NBA Trade Rumors: Prospective Moves That Would Save Season for Struggling Teams
At this juncture in the NBA season, there are plenty of borderline teams that have endured varying struggles and may not hang on for the postseason. Yet hope could be on the horizon with a savvy trade to get playoff hopes back on track.
The Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics are still contenders to play beyond the regular season, but have enough assets to make a move before the Feb. 6 deadline that could fortify their respective chances at making a run.
Here is a breakdown of those three teams, who they have to put on the block and how a prospective trade would help them in particular.
Dallas Mavericks: Trade Chris Kaman
The return of Dirk Nowitzki to the lineup has given this team a bit of a spark, and Kaman has seen his role continue to decrease. With an expiring contract worth $8 million and solid production, there should be a lot of suitors coveting the center.
According to Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News, the Mavs will consider plugging him to a trade in light of his recently diminishing minutes.
Kaman unfortunately suffered a concussion in the team’s last game (h/t USA TODAY), which makes a move in the very immediate future very unlikely. Once he is recovered, though, the Mavs may look to move him in exchange for young talent.
This is a rather old roster, and an infusion of young talent would be critical. Defense should also be a major point of emphasis, as Dallas is 29th in the league, giving up 103 points per game.
Help could be on the way defensively or in terms of youth should the front office set up an exchange involving Kaman.
Atlanta Hawks: Trade Josh Smith
It hasn’t exactly been a putrid season for the Hawks, but there has been a recent stretch of inconsistency that now has the squad sliding a little further back in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! recently stated that a source told him a move involving Smith was highly likely before the trade deadline.
Even though Smith is a strong, versatile defensive presence and the team’s leading scorer, the Hawks have other options and will likely run a smoother offense with J-Smoove out of the picture.
The recent emergence of extremely quick and sweet-shooting point guard Jeff Teague gives Atlanta the opportunity to put more on his shoulders and trade Smith in the process. Smith also can stagnate ball movement on the offensive end.
With a post passer of Al Horford’s caliber and plenty of high quality guards in the fold, there is ample opportunity to move Smith.
In exchange, the Hawks could help make up for the absence of explosive guard Lou Williams, and also have the flexibility to upgrade the frontcourt.
As Spears indicates, Smith has enjoyed an outstanding January with 17 points, 8.6 rebounds. 4.7 assists and 2.1 blocks per game. That should make his stock extremely high, and the Hawks could potentially add another piece to get over the hump of the conference semifinals as soon as this year.
Boston Celtics: Find rebounding help
Two league executives told the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett that interest has gone up since the recent season-ending injury to star PG Rajon Rondo.
If there is one area of the game that the C’s could use serious help in, It’s rebounding.
Boston ranks 29th in the NBA in rebounds per game, and thus don’t get very many second-chance opportunities on the offensive glass. That is part of the reason the Celtics are just 20th in the league in scoring, too.
Unfortunately for GM Danny Ainge, the player that teams are interested in most is rookie forward Jared Sullinger. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated reported that on Twitter, but didn’t seem to think the Celtics would let their first-round pick go:
There exists a surplus of combo guards that define the Celtics backcourt, but the team has improved to 2-0 without Rondo running the show. In the most recent game against the Sacramento Kings, though, center Kevin Garnett led the team with five assists.
The Celtics won’t be able to find another Rondo for the remainder of the season, but should especially find a capable rebounder. Rondo also provided 5.6 rebounds per contest, and that has to be a priority should the team want to make a decent playoff run—or even make the postseason.
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Tar Heels Lose to Rival NC State, Manage to Save Face
Roy Williams told reporters in his post-game comments that he was in no mood to discuss moral victories after his team fell to NC State 91-83 on Saturday night, but barely avoiding losing a near 60-year reign of superiority over Tobacco Road certainly made him feel good enough to plant the thought in everyone’s minds.
Tobacco Road—the Piedmont of North Carolina, the historic epicenter of college basketball—has traditionally had room for just two dominant teams, and while NC State, Duke and Wake Forest have traded one of those two spots back and forth since the 1950s, the one constant has always been the Tar Heels.
