Detroit Pistons, Free Agency, and the NBA Offseason So Far

The Detroit Pistons finished under .500 last season and only made the playoffs due to the complete and utter lack of depth in the Eastern Conference. To put the East's weakness in perspective, only the top three seeds in the East would have even qualified for the playoffs in the far superior West. However, the Pistons appear to believe that they are only a few moves away from recreating the "magic" that occurred in 2005 when they combined with the San Antonio Spurs to form the most boring NBA Finals ever seen. It seemed impossible with a roster that contained such studs as Kwame Brown and Walter Hermann. Their core players are all over the hill with the exception of Rodney Stuckey who I believe to be wildly overrated. He averaged under 5 assists per game last season. That puts him only .3 assists per game ahead of Sebastian Telfair who has never been noted for his passing ability. Also, his assist to turnover ratio was 2.24 which was tied for 41st in the league. Those don't look like starting point guard numbers to me. However, with all the aforementioned weaknesses, the Detroit Pistons thought of themselves as contenders and signed two "marquee" free agents in Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon. The only problem with this is that neither will be able to bring Detroit to the front of the East. For example, even with these two acquisitions the Pistons still only have one player in the top 50 of John Hollinger's PER rating, Charlie Villanueva at 47th. When you compare this to Cleveland (LeBron James at No. 1), Orlando (Dwight Howard at No. 4 and Jameer Nelson at No. 21), and Boston (Kevin Garnett at No. 18 and Rajon Rondo at No. 37), you can see that the Pistons will be playing for, at best, the fourth seed in the East.


The polar opposite of the Pistons' acquisitions was the signing of Ron Artest by the Los Angeles Lakers. This was yet another brilliant move by the Lakers' GM, Mitch Kupchak. Not only does he acquire a replacement for Trevor Ariza, he improves on Ariza considerably. Artest averaged 8.2 points per game more than Ariza last season, about a rebound per game more, and 1.5 assists per game more. In fact, he is statistically superior to Ariza in almost every category especially 3-point percentage. Last year Artest shot 39.9% from 3 placing him T-13th in the league among players who took at least three hundred threes. This is in total opposition to Ariza's 31.9 percentage from downtown which was worse than both Brian Cardinal and Zach Randolph's three point percentage. Another important factor in Artest's game is his stellar defense. He has been known to shut Kobe down consistently and even has a bit of a budding rivalry with him. I believe that this will actually help the Lakers' abilities. With Artest spurring Kobe on to new level and Kobe not having to go against Artest when LA plays Houston, the Lakers will be a much improved team. One final factor which made the Artest signing so shrewd was that they signed him to a 3 year deal which pays him about $6 million a year. This is a salary cut from the 7.4 million that he was payed last year.



Strangely, it appears that many GM's were more interested in Ariza than Artest this off season. Artest was courted only by the Lakers, Cavs, and Rockets, while Ariza was pursued by the Rockets, Lakers, Clippers, Cavs, Raptors, and Blazers. Also, the team that eventually won the Ariza lottery, the Rockets, paid more for Ariza, $33 million over 5 years, than the Lakers did for Artest. There are a few possible reasons for this. Obviously, some teams still have worries over Artest's occasionally inflammatory personality after the "Malice at the Palace". However, the more likely reason is that teams in the NBA and most of the other major sports appear to prefer young unproven players with potential to consistent veterans. I think that this is a terrible idea. I don't understand why you would rather have players with the potential to be good as opposed to players who you already know are good. It's almost as if these GM's aren't thinking.


Speaking of not thinking, I absolutely hate the new "Unthink" KFC commercials. They are merely embarrassing themselves by pandering to the lowest common denominator of the American people. People who have been swayed by this commercial apparently believe that KFC is the right choice for them if they do the opposite of think. In fact, when you do think about what you're eating for one second, KFC knows that you will not choose their product, (unless you're Michael Jackson who has made some notoriously bad decisions). I also think it's strange that some of these commercials involve people choosing grilled chicken over fried chicken. THE NAME OF THE RESTAURANT IS KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN. UNLESS THEY CHANGE THE NAME, FRIED CHICKEN MUST BE THE HIGHLIGHT. I much prefer the commercials that they show here in Connecticut for a clothing store named Syms. They merely show a man purchasing a suit and display their motto: "An educated consumer is our best customer". There's no pressure, but if you are smart you will buy from them.


