Honorable Mentions: Kevin Durant (1.27) filled up the box score against the Sixers with a 33 point, 5 rebound, 5 three, 3 steal night; Marcus Camby (1.21) grabbed 19 boards with 5 steals against the Rockets; and Rashard Lewis (1.15) had a 20 and 11 with 5 threes against the Knicks.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: I think it’s fair to say that most people had given up on Mike Conley (0.94). And rightly so – through the first month of the season Conley was averaging 8 points and 4.8 assists in about 27 minutes a game. But with Iverson officially out of the picture now that he’s signed with Philadelphia, Conley can stop waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under him and focus on playing basketball. In last night’s win over the Wolves, Conley got 33 minutes of burn, scoring 20 points while hitting 4-7 from three. More than 3 assists would have been nice, but we’ll take what we can get from Conley.

Desperate for Free Agents? Mickael Pietrus (0.58) got his 10th consecutive start at SF for the Magic and scored 17 points; and Chase Budinger (0.47) had 19 points and 5 rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench for the Rockets.

Yes, Heeeeeeeeee’s Back: Allen Iverson is returning to the Sixers after signing with the team yesterday. He’s expected to join the team for next Monday’s game against Denver and will start in place of the injured Lou Williams. While I am personally not in love with Iverson’s game, I guess you have to pick him up if he’s available in your league since he’ll be starting (and therefore happy) as long as Williams is out. But when Sweet Lou returns, things could be ugly again.

The Biggest Loser: I thought T.J. Ford (-0.67) might have gotten hurt when I saw this line: 0 points, 0-4 from the floor, 0 rebounds and 1 assist in 20 minutes. Nope, not hurt. Just all bad.

Chris Bosh (-0.62) wasn’t hurt either. Instead, he battled foul trouble early and then sat a lot of the second half as the Hawks ran away with a 146-115 win. Bosh finished with a season low 2 points, adding 5 boards in 16 minutes.

All Eyez on Me: Three games tonight:

Boston (14-4) at San Antonio (9-6) – In the epic battle of which team can be the oldest, the Celtics deftly countered the Spurs’ Antonio McDyess signing this offseason by bringing in Rasheed Wallace. And while the Spurs could argue they are basically getting what they expected out of McDyess, I don’t think there is any argument to be made for Sheed’s 9 points and 4 rebounds a game for Boston. Hopefully you didn’t draft Wallace expecting him to put up a line similar to what he had done with the Pistons.

Miami (10-7) at Denver (13-5) – It was somewhat of a shaky start to the year, but Michael Beasley has come on strong, scoring in double-digits in each of the Heat’s last 7 games. He’s also averaging about 9 rebounds a game over that span.

The Golden Ticket: Houston (10-8) at Golden State (6-11) – The Dream Shake looks at what is wrong with the Rocket’s defense. But what I really want to know is if the Warriors have even heard Don Nelson say the word defense at any point during this season.

***

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Unlike some teams (say Houston), the Nets didn’t completely self-destruct this off season. Rather, in one of the first huge trades of the summer, the Nets said sayonara to their best player (apologies to the Devin Harris fan club) and sent Vince Carter to the Magic for Rafer Alston, Tony Battie and Courtney Lee. The big haul for the Nets of course is cash: they’ll save approximately $40 million over the course of the deal.

But they also got some value in return for Carter, especially birthday boy Courtney Lee (who turned 24 yesterday). In his rookie season, Lee started 42 games for Orlando in place of the often injured-but-always-horrible-and-then-traded Keith Bogans. Over the last two months of the season, Lee averaged 9.8 points, 1.3 threes and a steal while starting at shooting guard for the Magic.

