Empty the Bench

Dwayne Wade Photo Credit: Icon SMI

- It’s the Season of Trade–or at least Trade Rumors–in the NBA with more and more player names being bandied about in high-flung scenarios that are given some degree of official credence by various “league sources.” To that end, Hardwood Paroxysm offers up an entertaining look at 20 players they’d like to see donning new uniforms. I wouldn’t trade more than a bag of dried black beans for Carlos “Momentum-Killer” Arroyo though.

- In case you were stuck in the office on Martin Luther King Day and missed out on a wall-to-wall slate of NBA action, TrueHoop’s very own mad scientist, Henry Abbott, liveblogged the games for most of the afternoon. Some rather astute observations (as there usually are), including this one about Charlotte Bobcats guard Jason Richardson: “Jason Richardon just hit his 117th 3-pointer of the season. Not that big a deal, I guess, until you consider that’s the most threes any Bobcat has ever hit in a season. It’s January, for crying out loud. Whoa, just learned from a TV graphic that the all-time career record for the team is 244. That record belongs to Matt Carroll. Richardson could beat the all-time team record in one season.”

- The best Australian-born NBA blogger currently taking up residence in Japan, Don from With Malice…, has corralled a bunch of his fellow writers to weigh in on their midseason prediction for who’ll take the cake as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player. New responses seem to still be coming in, but you can check out the picks so far here, here, and here. And, yes, my choice (Kobe) is somewhere in there too.

- In his NBA blog for The Detroit News, Chris McCoskey addresses the Chicken Little Crowd who’ve innundated his inbox with criticisms of his midseason analysis of the Detroit Pistons. Specifically, McCoskey reiterates that all teams go through a funk–like the Pistons are now–but that in the bigger scheme of things, this squad is going to be just fine.

People see mistakes made this month — not stopping dribble penetration, limited protection at the basket, stagnant one one one offense, a couple of low energy games from Rasheed Wallace — and act like these are new developments. They aren’t. They were things I wrote about in my first story about this team before training camp. The ruling fact is, though, despite all of that, they had a 29-12 record at the mid-point. And I am called a homer because I didn’t rip them for that. Wow. My bad.

- All on the Field reminds us that Larry Brown can’t stand being out of the spotlight.

- With the college football season (thankfully) over with and the Super Bowl just around the bend, many casual sports fans are set to rediscover, or at least tune into, the most exciting, watchable professional sport the United States has to offer. I’m talking about the NBA of course and Le Basketbawl was kind enough to provide a quick refresher for those very fans who missed the season’s first half by recapping five of the top stories so far.

- Kelly Dwyer for Yahoo’s NBA Experts Blog digs up some nice archival footage–okay, a Nike commercial–featuring David Robinson and Charles Barkley. Good stuff.

- End-of-the-bench Boston Celtics reserve Brian Scalabrine has never been accused of being the world’s most well-conditioned athlete, but boy did he look chubbier than usual when Doc Rivers trotted him out there for a spell Monday afternoon against the Knicks. I’m not positive, but I could have sworn I saw him call a vendor over to the bench after his few-minute stint to refuel on super nachos and a chili dog. SimonOnSports has been keeping track of The Rotund Redhead’s exploits this season, with the riveting Brian Scalabrine Watch now in Week 12.

- Perkisabeast is no fan of New York Knickerbockers starting small forward Quentin Richardson (nor is Empty the Bench, for that matter): “Lets get the record straight: Richardson couldn’t carry [Paul] Pierce’s jock strap to the laundry. However, this pile of blubber and gas has a history of cheap shots against Pierce, mostly because he cannot guard him to save his life. This is the stupid pile of spit who punched Pierce in the back of the head on a breakaway layup during the preseason. He’s the jackass who basically promised to fight the Celtics at an ESPN event.”

- The Orlando Magic broke a long losing streak to the Pistons Monday night on the back of a buzzer-beater by Rashard Lewis. Matt Watson of Detroit Bad Boys gives credit to the Magic as “a respectable team, and probably even a good one,” but laments the fact that Chauncey Billups’ three-point bomb that tied the game up with just over 3 seconds to play will now be forgotten because of Lewis’ make. (Includes video for those that missed it; Chauncey traveled, yes, but the shot was still big-time).