Nate Jones Posts

With the start of the 2009-10 season looming, NBA FanHouse walks through the Valley of the Most Likely; we shall fear no topic.

Madison Square Garden is the crown jewel of NBA arenas. It's the oldest building in the league, and has hosted a ton of special moments throughout its history. Many of those moments likely helped shaped the hoop dreams of many of the league's current stars.

Of course, no one had a greater influence on making MSG a special place to play than Michael Jordan (sorry, Knicks fans). Since Jordan, every NBA player has wanted to come to the Garden and put on a show.

With the start of the 2009-10 season looming, NBA FanHouse walks through the Valley of the Most Likely; we shall fear no topic.

Last year we handed out this prestigious award to the Lakers' Sasha Vujacic. He basically won the award for being a pest that other NBA players didn't respect. Plus he had girlie hair. With Sasha now sans girlie hair (per request of Phil Jackson), it's time to crown a new winner. The obvious choice: Kevin Garnett.

Garnett has been one of the league's best players this decade. Part of what makes him so great is his intensity. Early in his career, KG was capable of harnessing that intensity in a positive way. In his later years? Not so much.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Monday, there are 36 days remaining.

If you lived in Los Angeles at anytime from the time the Lakers moved to L.A. in the early 1960's to the last of the Shaq/Kobe championships in 2002, you are probably quite familiar with Francis "Chick" Hearn. And even if you aren't from L.A., you might still be familiar with Chick, as he was probably the greatest play-by-play man in the history of basketball.

Chick was most known for his famous catch phrases known as "Chick-isms". The most famous of those Chick-isms is probably "slaaaam dunk" (yes, he invented the word "slam dunk").

The 2009 NBA season could be considered the season of Twitter, as the NBA was at the forefront of the explosion of the micro-blogging service. Twitter became the go-to communication tool for many NBA players because of its ease of use and because it enabled them to reach their fans without the help of mainstream media.

But if the 2009 season was the season of Twitter, then the 2010 season might be the year of Ustream. Ustream (and competing services such as Justin.tv) is a web platform that allows for "lifecasting" and streaming of live events via a web cam or some high-end phones.

Ron Artest caused a bit of a flurry Wednesday night when he went on his Twitter account and announced he was signing a new deal. Of course it was all a joke/publicity stunt. However, the activity on his twitter account -- particularly the farewell to Houston tweet -- made Artest's agent David Bauman come out and claim that the Twitter account is a fake.

As athletes have been burned by fake accounts before, we have become pretty good at identifying fake Twitter accounts, and it seems Bauman is wrong about the account in question being a fake.

Rumors have run wild that Orlando Magic free agent Hedo Turkoglu is the main target of the Portland Trail Blazers this free-agent season. The Blazers are in need of veteran leadership and help at the small forward position, but I'm not sure that Turkoglu is the answer.

Turkoglu was extremely effective with the Magic this postseason, but that doesn't mean he's the right piece for the Blazers. If I were the Blazers, I would target Lakers free-agent small forward Trevor Ariza.

There have been many debates over the MVP award over the last few years -- from Kobe v. LeBron to the merits of Steve Nash's back-to-back awards. You can debate all you want about who should have won each year's MVP, but it is clear that a particular season's MVP is no longer likely to have playoff success.

With LeBron James' elimination at the hands of the Orlando Magic, this season marks the eighth time this decade that the MVP hasn't won the championship, and the sixth time that the MVP hasn't even made it to the NBA Finals. Compare those numbers to the 1990s, when the winner of the MVP award made the NBA Finals seven times and the won the championship five times.

Around this season's trade deadline, there was a lot of chatter surrounding Shaquille O'Neal. Everyone assumed that Shaq or his teammate Amare Stoudemire wouldn't be in a Suns uniform past the trade deadline. Of course the deadline passed and both Shaq and Amare remained on Planet Orange.

One of the teams reported to be involved in the pursuit of O'Neal was none other than the Cleveland Cavaliers. According to reports, the deal fell through because the Cavaliers wanted the Suns to take back Ben Wallace in return for Shaq, while the Suns wanted Wally Szczerbiak. The disagreements were purely financial, as Szczerbiak's deal expires at the end of this season, while Wallace has an additional year.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but did the Cavs make a mistake in not trading for Shaq?

After a spectacular performance by Kobe Bryant in Game 3, the Lakers find themselves up 2-1 in their series against the Nuggets.

Although "The Birdman", Chris Anderson was in flight, the Lakers were able to contain Nuggets catalyst Carmelo Anthony. Will Carmelo be able to bounce back to his Game 1 and 2 form? Will Kobe be able to guide the Lakers one step closer to the Finals?

Join us tonight for a live blog at 9 PM EST to find out.

The NBA's spectacular Conference Finals series continues tonight with game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic. The Magic were able to stun the Cavs in game 1, but had their hearts ripped out by a spectacular LeBron James buzzer beater three in game 2.

Can the Cavs ride the momentum of King James' spectacular game winner? Can the Magic bounce back and re-establish Dwight Howard's game 1 dominance? Join us for a live blog tonight at 8:30 PM ET to find out.