Lee might be the front runner for the Nets’ starting shooting guard spot, but he is far from guaranteed the job. Chris Douglas-Roberts and Terrence Williams are competing hard with him during training camp and the battle for minutes is likely going to continue into the regular season. According to the Nets Team Blog (via Scorching Nets):

“The New Jersey Nets are slowly getting into training camp mode and the fierce competition between the wings is helping to move things along. One man that doesn’t have to worry about looking over his own shoulder – point guard Devin Harris – has taken notice of the battle. “It’s nasty, just nasty. From watching, two guys I can point out are Courtney (Lee) and CDR (Chris Douglas-Roberts). That’s going to be a battle all year long. Those guys are really competitive, they do a lot of different things on the court. Obviously, Terrence (Williams) has got a bit of a bulldog in him, too, but that matchup right there … you can see it from playing in pickup. It’s just going to be nasty.”

So by all accounts it looks like it will be a fierce battle for minutes at the 2 for New Jersey. Despite some plantar fasciatis that kept him out of the start of training camp, Lee should begin the season as the starting SG, but split minutes with Douglas-Roberts and possibly Williams.

The split isn’t great news for any of the players’ fantasy value. Lee finished at 169 on our 9-cat player rater last season and will see an increase in value simply because it’ll be his second year in the league and he’ll be starting. Look for him towards the end of a draft if you need threes and steals, but don’t expect a breakout season. Keep an eye on CDR’s and Terrance Williams’ minutes, but they probably aren’t worth drafting in all but the deepest leagues.

It’s probably even a bigger free-for-all for the Nets at the small forward position. Bobby Simmons is the incumbent, if there is such a thing, having started 44 games at small forward for the Nets last season. Trenton Hassell started 31 games towards the end of the season, but eventually lost that gig to Ryan Anderson because he was downright atrocious on the court. Jarvis Hayes and Eduardo Najera are also under contract. Finally, CDR and Williams have the size to play the 3 if needed. Excluding the rookies, all these guys had trouble getting into the GMTR top 150 last season and I wouldn’t expect any change there. Simmons is probably the guy with the most fantasy potential THIS season, but he’s wildly inconsistent and is really only a good source of threes. In addition, it would make sense for the Nets to move Simmons, who is in the last year of his contract and the $10 million he is owed could be a nice expiring contract for some team.

The rest of the Nets starting five is locked down. Devin Harris finished 22/48 on our 8/9-cat rater last season. He’s likely to improve on that this season as he becomes the team’s leader both on offense and in overall. Pencil him in for least 21 points, 7 assists and 1 three a game.

The best rookie last year from a fantasy perspective was not OJ Mayo or Derrick Rose: it was Brook Lopez, who finished the year 53rd on our 9-cat rater. The departure of Carter, a year of maturity for Lopez, and the Nets style of scoring (discussed below) means that the ball should run through Lopez in a post a lot this season. For those of you who purchase the Four Fingers draft guide, you know we’re totally smoking what Lopez is offering. If anyone on the team is going to step up scoring wise – and someone has to replace Carter’s points – it’s Lopez.

According to the Nets’ staff, Yi Jianlian has looked great in the first few days of training camp. I don’t have official word in it, but Yi also thinks he’s looked great. Word is that Jianlian has packed a few pounds on his skeletal body, which will hopefully provide him with more confidence to bang down in the paint a little more this season. Yi’s stats completely flat lined from his rookie season to his sophomore one, but expect him to take a small step forward at least on offense in his third year in the league. But I am firmly in the believe it when I see it camp on Yi.

The Bench: The Nets bench is surprisingly deep. In fact, it will be tough for anyone coming off the bench to get enough play to have legit fantasy value. Just two years ago, Josh Boone was the Nets’ center of the future. Now, he’s a 15 minute a game backup behind Lopez. The 33-year old Tony Battie joins the team in the VC trade as a salary throw in, don’t expect him to do much of anything this year. Sean Williams is the Nets’ version of Chris Andersen, somehow he blocked 0.9 shots a game in 11 minutes on the court last season. Rafer Alston was worth owning as a low-end PG when he was starting for the Rockets. As a back-up behind Harris and possibly even Keyon Dooling? No thank you. Jarvis Hayes can knock down a three and that’s about it. Terrence Williams is a defensive stopper type who will get a chance to blow up as soon as the Nets thin out some of their 25 small forwards.

