Chicago Bulls: Derrick Rose Should Sit Next 2 Games
Derrick Rose left Monday’s night game after only playing 11 minutes.
The reason he left and did not return was due to back spasms, which he has been suffering with at least since Saturday’s game against the Bucks.
With three games left on this nine game road trip the Chicago Bulls should sit Rose for at least the next two, and maybe even the third against Boston on Sunday. After Sunday the Bulls will be able to enjoy six straight home games.
The next two games are against the Hornets and Bobcats, who have combined for seven wins on the season. The Bulls proved a few weeks ago they can beat Charlotte without Rose, and New Orleans shouldn’t offer much resistance as it has lost six straight and is 1-9 in its last 10 games.
Letting Rose rest and get treatment is the best course of action. Between his toe and now his back, this shortened season is taking a toll on the reigning MVP.
Both C.J. Watson and John Lucas III have proved this season they are ready to step up and produce with Rose out of the lineup.
Overall, the rest of February is a pretty easy month for the Bulls. Their only back-to-back is at the end of the month, and besides games against the Celtics, Hawks and Spurs, every other team has a losing record.
The rest of the month looks likes this: Boston and New Orleans twice, Charlotte, Sacramento, San Antonio, Atlanta and the lowly New Jersey Nets all once. San Antonio is the final game of the month and is on the road.
Now is the perfect time to rest Rose and any other banged-up member of the team because the road gets much more difficult in March and April. In those two months they will play the Heat and Knicks three times, as well as the Magic, Pacers and 76ers each twice.
If the Bulls hope to once again have home-court advantage in the playoffs it is key that Rose rests and gets healthy now rather then later.
Make sure to follow me on Twitter @dachicagofan, and check out my weekly Bulls podcast every Wednesday on my site The MG Experience.
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NBA Trade Rumors: Suns Should Trade Steve Nash If He Wants to Go or Not
The Suns need to make the tough decision and trade the great Steve Nash. Phoenix is just 8-14 this season and they have no hope of turning it around this season.
They are currently just one of five teams in the Western Conference with a losing record and would have to pass four teams just to squeak into the playoffs as the eighth seed.
What really makes this decision a no-brainer is the fact that they won’t be going anywhere for a while unless they make some bold moves. This is not a young and promising team. This is a team that needs to start over.
To their credit, the Suns are open to trading Nash—they just need to take it a step further and pull the trigger. Let’s take a look at the recent rumor of their willingness to make the trade.
The Rumors
Ken Berger of CBS Sports dished out this scoop:
Despite the Suns’ struggles, Steve Nash has yet to express an interest in being traded, league sources said. But the organization will try to accommodate Nash’s wishes if the 37-year-old foundation of the franchise decides he’d like a chance to compete for a championship with a contender. “It’s really on him in terms of what he wants to do or not do,” a person with knowledge of the situation said.
The rumor is certainly believable. They just aren’t being aggressive enough. They must trade this future Hall of Fame player no matter what he wants.
Why it is Time To Deal Nash
When Nash is at his best he is surrounded by players that can shoot and a big man that he can work a two-man game with. This is not the Suns.
Their current leading scorer is center Marcin Gortat and while Gortat is a fine player, he is not the type of player to team up with Nash to dominate in pick and roll situations.
Besides Nash and Gortat, the Suns have just one other player averaging double figures in scoring. That is Jared Dudley, who is averaging 10.8 a game.
The Suns don’t have the pieces that point to a bright future. They need to ship out Nash to help themselves pick up these pieces.
Nash is in the final year of his contract. The Suns need to forget about resigning him. This wouldn’t do either party involved any favors.
This means they need to trade him while they can still get some value in return. Nash is still a very capable point guard and will have considerable value for teams in need of backcourt help.
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NBA Trade Deadline: Why the New York Knicks Should Trade for Ramon Sessions
What ails the New York Knicks? They are missing an elite distributor.
