Who Got The Better End Of The Key NBA Deals?

Thanks to the trade deadline, the NBA has a new theme with a line borrowed from “The Jefferson’s”:

“Movin’ on up, to the eastside…”

Carmelo Anthony is now a New York Knick, playing in the city that he grew up in and has been dying to play for since the Lakers ended the 2009-10 season. Not to be shown up with that move, the New Jersey Nets pulled off a stunning swap and nabbed Utah Jazz franchise star, Deron Williams.

These changes illustrates both teams need to improve quickly and become a squad that must be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference.

Yet, did both teams come out their deals smelling like roses or could these transactions make them wilt in a year or two?

Here’s the complete breakdown of the Anthony trade (this was a three team trade involving the Minnesota Timberwolves):

Knicks Get:

F Carmelo Anthony
G Chauncey Billups
F Corey Brewer
F/G Renaldo Balkman
F/C Shelden Williams
G Anthony Carter

Nuggets Get:

F Danilo Gallinari
G Raymond Felton
C Timofey Mozgov
F//G Wilson Chandler
Knicks 2014 1st Rounder
Two Second Round Picks
$3 Million Cash

Timberwolves Get:

C Eddy Curry
F/C Anthony Randolph
$3 Million Cash

For now, the Timberwolves will be excluded from this discussion (along with the fact that they receive little to nothing in the trade except money, an underdeveloped, big man in Randolph and the expiring contract of Curry).

The Knicks gave up most of their youth to get proven commodities. Anthony is a top ten player in the league who believes nothing can stop him from putting the ball in the hoop. He accomplishes this in multiple ways on the offensive end, a unique ability that no one on the New York team has. The attention he garners from the opposition will give Amar’e Stoudemire more space in the middle to flush dunks.

Billups is a battle-tested point guard who thrives off late game situations. While Felton will have more upside and continue to improve with more years in the league (he’s 26), he will never reach the merits that Billups has gotten throughout his career. With Anthony and Stoudemire monopolizing all the attention, the 34-year-old point guard won’t have to work hard to get open shots in Madison Square Garden.

Where the Knicks will hurt more is with their role players and their bench. Brewer will be a spark off the bench, but after him the options are thin. Balkman, Williams, and Carter are all averaging less than 17 minutes per game this season and will be asked to do more in New York.

The Nuggets will lose a cornerstone piece and his sidekick in Anthony and Billups, but now have a nice foundation to reconstruct their future. Felton (26), Mozgov (24), Chandler (23), and Gallinari (22) will be key components within that outlook. They will team up with many of their current young prospects (Aaron Afflalo and J.R. Smith are both 25 and Ty Lawson is 23) and their established stars (Nene Hilario, Kenyon Martin), making this one of the deepest teams in the West.

Despite that, nine role players will not win you a championship. Not to mention that having a player of Anthony’s caliber comes around once every ten to fifteen years, that’s if you are lucky (google the Nuggets history and check their star players). New York has been praying for redemption of historic greatness, and now have that in Stoudemire and Anthony.

Advantage: New York

Here’s the deal between the Nets and the Jazz:

New Jersey Gets:

G Deron Williams
F Brandan Wright
C Dan Gadzuric

Utah Gets:

G Devin Harris
PF Derrick Favors
Nets 2011 1st Rounder
Warriors 2012 1st Rounder

Golden State Gets:

F Troy Murphy

(Similar to the Anthony trade, this discussion will not include the Golden State Warriors.)

Williams joins a situation that is different from Anthony; he is now on a team that is nine games out of the playoff hunt. He does have a potent weapon in C Brook Lopez, who is only 22 and could develop into a counterpart that resembles the old Utah years with Carlos Boozer for a post option.

The Nets get a superstar who is third in the category of best all-around point guards (behind Chris Paul and Derrick Rose). They also finally acquire that centerpiece to build a team around in Williams. Since their last appearance in the 2003 NBA Finals with their Jason Kidd-led team, the Nets have been in need of a first tier player to return to greatness.

If Wright can ever stay healthy, get consistent playing time and regain the supreme talent that made him a top prospect at North Carolina, he could be the steal of this trade for the Nets. The Warriors were skeptical about keeping a player on board with so much promise in F Ekpe Udoh, but their loss is the Nets gain. Gadzuric is picked up because of his expiring contract.

