequare amount of outside shooting. Mobley's 5 years younger, but christie isn't over the hill yet.

I see how the trade works for Orlando. It's a terrific pick up for them. They get one of the best defensive guards in the league, 1st team or 2nd team all defense for 4 consecutive seasons. They also get a hardened playoff vet, and an overall excellent team player to fit in well with grant hill. They lose mobley's deep three's but christie's ball handling helps relieve a lot of the playmaking duties from Steve Francis.

I haven't seen a lot of kings games this year so maybe there's something i don't know about christie's performance this year. The Kings have been smart about trades, including the Brad Miller steal and their good rookie selections, so mobley could be an important piece for them. Or Maybe Michael Bradley is some terrific steal.

we'll see

Who's the World Champ?

I don't see it possible to crown either nba champs or olympic champs as clear cut "world champs". The only example of the nba champs playing against the world teams was when the rockets of 94-95 with drexler played in the world bball tournament and won convincingly. I remember it well because it was the first time they showed off their horrible new and cursed uniforms with the rocket ship flying across it. But in fairness to the 'world', that was 10years ago and the level of international competition in 95 was much weaker than it was in the 04 olympics.

In soccer, the European Leauge is similar to the NBA, in that they sign the best players from around the world even outside europe (brazil, argentina, chile, US, japan, the middle east) and once a year they compete in the UEFA cup, fielding amazing teams composed of internationaly diverse squads. The winner is crowned the UEFA champion. The World Cup is a different matter, with each team representing a country, and the cup being held only once every 4 years it's a rarer prize, and the winner is the world cup champion. Does that mean that Brazil could beat Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus? not necessarily. World teams are different from league teams.

So i think that for a league like the NBA to publicly declare it's winners "world champ" is a bit dated and possibly a bit arrogant for 2005, especially because the NBA's rules and style are not internationally recognized. And just because Argentina won the olympics and was 2nd in the worlds tournament in Indiana, that doesn't mean that the Argentinian basketball league champs can be called World Champs either.

IF the 03 Spurs played in the Olympics, they wouldn't be the same team because they wouldn't have Parker and Manu. So that's the inherent problem of comparing league teams to international teams.

So until the year 2015, when the NBA becomes an International league, i don't think anyone can be called world champs.

Most of us agree that the Pistons had possibly a better shot in the olympics, BUT!! An interesting question though... If the 04 pistons played against The 04 US 'dream team', who do you think would win? let's say two diff cases, international rules and nba rules... oooh. isn't that an interesting thought! (ignore the Larry brown versus larry brown scenario)

Nets lose again

The nets lost again. This time to the Orlando magic.
The only positive was that Kidd had his 60th career triple double surpassing Bird on the alltime list.

The Nets fastbreak isn't working. Only Collins is quick at dishing it to Kidd after the board. Buford insists on dribbling it about 20 feet before deciding anything, and Krstic holds it too long before passing.

I miss last year's fastbreaks. They used to be a machine. Kittles would leak out after the bad shot, drawing the last defender, then kmart (an excellent passer) or Collins would rebound and dish to kidd. Kidd would blaze down court, with Kerry way ahead, Rj pulling in from the wing, then Kmart trailing for the possible tip in slam. After an opponent's bad shot it was almost an automatic 2 points.

sigh (part 1)

oj without the murder

minute maid is good fer ya.
taken while wondering what camera to buy.
There's nothing like the feel of a classic slr whirr clicking in your hands

hooray

it's alive. it's alive.
blah blah blah