Now, with the departure of VC, the question becomes who is going to take his shots? Carter and Devin Harris combined for 42.1 points last season, which believe it or not was tops in the NBA for starting backcourts. NetsareScorching looked at that question by breaking down how and where the team shot last season. The answer was the corner three, where the team shot 49% (second in the league behind the Boston Celtics). Half of those threes came from two players: Bobby Simmons and Jarvis Hayes.

The reason that Simmons and Hayes could get all those open threes was Devin Harris’ and Vince Carter’s ability to drive into the lane and get defenses to collapse on them, allowing the ball to be kicked out to the corners. VC’s departure leaves a gaping hole in that plan. So if the Nets plan to keep the three ball coming, then 1) Devin Harris has to penetrate even more this season and 2) the Nets have to work more of an inside out game with Lopez (likely) or Jianlian (less likely). So, what is all means from a fantasy perspective is that Harris and Lopez should have monster years and there will be plenty of threes dropping from Simmons, Hayes and Courtney Lee.

For a rebuilding team, the Nets are going to be good.

***

For fantasy analysis even better than this, check out the Four Fingers Draft Guide. Just do it, you’ll be impressed by the size of our diction.

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Honorable Mentions: Allen Iverson (5.41) had 31 points; and in what might be the most incredible Bronze Medal line I’ve ever seen, Baron Davis (5.35) had 12/5/7 with 4 steals and 2 blocks, but shot 4/12 from the field, including 1/5 from three. But, those 2 blocks were as much as anyone else had last night, and the 4 steals were pretty close (see: Jason Kidd, above). Carmelo Anthony (5.28) checked in just under those two, but had what seems to me to be a better game, with 32/10/8 and 2 steals.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Checking in at numero cinco is Steve Blake (4.96) with 22 points, and 6 assists on 8/12 shooting with 4 threes. The funny thing is, I’m seeing (not literally, of course) Steve Blake getting a lot of minutes in Portland, but I’m not seeing him do much. If you need assists, though, say, if you’re going up against a team next week that has Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, or Chris Paul… maybe it’s worth picking up Blake just for that.

The Biggest Loser: A day after his line of 28/9/6 (with 7 threes) Ricky Davis (2.02) played only 1 less minute, but scored 21 less points, shot nearly 40% worse, had 4 less rebounds, and 4 less assists. That’s 7/5/2 for those who can’t do word problems. Wow, Mad Libs and Word Problems. Patrick’s got his TMNT jammies… I think I might still have my She-Ra He-Man action figures somewhere. Maybe underneath my Batman underoos…

Friday’s Tiny Dancer: Wow. Remember how I said that part about my memory at the beginning? No? Don’t worry, neither do I. But I do remember how I just looked up new jersey nets dancers on Google to find a picture for today’s Tiny Dancer. Yeah, Jason Kidd… not so much on the Nets anymore. Too bad, too… because…

and

But both the Nets and Mavericks Dance Teams were eliminated in the first round of this year’s Dance Team Bracket. Probably because Dallas had some idiot pick this picture for them:

Mark, here’s a tip, next year, make them post one of these kinds of pictures:

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Line of the Night: On a night when both Chris Paul and LeBron James played the game of basketball, neither of them had a performance that matched that of Half-Man Half-Retired Vince Carter (5.43). Carter has been sort of middling around in the regions of fantasy relevancy, and while his #45 rating for the season puts him in the early-middle rounds for next year, his 39 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 threes on 17/26 shooting made him #1 for a night.