Few programs can match the history and tradition of the University of North Carolina. The Tar Heels boast five NCAA championships, 18 Final Fours and 25 conference titles spread between the ACC and the Southern Conference, but in today’s world of college basketball, history isn’t what it used to be. Each recruiting class is one more year removed from Michael Jordan, and the contributions of the legendary Dean Smith start to fade as more and more coaches pass his mark in career wins and NCAA championships.
However, when Roy Williams returned to Chapel Hill, he promptly won two NCAA championships in four years, before dealing what appeared at the time to be a death-blow to Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devils when coveted recruit Harrison Barnes shocked the hall of fame coach and committed to UNC, as Barnes appeared to be Duke’s to lose.
Duke responded, en route to a national championship of their own, by solidifying one of those two spots at the top of Tobacco Road with a defining rivalry win—an 82-50 dismantling of the Tar Heels.
Three years later, the Heels found themselves in the middle of a rivalry blowout yet again, this time down 19 at the half to NC State thanks to being on the wrong end of a run reminiscent to the 31-9 run that started the demoralizing Duke loss.
Though North Carolina was unable to escape Raleigh with a win, thanks to a 57-point outburst in the second half, the Heels were at least able to fend off the thought of being on Tobacco Road’s second tier. For a frantic few minutes, it appeared to be a forgone conclusion that NC State would join Duke as the new dynamic duo of Tobacco Road.
Following a questionable charging call against the Wolfpack’s CJ Leslie with just under seven minutes to play and the score 22-18 in favor of the home team, NC State exploded to close out the half, triggered by a transition three-pointer from Freshman Rodney Purvis and a poster dunk by Leslie over Sophomore Jackson Simmons. In the blink of an eye, the Wolfpack led by a score of 45-26 at the half.
The start of the second half didn’t treat the Heels any better than the first as a Lorenzo Brown layup pushed the lead to 28 with 13 minutes remaining, and the Pack were well on their way to a statement win on their biggest stage.
Only, the Tar Heels managed to pour in 50 of the games final 80 points to turn that statement back into the question, “Is this the game the Wolfpack finally catches up to the Tar Heels?”
Was UNC able to cut the NC State lead to just five points with 30 seconds left because of their talent, their resolve or just a failure by the Pack to close out the game and stake their claim among the Tobacco Road elite? Duke certainly left no doubt in 2010, but the Heels were able to fight back just enough to avoid being overtaken by NC State in the ongoing battle of perception that puts much more weight on the future than it does on the past.
And if this NC State team, perhaps its most talented team since the mid-1980s, wasn’t ready to take that step forward against this North Carolina team—losers of four first-round picks to the NBA draft—will it ever really happen?
Hope isn’t lost for the Wolfpack, and the Tar Heels are far from being out of the woods just yet. They’ll host NC State on February 23, and who knows what kind of shape they’ll be in at that point, with games at Miami, at Duke and at home against a streaking Virginia team between now and then.
The small win for the Tar Heels, however, is that the burden of proof is still on NC State to show that they have eclipsed North Carolina on Tobacco Road, and that the question is written in future tense instead of the alternative.
Roy Williams may not be big on moral victories, but he brought it up, and he did so without solicitation. NC State got the win, but in a rivalry where the comparison of perception means everything, UNC was able to barely sidestep a very painful defeat.
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Trades LA Lakers Must Consider Making to Save Season
The Los Angeles Lakers need help. Badly.
With four perennial All-Stars and a payroll that exceeds $100 million, everyone expected the Lakers to torch the competition—all of the competition.
Instead, Los Angeles finds itself under .500 and nowhere near the Western Conference’s playoff bubble.
Translation?
It’s time to panic. Which means it’s also time for a change.
Executive vice president Jim Buss and the rest of the Lakers’ front office minions may be opposed to dismantling the roster again, and their patience is actually admirable.
But Los Angeles wouldn’t have fired Mike Brown five games into the season if patience was an option. This team needs to win now; it needs to fix its ever-growing list of conflicts now.
And it’s time they took to the trade market to do it. Clearly, the Lakers aren’t going anywhere standing pat. Not anywhere special, that is.
