The Association

Quick Hit - KG Traded to Boston

By Craig Kwasniewski and Brett Edwards

Here's a quick email exchange on the KG trade that went down earlier today. Craig starts it off (from the perspective of a bitter Laker season ticket holder):

Craig: The more I think about the trade the more I'm depressed. The C's are doing a stellar job a creating a contender while the Lakers are all about "stay the course."

So the Lakers are Bush and the C's are educated people NOT addicted to cocaine.

STILL, who's gonna play PG? And we all know that Doc Rivers will find a way to cock this up.

Brett: I'm convinced this is a good old boys network deal between McHale and Ainge. How is this package better than say Bynum, Odom, and draft picks or random bad contracts that the Lakers would have given them? Mchale hates the Lakers from his playing days and there's no way he was going to send them to the finals by dealing them KG. Oh and about the Celtics having no PG and a bad coach?
The Cavs went to the Finals and had the same two problems...

Craig: Good point! Sounds like you've been round-tabling it for the past few hours. (For synergy sake, check out the NBA Fanhouse at AOL for a round table discussion on the trade. These guys will break down the trade 8,762 ways, it's a good read for all you NBA lifers.)

But at least Mike Brown had a few good assistants that he stole from San Antonio. Who does Doc have? Kevin Loughery, Gene Shue, Stan Albeck, Donnnn Nelson, John Battle, Kevin Willis, Cliff Levingston, Antoine Carr, Spud Webb, Dominique Wilkins, The Tsar of the Telestrator, Randy Wittman... and the rest of the 1987 Atlanta Hawks (including that fan that used to sit in the front row with the tambourine on a stick).

BTW - Please post any information or photos on that guy with the tambourine that sat in the first row at Hawks games back in the 80's. If you remember, all he did was bang away senselessly all game.

Quick Hits: Excessive Contact with Durant

by Brett Edwards and Craig Kwasniewski

Time to dust off another edition of "Quick Hits" for the the whole Kevin Durrant controversy with Kobe Bryant, Danny Ainge and Michael Jordan. Just to refresh your memory, Quick Hits are some brief comments on a hot topic... basically it's watercooler talk. This time Craig will lead off and Brett will respond:

You know all the recent rash of accusations of NBA people speaking to college kids?

Big Effin Deal!

The players are aleady in college, so there's no recruiting. There's an NBA Draft, so there's no NBA team recruitment. It's not like GM's are getting inside info on these players because EVERYONE knows about them. It's not like there's some secret scouting going on. By now if the NBA GM's haven't seen or reviewed a player, well then they're stupid and their name is Mitch Kupchak. We all know that these players are leaving early, so there's no added pressure and they're not in classes anyway.

So again, what's all the fuss?

I agree 100 percent. It's not like the college players don't know, within one or two spots, EXACTLY where they would be drafted if they came out early. The amount of information available to them regarding their draft position is ridiculously plentiful, and MJ saying he'd draft you isn't going to make you come out any earlier unless you're guaranteed lottery pick money. I honestly have no idea why we are fining NBA executives for doing their jobs, which is scouting college players and answering the media's questions regarding those players.

Quick Hits: WCF Preditcion

by Brett Edwards and Craig Kwasniewski

Time for a "quick hits" session to call our shots for the Western Conference Finals. This time Craig will lead off and Brett will respond:

Prediction for the Mavs-Suns series?

Dallas wins, but I'm not sure how long the series goes. PHX is very resilient despite playing only six. Also, the only teams that know how to stop PHX are San Antonio and first round games 1-4 Lakers. Does Dallas have enough experience not to get caught up into a PHX-style track meet?

This will be a true test on Avery's ability to coach and Dallas' ability to listen and execute.

That said, I see Dallas winning 4-2. PHX HAS to get tired.

I say Dallas in 6. I think they win tonight. Although their 7th game was way more intense than Phoenix's, I think DAL will play enough D at home and be ready based on seeing Detroit win a 7 game series, then give home court away in game 1 of the conference finals.