Honorable Mentions: Yowza! Hedo Turkoglu (5.24) also had 39 points! Much of that came from his 7 threes, and 10/14 free throws. He also had 6 rebs, 3 asts, 1 stl, and 1 blk. Antawn Jamison (5.12) also decided to score a bunch of points, with 31 with 3 threes, and also pull down 11 rebounds and 4 steals. Steve Nash (4.79) had 23 and 11 (assists), with 5 threes; Troy Murphy (4.78) had 23 and 13 (rebounds) with 3 threes and 3 blocks; finally we get to LeBron (4.75) who had 30/7/6; Devin Harris (4.71) bounced back from a 4 point outing with 26 points, 9 assists, 3 threes, and 3 steals.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Bonzi Wells (4.22) has had 2 decent games in a row now, scoring 25 points with 2 steals and 3 blocks last night. We all know (or should know) that Bonzi can score when he gets the chance, but the steals and blocks are surprising.

The Biggest Loser: This was kind of a tough one, but I’m going to select Shaquille O’Neal (1.64) today for his 9 point, 8 rebound outing. That’s not terrible by itself, but the big fella only shot 4/9 from the field, and 1/5 from the free throw line. He had no assists, no steals, and no blocks, and 4 turnovers. Now those 9 points and 8 rebounds are looking a little hard to swallow.

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Don’t expect Kidd’s Fantasy value to change significantly in Dallas. He is still worth starting as a No. 1 guard, and his points and rebounds should remain the same. There is a chance his assist total could decline because of Dallas’ offense — Harris was the team’s leader in assists at 5.3 per game — but adding Kidd will likely alter what the Mavericks do, so have no fear.

You can also expect Nowitzki, Howard and Terry to improve playing alongside Kidd, and Erick Dampier will probably see more minutes with Diop gone.

Yes, Kidd will still be good as your PG. Passing to Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard, and Jason Terry is at least as good as passing to Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. Probably better. The rebounds might be harder to come by though, since Erick Dampier, Dirk, and Howard actually like to rebound. The 11 points should stay the same since Devin Harris was averaging 14 before his injury. It’s possible that Kidd could pick up those extra 3 points, but I would rate it as not likely, since Dirk, Howard, and JET are all high volume scorers on the team, and Kidd will probably be focused on running the offense.

With Malik Allen coming over to replace Diop, I don’t really agree with CBS’ assessment that Dampier will get more minutes. Allen was averaging 15 in NJ, while Diop had 17 in Dallas. If Dampier does get those extra 2 minutes, it’s not going to dramatically change his fantasy value.

For Dallas, nothing is really going to change. Dirk and JET are down in FG% this season, so maybe Kidd will be able to help them get back those 3 percentage points. No reason to try to trade for them now, though, and I don’t see any potential Free Agent Mavericks (maverick Mavericks?) gaining enough value to be worth picking up.

In New Jersey, Harris will have a lot to live up to as the Nets start rebuilding. He isn’t going to start averaging a triple-double, but he is capable of being a quality point guard.

Harris, who has missed the past eight games with an ankle injury, is averaging a career-high 14.4 points. He should do well paired with Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson, and consider Harris a No. 3 Fantasy guard going forward.

Don’t worry about Carter or Jefferson losing Fantasy value. They will continue to score, and their assist total could also rise.

The rest of the players involved in the trade have minimal Fantasy value. Allen will be a bench player in Dallas, as will George and Ager in New Jersey. Diop also joins a crowded frontcourt with the Nets with Josh Boone, Sean Williams, Nenad Krstic and Stromile Swift.

Hopefully Harris will be back from his injury soon (he’s on my GMTR Readers League team), because I’m predicting an increase in value for him on the Nets. Again, though, I wouldn’t go trading for him because he is still injured, and it could be that Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson decide to hog the ball for the Nets. But Harris is a quality player, and Nenad Krstic and Josh Boone are not as good offensively as Dirk Nowitzki, which will allow Harris the opportunity to up his already-career-high scoring.

CBS is right that Diop is headed into a crowded frontcourt, and I’d say Boone, Williams, and Krstic are all better players, which means if you’ve got Diop, it’s probably time to drop. You can wait a couple games, but if he’s not getting the minutes, they’re not going to come.