Utah understood that when Jerry Sloan left, their franchise would have to detour in a new direction. Getting rid of Williams was in their future scheme, but premature in its timing.

Harris is a speedy point guard who can zip around the court, as if he’s built with light speed. Utah will most likely pattern their offense into an uptempo, up-and-down style team that fits the way their new point guard plays. While he doesn’t have the size or the range that Williams is armed with, he does have a great feel for the game and can distribute the ball just as well as the top point guards in the league.

Like Wright, Favors could end up being the jackpot of this move for the Jazz. At the age of nineteen, this forward has the body type and raw talent that could make him an impact big man within the next five years. Surrounding him with the likes of Al Jefferson, Paul Milsap, and Andrei Kirilenko will help him fine tune his game steadily instead of stunting his growth by playing him big minutes as an under-developed post player.

The other possible big payoff down the road may be the two first round picks. New Jersey’s will most likely remain a lottery pick in the 2011 Draft. They will also have their pick, which could possibly also get lottery draw, giving them a chance to land two top ten picks this year. They may have that same situation in 2012, with the Warriors pick in hand with their own next season.

New Jersey will love having Williams be the face of the team, but with the length of his tenure in doubt(he could become a free agent after next season), it’s hard to imagine a player of that caliber sticking around if he doesn’t have the right parts around him. The promise of Favors and the two picks in the next two years is too appetizing to not like if you are the Jazz, but getting Harris in the deal is the cherry that tops the cake.

Advantage: Utah Jazz

Despite the contradiction of who won and lost in these moves, the Nets and the Knicks are as happy as Kenny Smith when Blake Griffin won the NBA Slam Dunk contest. Both teams get a significant star that are icons in the NBA.

Owners James Dolan and Mikhail Prokhorov have got to be dancing like George Jefferson with their new acquisitions and singing a new tune in their mind…

“We’re movin’ on up…”

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Deron Williams Back-Flips Off A Cliff

Utah Jazz point guard Deron Williams has some pretty flashy moves on the court but off the court, he do some pretty amazing stuff as well.

Check out this amateur video shot at Sand Hollow resort in Southern Utah which appears to show Deron doing a back-flip into the water:



(Courtesy of That NBA Lottery Pick)

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NBA Top 50: Leaders of the New (No. 10-8)

More anticipation! The NBA season starts Tuesday! This post brings us into the top ten NBA players coming into the 09-10 season. I've alluded to it before, but this grouping really illuminates the matter clearly. We are firmly in the age of point guards. The first guy in this post isn't strictly a point guard, but he handles the ball for his team enough to be considered in the same breath. The other two guys have fallen on my count down a bit since last off season, but it's most because their respective teams don't seem to be putting them in scenarios where they can surpass previous expectations. Not yet anyway.

Art225 - Appropriation Poster - Andy Warhol of Brandon Roy, originally uploaded by RyanFlem.

Number 10: Brandon Roy has arrived. Coming in to last season, I had him ranked as 22nd. This after he made the all-star team and sophomore team in 07-08. He made the all-star team again this year and looked just as solid as ever, even hitting a bunch of uber-clutch shots. The Blazers are a bit of a question mark moving forward. Will they fulfill all the potential they've been packing for the past few seasons? We'll see. They made a strong showing during the season, but hit the wrong match up in the playoffs. Lamarcus Aldridge is solid, but the rest of this team is a bit of a question mark. Is Nicholas Batum really their starting three? Is Oden finally ready to come into his own? It's unclear how soon this team could be a championship contender, but there should be no questions as to whether this team will make the playoffs for the second season in a row. Brandon Roy is the big, steadying reason.

Number 9: Deron Williams finds himself in much the same situation as Roy. There are strong pieces around him, but it's unclear how or if they'll come together in the end. The Jazz actually came out on the bottom of the Western pecking order and were quickly ousted by the Lakers in this year's playoffs, but most of that was due to injury. This is a formidable team and has been for awhile. Can we say that pushes Deron over B-Roy? Not quite. But we can say that Deron is just more potent and has been for a little longer than Roy. He hits for the watershed mark of 10 assists per, which trumps Roy's 5 even accounting for Roy's shooting guard label and his higher scoring average. I'll say it again though, all these young men are leading their teams resolutely toward years of success. Deron doesn't come out higher because we can't accurately project his success this year. The Ineffables are a delicate matter, and he just seems likely to be pulled down by all the turmoil that the Jazz bring into this season.

