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Wild Trade Deadline Sends Stars Left and Right

Let’s get one thing out the way first: What the hell were the Boston Celtics thinking?!? If you’ve been sitting under a rock or just haven’t cared to pay much attention to the NBA over the past week, then you missed out on what was single handedly the craziest trade deadline I’ve ever seen.

Several key players from both conferences were being shipped left and right. Here’s a list of the key trades made before the Thursday afternoon trade deadline.

• Nazr Mohammed to the Thunder.
• Marquis Daniels to the Kings.
• Aaron Brooks to the Suns for Goran Dragic.
• Semih Erden and Luke Harangody to the Cavaliers.
• Gerald Wallace to the Blazers.
• Jeff Green to Boston for Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson.
• Shane Battier to the Grizzlies for Hasheem Thabeet.
• Kirk Hinrich to the Hawks for Mike Bibby.
• Baron Davis to Cleveland for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon.
• Deron Williams to the Nets.
• Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks.
• Carl Landry to the Hornets.
• Troy Murphy to Golden State for Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric.
• James Johnson to the Raptors.


The most obvious trade that everyone knew about came on Tuesday when the Nuggets shipped Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Ranoldo Balkman, and Shelden Williams to the Knicks for four of their five starters in Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Danillo Gallinari, and Timofey Mozgov.

It almost seemed inevitable that Carmelo would eventually be dealt to New York and there wasn’t too much surprise when the deal was finalized.

The big shocking trades came in the days to follow. Almost out of the blue, Deron Williams was traded to the Nets for All-Star point guard Devin Harris and Derrick Favors. This occurred almost immediately after former Utah Jazz head coach and 2009 Hall of Fame inductee Jerry Sloan resigned from the organization.

And if that wasn’t shocking enough, the next morning fans woke up to seeing L.A. native Baron Davis being traded to the deserted wasteland of Cleveland for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon. (On a side note: Out of all the trades that went down over the past few days, I’d have to say this one made me feel so bad for Baron Davis.)

In the heap of all the moves that happened before the trade deadline, the Boston Celtics make one of the most questionable trades in recent years. In a deal that would send Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic to Boston, the Celtics actually agreed to send their defensive anchor in Kendrick Perkins along with their backup point guard in Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now that folks, is a head scratcher.

All the other trades that were made had some kind of reasoning and thought behind them. Most of the transactions made before the deadline could be justified. However, this trade makes you think someone has to be pulling your leg when they tell you about it.

At this point in the season, the Celtics are doing great. They’ve got the number one spot in the Eastern Conference and it looks like this might the year they win another title. Now, I’m not so sure about that one. Obviously, someone has a plan but I’m confused at the moment as to what that could possibly be.

With only about a month and a half left in the season, we’ll have to wait and see how these trades play out down the stretch and into the playoffs.

2011 NBA All Star Predictions

The NBA All Star game is just around the corner with only six days left for fan voting. That means there’s less than a week left for the popularity portion of the selection process. At this point, the starters in each conference have pretty much been set and I, much like many other NBA fans, have made my picks for who should participate in the midseason showcase.

After the third ballot update, the leaders at each position in both conferences looked to have a pretty solid lead over the remaining players who received votes. Based on that final ballot update, I’ve made my picks/predictions for who I believe should fill out the remaining 14 slots. Those players are as follows:


WEST

Starters
G Chris Paul
G Kobe Bryant
F Carmelo Anthony
F Kevin Durant
C Yao Ming* (Andrew Bynum**)

Reserves

G - Manu Ginobili
G - Monta Ellis**
F - Dirk Nowitzki
F - Kevin Love**
C - Pau Gasol
WC - Deron Williams
WC - Russell Westbrook**

*Can’t play due to injury
**First appearance


EAST

Starters

G - Derrick Rose
G - Dwayne Wade
F - LeBron James
F - Amar’e Stoudemire
C - Dwight Howard

Reserves

G - Rajon Rondo
G - Raymond Felton**
F - Josh Smith**
F - Kevin Garnett
C - Joakim Noah**
WC - Chris Bosh
WC - Paul Pierce

**First appearance

As with every year, there are always those players listed as “snubs” after not being selected for the All Star game. The biggest snubs from my list in no particular order would probably be Carlos Boozer, Ray Allen, Andrew Bogut, and Joe Johnson from the East; and Tim Duncan, Blake Griffin, Tony Parker, and Steve Nash from the West.

The 2011 All Star game should play host to several new faces as I’ve selected 7 first-time All Stars to represent their respective teams.

Starters will be announced January 27th on TNT and the remaining players will also be announced on TNT on Thursday February 3rd.

The All Star Game is scheduled to take place on Sunday February 20, 2011 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles.

Everything Not So "Melo" in Denver

With the NBA trade deadline a little over a month away, it’s only natural to see trade rumors circulating throughout the league. In particular, there have been the rumors of Nuggets’ forward Carmelo Anthony’s unknown future. Thanks to the various dedicated NBA reporters and willingness of the Nuggets organization to share their trade talks, fans have been given somewhat of a play-by-play of every move made by all the parties involved in the trade rumors.

The primary teams that have been heard through the trade talks are the Nets, Knicks, ans most recently, the Houston Rockets. Every TNT, ESPN, and NBATV analyst has given their two cents worth in regards to where Anthony would fit best and where he will most likely end up playing this season. For this article in today’s Sideline Critiques blog post, I’m going to throw my two cents in as well.

Personally, I feel like the Nets would be stupid to even attempt to woo Carmelo to their sorry excuse for a team. After barely escaping the 2009-10 season with what was almost an NBA record for losses in a single season, the Nets have nowhere to go but up a this point. Unfortunately, they also happen to be stuck in the basement and have a long ways to go before any hope of reaching the upper echelon of NBA teams.

Aside from their recent downfalls, they also lack any players of equal value to trade in exchange for Carmelo. And if they were to trade away their young talent currently on the team, that would leave very little support for Carmelo and erase any hopes of the Nets ever being a legitimate contender any time soon. That being said, if the Nets were to successfully trade for the services of Carmelo Anthony, I would find it very hard to believe that he would agree to sign an extension with the Nets, knowing their future looks rather bleak at the moment.

All things considered, if the Nuggets were to trade Carmelo Anthony, I feel they would be best served to send him to New York to team up with All Star forward Amar’e Stoudemire. Aside from a handful of players such as Raymond Felton and Stoudemire, the Knicks would most likely be willing to trade away any other players the Nuggets would agree to. Also, with Eddy Curry’s salary coming off the books this offseason, the Knicks would have enough money to sign Carmelo to an extension.

This could be a good basketball move for both sides. Carmelo obviously doesn’t want to remain in Denver due to his refusal to sign an extension with the team. The Nuggets should attempt to get some value for him as opposed to losing him in the offseason in free agency. On the other side, this is obviously a good move for the Knicks as they would be adding a another solid superstar to their roster.

Aside from the basketball aspect of the situation, Carmelo’s wife, LaLa Vasquez, is from New York and I’m sure that is in the back of his mind during these negotiations. Many players choose to do what’s best for their families and that just might be signing with the New York Knicks.

It is currently unknown what will happen next in this trade saga, but I believe in the end, Carmelo Anthony will be lacing ‘em up in the blue and orange playing home games in Madison Square Garden.

(Carmelo interview on ESPN)
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6023501