A lot of Carter and Jefferson’s value will depend on how well Harris can run the backcourt. He’s more of a scoring PG with his career high in assists coming this year at only 5.3 per game. It will be interesting to see if he is a good enough passer to up that number; even if he does, there’s no way he’s going to reach Jason Kidd levels, though. With the 5 rebound drop going from Kidd to Harris, there is some room for Jefferson, Krstic, and Boone to up their totals a bit. Boone is ranked 182 by Yahoo over the past month, but jumps to 54 if you look at only the last week. He’s probably been picked up if your league is competitive, but in shallower leagues, he might still be available.

Krstic’s minutes are supposed to go up after the All-Star break (according to Nets coach Lawrence Frank via Stats.com), so if he’s available, now might be a good time to take a flier on him. He’s been playing only 15-17 minutes a game since returning from injury, and has been fairly productive in that time. He did only play 26 games last season, though, so the injury bug looks like it might be a recurring character in The Story of Nenad.

If New Jersey can hang on in the playoff race (they’re currently in 7th) all of the Nets should be good because they’ll be playing hard to stay in the fight. If the loss of Kidd sends them down as a team, then I can easily see Vince Carter getting “injured” later in the season.

And finally, since people always like to put players in their new uniforms via Photoshop, I did that for ya:

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Or, in other words, I had these pictures sitting on my computer for a while and now is a good time to break them out.

I believe these pictures are from a Celtics game in 2005 against the Nets, although I’m not completely sure about the date. Our tickets for the game were on the floor level, probably about 10-15 rows deep behind the visitors’ hoop. Pre Allen/KG, these tickets had a face value of $100 each, but we were able to get ours for $50 due to less than stellar demand. We got down to the Fleet Center (now the TD Banknorth Garden) two hours before the start of the game because the Celtics opened their doors to premium ticket buyers (of which we were included) at that time. All the “regular” people had to wait until an hour before the game. During this two hour period, you could walk around an empty arena, watch players do their pre-game warm-ups, and of course, hound players walking on and off the court for autographs.

I was at the game with my beautiful wife, her sister, and two of my brother-in-laws (my wife comes from a family with 7 children, so I have a total of 5 brother-in-laws and 5 sister-in-laws. Holidays are interesting). Anyway at the time, one of my brother-in-laws was in love with Marcus Banks. He was absolutely sure that Banks was going to be the next great Celtics point guard. And when Banks came over to our side of the court, he was all over him and was able to get him to autograph his ticket. That autograph didn’t quite turn out as he expected, but Marcus to his credit, was incredibly nice to the fans and signed autographs for everyone who asked for one.

My other brother-in-law was equally excited about Kerry Kittles. I think he followed him going back to his Villanova days. He actually ran around to another section of the arena just so he could get Kittles’ autograph as he was leaving the court. I was only able to get a back shot of Kittles, but notice how he is handing the autograph back without even looking at my brother-in-law. I guess that’s what happens when you ask for Kittles’ autograph while wearing a Celtics shirt. Kittles didn’t sign many autographs that day.

Finally, a guy who I wouldn’t mind getting an autograph from, if I did that kind of thing. There were children stacked 5 deep within a second of Pierce appearing from the locker room. I could have probably taken 3-4 kids out on my way to Pierce, but 5 would have been a challenge.

Here is a view of the Celtics warming up from our seats.

There are a lot of great things going on with this picture (tough to see in this small version). Pierce and Ricky Davis are warming up, but:

1. Who is that third Celtics player with them? Is it Vin Baker? (UPDATE – it’s actually Jumaine Jones)
2. The Celtics warm-up did mainly consist of Pierce, Davis, and player number 3 standing around and making jokes to each other.
3. Deep in the background, there is Rodney Rogers standing at the three point line practicing his shot. That sweet three point touch apparently took some practice.
4. Notice the balding white men standing around Rogers, surely imparting him with all their pick-up basketball wisdom.
5. Ricky Davis appears to be undressing my wife with his eyes.

So, there you go. Attending a Celtics basketball game pre Allen/KG consisted of buying floor tickets at half their face value, casually walking players to get their autograph, and having Ricky Davis molest your wife with his eyes.