CP3 for MVP, originally uploaded by Appleita.

Number 8: Chris Paul makes a bit of a drop from where I had him ranked last year (numero three-o). It’s not because he had a worse year. He most certainly did not. It’s just because his team didn’t do so hot-ly. It's not that I subscribe solely to that school of thought (otherwise he'd be lower than Roy and Williams as I'd project his team to do worse this year. More, it was just he wasn’t setting the league on fire like he did in 07-08. This team needs more help. CP3's field goal percentage keeps going up, and we love that. Paul also boasts probably the best court awareness in the league. I've seen him multiple times close off lanes for other players, defenders, just by placing his foot a bit to one side. You can see him calculating all this in his head as he dribbles up court. It's actually quite reminiscent of Kidd in his prime. It should be noted that his stats are ungodly, simply because stats like these need to be noted. He went for 22.8 points, 11 assists, 5.5 rebounds (keep in mind, he's not a big 6-4 point guard like Kidd, which makes this stat all the more impressive), and 2.8 steals per game! That's insane.

Kind of like devoting only one paragraph to each of these guys. Oh well, someone has to do the insane, whether it's the impressive kind or the other, monotonous kind. Here comes Monday, folks! And a work week you can look forward to filling in with NBA basketball!

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NBA Top 50 Special Edition: Carmelo Anthony (No. 16) and the Days of the Week

Carmelo Anthony, originally uploaded by HUYFOTO.COM.

OtB is counting down the days 'til the NBA 2009-10 season tips off by ranking the top 50 players in the league. On Sunday there are/were 16 days left.

So I had this idea. For day 16 on our countdown 'til the NBA season, the day claimed by Carmelo Anthony, I would write about how said 'Melo has been a bit of a forgotten child since he got to the league. Such a thought reminded me of a David Bowie song, which then took me to the following nursery rhyme.

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace,

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day

Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

I love, by the by, that Wikipedia (copy and past does wonders nowadays) feels the need to Wiktionary-link to 'woe' for us, as if we've forgotten what the word means in this new and glittering age! The Bowie song entitled Thursday's Child takes the nursery rhyme to mean that a child born of a Thursday will forever be behind the ball, perhaps in relative obscurity, that such a child will have a harder time of it than say one born on Monday or Tuesday or, heaven bless them, on Sunday. I thought, maybe Carmelo falls under that umbrella, and I proceeded to investigate the matter. Whilst examining other NBA star's birth dates, I became engrossed. Thus, a day passed, rain fell, and no NBA Top 50 post went up for Sunday.

Now I know all of you are now wallowing in disarray due to your lack of countdown-y goodness. You may even be wandering in a land where the undead rule the day. Have no fear, however, for your Monday will be fair of face, and two f's in a descriptor can only be described as second to none but the storied 'double tap.'

In other words, ye heathens, you're gettin' two today because I got caught up in looking up these guys's birth-days and trying to come up with some significant conclusions. Obviously, the sample size isn't big enough for reliable statistical results, but the determining factors are qualitative in nature anyway. The real hump to get over for this study was the temptation to go astrological. That's been done and dead; it's the grounds for newspapers, not edgy blogs on the crepuscular outskirts. That's a good thing, Holmes. Anyway, we get some of that because it's inevitable that some guys born under the same sign (read: month) are similar. But we'll get to that. To begin.

The first and most salient point to this study is 'Melo. Dude's not a Thursday. He's a Tuesday. What does this mean? The rhyme says Tuesday's children are "full of grace." Sounds great, but how does it translate? Other Tuesday guys: Deron Williams, Amare Stoudemire, Ron Artest, and Lamar Odom. In my searches, I started with top players, meaning all-nba teams, overwhelming personalities, and the guys who have recently come or will soon be coming on this list. Of these initial players, these four joined Carmelo on the list of Tuesday children. Deron is the apt comparison. Williams and Anthony share a common thread of being looked over. Williams will seemingly never live down the comparisons to Chris Paul--though in head to head match-ups he generally comes out on top--and 'Melo has the LeBron comparisons to deal with. Tuesday's children have pretty steady careers, when all is said and done, but their "grace" is actually a euphemism for silently taking second shrift. These guys can't seem to shake off the shadows.

