Matt Moore Posts

How could this season get worse for the Warriors? Their coach seemingly has no interest in developing their young talent, teaching defense, fighting for wins or managing the team. Their captain had his captaincy revoked after asking for a trade, which he eventually received. Their star is currently asking for a lifeboat and the nearest emergency exit. They don't have cap space for 2010, they're losing games left and right and they've even been hit with swine flu. How could this possibly get any worse?

Oh.

The Warriors announced today that Kelenna Azubuike has a torn patellar tendon in his right knee which will require season-ending surgery.

The Sixers have been struggling with a bit of a controversy towards the future of their frontcourt. Elton Brand has been significantly limited this season coming back from his injury. The Sixers have reportedly gone so far as to pursue a trade for the former All-Star, a report Sixers GM Ed Stefanski has denied. Adding to this issue has been the remarkable play of second-year man Marreese Speights, who is averaging 20 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.4 blocks per 36. He's been electric, and a huge factor in the Sixers' wins.

So, naturally, he's out 6-8 weeks with a MCL tear. Because life is brutish, nasty, and short.

After building a rising core of young players featuring Marc Gasol (arguably their best all-around player at this point), O.J. Mayo (arguably their best scoring player at this point) and Rudy Gay (arguably ... Rudy Gay), the Memphis Grizzlies followed that up by trading for the untradeable Zach Randolph, drafting the undraftable Hasheem Thabeet, and signing the unsignable Allen Iverson. It's pretty much been advanced anti-fan warfare against the seventeen fans they have left.

And the hits just keep on comin'.

Flash forward seven months from now. Teams are rife with cap space, even under a substantially lowered cap. Friends of yours are all traveling to different teams, finding which team is the best fit financially, personally, and most importantly, in terms of playing for a contender. The world is their oyster. There is nothing but possibility and with the right decision, they'll walk away not only even more obscenely rich than they were before, but in a better situation to put the ring on their finger.

Meanwhile, you're staring at another two and a half seasons watching Peja Stojakovic and James Posey slowly turn into the bad guy from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade after drinking from the wrong cup and being coached by the GM that shackled your team with huge contracts for mid-level players.

Welcome to the life of Chris Paul.

If ever there were an NBA team that the fates deemed the Murphy's Law exhibition squad, it's the Memphis Grizzlies. Just days after their prized free agent acquisition publicly balked at coming off the bench before leaving for personal reasons, the franchise suffered two devastating losses in one night, not only falling to 1-7 in a blowout loss at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers but also losing their young franchise center to a broken jaw.

Monday, the Nets faced practice without Devin Harris (groin), Courtney Lee (groin), Chris Douglas-Roberts (swine flu), Jarvis Hayes (hamstring), Tony Battie (knee), and Yi Jianlian (knee).

That's six guys, three of whom are considered vital components of the young and struggling team, leaving the squad eight players available for practice. And practice they did. Fortunately, one of Yi Jianlian's old nemeses was available to fill in and help out.

That's right. The Chairman was replaced by The Chair.

There were two lingering questions for the Celtics coming into this, a season where they are widely expected to contend for a championship. The first was the status of Kevin Garnett's knee which appears to be just fine. You can notice a very slight hobble by Garnett after an ill-advised dunk, but that could just be reverberations from the accompanying unnecessary screaming.

The other was the contract status of Rajon Rondo, who was working on an extension to avoid entering restricted free agency by remaining with the Celtics. Talks had slowed, and Rondo was making comments to the effect that it was possible he wouldn't end up in Boston.

Bad news for the rest of the league: he will end up in Boston. Early Monday after a fortunate extension from the league for all teams in negotiations, the Celtics and Rondo reached an agreement on a 5-year, $55 million extension, according to ESPN.

You're going to have to forgive us here in the early season for a bit. If we don't report on trends that are developing, we're ignoring what we're seeing. If we do tell you what we see, we're over-emphasizing games that are so young in this season that they can't even legally get into a screening of New Moon.

Basically, that's my way of imploring you to remember that we do take these things with a gigantic mountain of salt, but here's what happened. And trust me, the Spurs are going to want to brush this one off.

On Thursday, a memo from the NBA to all 30 teams was leaked and subsequently reported on by Chris Sheridan of ESPN and tweeted about by Chris Mannix of SI. The purpose of the memo was to reiterate a "no-tipping" policy regarding officials and arena or locker room personnel.

Long story short, backstage personnel have long done favors and personal errands for officials before and after games, and in the latest CBA negotiations, a policy was put in place to end it. The memo clearly states that the league does not feel the pre-existing actions have tampered with games, but a conclusion was reached to eliminate it regardless.

"This is an important change to the CBA," the memo states, as reported by ESPN. "While we do not believe that the pre-existing practice of tipping locker room attendants has affected the integrity of the officiating in any way, it could be perceived in a negative light, and it is therefore best to eliminate this practice."

The NBA isn't just made at Staples on Sunday afternoons under the lights, or in a Friday night showdown at the Garden. It's every night, players stepping up and making plays.

It's guys that will eventually be answers to trivia questions making huge shots that endear them and their teams to the hearts of young fans who first make a connection with this crazy, random, beautiful game.

The heroes aren't just the guys on posters and All-Star ballots, sometimes they are journeymen who show up every day, don't shoot a great percentage and get the job done.

Wednesday was Damien Wilkins' day.