Thus, if Los Angeles is serious about salvaging the rest of the season, it’s going to have to get serious about blowing its convocation up one more time.
*All stats in this article are accurate as of January 12, 2013.
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Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson says he’ll save Kings
Kevin Johnson, a former NBA All-Star, told USA TODAY Sports that Seattle hasn’t won yet.
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John Wall’s Return Won’t Save Washington Wizards from NBA’s Basement
According to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, league sources have stated that Washington Wizards‘ point guard John Wall is expected to make his 2012-13 debut at some point within the next two weeks.
Wall, who has been sidelined all season with a stress injury to his left patella, was originally scheduled to miss eight weeks after he was initially diagnosed at the end of September. More than three months later, the 22-year-old point guard has just started practicing with the Wizards on a limited basis.
“This is Christmas all over for him, I’m sure, to finally reach this point,” said Wizards head coach Randy Wittman on Thursday when asked about Wall by the Washington Post. “So we just got to be patient.”
The eventual return of Wall—who averaged 16.3 points and 8.0 assists last season—will be a much-needed boost for a team that is last in the NBA in scoring (89.5 PPG). However, in terms of wins and losses, it really won’t matter all that much.
The Wizards are a lowly 4-27 (their worst start in franchise history), and it would take an army of healthy John Walls to return the team to respectability. Washington has endured two losing streaks this year of eight games or more and has yet to string together back-to-back victories.
If Washington wants to climb out of the NBA’s cellar, the franchise has plenty of ground to cover over the next three months. Every other team in the league has at least eight victories, and the Wizards will be forced to play catch up despite a schedule that is loaded with 21 games against the stout Western Conference.
Don’t tell the Wizards that they have their work cut out for them, however: A number of players believe that the return of Wall will be a catalyst for greater things to come.
“It’s a great feeling, because we know what kind of team we’re capable of being and we’re short now, but were still competing with teams with what we have,” said rookie shooting guard Bradley Beal in an interview with the Washington Post. “So I’m really looking forward to it.”
The Wizards are on pace for about 11 wins this season, and even with their franchise player back at 100 percent for the stretch run, it would be hard to see them finish with anything more than 20-22 victories.
And while that may be enough for Washington to pitch a spirited battle with the Charlotte Bobcats for fourth place in the Southeast Division, the smart money says that the Wizards will have the best odds in May’s draft lottery.
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Dirk Nowitzki’s Return to Starting Lineup Won’t Save Mavericks’ Playoff Hopes
Dirk Nowitzki may soon be reentering the Dallas Mavericks starting lineup, but fans will be awfully disappointed if they expect the superstar forward’s return to bring forth triumph.
Per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Nowitzki practiced with the starters on Friday for the first time since returning from injury. Though they were noncommittal, Nowitzki and coach Rick Carlisle refused to rule out the forward starting Saturday night against the New Orleans Hornets:
Nowitzki and coach Rick Carlisle left open the possibility of the Mavs‘ star power forward making his first start of the season Saturday night against the New Orleans Hornets. Nowitzki, who missed 27 games while recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Oct. 19, came off the bench in his first six appearances this season.
While that’s obviously good news for the Mavericks, Nowitzki’s impending return to the lineup is too late for their playoff hopes. Dallas heads into Saturday night at 13-20, good for 12th in the Western Conference, and is four games behind the eighth-place Minnesota Timberwolves.
With only four games of separation, Nowitzki’s return seems like it couldn’t come at a better time. However, it’s become readily apparent that his supporting cast will ultimately be the downfall of the 2012-13 Mavericks season.
It’s just the simple fact that the Mavericks are a very flawed basketball team. Since starting the regular season 11-10 thanks to a cushy set of early-season contests, they have fallen slowly off a cliff. Heading into Saturday’s clash with the New Orleans Hornets, Dallas has lost 10 of its last 12 games to fall deep into the Western Conference standings.
This is the most basic math of all-time, but the Mavericks need to finish seven games above .500 to even finish the regular season at 41-41. I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but a .500 record isn’t making the postseason, either.
