Category: General NBA insight

General NBA insight

Rumor: If dealt, Stackhouse can’t return to Mavs

ESPN (Chris Broussard) reports: The chances of Jason Kidd wearing a Dallas Mavericks uniform this season are shrinking by the day. First, Devean George refused to consent to the trade to New Jersey. Now, according to a league source, the league will not allow the Mavericks to bring back Jerry Stackhouse if he is traded and subsequently waived by the New Jersey Nets. According to one league source, the NBA has already made one of the teams aware of its position. “The league has taken Stackhouse out of the deal,” the source said. “They said, ‘He can be in the trade, but he can’t go back to Dallas after that.’ “

Kidd interview about possible trade to Mavs

It’s Friday and the NBA’s stars, including Jason Kidd, are in New Orleans for 2008 All-Star Weekend. Friday afternoon, Kidd met with the media and discussed the possible trade that would send him to the Dallas Mavericks. As of now the deal is currently on hold, since Devean George, a small piece of the puzzle, is using a provision in his contract to block his involvement.

Here’s part of what Kidd said today:

Q: You don’t feel like it was an opportunity or a chance that you could still go?

Jason Kidd: I haven’t talked to anybody. I spent last night with my family and just trying to enjoy the All Star festivities today. That’s it. You know, I’m a Net until I’m told otherwise, that I’m a Mav or something else.

Q: What’s been the toughest thing, Jason, about dealing with some of the uncertainty in your situation?

Jason Kidd: This isn’t the first time I’ve been traded, so I don’t think there’s anything that really bothered me. It’s just we’ll find out here soon if there’s a trade or not. Either way, the game of basketball doesn’t change, it’s just in a different city, maybe.

You must read the rest. It’s here.

Dirk speaks on possible Kidd trade

Friday at All-Star weekend, Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki had a few things to say on the possible trade that would send Jason Kidd to his team. Here’s a piece of it:

Dirk Nowitzki: “Yeah, it’s been definitely a weird couple of days. Everything kind of hanging in the air, and nobody really knew what was going on. And when they basically said the deal was done, then all of a sudden it wasn’t, the team said okay. They didn’t know if they were going to dress or not, and then they ended up playing. So it was definitely a weird feeling. But we as a team made the best out of it. We tried to stay focused and tried to keep the group together. I mean, it’s really all you can do. Once everybody goes in their own direction, then the chemistry’s going to get messed up, and we won’t win anything. We want to make sure we keep everybody together. And whoever puts the uniform on will give it their best.”

There’s a bit more worth reading, here.

Kobe hounded by ‘reporter’ at All-Star about voicemail

At Friday’s media avilability at 2008 NBA All-Star Weekend, a stack of reporters were interviewing Kobe Bryant, but one in particular who I won’t identify kept interrupting valid questions to try to ask Kobe if he would record a voicemail message for him. It was ridiculous, listening to real reporters ask Bryant about his injured finger and about All-Star in general, only to have one fringe reporter keep busting in asking Kobe things like “Will you record a voicemail message for me on my phone?”

Now, sure, that stuff could be entertaining, and there’s a time and a place for that, but people wanted to know the latest on if Kobe was definitely playing, and if the NBA world will be without him in the event he does decide to have surgery.

Anyway, Kobe said that as of today he does still plan on trying to play through the injury and avoid having surgery during the season.

Timberwolves half-season highlights

Even though the Minnesota Timberwolves have struggled in the win/loss column in the first half, fans have witnessed a number of electric individual and team performances this season. Let’s take a look at a few of the better individual performances of the first half of the 2007-08 season:

Nov. 14 vs. Sacramento: Wolves 108, Kings 103- Rashad McCants established a new career-high in points, pumping in 33 (13-22 FG, 4-7 three-pointers, 3-5 FT) to lead the Wolves to their first victory of the season.

Dec. 6 at Atlanta-: Wolves 89, Hawks 90- Minnesota lost a heart breaker to the Hawks on a Joe Johnson buzzer-beater but it was Wolves rookie Corey Brewer who shined in defeat. Minnesota’s 2007 first-round pick (7th overall) totaled a career and NBA rookie season-high 18 rebounds to go along with six points, five rebounds and a career high-four steals.

Dec. 8 vs. Phoenix- Wolves 100, Suns 93: The Wolves would win their third game of the season thanks in large part to the monstrous game from Big Al Jefferson. Big Al abused Amare Stoudamire, going off for a then career high tying 32 points and 20 rebounds, becoming only the second player in Wolves history with a 30/20 effort.

Dec. 11 at Washington- Wolves 88, Wizards 102: It was Craig Smith’s turn to shine, this time in a losing effort in Washington. Craig tallied a career-high 36 points (14-22 FG, 8-9 FT) and eight rebounds.

Dec. 15 at Milwaukee- Wolves 92, Bucks 95: For the second time in a week, Wolves forward Craig Smith reached the 30-point mark, scoring 30 points and hauling in 10 rebounds effort in a loss in Milwaukee.

Dec. 17 at Miami- Wolves 87, Heat 91: Big Al recorded his second 20-point 20-rebound game of the season in Miami, recoprding 22 points, 20 rebounds, two steals and a block.