'Melo and Deron play nice with the rep, as they're fairly normal, well-adjusted NBA stars. See, most NBA players are born either in the December to January and sometimes February period or else in the May to July months. It's actually kind of striking, how regular this is. All the stars I looked at, unless otherwise stated, are born in these months. You have the stray Duncan in April (Taurus, fittingly) or Shaq in March (hello, Pisces)--if, by the way, you don't know your astrology, it's not hard to look up--for the most part, though, NBA stars tend towards those two periods of the year. Stoudemire, Artest, and Odom, however, are the odd November babies, and they're Tuesday boys too. Anyway, it explains the obvious difference between the Scorpios and Williams and Anthony. Still, the five of them share the shadow of more prominent personalities/talents, whether it's a rival on another team or Steve Nash.

Today, I fired my shadow., originally uploaded by frozenjester.

So what about those over-shadowers? Being born on Sunday, of course, is the big prize. The rhyme even devotes two lines and four adjectives to the day. So what kind of players does Sunday produce? Try this list on for size: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, and the burgeoning Devin Harris. Oh, a certain recent Hall of Fame inductee not named David or John is a Sunday baby too. Bonny, blithe, good, and gay? I'd say so.

Monday is just about as good a day to be born on as Sunday. Fair of face? These guys are the stars who are a little more under the radar. They don't exactly get overshadowed, but they don't stick out and accumulate the accolades like the bonny Sabbath boys. Monday births amongst NBA stars include Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Paul, Brandon Roy, Tony Parker, Joe Johnson, and, incidentally, John Stockton. Shaq is also a Monday, but guys just don't fit any molds. The Pisces thing might be right on. Ah, I don't want to get into it.

Wednesday is supposed to be filled with woe. The incredible research tool of Wikipedia states that older interpretations have Wednesday and Friday switched. The wives' tales that these kinds of rhymes stem from were very concerned with the seasons, the way the world turned and how the stars aligned. If the days were switched, it must've been for good reason, because using NBA stars as our barometer sure makes a convincing case for Wednesday births leading to lives, if not exactly woe-filled, that are not bereft of hardship. And the Wednesday ballers bear the marks of this burden. They are: Kobe Bryant (Denver), Kevin Garnett (the first round), Gilbert Arenas (knee problems...zaniness...), Vince Carter (Dickensian expectations), Danny Granger (the Pacers...Granger's another quiet April man). Another Wednesday's child of note? Carter's landmark victim Frédéric Weis. Talk about woe.

Thursday's children, the kids who started all this for me, don't fare much better than Wednesday's. Remember, a Thursday birth supposedly means bad news bears. The star representatives make this case a pointed one. Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, and Paul Pierce all have faced major challenges to their careers. It's not to say they haven't done well for themselves, but it hasn't been exactly easy. Steve Nash, despite not missing a whole lot of games, has had a history of back problems, and he was perpetually slept on until he went the 'far way to go' and signed with Phoenix. Let's hope the rhyme can be taken literally for Kevin Durant, as he's just getting started. Hopefully his 'far way to go' is always a measure of potential, and we continue to see the possibility for growth for years and years to come. Durant is a September dude, which we'll talk about when we get to Saturday. Darko Milicic is another Thursday's child. Y'know, the guy Detroit took second in '03 over Carmelo? Six years in, he's still got a ways to go.

Friday presented an interesting wrinkle to my examination of birth days for NBA players. There were no active NBA stars born on a Friday. I looked at over thirty of them, and none of them fell on a Friday. It's not to say that my investigation is by any means comprehensive, but you'd think there'd be at least one in thirty. Therefore, I decided to go back and see if the same held true for different eras. Thus, we came to the MJ is a Sunday and Stockton's a Monday factoids. I also found that fellow recent inductee David Robinson, along with legends Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Does that mean that the present-day NBA is less loving and giving? In an age where players are increasingly image consciousness, we might conclude as much. However, because I'm biased (and this study is so objective), let's keep caution out of the wind. Since there are so few Friday-born NBA stars, it makes more sense that superlative talents and personalities like Bird and Magic would provide the exception to the rule. Robinson works for this explanation as well. I will say that it must be hard being as loving or giving when your fame puts you under public scrutiny so often.