Let’s just say Dallas needs to finish with a .545 winning percentage, which would match the 2011-12 Utah Jazz, last season’s No. 8 seed. Over the course of an 82-game season, a .545 winning percentage translates to 44.69 wins necessary to make the playoffs.
Since they don’t make wins in .69 increments, let’s just call it an even 45. To finish with a 45-37 record, Dallas would have to finish its remaining 49 games at 32-17, which is a .653 winning percentage. Just for reference, only four teams in the entire league finished with a .653 winning percentage or greater last season.
In other words, the Mavericks would struggle to make the postseason even if they were an elite team. That’s one thing we can say for great certainty they are not.
Prior to Friday night’s action, the Mavericks ranked 23rd in the NBA in offensive efficiency, 25th in defensive efficiency and 29th in rebound rate. They are also 25th in point differential per game, tied for 26th in turnovers per game and are in the back half of adjusted team win score.
To call this team mediocre would be a huge compliment. And the problem certainly isn’t with Carlisle, who is arguably the best coach in the NBA not named Gregg Popovich.
Dallas’ problem is incredibly simple: lack of talent. Built on a patchwork foundation, the Mavericks have slowly crumbled back to earth simply because they don’t have top-tier talent. They only have one player, O.J. Mayo, scoring more than 15 points per game and their leading rebounder is forward Shawn Marion.
Obviously, some of these problems will subside once Nowitzki returns to his regular role. Mayo won’t be alone on a scoring island and Marion won’t have to masquerade as a banger in the paint.
With Nowitzki in the lineup, Dallas is likely to ascend a bit in the offensive categories and may even get a slight bump in defensive efficiency when he’s back to full strength.
However, one has to wonder whether that will come in time to make a significant difference.
We’re working with limited sample sizes here, so obviously all Nowitzki-related stats should be taken with a grain of salt. In the six games Nowitzki has been in the lineup, though, it’s become readily apparent that he’s still working out the cobwebs.
On a per 36-minute basis, Nowitzki’s six-game sample doles out averages that are the worst since his rookie season. He’s averaging 16.2 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 41.1 percent and still recording a high 22.2 usage percentage.
It’s no surprise then that the Mavericks are a markedly worse team with Nowitzki on the floor. They score over nine points less and allow nearly 11 more points per 100 possessions when Nowitzki is playing compared to when he isn’t. On a per 100 possessions basis, Nowitzki costs Dallas 19.6 points.
Again, this is a minuscule sample size, so there’s no reason to panic. It’s just interesting how much worse the Mavericks are when their superstar is on the floor—especially considering he’s 100 percent healthy, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
Perhaps playing off the bench for the first time since 1998-99 has messed with Nowitzki’s rhythm. It seems like a relatively trite notion, but messing with a player’s preparation (especially a long-time veteran) could be enough to cause a trickle-down effect.
It’s plausible (though unlikely) that Nowitzki’s return to the starting lineup springs him back to life and he begins playing like 2010-11 Dirk again.
Unfortunately for the Mavericks, even that high level of play probably won’t make enough of a difference. In that fateful 2010-11 campaign, Nowitzki produced a win score of 11.1. Prorated over the remaining 49 games, that would translate to 6.6 wins the remainder of the season.
What’s more, considering age attrition and his injuries, it’s unrealistic to expect Nowitzki to perform at an All-NBA level. He’s 34 years old and if he has any prime play left, it’s likely very little.
At this point in his career, Nowitzki needs help to hoist a team into contention. As they have found out all season long and will find out the remainder of the campaign, the Mavericks just don’t have enough.
Dallas fans may feel like they’ve struck the lottery with Nowitzki’s return to the lineup, but the team will be facing a different kind of lottery come June.
(Note: All stats are current though Jan. 4 and are courtesy of basketball-reference.com)
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Kentucky Basketball: Why Kyle Wiltjer as 6th Man Will Save UK’s Season
Kyle Wiltjer won’t often be compared to Darius Miller. However, he may just be the next Darius Miller at the University of Kentucky.
Kentucky head coach John Calipari moved Wiltjer to come off the bench four games ago against Lipscomb University and it’s proved to be a positive change for both the Wildcats and Wiltjer.