Although I was 4-4 with my second round predictions, I was 0-4 when trying to guess the number of games. Which probably means it'll be Dallas in 5.

Quick Hits: Raja Bell Suspended

by Brett Edwards and Craig Kwasniewski

The NBA suspended Phoenix guard Raja Bell for Game Six on Thursday night. This adds to the growing drama in one the best first round series since the NBA expanded to a best-of-seven format in 2002-03. Time for some "quick hits" reaction to the suspension. This time Craig will lead off and Brett will respond:

Raja Bell suspended for one game. I think that's a fair punishment. Did you read Raja's quotes? Bell said, "I think he's a pompous, arrogant individual." (he may be right) Anyway, who does that help?

A. The Lakers because the Suns will go only 6 deep and have nobody to match up with Kobe.

or

B. The Suns because the team will rally ("circle the wagons") and catch an overconfidant Laker team off-guard)

REACTION?

Bell was the Suns third leading scorer in the regular season behind Marion and Nash, so it doesn't help the Suns. They will be motivated enough with it being a road elimination game. It does help the Lakers, because of the Kobe match-up, however the Lakers have been playing against the same players for 5 games and now will be exposed to a slightly different lineup which may throw them off a bit. I still say if the Lakers don't give the Suns open 3s, they'll win. Simple as that.

In the meantime, Raja will be spending Thursday night working on his website rajadiabell.com. BTW - just what the hell is the "dia" for?

Quick Hits

by Brett Edwards and Craig Kwasniewski

Time for some Quick Hits based on yesterday’s games. This time Craig will start and Brett responds:

-Did you see the Clipper game? I tried to watch it for about 20 minutes... Absolutely horrible game! Maybe it was the stretch that I saw, but it literally seemed like there was a foul on every possession. Plus, both teams missed at least 2 shots on every possession. I saw Cassell get a technical foul on a weird turnover. It's like they were all playing with a lopsided ball. I just didn't have the patience to watch the rest of the game on Tivo.

I did see most of the second half of the Clipper game. DEN is horrible, the Clips had literally like 27 turnovers and they were still only down 4 with 3 minutes left. Also there were a ton of fouls, they had a graphic at one point in the 4th that there were 61 total, not sure what the final count was. Knick Bavetta was in full effect, fouls on literally every possession. The blog post title should be "Let Them Play." Clippers will win game 4 though, they're just way better than this Denver team. DEN was up 12 after one, and 4 minutes later the game was tied. It would have been a blowout (like the MIA/CHI game) if DEN was any good, but they're not.

-Nice of Shaq to bring his November game to the playoffs. Though, like you said yesterday, he totally blew off the loss in the post game press conference.

As for Shaq, it was all foul trouble. The guy had 3 with 8 minutes left in the 1st half. Not sure if the refs screwed him or he was lazy, but obviously MIA mailed it in after that.

-If the NJ-IND series is entirely on NBATV does it truly exist? Yeah, Jermaine O'Neil got 37 points in a win, but did it really happen? Why not just televise the games on public access.

Somehow IND always plays tough in the playoffs. Yes, NJ sucks, but still, IND is injured and still are up 2-1. I don't get it unless it's an Eastern Conference phenomenon.

-LeBron... the REACTION game!

Lebron? Tired of talking about him. Also glad I have Stern (H, not D) to listen to because apparently some little league baseball player threw a bat at someone and that's all sports radio wants to talk about.

-I know it’s a few days later, but what did you think about Kobe changing his numer to 24?

- he does 3 times as much as anyone else, so 3X8=24
- how many shots he takes per half
- how many BJs he gets from Devean George throughout the season
- how many HJs he gets from Sasha
- how many RJs he gets from Jeannie Buss
- how many groupies Shaq has paid off

Prediction for the Laker game tonight:

I see that there are too many what-ifs for tonight’s Lakers-Suns game. If the Lakers stick to the slow-it-down on offense and stay-at-home on Nash's penetration on defense gameplan, they win. If the Suns go back to the chuck and duck offense, they win.