Saturday's Child Works Hard For A Living, originally uploaded by anji one.

People born on Saturdays are supposed to be hard workers. Saturday held a bit of a different meaning when Sunday was your sole day of rest/prayer, and Saturday had to be that much busier in preparation. We see Saturday's prediction borne out in the NBA stars revealed to have been born on this day: Shane Battier and Chauncey Billups, both of whom were also born in September. An odd month for NBA players, and odder still that two of the three I came across would also fall under the Saturday category. If anything, it means the hard workers don't stand out as much. Remember, the thirty or so players I chose from at first were players who made all-nba teams, or who were in the higher reaches of my own ranking. It's not like it's at random. Still, perhaps I and those who vote for such accolades don't notice the guys who tend to be born on Saturday.

With this in mind, I set about looking for NBA players who weren't as heralded. I looked for teams that were strictly middle of the pack. It wasn't an easy distinction to seek out; you want to have guys you can talk about, y'know? I settled on looking at a role player on the 15th and 16th best teams in the league, according to standing. These ended up being east coast teams, so I also looked at similar west coast teams. The records were a bit disparate, but consider it an adjustment. In this manner, I chose to look at Kirk Hinrich of the Bulls, Donyell Marshall of the Sixers, Carl Landry of the Rockets, and Erick Dampier of the Mavs. I thought it was a nice cross section of talents/skills/dispositions. Turns out, according to the rhyme, not so much. Landry and Dampier were Mondays. Hinrich and Marshall were Fridays. Turns out Fridays aren't so rare. There's a problem, though. Whereas the stars seemed to fit the rhymes descriptors, these role players don't seem to. Marshall and Hinrich both seem like generous and lovable guys, but wouldn't Hinrich be better suited as a hard-working Saturday? Marshall seems more like a Tuesday, while we're at it: never the hero, though he's saved quite a few days for his teams. Landry looks like a Tuesday too, and it occured to me that all role players might seem to be overshadowed from the distance of fan-hood. Still, I couldn't let it go. Dampier, a fair face? Something just didn't add up.

So I looked up Tim Thomas birth day of the week. Saturday. And that does it. There's no way this rhyme can be an accurate predictor if Tim Thomas is supposdly a hard worker. Still, a lot of the stars seemed uncannily suited to their birth days. Of course it doesn't determine your fate, but perhaps it does determine to what pitch whatever fate you eke out will be played. Perhaps Tim Thomas works hard at scamming teams out of millions of dollars. I looked into the rhyme's portents further, but none of it makes sense after Tim Thomas. If you care: Brian Cook is a Thursday's child; Devean George is a Monday; Cedric Simmons is a Friday; and Kareem Rush is a Thursday.

Carmelo Anthony, 2002, originally uploaded by mcdonaldsallamericangames.

But wasn't I supposed to be talking about something else? Oh yeah! 'Melo's number 16, and I wonder if I'm discounting him at all with that ranking. Am I letting him be Tuesday's child, despite the game that says he's fair of face, or even bonny and gay? Not sure. What I do know is that he's still the most important player on a very, very good Denver team. His numbers may be down, but they bely his greater commitment to rebounding and defense. Last season, he didn't rebound quite as much per game as he did in 07-08, but his rate was a bit better. In other words, he's not taking backward steps. Furthermore, he missed a bunch of games this past season. If he can keep consistent this season, he'll probably be even more dangerous. He gets it for ineffably having no questions heading into the offseason of 2010. Maybe it feels a bit like even Chris Bosh leapfrogged him in terms of importance for that reason, but it's a safe bet that impending free agency will be at least a small distraction for Bosh, Wade, and King James. Anthony has no such distraction, and therefore boosts his stock for 09-10. I think I've said enough.

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Jason Terry should have bought ankle insurance

Remember that commercial for Kobe Bryant's new sneaker selling ankle insurance? (For those of you that do not, here it is.)

Well, it was clear that Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry did not buy them. Utah Jazz point guard Deron Williams crossed him in a game and thanks to this clever video, he broke his ankles.

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