Around The Rim

Trebor's Around the Rim returns...


My computer is broken and there’s only so much that can be done at work, so this has been awhile coming and things may have changed…..

So the NBA has been busy, they could have more interest in it now than ever. I didn’t watch any of the NBA All Star stuff, well the end of the dunk competition I did see from across the room at Habanos but that doesn’t really count. Everyone has seen the impressive dunks, so no point putting them up. However, reading some of the stories over the weekend I came across this, last time I said Deron Williams could be the best point guard in the game and well he showed it at the skills comp.

So after a successful All Star game... no one killed… they continued with the active trading. It’s almost an anything you can do I can do better situation. The Lakers get big man Gasol for nothing (I have to agree with Popiwich that maybe a trade review is needed), so then Phoenix goes and gets big man Shaq, this is followed by the Spurs acquiring Kurt Thomas. Those 3 are directly related.

The other contenders weren’t just going to sit by - Dallas pulled off the Kidd trade and well, they may have taken themselves out of contention. Kidd is having a horrible scoring season and they gave up a lot. Harris is an up and coming point guard so to trade him for Kidd who has only a couple years left… it’s a big risk and we’ll see how it works out for Cuban.

Utah had already made their trade for Korver and right now it’s probably the 2nd or 3rd best move, behind Gasol and Thomas. The Hornets who still had the best record and were atop the West didn’t do anything to help their starting 5, but picking up Mike James and Bonzi Wells will definitely help their bench and they could make a Conference Finals appearance.

Houston also did something but it really didn’t make sense to me off the bat so I’ve forgotten about it already. [yesterday heard that Yao is out for season and billions wept as their hero may not make the Olympics]

The teams at the bottom??? The Kings got rid of Bibby... who cares and Seattle apparently is playing for the 2011 championship. After trading away Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis last year, they continued the trend with trading Wally and Kurt Thomas. Leaving them with Durant….. and 3 1st round picks this year and 13 picks over the next 3 years. I guess they think it’s going to be a deep draft, but without March Madness I don’t know what’s happening.

The East well… what can you say, I’m reminded of when me and my friends went to the high school dances… got all dressed up and went to the dance but realized all the gals wanted to dance with the cool kids, so we just sat at the sides watching. They are watching on the sidelines while the West improves their teams. The East is just ??? I don’t want to say bad, but the ninth place team in the West if there were crossovers like the CFL would be 3rd in the East.

Atlanta picking up Bibby I thought was a good move since they didn’t have a point guard, and their shooting % was low, so Bibby was supposed to help. Then I saw parts of a game and realized Bibby heaving up those 3’s isn’t helping. At first I thought this takes Atlanta from the 8-10 spot to 5-6 spot in the east, now… they should still make the playoffs.

Cleveland made the biggest moves. They apparently got King James some help… Wally shooting 3’s, Big Ben in there for Def. And Joe Smith for ?? Experience ?? I wont lie, I don’t like Cleveland. I don’t like James, and when I saw this the first thing I thought was why are you giving up Hughes… you only have two PG’s why trade your starter away ??

All the analysts like this trade, because Wally is one of the pure shooter types who can get 20/game and Ben can get 20 blocks a game…. Maybe not that much, but a few. King James will do the rest and that might be enough, but I don’t like the trade and hope it causes them to drop out of 4th place… so then the Raptors can get in there. I’m counting on the inconsistency that has followed Wally around in the past 4 years with 3 teams to help with their downfall.

The Raptors made a last second trade that only Raptor and Piston fans will know about. Juan Dixon, a benchwarmer got sent to the Motor City for Brezec?? I knew they needed a big man but I would have liked them get one with a bit more experience, he was a benchwarmer the first 2 years of his career. If Kurt was available that would have been nice to see him in Raptors red (what happened to the purple??), someone to guard Big Z, Howard, KG.

So now we sit back and see how the trades go, in about a month the playoff hunt will begin and we can start looking at potential match-ups. Until then maybe there will just be stories like these.

My memory is in full swing today, this story makes me think back to grade 7 basketball. In the 2nd or 3rd game we had a game where the score was like 20-4, it may have been higher but yeah everyone sucked. The first basket scored by our team…. off the tip off, buddy gets the ball drives to the lane and gets the easy lay-up…. One problem, it was on the wrong basket… and no it wasn’t me. Anyway back to the story… they are in high school so it’s ok to laugh, so what does the coach say…“this feeling right now that you guys are having about being pathetic and such, don’t worry there’s no where to go but up…. You couldn’t possibly do any worse..”

Or there’s this crushing story: With time running out in the game Sosa takes the ball to the rack, decides to reverse it and POW takes a knee to the groin. Now we all laugh when we see it all tv and all guys seem to tense up just a little when seeing it no matter how funny, but this truly was like the ultimate football in the groin. This guy stays in the game and ends up hitting the game winning shot. Later he notices something is not right down below and realizes that he may have a problem . So now people are saying that it sure took a lot of balls for him to come back…. yeah I don’t know if I can go on….. fractured…..really ???? you can do that ?? maybe our EMT guy can confirm this.

If you’re a fan of terrible TV as I am then you’ll be excited to hear about this. Apparently now they are looking to get franchises and an actual sport not TV show… maybe they will expand into Canada one day and I can show off my mad trampoline skillz.

Then keeping with hopefully a tradition here, I’ve found some more news about the girls behind the scenes… the wizzard girls aren’t so much about the stripping and such, they seem more like drink till you pass out girls… Dear diary… Jackpot…. I’m going to end it there.