Dec. 21 vs. Indiana- Wolves 131, Pacers 118: Wolves guard Sebastian Telfair played all 48 minutes on way to a career night at the Target Center. The fourth-year guard tied a career-high with 27 points (11-18 FG) and dished out 11 assists in the Wolves 20-point come-from-behind victory.

Jan. 4, vs. Denver- Wolves 107, Nuggets 118: Wolves guard Rashad McCants bests his previous career high of 33, putting home 34 points (12-18 FG, 3-5 three-pointers, 7-7 FT) in 32 minutes off the bench for the Wolves.

Jan. 15 vs. Golden State- Wolves 98, Warriors 105: Antoine Walker comes off the bench to score a season-high 26 points including four three-pointers and 10 rebounds.

Jan. 21 at Golden State- Wolves 109, Warriors 108: Minnesota claimed it’s second road victory of the season in Golden State on MLK Day thanks in large part to a career day from forward Ryan Gomes. Gomes put home a career-high 35 points and a season-high 11 rebounds. Guard Marko Jaric also had a huge game for the Wolves, falling two rebounds shy of his first triple-double of the season. Jaric finished with 16 points (3-7 from three), 10 assists, eight rebounds and three steals, all in a season-high 46 minutes of action.

Jan. 23 vs. Phoenix- Wolves 117, Suns 107: Big Al tormented Amare Stoudamire for the second time at home, leading the Wolves to their second home-victory of the season against Phoenix. Big Al scored a career-high 39 points to go along with 15 rebounds in the Wolves seventh win of the season.

Jan. 27 vs. New Jersey- Wolves 98, Nets 95: Big Al set a new career high in points for the third time this season, tallying 40 points and 19 rebounds, including four late free-throws to seal the 15-point fourth quarter comeback win. With the 40-point effort, Big Al became just the eighth player in Wolves history to score 40+ points.

Jan. 30 vs. Chicago, Wolves 83, Bulls 67: Jefferson tallied his third 20/20 game of the season, this time abusing Ben Wallace to the tune of 26 points and 20 rebounds.

Feb. 4 vs. Houston, Wolves 86, Rockets 92: Wolves guard Sebastian Telfair dished out 12 assists, the most by a Wolf since Anthony Carter dealt 13 vs. Milwaukee on Mar. 4, 2005.

Rajon Rondo stepping up

NBA.com reports: Rajon Rondo certainly is doing his part in the absence of Kevin Garnett. Rondo is making significant contributions all over the floor, posting 12 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, two steals and two blocks as the Celtics earned a 104-97 road win over the Pacers on Tuesday. In Sunday’s win over the defending-champion Spurs, Rondo had a season-high 12 assists to go along with 11 rebounds, the third time he’s led the Celtics (40-9) on the boards since Garnett went down. Boston has won four straight without KG, who also will miss the Celtics’ home game against the Knicks on Wednesday, their last before the break.

Melo loves battling rivals

NBA.com reports: Carmelo Anthony can not get enough of playing against the Miami Heat and Dwyane Wade. Melo was at it again on Tuesday, posting 22 points and 11 rebounds as the Nuggets won a one-point overtime thriller for their seventh straight win over Miami. Anthony has won eight of 10 meetings against D-Wade since both entered the league in 2003. Melo was fresh off a 27-point performance in Sunday’s win over the Cavaliers and LeBron James, also part of the draft class of 2003. While Wade and James have enjoyed more postseason success, Anthony has gotten the better of the two in the regular season. He is 8-2 against LeBron’s Cavs, the reigning Eastern Conference champs. Melo has rebounded nicely from an ankle injury that slowed him in late January. In his previous five games entering Tuesday’s action, Anthony averaged 31.6 points and 9.0 rebounds while shooting 55.7 percent from the field.

Devean George shoots 0-of-11, wins honor

Dallas Mavericks swingman (or whatever position he sorta plays) Devean George, after messing up the Jason Kidd-to-Mavericks trade by using a contract clause to avoid being traded, started at small forward as the team was at home facing the Portland Trail Blazers. In 33 minutes, George shot 0-of-11, including 0-of-4 from three-point range. And he missed both free throw attempts, finishing with 0 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal.

The Mavericks won 96-76, so it didn’t really matter.

But in honor of Devean’s play InsideHoops.com awards him our newly-created ‘Jackass of the Day’ award.

Note that we now retire the existence of this award for today but reserve the right to revive it in the future should another player be worthy of it.

Now, to be fair to George, it isn’t his fault that he’s involved in such a big transaction. He’d probably have done this even if the deal was him to the Nets for a pair of sneakers. He’s just looking out for himself like every player in the league (and most people on planet Earth) tend to do.

But by doing this and then going out and looking like a complete scrub against the Blazers, he deserved some sort of award.

Kidd not in starting lineup tonight

The New Jersey Nets are in Toronto tonight to face the Raptors and Marcus Williams is starting at point guard. No Jason Kidd.

This isn’t surprising, with reports that Kidd is soon to be traded to the Dallas Mavericks, but it’s still significant seeing things start to materialize.

And the Nets started slowly, down 9-2 early and then down 21-11 with 4:19 left in the first quarter.