Since that game Wiltjer has averaged 15.5 points, close to seven rebounds per game and is shooting over 56 percent from behind the arc. Most importantly, the Wildcats are 3-1 in those games, with their only loss being a three-point defeat at archrival Louisville last Saturday.
Calipari has used a starting lineup with both freshmen big men in Nerlens Noel and Willie Cauley-Stein as well as Alex Poythress, Archie Goodwin and Ryan Harrow in the backcourt. This provides Kentucky with the athletic front court lineup that Calipari likes to utilize to help disrupt other teams’ offense.
It also allows the development of Cauley-Stein—a likely one-and-done player—to come quicker and get the team in form for the NCAA Tournament. Cauley-Stein, besides being a defensive threat, helps solidify Kentucky’s rebounding effort as he has averaged nearly six rebounds in 20 minutes of action so far this season.
For Wiltjer, this provides him a chance to watch the game develop so when he enters the game he has the ability to knock down shots quicker. Wiltjer is a smart player who does a good job adapting to the game and defense to find his spots on the floor to shoot.
By spreading out WIltjer’s minutes it allows him to stay fresh—this is not a knock on his conditioning or speed—but he is, at least looks, the most unathletic on the team. This keeps his legs fresh, allowing him to continue to step behind the arc late in the game.
By having Wiltjer on the court at the end of the game, going with an offense/defense substitution pattern with Cauley-Stein, it keeps a strong free throw shooter on the court as well.
Perhaps most importantly, bringing in Wiltjer as a reserve provides a scoring punch off of the bench as well. With Julius Mays joining Wiltjer off the bench to fill out the primary seven-man rotation, it allows Calipari to sub and not lose but rather gain offensive production.
Wiltjer usually subs in for Cauley-Stein, who is a downgrade defensively and on the glass. But offensively he provides a different look to where Noel can play in the post by himself, spreading the court.
Not to mention, this could be a role Wiltjer might have to get used to. Wiltjer is a likely four-year player at Kentucky and with next year’s impressive recruiting class coming in, Wiltjer could be relegated to the sixth man spot again.
While Wiltjer and Miller won’t be compared too often, in consecutive years both players being moved to the sixth man could be the reason Kentucky is playing in the Final Four.
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Have No Fear, Pablo Prigioni Is Here to Save The Day For Knicks
Though the Knicks’ front court has been depleted one way or another (with the likes of Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby, and Rasheed Wallace all previously or currently sidelined), the team will likely receive quite the injection of life to begin 2013, as STAT and Melo are both expected to be in uniform.Camby will also be hitting the hardwood when the Knicks take on the Blazers to start off the new year, but he already had a chance to close out 2012 in a big way, unlike his fellow front court mates. The center managed to average 3 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks per contest in the month of December as he made his return from a bevy of previous injuries that kept him off the court.But while Camby and company were down for the count, the Knicks received quite the unexpected boost from their fifteen man, Chris Copeland. In the year’s final month, the 28 year old averaged just a shade under 13 points per game, all the while shooting 57% from the field, inclu…
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Can Lakers’ Nash save Kobe from himself?
Can Lakers’ Nash save Kobe from himself?
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Nash returns to Lakers practice, but can he save Los Angeles’ season?
If Steve Nash cannot help save the Los Angeles Lakers, then what? It is an honest question to consider these days. It takes more than just Kobe. This much we know. But right now Lakers’ fans do not even want to go there. They apparently only want a healthy Nash available and those pesky Pau Gasol rumors to go away — or is it just for Gasol to go away? If Thursday’s news out of Los Angeles after Nash took part in a pain-free, full contact practice since injuring his left leg on Halloween night is any indication that the Lakers free-fall season can land safely in the hands of a 38-year-old point guard, then just maybe all the talk of a Mike D’Antoni and Steve Nash reunion is more than simply blog fodder. The date to circle on your calendar: Christmas Day. That is when Nash says he will be ready to go against — that is right – D’Antoni’s former New York Knicks. ‘If I’m able to practice (Friday), see how I feel Saturday, we’ll just see how …
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