Earlier this week, I wrote that New York should trade for Steve Nash. But Nash would be difficult to acquire for two reasons: It would be nearly impossible to match contracts and the Phoenix Suns are still reluctant to deal their franchise icon.
Ramon Sessions would a surprisingly effective second option for New York. Trading for him would be very easy: He costs only $4 million and the Cleveland Cavaliers would likely part with him for only a future pick and cash.
The Knicks are a pitiful 8-15. They have elite offensive weapons in Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire and a star defensive center in Tyson Chandler. But they have no elite distributor, so there is currently no one on the roster who can take the keys to the car and drive New York to the playoffs.
Few NBA fans know of Ramon Sessions, but he is a young, surprisingly effective point guard.
Many die-hard fans consider him the most underrated guard in basketball. Sessions broke out with Cleveland last year and posted an average of 13.3 points, 5.2 assists and three rebounds per game, with an excellent assist-to-turnover ratio while starting only 38 of 81 games.
In those he did start, Sessions was impressive offensively and showed a knack for both penetration and particularly distribution.
He is exactly what the Knicks need: a gifted young passer who can orchestrate Mike D’Antoni’s offensive system and get the ball to Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire.
Sessions is not perfect. Despite his evident offensive skills, teams remain reluctant to commit because he is an atrocious defender.
But in this case, the positives far outweigh the potential problems.
Sessions is large enough to play both guard positions, which means he can play alongside a healthy Baron Davis and make sure the Knicks have an offensive orchestrator when Davis is (inevitably) injured.
The Knicks have plenty of talent but little on-court direction. Acquiring Sessions will give them an offensively gifted point guard who can solve their distribution issues.
At this point, what do they have to lose?
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NBA All-Star Game 2012: Which Players Should Be Added to the Roster?
The NBA All-Star game is right around corner. It’s almost sad to think that this lockout-shortened season is already a third of the way through. But enough with the regular-season games when teams have to rely on chemistry and defense to win. I mean, seriously, who likes watching team basketball?
No one! So, every year the NBA is nice enough to bless us devoted fans with a star-studded All-Star weekend filled with high-flying dunks and flashy passes.
A few days ago, the starters for the All-Star game were announced. The Miami Heat led the Eastern Conference with two starters, LeBron James at power forward and Dwyane Wade at shooting guard. On the Western Conference side, the Los Angeles Lakers led the way with two starters, Kobe Bryant at shooting guard and Andrew Bynum at center.
Derrick Rose and Chris Paul are the starting point guards for each side, which arguably is the most exciting matchup in the game. Dwight Howard will start for the Eastern Conference at center. He led all voters with almost 1.6 million votes. Also, Kevin Durant was selected to start at small forward for the Western Conference at no surprise.
However, like always, I have my criticisms about the starting lineup. I would have liked to see Chris Bosh start in place of Carmelo Anthony, who is shooting a horrendous 40 percent from the field and is part of the reason for the Knicks’ slow start.
On the Western Conference side, there is no doubt that Kevin Love should be starting at power forward. Not only is Love putting up better than numbers than Blake Griffin, but he is more valuable to his team. But the All-Star game is supposed to be for the fans and the NBA does a good job by letting the fans select the starters.
The All-Star reserves, however, will be selected by the NBA coaches.
This year’s potential reserves are as numerous and productive as they come. Not everybody that deserves to make the All-Star game will get the chance to play in Orlando, however.
So, without further ado, here are the reserve chances of 35 potential All-Stars.
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NBA All-Star Game 2012: 5 Players Who Should Be Starters
The 2012 NBA All-Star game starters were recently announced, and there are five players who were snubbed.
This happens a lot, since fans vote in the starting lineups. Often times fans just pick the biggest name, and sometimes it works out the right way. However, great players are often left to be reserves—or not make the team at all.
In 2012, the Western Conference All-Star starting five consists of Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant.
Durant, Bryant, Paul and Bynum are all good selections, but there are some players that have played better than Griffin this year.
Griffin brings excitement to the court and most people know him because of his dunks, but some other forwards have played better, more consistent ball in the NBA this year.