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It’s not often that one gets selected to host a Carnival. It’s certainly less often when Matt wants that Carnival to happen right around when your blog is celebrating it’s Blogiversary. So, without further Ado, Happy 3rd Blogiversary to Give Me The Rock!

Oh, and a Carnival too… Let’s see what we gots…

I have voluntarily submitted for Matt his post regarding BlogABull’s 4th Blogiversary. Yeah, he beat me out by just over a year. In the comments on that post, he points out that Desipio has been around in one form or another for 10 years. I’m tempted to argue that if it’s not called the same thing it doesn’t count, but I was over at Blogspot for a good 8 months, and I’m not going to easily give that up, so here’s to GMTR making it to 10 years!

Speaking of the Bulls, here’s an interview by Mike North of Joakim Noah. It’s an audio interview, and if Mike North wasn’t so annoying, it’d be an excellent interview. I’m liking Joakim.

Speaking of liking players: Bright Side of the Sun has a double-wide post on Steve Nash’s Charity Game. The second post has something about wanting to get close to the players. Thanks for writing that up, Sue B. Next time, Sue, maybe you need to work on your outfit. I’m thinking something like this girl has:

Next up, from NBA Glue, something that fantasy heads can appreciate: Starting 5s for teams for which you might not know the starting 5s. Or if you’ve been taking the summer off like the guys at Fantasy Basketblog, this is an easy way to catch up on what’s been going on. The NBA Glue is also holding things together with a preview of the Atlantic Division teams. Another good way to catch up in case you’ve been frozen in carbonite.

Kind of looks like he got hit with the NBA Glue.

Speaking of NBA Glue, Ryan McNeill from HoopsAddict brings together Matt Kolsky from the Chicago Sports Review (holla!) and D-Wil from The Starting Five for a Podcast about the Eastern Conference teams at the Vegas Summer League. For those of you that aren’t podcastingly inclined, you can also read a summary of the audio file. I, myself, listen to several podcasts, but I have been holding out from making one for at least 2 of GMTR’s 3 years on the web. Everyone says I’m a bit of a low-talker and/or I mumble when I’m not really making a point, so I don’t think I’d make the best podcaster unless I pretended to be someone I’m not.

Speaking of someone I’m not, I’m not a Sports Agent. Nor do I want to be one. But Paul Shackman and Darren Heitner and a bunch of other guys do. In their submissions, they talk about what to do with Yi Jianlian now and Kevin Durant’s shoe deal with Nike, which is evidently the second largest endorsement deal ever [citation needed].

Speaking of endorsement deals, Give Me The Rock recently signed Rachel for $1 to tell people “If you like basketball, it’s pretty good. It’s really not that dorky or anything.” I think we might have overpaid for that one.

Speaking of Rachel, I’m sure that many visitors here wish she was the one running this Carnival, even though I’m sure those same visitors don’t actually realize they wish she was the one running the Carnival. If you can imagine the referrals to this site, the majority of which come from Google Images, then you can come to some understanding of what I mean.

Speaking of hot girls associated with the Nets, check out this post from Becky and El Friends Du Nenad with Nenad Krstic’s girlfriend.

Speaking of ways to sneak in posts with cool segues out of 8th grade, here’s Steve – with no experience with the Carnival – taking it to the rack strong! By rack, I was going for something related to Nenad’s girl or something attached to a dancer, but I’m not sure that it came across clearly enough for those of you who don’t have your mind in the gutter. So, just so you know, I was going for “taking it to the rack.”

Oh, and here’s the links:
http://mvn.com/nba-takingittotherack/2007/07/25/finding-perspective-while-we-search-for-a-fix/
http://mvn.com/nba-takingittotherack/2007/07/22/donaghy-and-vick-tip-of-the-iceberg/

Speaking of: SCANDAL ROCKS THE NBA

Trusted Advisor which I’m not sure is an actual NBA blog has a post about the NBA and it’s newly found need for transparency.

