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.

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Nate Robinson Photo Credit: Icon SMI

Something special happened Monday afternoon at The Garden late in the fourth quarter–a “big fish story,” if you will, the kind when wary listeners shake their head in doubt upon hearing its dubious details and far-fetched claims. But this outlandish tale of athletic heroics sincerely happened, my friends, and I have the boxscore as indisputable proof. With the game’s outcome already well at hand in favor of the visiting Celtics, and after many of the hometown patrons had already filed out having sufficiently voiced their loving affection in a thunderstorm of boos for Isiah Thomas and his underachieving bunch of oafs, a rare moment of clarity amidst these murky Knick waters revealed itself.

In a flash of graceful athleticism, with his long, flabby arms held high above his head, New York’s finest $6 Million Dollar Man, the 7-1 Jerome James, pulled down his second rebound of the game, doubling his total for the season in the meer blink of an eye. When a highly trained athlete like James achieves such a benchmark, one should never let it go unrecognized. I rose from my seat, a $8.25 plastic-cupped Guinness at my feet on the sticky Garden floor, and saluted this magnificent showman with a thunderous clapping of the hands and a hearty “There you go, Jerome! There you go!” Surely, this was a teaser of bigger and better things to come from the hard-working James. Maybe, just maybe, after three years we’ll finally see him record a game of 9+ rebounds, a feat the big man has yet to attain in New York. And even if it doesn’t happen this season, there’s always the next two, when the distinguished Office of Dolan & Thomas will pay this man, a man who’s averaged 2.3 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 0.3 blocks/per in 87 games as a member of the proud New York Knickerbockers, another $12.8 million. I can barely stand the excitement.

Weighing in 100 pounds lighter, measuring well over a foot-and-a-half shorter, and getting paid over $4.5 million less, James’ teammate, Nate Robinson, made a similarly strong impression, though of course the impact of 2 rebounds in less than 2 minutes is a hard one to best. With Starbury now firmly out of the Knicks’ backcourt picture, if not the team’s bloated payroll, the league’s most diminutive power-dunker has seen an increase in minutes despite his coach’s insistence on keeping him out of the starting lineup. After all, very few can beat out the venerable Fred Jones, whose wow factor was on par with James’ Monday afternoon after he put up a convincing 2 points, 4 assists, and 2 turnovers in 31 minutes of action.

Robinson doesn’t seem like the most even-keeled of fellows, and he’s probably incapable of playing a leading role in this team’s inevitable renaissance, but boy do the fans love him, and boy does he at least hustle. That’s more than can be said about most of the players donning orange, white, and blue in New York these days, and given the state of this team, those two truths alone should be enough for him to hear his name announced alongside such Knick greats as Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph as a starter. Little Nate has now scored double digits in 16 of the last 17 games, and gave us the Highlight of the Night last Friday with an awesome putback dunk against the Miami Heat. Nate, you’re one of the lone bright spots for this once-proud franchise, and though your coach doesn’t think you’re the Knicks’ point guard of the future, we at ETB urge you to ignore him and, to invoke Rod Marinelli, head coach of the similarly proud NFL Detroit Lions, to keep “pounding the rock.”

Kwame Brown and Ronny Turiaf Photo Credit: Icon SMI

They sure do miss their Andrew Bynum in Los Angeles. In Friday’s contest against Phoenix Kwame Brown, Bynum’s replacement, was mercilessly booed every time he took the court or touched the ball. Sure, Brown finished with 7 turnovers, 5 personal fouls, 0 blocks and just 6 boards and 8 points on 3-of-8 shooting, but the crowd disapproval rained down even before Small Hands had a chance to stink up the joint. It was so bad that Brown felt the need to publicly apologize to fans for “going into a shell.” Kwame went on to say, “I apologized to Kobe and my teammates… They tried to pick me up and I just kept making turnovers and playing hot potato with the ball. There’s no excuse for the dunks that I missed.”

Los Angeles had won the first two games against their Phoenix rivals this season with Bynum in the lineup, but were embarrassed without Bynum on Friday. As Kobe Bryant said, Los Angeles is a title contender with Bynum in the lineup. Without him, they simply aren’t in the conversation.

When the emerging superstar Bynum went down, it appeared that Kwame was a shoo-in to get a vast majority of his minutes, but perhaps Phil Jackson will be forced to rethink that approach. It’s hard to ignore the fact that, while slightly undersized, 2005 second-round pick Ronny Turiaf is playing better basketball right now. He brings more energy than Brown night in and night out, he scraps around the basket, he plays hard on the glass, he gets after loose balls, he knocks down mid-range jumpers and he’s even hitting 50.3% FGs and 74.1% FTs this season. Turiaf plays with heart, he’s a fan favorite and he’s earned the minutes more than the underachieving Brown.