The Toronto Raptors showed the savvy of Syms this off season with their trade for Hedo Turkoglu. In case everyone forgot, Turkoglu was one of the top five clutch shooters in the playoffs this season. He was also a tough match up for most of the teams that the Magic played this June since there are not many 6' 10" players who can guard an accomplished perimeter player. Although some believe that the Raptors are acquiring Turkoglu at the peak of his value, he actually shot 44 points worse from three this year and scored 2.7 less points per game. The only problem with this signing is that the Raptors gave Turkoglu a 5 year contract. At most Turkoglu has three years left, and not at $10 million a year. When Artest is being paid barely over the mid level exception, Turkoglu should not get $10 million. The strangest thing about the story is that Turkoglu's wife convinced him to sign with Toronto because it was more "cosmopolitan" than Portland. If she wanted to live in a more international city, she could live there during the season. Also, Turkoglu is the second biggest wimp that I have ever heard of. He earns the money so he chooses where he plays. It is as simple as that.


It is impossible to express how grateful I am for Mark Cuban's stupidity. The Knicks were about to jeopardize some of their valuable 2010 cap space on a player who couldn't push the Knicks out of the lottery this coming season. Kidd was only a valuable player on the Mavericks last year because he didn't have to carry the load. He could focus on being a second banana and only had to shoot the 3 when he was wide open. As a result, his 3 point percentage jumped 50 points from his last season in Jersey to last year. However, since the Knicks do not have anywhere near the talent level of last year's Mavs, Kidd would have to revert to his Jersey days. His 3 point percentage would sink and the Knicks would lose a couple million dollars.

With Odom and Iverson still free agents and Carlos Boozer rumored to be on the trading block, the NBA off season still has many twists and turns to go. However, a few teams have shown that your June can be decided in early July.

That's all for today's issue of "Sports: The Most Important Thing Ever."

NBA Draft in Review

I'm sure that you are aware that amazing happens on a daily basis in the NBA, but it happened today at Madison Square Garden with the NBA Draft. It included players from Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and even... Guadeloupe? (I don't even know what continent that's on.) But it all started at number 1 when the Los Angeles Clippers made the obvious selection of Blake Griffin. It seemed obvious that he would be picked here, but I haven't really seen what all the hype is about with Griffin. He has trouble playing defenders face up and his mid-range game isn't where it should be. However, he has a great rebounding game and can play well in the low post both offensively and defensively. He should be a great NBA player, but I don't see him being the best in this draft.


After the Clippers made their selection, the Memphis Grizzlies were on the clock. It was here that I thought they should draft the best player available; in this case, Ricky Rubio. The Spanish point guard has been playing professionally since he was 14. He is still only 18 years old and has already played in the Olympics. He is battle tested and has all the tools necessary to succeed at the highest level. In fact, in my opinion he was the best player in the draft. However, with one of the most incompetent GM's in the league at the helm in Chris Wallace, the Grizzlies selected Hasheem Thabeet, the 7 foot 6 center out of UCONN. After watching him play for the past few years it is apparent that he is not an NBA talent. Although his defensive game is very strong and he can rebound well, he has almost no offensive ability. He struggled to score against such powerhouses as Hartford (9 points), La Salle (9 points), Delaware State (10 points), and DePaul (11 points). If he can't score against these teams than how s he going to be putting up double digits against players of Dwight Howard's caliber. With the second pick you should not be picking a project who will never be able to compete with the best at his position.


The third pick went to the Oklahoma City Thunder who chose James Harden. I'm not in love with this pick, but I can at least see why they went with him over Rubio. Firstly, Rubio would never and I repeat never go to play in Oklahoma. Of all the NBA cities, this has got to be one of the two or three worst. (Ironically, it is on the same level or even slightly better than Minneapolis.) Also, the Thunder already think they have their point guard of the future in Russell Westbrook. Now they have a solid two who can score and help complement Durant by getting to the rim.

At number four the Sacramento Kings needed a point guard. And they selected Tyreke Evans over Ricky Rubio. Nothing more needs to be said.

Finally at number five somebody was smart enough to take the player who was clearly at least the second best player in the draft. However, that same team was also dumb enough to antagonize Rubio by following up his selection with another pure point guard at number 6, Johnny Flynn from Syracuse. Now instead of having maybe Curry at the 2 with Rubio at the one, all they are left with from these two top ten picks is an undersized point guard who hasn't grown since 8th grade. While it seemed obvious that one of these two would have to be traded the newly hired GM of the T'Wolves, David Kahn, continues to insist that they will play in the same backcourt. To put it bluntly, Kahn is wrong. They are incompatible players and one of them must go.

At number 7 the Golden State Warriors crushed my hopes and dreams as well as those of the 87 other Knick fans by drafting my dream player Stephen Curry. He can shoot from the perimeter and showed an ability to run the point at Davidson. He has good court vision and can handle himself in the clutch. But, the freaking Golden State Warriors took him. They don't even need him. They already have Monta Ellis running the point, but they show no sympathy to my needs and steal Curry away from us. Now his career is going to be run into the ground by freaking Don Nelson. It's a travesty.