I see the Lakers losing the game by 7 points. Some players, namely Smush Parker, will be too overconfident and Phoenix will open with a 30 plus 1st quarter. What do you see?

PHX wins by double digits.

Quick Hit - How Kobe can win the MVP

by Brett Edwards and Craig Kwasniewski

So what does Kobe have to do to win the MVP award? Brett started the topic:

I heard some good discussion on the MVP award on Dan Patrick's show today...he's voting for Nash, but admitted it was a toss-up between him, Kobe, and LBJ. One caller had a great point:

If you're not voting for Kobe based on what he's done this year, then what would Kobe have to do win the MVP?

I was thinking cure cancer, aids, and bird flu while averaging 40/game and taking a worse team than this year's (is that possible?) to the NBA Finals. Reaction

For Kobe to win the MVP he'd have to do a two-year plan.

Year One:
-Come clean and open up to the public. Let media members hang with him and write reports about it. Play cards with beat writers (Jordan did it).
-Privately donate money and time to charities with news about it accidentally "slipping out" (not like The NBA Cares events that have 5,000 cameras and media members covering Tim Duncan reading a book to retarded children).
-Go back to his old press conferences with "I like the challenge" being said 50 times per.
-Be in the delivery room for Shaq's 12th illegitimate kid. Totally ignore the fact that Shaq has 12 bastard kids and say how great birth is. Eat the placenta.
-Become best friends with Lamar Odom (a lot of guys get along with him). Being friends with NBA guys will show that he's not aloof. Jordan was best buddies with Oakley who was respected in the NBA community. Plus everyone was scared shitless of Oak, automatic cred in the NBA with that one. Odom might not scare you, but you know he's carrying some good weed, which also is auto cred in the NBA.
-Get 30 assists and 25 rebounds in the All-Star game. Why 25 boards? To show that he's not just getting assists to prove he's a nice guy.
-When asked "who is the MVP?" openly campaign for everyone else except himself.

Year Two:
-To prove all the "He's phony last year just because he wanted the MVP" articles wrong, he has to change his image over a two year span.
-Open a movie theatre chain in the hood.
-Get sense of humor. Seriously, the guy looks awkward when he laughs at a joke almost like "I don't get it, but I'll laugh"
-Get his wife to change her "I'm a raging cunt" look. She needs to look more friendly.
-Cure AIDS.

Basically, too many people hate Kobe to give him any voted award. Just read every single MVP discussion for LBJ and you could substitute Kobe in there. People just hate the guy.

Quick Hits

by Brett Edwards and Craig Kwasniewski

Here’s a new segment that we’re tying out. One of us initiates a topic with a brief comment as the other responds (agree, disagree, humor or violence). It’s called: Quick Hits

Today Craig will initiate the topic and Brett will respond…

-Call me cynical, but I thought Larry Brown would pull "the hospital thing" way back in February just to get the sympathy.
He's doing it so he has the health card to quit the job...no way that situation gets any better and he's probably thinking "I'm too old for this shit"

-Could Dallas be tanking just to avoid Sacramento in the first round?
No, PHX is actually playing well again (the second half at SAC, and 70% from 3-point land last night) and GS just has their number (they won 3 out of 4 against DAL).

-Too bad the Orlando Magic need a miracle to get into the playoffs (PHI and CHI need to lose the rest of their games).
Totally agree, it's too bad because they're better than the 6,7, and 8 seeds right now.

-If Cleveland would have lost last night, LBJ would have won the MVP award. The media argument of "hey, without LBJ they lose to the Knicks!"
Unfortunately he'll probably win anyway. Too many candidates will split the votes up for everyone else (Kobe, Nash, Dirk, Billups) which sucks because he is NOT the MVP.