In not-so-related news from the Left Coast, Keith Smart will apparently miss his pornography almost as much as Lake Show fans like their Bynum. On Saturday Smart, an assistant coach in Golden State, accidentally left Matt Barnes off the roster for the game. It caused Barnes to miss the contest. Head coach Don Nelson cleared up the situation today, saying “Keith Smart left him off because he was watching the adult movie channel and he should have been concentrating on drawing up the roster… So we’re going to take that privilege away from him for the rest of the year.”

Ouch. Talk about calling a guy out in public. While Smart looks for another hobby, we move on to the fantasy analysis…

Up and Down Game:

Push It Up:

Andrew Bogut, PF/C, Bucks: What in the world has gotten into Andrew Bogut? He’s been on fire in 2008, averaging 18.6 points and 9.9 boards on 60.5% FGs in January. He’s been even better of late, with 21.7 points and 10.0 rebounds on 60% FGs over the last week. It started on January 6th when Bogut had 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting, and it was no fluke. The following day Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak said:

“We’re certainly going to do that. I think what’s gone on in the past is we’ve have a couple of sets that throw it to Andrew and he hasn’t been productive and we’ve kind of stopped. I think from a coach’s perspective, you have to have confidence in your big guy and that’s what I’m doing is instilling that in him, that we’re going to keep coming at you… We’re looking to get him the ball inside and telling the other four guys, ‘Look, take a peek at him in there.’ It can be real effective.”

He’s averaging 12.4 FG attempts a game this month, by far the most in his career. If his owner thinks this production is a fluke or just hasn’t been paying attention, now is a great time to target Bogut.

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Yes, Michael Jordan really did used to be that skinny. Make sure you have the sound on; the ’80s Casio keyboard-esque soundtrack brings it all together.

Or, at least, he would have triumphed in such an event Thursday evening after winning over the hearts and minds of basketball-loving Colorodoans everywhere. His performance against the Utah Jazz stands as his finest yet as a member of the Association.

Averaging double digits in points for the first time in his three-year career since being taken late in the first round of the 2005 draft, the 6-8, Lithuanian-born Kleiza was a load nobody on the Jazz roster could handle. Here’s the carnage report: 41 points in 41 minutes, including 4 three-pointers, to go with 9 boards. The man was running the court and dunking the rock with vigor, nailing spot-up longballs, and repeatedly taking men named AK-47 and The Booze off the dribble to get short bunnies in the paint. He was dominant, he electrified the crowd, he became the first Nugget not named A.I. or Carmelo to lead the team in scoring this season.

Linas Kleiza Photo Credit: Icon SMI

Given his European blood and the reputation that many foreign-born players have as being “soft” in the NBA, let’s make one thing clear: Linas Kleiza is a wide-bodied brickhouse. Linas Kleiza is not a timid Euro–he’s gangsta Euro. Gangsta like Darko Milicic is gangsta. He doesn’t back down and doesn’t seem easily intimidated, and at times has the steely look in his eye of a high-ranking lieutenant of the Lithuanian mafioso. At one point, after being fouled hard on a fast break by Kyle Korver, Kleiza walked back over with a snarl on his face and got away with sort of kneeing Korver back down towards the hardwood. It wasn’t dirty and it wasn’t necessarily a cheap shot–it was Linas Kleiza feeling that no one could stop him. And for one night at least, nobody could.

(Reader Picks included at the bottom; feel free to add your own in the comments)

Amir Johnson, F, Detroit Pistons

Despite preseason assurances from Pistons GM Joe Dumars that this was “his year” and that there’d be no more DNP’s, the last guy to ever be drafted straight out of high school is still one of the NBA’s most hyped players who hasn’t accomplished much on the court. He’s averaging just over 8 minutes in the 24 games he’s been called upon, and even that burn has come mostly in garbage time. He’s yet to score or rebound in double figures this season, and at times looks a bit lost in the Pistons’ offensive sets; perhaps he hasn’t quite grasped Flip Saunders’ playbook enough to make his coach feel comfortable with giving him quality minutes.

That said, Johnson has flashed big promise as a shot-blocker–his 22 on the season are more than full-time starters logging heavy minutes like Carlos Boozer, Josh Howard, Chris Wilcox, and Eddy Curry–and he can run the court and finish with pizzazz on fastbreaks. He’s still only 20-years-old, but it’s time for Saunders to start regularly giving this kid some minutes here and there with the starters; his development will be stunted if he’s only playing alongside his fellow backups all year long. And there’s no reason for Primoz Brezec to be ahead of Amir in the rotation of big men. None.

