s_knight8

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/st...p-178241c.html

Shaq isn't backing down from his trade request, not after the Lakers
wouldn't consult with him on Phil Jackson (he wanted Phil to stay). He
hasn't felt this "disrepected'' since Orlando wouldn't take his suggestion
and hire Chuck Daly, which helped lead to O'Neal's departure in 1996.


If the Mavs can get Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas in a deal, their
intentions are to send him to L.A. with Dirk Nowitzki and others. That
should be enough to get Shaq to Dallas, the only place he wants to go to, if
L.A. decides to trade him. On the coaching front, Jerry Buss is gung-ho to
hire Rudy Tomjanovich pronto, while GM Mitch Kupchak is trying to convince
Buss to take his time and explore other candidates, including George Karl.

Weak market

And you thought the draft was weak? The list of free agents for this summer
isn't exactly teeming with All-Stars.

Other than Kobe Bryant - the only marquee player available - Steve Nash,
Kenyon Martin and a handful of others, it's a pretty bleak crop when you
size up the 157 restricted and unrestricted free agents. That's too bad for
teams such as Utah ($30 million- plus) and Atlanta ($20 million) that have
more cap space than anyone else. The Suns ($16 million), Nuggets ($14
million) and Clippers ($13 million) plan on being active.


Here's a look at some of the players expected to get interest, with Thursday
being the first day teams can negotiate with players, and July 14 being the
first day they can sign players to new deals:


Mark Blount - Boston, Miami and Orlando are all willing to overpay for
Celtics big man.


Kobe Bryant - Clippers and Suns want him, but who wouldn't? Can't see him
leaving Lakers, especially if Shaq is dealt.


Erick Dampier - Walking away from $8 million so he must have a deal already
lined up.


Marquis Daniels - Looking at 6-year $38 million deal, but buyer beware: Don
Nelson's system makes a lot of players look very good.


Troy Hudson - Minnesota intends to re-sign a player it really missed in the
playoffs. If not, Houston and Utah are top suitors.


Steve Nash - Turns 31 in February and already has a lot of tread off the
tire playing in Mavs' up-tempo system.


Mehmet Okur - Suns all set to bring in Detroit forward, even if they have to
overpay.

r

You can put together a playoff team under the cap in this free agent
market. Maybe not the Bobcats' cap. The Bobcats should have taken
Stackhouse, and Stack was not a free agent, but otherwise staying
flexible, i.e. emphasizing free agency, with a nice underlayment of size
in place, was the right move.

If Cuban can get Ilgauskas for, uh, Josh Howard or Sean Bradley, he
should. Otherwise he should see what happens with

Laettner
Nowitzki
Stackhouse
Finley
FA PG, i.e. Alston, Whitney, Goldwire (NBDL), Boucher(And1),
Gittens(And1), Kareem Reed (Rucker), Atwan Dobie
(Rucker), Curt Smith (Rucker last year)...


Nellie getting Laettner and Stackhouse is like John Thompson getting
Reggie Williams. It's everything he can't coach.

Shaq needs to lose 40 pounds and invest 200 hours of his time in freethrow
shooting. As he exists now, he's overpriced by 2 to 1.

But alas, there are many fools running NBA teams. Blake Stepp and Chris
Duhon were mid-second-rounders.

Back to Stack. There are about 4 guys that get fouled like Adrian Dantley
used to; Shaq, AI, Pierce and Stackhouse. The true beasts of the league.

Rick Hohensee
Precision Mojo Engineer

terrence brannon, scheme hacker

do you mean these And1 people are from the And1 Street Baller mixtape? I hope
so. The one street-baller on Miami is pretty impressive at times. But Francis
and Dwayne Wade also have phenomenal ball-handling skills as well. Bibby isn't bad either.


Blake Stepp? Who's that?

You see a lot in Duhon? He ran the point OK for Duke... I didn't see anything
that special in his play. I certainly don't expect much point production from
him in the NBA. Who got him by the way.

And I would take Ben Gordon over Duhon any day.

aeropo864

Stackhouse is a bum, although he's not as overpaid as other bums like Allan Houston and Antoine Walker.

They drafted Devin Harris.

Duhon is a late 1st rounder/early second-rounder at best.

Stepp should have been taken higher but he'll probably just be the next Steve Kerr.

douglas lang

Doesnt matter if its a weak free agent market.. trades usually offset such
years...


to

r

humbubba@smart.net

Wade playing the point is how Miami lost to the Pacers.

How about the other 40 that went before Duhon?

Duhon gets the job done.

r

humbubba@smart.net


Right. The Human Championship Ring.

x

Seriously man, http://www.google.com.

The Bulls drafted Ben Gordon #3 and took Duhon in the second round.

mr black

huh? why pick up a FA PG when we have got Harris and Daniels?

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terrence brannon, scheme hacker

I know who took who. I read it when Pat Bender posted it. If you read the above,
I was talking about what *I* would do and why it is no surprise to me when Duhon
was chosen... and I asked Hohensee why he thought different.

I don't see how the above would imply lack of knowledge of what you attempted to
inform me about.