"Oh my God! Oh my God! That's James Choleras' music!!!!"
So rather than spending time explaining why I stopped writing and then explaining why I came back I figured I would just jump right back into sipping haterade on everyone and generally just doing my best to bash those that are far more successful in life than myself.
The only problem is what topic do I pick for my triumphant return to the shores of Fistiana? There's so much happening in sports right now. There is of course the looming NHL trade deadline that needs to be addressed at some point. Maybe I could write about Milos Raonic and how he has made tennis relevant in Canada or how Tiger Woods was beaten down in the opening round of a match play event this week and no one seemed to notice/care.
I could write about the NFL draft but then again I have never heard of half the guys projected to go in the 1st round. I mean how many people can honestly say they watched even one second of potential top 3 pick Da'Quan Bowers playing this year? Without looking where did he go to school and what position does he play? I would write about the potential lockout in the NFL next year but I don't have a law degree and thinking of life without the NFL generally makes me depressed.
So that leaves the NBA and the 2 trades that went down this week that changed the entire landscape of the entire league in a span of two days. Seems like a fitting topic as this week at work all I did was sit on ESPN and read updates and analysis on these deals.
First there was the massive 3 team trade that sent Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Corey Brewer to the New York Knicks, Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov a 2011 1st round pick and two 2nd round picks to the Nuggets and Anthony Randolph and Eddy Curry's expiring contract and massive man breasts to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
**Please note that any that refers to the lead up to this trade or anything occurs afterward as "Melo Drama" is a douchebag and deserves to be called out as such.
Some people were saying that the Knicks gave up too much to get Melo. I could not disagree more. Felton for Billups is a pretty big upgrade as far as I'm concerned. Even though Billups is older Felton was never thought of as a long term solution as he was more of a bandaid until 2012 when Deron Williams and Chris Paul became available so the Knicks win there. And the offense of the other 3 players can easily be replaced by Anthony and Brewer. As the saying goes you gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelet.
The Knicks got themselves a superstar and now have 2 of the top 10 players in the league. The only problem I have with this trade is that the Knicks let the negotiations drag on for too long which allowed the Nets to jack up the price to get Anthony. If they had acted sooner they may not have had to add in Mozgov or some of those picks.
As for Denver I think they made out alright. They got some solid players with good contracts and some picks to help rebuild the team and they definitely fared better than Cleveland and Toronto who both lost superstars and got the poo poo platter in return.
That said the Nuggets didn't make out nearly as well as the Jazz who randomly traded away franchise player Deron Williams to the New Jersey Nets for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors and a couple of first-round draft picks. That is a solid haul for 1 player and provided the Jazz do their scouting they could be right back in mix in the Western Conference in a year or two.
This move was a real shock to me. When Jerry Sloan stepped down as the head coach a few weeks ago it was reported that he did so because he was feuding with Williams. Various people reported it as a 'its either him or me situation' with Williams being the one kept. Even Williams himself was shocked and apparently pretty pissed off about the whole thing
Then again if I had to be the point guard for the Nets I would be pretty pissed as well. If you check their roster you will see right away that they are not a talented team. Aside from center Brook Lopez (who is actually regressing this year) there isn't a single player on that team worth passing the ball to. They aren't talented and they have a lot of bad contracts that are going to be hard to unload so even though Williams is on the team right now he could choose to not resign leaving the Nets royally screwed.
The biggest story from this week though is how these 2 massive trades shifted the balance of power in the NBA from the West to the East. First there was Amare and to a lesser extent Carlos Boozer and now Anthony and Williams. All the talent is going East. Of the 12 Western Conference All-Stars from last week only 10 are still on a Western Conference team and that number should continue to shrink because Chris Paul is 100% going to play for the Knicks.
LeBron, Wade, Howard, Anthony, Williams, Amare, Derrick Rose and Bosh.
The landscape for the league has shifted dramatically and no longer is the East a 3 or 4 team conference. The talent pool in the East just got deeper at the expense of the West.
If you smeeeeeeeeell what the Sports Informer is cooking!
Random YouTube Video
No comments:
Post a Comment