The Knicks chose Jordan Hill at number 8. While he's no Stephen Curry, he seems like a nice guy who didn't really deserve to be booed at MSG. I really shouldn't be complaining because I threw my remote at the TV so hard after the Warriors took Curry that I tore my right labrum. Also, this draft pick almost rules out the Knicks resigning David Lee since Hill is a talented rookie power forward who will be stealing Lee's position. Now we're stuck with Krypto-Nate for another godforsaken season. I hate my life.

At 9 the Raptors chose DeMar DeRozan. My favorite part of this pick is the rare player who encapsulates four capital letters with no hyphens between his first and last name. It's easy to have three if you just give your kid a prefix on their first name. (e.g. JaMarcus Russell, DeMarcus Ware, or LaMarcus Aldridge) However, it takes real guts to add the first name prefix when you already have it on the last name. The only other player that I can think of who achieves this rare quadfecta is Le'Ron McLain of the Baltimore Ravens. Another awesome part of the name is that with the prefixes removed it makes literally zero sense. However, I wish the Toronto Raptors the best of luck with their shooting guard of the future Mar Rozan.

Finally, the Milwaukee Bucks closed out the top ten by taking Brandon Jennings. I liked how he was announced as coming from Compton, CA/Italy. It's my understanding that they are essentially the same place. This pick seemed way too early for Jennings considering he averaged under 6 points per game in the Italian League. His offensive woes make Hasheem Thabeet look like Wilt Chamberlain reincarnated.

A few other highlights of the draft included Tyler Hansbrough's selection at number 13 by the Indiana Pacers. Chad Ford described the pick like this in his draft recap for espn.com, "Don't you think Hansbrough's going to be popular in Indiana? As we've seen during his college years, he's a tough, physical, blue-collar guy who Larry Bird compared to Dave Cowens." In other words, the Pacers needed a likable white guy and Hansbrough was the best available.

At first glance, I loved Jrue Holliday. His name just seemed legendary. However, when I was talking about him to a friend during the draft, he corrected me and said it was pronounced, "Ja-rue." That ruins it. Now his parents just made a spelling error for the ages rather than inventing a new way to spell "Drew." Also, it annoys the crap out of me because quite frankly, that is not the way that Jrue is pronounced. I hate to break it to Shawn and Toya, but they have misspelled their own son's name.

It really makes no sense to me why teams continue drafting players like Victor Claver, Omri Casspi, Rodrigue Beaubois, and Christian Eyenga in the first round. I can't remember one of these picks for "down-the-road" ever panning out into a good NBA player. If they aren't good enough now to play in the NBA, then why are you picking them over proven players like DaJuan Blair and Toney Douglas. If you have the urge to pick the foreign flavor-of-the month, then just keep repeating to yourself the names of Saer Sene and Darko Milicic.

Speaking of Toney Douglas, I love this pick for the Knicks. He is a scorer who can nail shots consistently from the perimeter. He seems like a great combo guard for Mike D'Antoni's run and gun offense. He is exactly the type of player who should be getting picked in the first round. He proved himself at FSU, but still has the potential to develop into a solid starter in the league.

DeJuan Blair at number 37 to the Spurs must be a joke. This is a player who absolutely dominated Thabeet in college to the level that Calhoun thought about putting a second defender on him. It's ridiculous that a player who has the talent to offensively destroy the second pick in the draft slips to the second round. One thing I find strange about Blair's slide through the draft is that teams believed he was an injury risk because he has no ACL's. Wouldn't that improve his durability since he can't tear them or tweak them anymore? The only reason that Blair was not a top 20 pick was the fear and stupidity of some of the GM's in the middle of this draft. You're telling me that Victor Claver will be a better NBA player than Blair? I don't think so. Also, this is another example of the Spurs outsmarting every other team in the NBA. After Parker and Ginobli, it is weird how this continues to happen.

I loved the Suns' pick of Taylor Griffin. Honestly, if I was in his shoes I would rather not be drafted at all than go at number 48. At least then in fights with his brother he could just claim that basketball wasn't his "thing". However, now and for all of time, his younger brother will have bragging rights over him because he knows that he is exactly 47 picks better than his big brother.

The last pick that I truly cared about in this draft was the pick of Lester Hudson by the Celtics. This shooting guard out of Tennessee-Martin seems really athletic and is easily the best player from this small school. I would rather draft Hudson than someone like A.J. Price who was a second or third banana on a team that didn't reach the Final Four. One incredible thing about Hudson is that he was the first D1 player to record a quadruple-double. Anyone with the athleticism to pull that off deserves to be selected in the NBA Draft.

That's all for today's issue of "Sports: The Most Important Thing Ever."