Wednesday Bolts – 5.27.09
FreeDarko will be coming out with a new book in time for the 2010-11 season. Color me freaking stoked. If you
haven’t read The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac, well, then you should read it. I can’t wait for it to get made into a movie. I hear Michael Bay is directing.
Hey everybody, Tyson Chandler just had ankle surgery. Oh yeah, and another surgery on his TOE: “The New Orleans Hornets say center Tyson Chandler and forward James Posey both had successful surgeries for their injuries. Team spokesman Dennis Rogers said late Tuesday that Chandler had a procedure on his left ankle to relieve inflammation and another on his left toe.” Well well well…
I saw Taken last weekend (pretty good movie – not a ton of substance, but if you like broken arms, really fast hand-to-hand combat moves and deadly gun shots, it’s for you) but I couldn’t help but think about how much Scott Brooks like Liam Neeson. I think someone pointed that out last week in the comments, so the entire movie I sat there thinking, “Man, he DOES look a lot like Scott Brooks.” And therefore I told my brother-in-law this every other scene.
The LA Times Ted Green on a potential Clippers trade: “Entertaining almost anything except a change in ownership is almost always a very bad thing for them and probably a very good thing for Blake Griffin, who, if he’s lucky, will escape Don T’s Inferno. This presumably means the Clips are talking to people, NBA people, and that in turn means The Donald is listening to what these other teams have to say … Everyone knows the Clippers can screw up a two-car funeral, but there is one way they won’t/can’t mess this up. If the league wants Oklahoma homeboy Griffin to stay put and play for Oklahoma City, the Clippers have to get Kevin Durant and nothing less than Kevin Durant in return for that number one No. 1. Next to LeBron James, Durant is the next great scorer in the league, and he would score a lot of points for the Clippers, albeit many of them meaningless.” Kevin Durant for Blake Griffin? That’s a wee bit steep, isn’t it?
D.J. Foster of Clipperblog has a mega-deal that sends Griffin and another Clipper to OKC:” Barring catastrophic injury, Oklahoma City native Blake Griffin will most likely join the list, and you have to imagine that a franchise in the NBA’s smallest market — a franchise that happens to be in need of big man – just might be willing to compensate the team holding Griffin’s rights a king’s ransom to get a hometown hero in uniform, on billboards, and out into the community. On the other hand, there’s little in Sam Presti’s history as a strategist to suggest that he’d factor in a variable like where a player happened to play his amateur ball into any transaction.”
SLAM’s mock draft: “Harden was intriguing as the best two guard prospect in the Draft and a gifted passer in his own right, and Hill’s toughness could really bolster our frontline. I still hadn’t entirely made up my mind on the selection, and decided to take a nap before we went on the clock. During my rest I kept having this nightmare where a red Hawk flies away from what looked like Atlanta with a solid, but far from spectacular forward, passing over two diamonds in the shape of a No. 3 and an No. 8. I woke up scared to death, and ready to draft Rubio.”
HoopsWorld on the draft’s buyers and sellers: “Washington – No one’s quite sure what the Wizards are going to do with that #5 pick since all of the players they hoped to nab in this draft will likely be gone by then. While it’s possible they could look into moving that pick, it’s more likely that they’ll move the #33, which sits right on top of the second round. We’ll see a lot of great players land in that 30-35 area because teams could look to draft Europeans late in the first round to avoid paying guaranteed contracts next season. That #33 could carry a lot of value for the Wiz.”
Is Marcin Gortat’s stellar postseason pricing him out of Orlando?: “It means the Magic have $63 million committed to their roster for 2009-10 should Turkoglu opt to terminate his deal. If they sign him, add about $10 million to that. They can match any offer to Gortat due to his restricted status, but they are already in luxury tax territory at that point. Plus, that $73 million is for just 10 players, so if they add Gortat’s contract they need to add at least one more player just to have a full roster. (They could waive Rafer Alston, whose contract is not fully guaranteed, and save some money, but that doesn’t seem likely at all.) Orlando does not have a draft pick this year, but are rumored to be looking into buying one. But what is Gortat’s value? They are quite a few teams who might want to add a center to their roster, up-and-coming teams like Oklahoma City and maybe even good teams like Dallas and San Antonio. History shows us that teams will overpay for size – especially if that size has flashed talent – so given that it’s hard to think Gortat’s free agent value is less than the Median Level Exception. In fact, teams looking at Gortat will probably be the exact same teams that are looking at New York Knicks restricted free agent big man David Lee – but Gortat should be cheaper than the rumored $10 million per year Lee will be seeking.”
Orlando Magic Daily on Gortat: “And now, we all face the truth – there’s absolutely no way Marcin Gortat will be in Orlando next year, and Hedo Turkoglu’s chances of staying with the team are growing slimmer by the day. The Magic are a hair below the tax threshold at the moment, and with the salary cap sinking this offseason, Otis Smith and Co. have some work to do to avoid paying the luxury tax next season – something the team has never done and vowed never to do.”
Jonathan Givony with Jordan Hill: “Jonathan Givony: How much room do you have left to grow still, as a player? Jordan Hill: I still got a lot more, a lot more. I’m very coachable, my talent, my potential is still coming out right now, I still got more post moves that I can learn, I can get my feet quicker, my mid-range could be 80%. I think I can get out there with the three point shot, if I keep working at it. I can definitely get a lot better right now.”
Chad Ford on Jonny Flynn: “Once you get over looking down at Flynn, there isn’t a lot to pick apart. He may be short, but his body isn’t frail. He has thick legs and a thick chest. He’s an explosive athlete who, on Thursday, stood underneath the basket and jumped up and dunked the ball flat-footed. He has terrific lateral quickness and can change speeds on a dime. He has a good handle and floor vision. Most importantly, he’s a leader … Over the past few weeks, a number of GMs seem to have been warming to Flynn and he looks like a potential lottery pick at the moment. A number of teams in the lottery including the Kings (No. 4), the Wizards (No. 5), the Timberwolves (No. 6), the Warriors (No. 7), the Knicks (No. 8), the Bucks (No. 10), the Pacers (No. 13) and the Suns (No. 14) all need point guards. And after speaking with at least one source from every team, I learned Flynn is in the mix for all of them.”
Nick Collison appears to be Twittering. I assume that’s real, but we’ve all been down this road before.