Paul was also injured for a good portion of the season. I am not saying that he is not deserving— because he has played lights out whenever he wasn’t hurt—but there are some other deserving point guards as well.
The Eastern Conference has a very similar situation.
The starters this year consists of Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James.
Anthony undoubtedly made this game purely because of his reputation. He and the New York Knicks have struggled greatly this year, and there are a few forwards that deserved this spot over him.
Wade is similar to Paul in the fact that they are both amazing players and have played well when in the game, but they missed significant time with injuries this season. Both are deserving of a spot, but it could be argued that there is another point guard that should start the game.
Let’s take a look at five players that should have been voted starters in the 2012 NBA All-Star game.
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Should Allen Iverson get more Credit for Accomplishments?
When people talk about great scorers what names do you hear? Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Wilt Chamberlain. Yes, I know that list can be debated but the name you don’t hear come up that much anymore is Allen Iverson. Allen Iverson was a born scorer, playing for Georgetown averaged over 22 points a game. Iverson was the NBA scoring champion four different times. He averaged over 30 points a game for five different seasons. For those of you who think this guy is just a ball hog and he just takes a lot of shots and doesn’t get anyone involved that’s not quite the case. The years he averaged 30 plus points he also averaged eight assists a game too. All those stats, can be compared to Kobe Bryant, the man who is supposed to be the next Jordan. If Iverson was so good in scoring, how come he doesn’t have the same amount of rings that Jordan or Bryant has? Iverson, never had the type of teams that Kobe and Jordan had. The year that Iverson went to the championship there was no one othe…
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University of Minnesota: AD Joel Maturi Should Have Been out Years Ago
With Thursday morning’s announcement that Joel Maturi will step down as athletic director for the University of Minnesota effective June 30th, you could seemingly hear a sigh of relief from Gopher Nation.
Maturi’s run as Gopher AD was certainly not a smooth one. In his decade at the helm, the high points were few while the low points were numerous and sustained.
When Maturi took over the program, Glen Mason was leading the Gopher football team to the middle of the Big Ten. Mason’s teams would continually start the season hot and work their way into the Top 25 but could never get over the hump to earn a spot in a major bowl game. After the historic collapse against Texas Tech in the 2006 Insight Bowl, Mason was fired.
The search then started for a new football coach. Boosters and former Gopher football players clamored not to have Maturi leading the search, but Maturi took the lead anyway. After completing his search, Maturi decided to hand the reins to a tight ends coach from the Denver Broncos, Tim Brewster.
Brewster had never been the head coach or even a coordinator at any program other than a short stint at a high school. Brewster subsequently showed why, leading the team from mediocre to downright horrible, losing multiple times to DI-AA schools. Brewster was finally fired in 2010 after a 1-6 start to the season.
Under Maturi’s tenure, the Gopher football program did not reach a major bowl game and has not won a bowl game since the 2004 Music City Bowl.
The basketball program has also underacheived under Maturi’s tenure. After the rightful firing of Don Monson during the 2006-07 season, Maturi scored a coup in the hiring of legendary coach Tubby Smith.
However, Maturi has been unable to secure funding for a practice facility for the basketball team, and this is seen as part of the reason that Smith has been unable to recruit top high schoolers, hurting the development of the program at large. The basketball program hasn’t won an NCAA tournament game under Maturi’s regime.
The baseball team still does not have a home field on campus after years of trying. The women’s basketball and hockey teams have gone downhill. The lack of any semblance of success with the top three sports (football, basketball, hockey) has put the University of Minnesota into one of the jokes of the Big Ten. While the overall success of the smaller sports has put the program into the top 20 in Director’s Cup standings (out of over 300 schools), that means little if there is no success in the major sports.
Even the successes that Maturi has had are marked by disappointment. Getting TCF Bank Stadium built was a major event for the football program, but in its second year the Gophers failed to sell out most games, even with one of the smallest seating capacities of the Big Ten football stadiums.