Amir Johnson Photo Credit: Jeff Lewis/Icon SMI

Sean Williams, F/C, New Jersey Nets

Lawrence Frank brought Williams along slowly this year, with only two starts and a handful of DNP – Coach’s Decisions in the first 24 games. He finally inserted the rookie into the starting lineup for good on Dec 18th, and the Nets have gone 8-5 since. The lanky F/C has grabbed a solid 6.3 boards and scored 8.5 points a game on 51.6% FGs as a starter, but the reason we love to watch Williams is his explosive shot-blocking ability. He’s averaged an impressive 2.3 swats a game in just over 25 minutes/per while starting. Overall, his 2.0 blocks a game are good for tenth in the league, an impressive feat given his limited court time. Given 30+ minutes he might be able to compete with Marcus Camby for the NBA lead.

Unlike a lot of the players on this list, though, Williams is in control of his playing time. He usually has to sit down early because poor defensive positioning and bad decisions lead to foul trouble (he averages a whopping 3.5 fouls a game), something Williams should be able to improve upon as the season wears on.

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We’ll just get this out of the way up front: Gilbert Arenas and Tracy McGrady are fantastic basketball players in and of themselves. They are two of the best offensive talents in the NBA today. In the right situation, each could be a franchise cornerstone for a successful team.

Despite their considerable skills though, both franchises are winning more games without their fallen stars. The Houston Rockets and Washington Wizards appear to be better teams without their marquee names. And while it’s a harder argument to make in Houston, in Washington that fact is becoming obvious.

The Wizards completed a home-and-home sweep of the Boston Celtics on Monday, and in the process proved their recent success sans their chatty poster boy has been no fluke. Washington is now 17-11 with wins against Dallas, Portland, Cleveland, Toronto, and Atlanta in addition to the two Boston victories since Arenas left the rotation. They’re currently entrenched in the playoff picture as the East’s fourth seed and pushing Orlando for the best record in the Southeast division.

During this stretch a few things have become apparent. First, Antonio Daniels is not an ideal point, but he is a better distributor and defender than Arenas. Despite being limited by injury in several contests, Daniels is averaging 6.3 assists and attempting just 7.2 shots per game as a starter. He’s also hitting 52.0% of those FGs and 81.8% of his FTs while turning it over just 2 times a game in almost 36 minutes. Sure, Gilbert scored at a gaudy 28.5 points per clip last year, but compare the efficiency in just under 40 minutes per: 6.0 assists, 20.9 shot attempts, 41.8% FGs, 84.4% FTs and 3.2 TOs.

Gilbert Arenas Photo Credit: Mark Goldman/Icon SMI

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– Lakers’ youngster Andrew Bynum, playing in his third NBA season already and still just 20-years-old, must be at least somewhat devastated by the the injury to his left knee that’ll keep him out for about 2 months. It’s important for this franchise center to keep it all in perspective, though, and realize that these things happen and that it’s not as serious as, say, what happened to Shaun Livingston last year. Detroit Pistons rookie guard Rodney Stuckey was also sidelined for 8 weeks this season, and his positive outlook during those dog days of rehab is one Bynum would also be well served to adopt (under the “Ahead of Schedule” subhead).

- With so many teams in flux–some wildly underachieving, others surprisingly in the market for added depth as they fight for a playoff berth–TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott looks at ten teams he feels are most likely to make a move as the February 21 trade deadline lurks just off in the distance.

- Fantastic column (as they usually are) today from Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who finds somewhat of a light amidst the darkness of the Chicago Bulls’ disappointing 14-21 season. Surprisingly, Wojnarowski points to the recent player-induced suspension of unprofessional rookie Joakim Noah as a strong sign that, perhaps, this team is finally finding some leadership they can buy into–it starts within themselves, and is supported by interim coach Jim Boylan.

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The education of Seattle SuperSonics rookie Kevin Durant continued Monday evening with a guest lecture by one Kobe Bryant, who graciously allowed the lanky 6-9 star-in-the-making a fleeting moment in the spotlight before donning his tweed jacket of seniority and teaching him a lesson in how to win a close ballgame.

On one of the most thrilling all-around Monday nights in recent NBA memory, the Lakers’ 123-121 overtime win was arguably the crown jewel. Faced with news that his young, talented center, Andrew Bynum, would miss about 8 weeks with an injured left knee, Bryant elevated his game accordingly, dropping a season-high 48 points on the Sonics and responding to nearly every one of Seattle’s made baskets down the stretch with one of his own.

On the other side, Seattle left it all on the floor with a fabulous effort from just about every rotation player, including Nick Collison (24 points, 18 rebounds) and Luke Ridnour (10 points, 11 steals). Durant staked his star power by nailing an improbable three-pointer from the top of the key to tie it up at 115 with 46 seconds left, but Bryant’s unflappable crunchtime savvy eventually won out, in part thanks to two free lessons he imparted upon the Sonics’ new franchise player…

Kobe Bryant Photo Credit: Jeff Lewis/Icon SMI

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