Speaking of more posts about the scandal:
With Malice on gambling in sports and Epic Carnival (a new one to me) find the NBA at fault for the reasons behind the scandal and With Malice has another post to help us find our way after the scandal.

The SportsBiz blog has a post about how no one will let the NBA into Vegas now that there’s the whole betting on games thing.

Speaking of other things the NBA shouldn’t do is: allow players to make more rap albums. Of course, the WolvesWatch says that Troy Hudson’s new album isn’t too bad. I got a little hyped up for Ron Artest’s album, but T-Hud isn’t going to even get me to think about going to iTunes, let alone Amazon or something.

Speaking of the Timberwolves, the College Wolf at the Twolves Blog has a pretty in depth post about how to fix the Wolves. The need an in depth plan like that. Cause, well, they’re not really going anywhere as they are right now. Kevin Garnett needs to make a Daughtry-like album to express his anguish.

NOTE: This was written before I heard about the Garnett trade

Speaking of (see above) the Sports Biz blog, they have an article on the people buying part of the Hornets. Maybe they should have held out for a share of the Sonics. Or at least a piece of GMTR blogiversary cake.

Speaking of holding out, I am holding out on posting a review of the book authored by a guy who is interview here because I haven’t had time to finish it. But since I grew up in Portland, and now live in Chicago, I am 100% sure that the 1984 draft was the most important draft in my personal NBA history. Read an interview with the guy who wrote a whole book about it, and you’ll see how it changed not just Portland and Chicago, but the entire NBA forever.

Speaking of drafts that are probably important in the personal history of other authors of this blog LOY’s PLACE remembers Reggie Lewis.

Speaking of Celtics swingmen, Matty G – a member of Red’s Army – tells readers (and Celtics fans in general) why to be patient with Gerald Green. And it’s not just that his name works really well with the team’s color scheme.

NOTE: This was written before I heard about the Garnett trade. So, now I guess it’s the Twolves’ fans who will have to wait for their young stars to bud, while the Celtics dominate the East.

Speaking of dominating the East:

And if case you needed a post somehow related to the above subject matter, please click this link to get to the Washington Wizards Blog.

Speaking of posts that will make people happy, Epic Carnival has an opinion on the always opinionated Stephon Marbury and his desire to play in Italy a la David Beckham in reverse. Except not as good looking. Nor famous. Nor with a good looking, famous wife. But they will both be playing sports that no one in the country really cares about.

So there’s your Carnival of the NBA #47, aka stealing everyone’s thunder to celebrate GMTR’s 3rd Blogiversary. Want to celebrate your own blogiversary by hosting the Carnival? Or maybe you don’t have an upcoming blogiversary, but want to host the Carnival anyway? Just click on over the the Carnival of the NBA group on BallHype and you can have your cake and eat it too.

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1. Play less than 20 minutes a game
2. Rack up mad stats during that limited playing time.

It’s as simple as that. Bonus points for playing in a lot of games. No bonus points for intangibles. Intangibles are something one does when not in the act of shooting. The Eddie House All-Stars does need to waste it’s time with intangibles. Onto the team.

The Namesake

Starters

Marcus Williams (PG): Easily the best point guard for the Eddie House All-Stars. He averaged close to 10 assists per 48 minutes and still found time to shoot the ball, averaging 20 points (per 48). It’s too bad he’s stuck behind Jason Kidd on the Nets, as he’s got the ability to be more than just an EH All-Star.

Eddie House (SG): How about that. An entire Nets’ backcourt! House gets grandfathered onto the team as long as he plays less than 20 minutes a game, which unfortunately should be the rest of his career. He provides this team with much needed firepower – which is kinda his thing – averaging close to 9 threes per 48 minutes. That was good for 12th in the league last season (former EH All-Star JR Smith was first at 12.5).