The smaller, non-revenue sports have had success, but few notice this because they are overshadowed by the failures of the major revenue-producing sports.
Maturi was able to take a program reeling in the wake of the Clem Haskins basketball scandal, a program that was bleeding money, and turn it into a clean and slightly profitable entity. But when you’re a program competing in the Big Ten, it takes more than that to be termed a success. Maturi had the reins for 10 years and was unable to elevate the program. It is time to make a change.
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The Washington Wizards Should Match Any Contract Offer on Javale McGee
Since his college days at Nevada, the high-flying center has been a human highlight reel with ferocious dunks and blocks that are nearly impossible to replicate.
Javale McGee has had his fair share of ups and downs in his professional playing career that has led to the main question at hand: What price should the Wizards pay to keep him, if they should at all?
In order to answer this question it is important to analyze McGee’s worth based on both his flaws and his contributions.
McGee has matured through several of his growing pains, pointedly the fight at a D.C. nightclub with teammate Andray Blatche and his penchant for being overly goofy off the court—while sometimes lacking seriousness on the court.
Despite his shortcomings in maturity and basketball IQ, McGee has slowly developed into a double-double threat on a nightly basis—while also being one of the top-shot blockers in the league.
This season especially, McGee has made an effort to establish and improve upon post moves instead of relying on dunks and offensive putbacks for the bulk of his offensive contributions.
With this being the last season of his rookie deal, GM Ernie Grunfeld has come out and said that the Wizards will match offers for McGee in restricted free agency.
In order to determine the proper value of a starting center with his skills and athleticism, I have looked at the deal (four year, $42 million dollar) that fellow center DeAndre Jordan received from the Clippers this past offseason.
Both centers put up similar block numbers and are physically similar in pretty much every regard. However, McGee has put up slightly better numbers across the board without having a player of Blake Griffin’s caliber next to him to alleviate the pressure in the paint.
McGee’s slow ability to pick up seemingly simple nuances of the game have put doubt in everyone’s minds about whether he will ever be able to realize his full potential.
Keeping all of this in mind, I believe that the Wizards should match any offer up to four years and $45 million.
This follows the trend set by the contract signed by DeAndre Jordan last year for a player in McGee, who I believe has the higher potential down the road.
A four-year deal with a team option for the fifth year would make the most sense—as McGee will only be 29 years old when the deal would end.
Quality starting centers are at a premium in the NBA right now. To hold onto a player of McGee’s ability through his “prime” years would be a statement by the organization that they intend to reward homegrown talent, while beginning to solidify a core around John Wall for the future.
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6 Changes the Los Angeles Lakers Should Consider
As the Staples Center prepares for the Grammy Awards, the Los Angeles Lakers prepare for a road trip that could define the current roster’s season.
The Lakers play six games in 11 days against their stiffest competition yet. Games against Denver, Utah, Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Toronto await them, and they must improve their miserable 2-7 road record or risk significant changes.
We all know that Kobe Bryant is the only untouchable player on the Lakers’ roster, so if these next six games go badly, what will Laker management do to satisfy the needs of the future Hall of Fame shooting guard?
Here are six ideas Lakers management could consider.
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Should the Clippers trade Griffin for Howard?
Over the past week, Dwight Howard has added the Los Angeles Clippers to the list of teams he would like to be traded to. There’s not a scarier thought for teams around the league than the idea of Howard joining Chris Paul in Lob City but should the Clippers trade Blake Griffin to get him? Both Griffin and Howard are freaks of nature. Both are long, athletic big men who can jump out of the gym. They are usually good for about 20 points-per-game and at least ten rebounds although both are horrible free-throw shooters. Despite their similarities though, I don’t think that anyone will argue that Howard is the much better player right now. While both still have a lot of upside to their games, Howard has more experience on the big stage having been to the NBA Finals and he is miles ahead of Griffin on the defensive side of the ball. Howard is probably one of the best shot blockers in the league and is averaging over two blocks-per-game. Griffin on the other hand hasn’t shown as much inter…
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