You Can Be My Wingman Anytime

Tyrus Thomas (SF): He’s more of a power forward, but this is an all-star team, so who really cares what position he plays. If he did play 48 minutes a game, his defensive stats would be off the charts, although he’d also average over 8 fouls a game. So, he’s a little excitable, but the Eddie House All-Stars encourages that kind of balls-out effort. Fouls are a stat, right?

Paul Millsap (PF): Bonus points for being the only EH All-Star to play in all 82 games last season. Millsap actually had some real fantasy value for a couple weeks last season due to Jazz injuries at various times. But ultimately, he’s stuck behind Carlos Boozer on the Jazz for now, so he’ll just have to keep on making the most of his 18 minutes a game.

Etan Thomas (C): Every good all-star team needs a published poet. The Eddie House All-Stars are no different. Thomas slides under the threshold by playing 19.2 minutes a game, but on a 48 minute basis, he would lead the all-star team with close to 15 rebounds and 4 blocks a game.

The Bench

This team can play some lockdown defense in the paint, but they’re going to need some offense off the bench. Carlos Arroyo (PG) and Brian Cook (F) will have to take the shots when Eddie House is on the bench. Arroyo also brings some assists (7.4 per 48) with him and Cook will hit some threes (2.1 per 48).

Although they don’t provide quite the same defense as the starters, both Ronny Turiaf (F) and Stromile Swift (C) are going to block their fair share of shots and grab some rebounds. And since the team already has a poet, they really could use a dancer.

Those are the Eddie House All-Stars for 2006/2007. And it’s not all fun and games. I’ve learned two things over the course of writing this post. First, it’s apparently a lot easier to come of the bench for 15-20 minutes a game and contribute defensively than it is to contribute offensively. While there were a boatload of guys whose per 48 minute rebounds were over 10 and per 48 minute blocks were over 3, Marcus Williams and Carlos Arroyo were pretty much the only guys contributing a significant amount of assists. If Etan Thomas magically played 48 minutes a game, he would league the league in rebounds by about 2 a game over Kevin Garnett. On the other hand, the 48 minute a game Eddie House would be 15th in the league in scoring, right ahead of Zach Randolph. Remember that for your fantasy leagues.

Second, the team actually contains some guys to keep a watch on fantasy wise. With more minutes, Marcus Williams, Tyrus Thomas, Paul Millsap, and even Stromile Swift could be in for breakout seasons. Thomas is especially likely to get more minutes as he impressed at the end of last season and was a beast in the summer league. Tyrus Thomas – don’t get to comfortable on the Eddie House All-Stars, there’s another all-star team that may want you in a couple years.

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I’ve put Rasual Butler into my lineup this week. So, if you picked him up from free agency like I did, be warned. He’s probably only got 1 or 2 more good games. It was going well for Linus, JR, Bostjan, and Brian Skinner. But if you look last night’s box scores, you can see the “Nels Free Agent Curse” in action.

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So, I’m going to be a total bitch and pick out the Top 5 Dancers (I’m pretty sure it’s been done before, but I’ll do it again)

NUMBER 5: I’m going with Courtney from the Brand Spanking New Celtics Dancers (and not just cause Patrick is our Celtics guy)

NUMBER 4: Jaclyn from the New Jersey Nets Dancers (you’ll have to click on here to get the pictures, the whole thing is Flash so I couldn’t download anything). As a sidenote, I think Terry probably would have been a better overall choice for the Nets, so you might check her out too.

NUMBER 3: Gina from the Phoenix Suns Dancers (even though her outfit totally looks like what the Kings dancers should be wearing)

NUMBER 2: Kim from the San Antonio Spurs Dancers

NUMBER 1: (with a Bullet) Katherine from the Miami Heat Dancers. I think Katherine was pretty much a unanimous choice for the All-Star team, and probably for hottest dancer and/or cheerleader in The League.

As an added bonerus, the Mavs Dancers each have their own video “Close Up”. Oh, and the video “Close Up” features the making of the swimsuit calendar. But it gets better… the slideshow of the dancer keeps going while the video is playing for HandsFree™ viewing.

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