FanHouse Al Harrington

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Desperation oozed from every pore. If New York-area basketball hasn't reached its nadir, it's only because the NBA has a silly rule that some team must win. Otherwise, who knows how low this charade might go? The players might be the ones slipping paper bags over their heads, to match the fans' embarrassment as they sit in the stands and try not to rubberneck.

Though plenty of empty seats were available, more than the usual few gluttons for punishment showed up at the Izod Center Saturday afternoon, hoping to see ... what? New Jersey Nets coach Lawrence Frank fired after the first quarter? New York Knicks owner James Dolan do an about-face and sign Allen Iverson to a multi-year deal? The teams set a combined record for most horrendous shooting in four quarters? Dora the Explorer, the day's big draw, dunk over Nate Robinson? The possibilities really were endless.

As it was, the Nets dropped to 0-13 and continued to careen dangerously toward matching the league record of 17 straight losses to open a season. The New York Knicks, by virtue of their 98-91 victory, actually won consecutive games to improve to 3-9, and can now turn their focus back on the real goal: convincing LeBron James, or any big free agent to-be, that the cesspool really isn't as nasty as it currently looks.

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The power forward position is the deepest of all positions. Much like I mentioned how many of the the best power forwards are eligible at center, many small forwards and centers have dual eligibility at power forward. The range of ability consists of some of the league's best rebounders, scorers, three-point specialists, and efficient shooters. Some fantasy owners load up on power forwards and slot them into their center and utility positions. This position runs so deep, so deep that 50 players may not be enough to cover each and every fantasy relevant power forward. The depth leaves great value toward the end of drafts, but there's no reason to sleep on the players atop the draft board.

Again, I followed Fleaflicker's fantasy basketball positional eligibility. The rankings are based on standard, 8-category head-to-head (H2H) scoring: points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, three-pointers, field-goal percentage, and free-throw percentage.

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The New York Knicks haven't made the playoffs since the 2003-04 season, and few expect them to break that streak this spring. However, second-year Knicks forward Al Harrington appears confident enough to predict that the orange and blue will finally return to the postseason this year. Yes, you read that correctly.

FanHouse spoke to Harrington at the NBA Live 10 launch event on Tuesday about why this Knicks team will be surprise many of their doubters. The video interview is below.

Every Tuesday this offseason, two of our NBA experts will go at it with a Debate in the Paint. This week, the topic is which team did the least this summer to improve.

If the New York Knicks want to get their fans excited about the 2009-10 season, they better be planning some good halftime shows. Or maybe free beer at every home game. Or prizes to those who boo the loudest.

When the only additions to the roster are Darko Milicic and two rookies who will take a few years to develop, you need a creative marketing department.

It's hard to imagine a high-profile team doing less.

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I have to hand it to you, NBA offseason. You've managed to outdo yourself this year. No long lulls of nothing. No prolonged sense of abandonment for us. Between Ricky Rubio, Michael Beasley, and now Stephen Jackson, you've kept us quite entertained. Bravo.

It's Friday in the NBA offseason lull, which means wacky things can happen. Like the captain of the Golden State Warriors saying he wants out of the team, pronto. Captain Jack is abandoning ship.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Amid a fantastic slate top to bottom, Boston at Orlando stood out as the must-watch. And the teams delivered: the Magic ended up with a rollicking two-point victory on the back of Dwight Howard's deft post play and some lovely outside shooting from everyone else. (Which is to say they won this game how they win every other game.)

A lot of players have their own signature shoe but only a select few have an entire brand. Al Harrington recently joined that exclusive club when he recently unveiled his new Protege line. I caught up with Harrington in the visitor's locker room after a recent win in Detroit to talk about the new brand.

The Warriors hosted the Knicks Wednesday night, giving Don Nelson and Al Harrington a chance to finally meet face-to-face and hash out their differences. Except, well, that didn't happen. Instead, the two communicated like they have for most of the year: trading insults with each other through the media.

Before the game, Nelson told reporters that Harrington forced the trade because he wanted more money, and that the only reason things got ugly was because Harrington made it personal. When told of Nelson's comments, Harrington denied ever talking money with his former coach, saying Nelson "just made that up."

It's pretty easy to feel bad for the city of Cleveland. None of their sports teams can manage to win anything, and everyone seems to believe that LeBron James is headed to New York in 2010. So that's why, when he debuts a new line of Nike shoes called the "LeBron VI Big Apple" on the night the Cavs play the Knicks, you kind of have to chuckle at the general paranoid aura floating out of the city that rocks! (Via Nike Press Release)

The Zoom LeBron VI performance basketball shoe represents the essence of LeBron James: team, toughness, passion and vision. James worked with Nike designer Ken Link to create a shoe that meets his performance needs and the needs of players with a powerful, dynamic style of play.

[...]The shoe's collar has been engineered with a wider opening so it's easier to slip on and wear while maintaining a full-length fit feel. On the collar, graffiti art highlights LeBron's mantras-passion, family, winning, fearless and vision.

So, yeah, pride. Family. Passion. New York!

As Watson noted earlier, Baron Davis has been mentioned in some pretty hefty mega-super-uber deal between the Warriors and the Pistons. The rumor is that an Al Harrington and Boom Dizzle for Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups swap would go down. The problem?

Baron can still opt out of his contract, meaning the deal simply could not happen. But Dizzle, through his agent, appears content to get paid $17.8 million next year and stick with the Warriors.

"It doesn't seem likely," [Todd] Ramasar said. "The market could change anytime, but it's unlikely."

[...]"Baron's adamant about remaining a Warrior, but we've yet to come up with an extension," Ramasar said. "As of right now, there's no guarantee that those talks continue, and from a player's standpoint, it becomes emotional."

Here's the second catch -- Baron can't officially not opt out until next Tuesday. And because such a deal between the Pistons and the Warriors would almost certainly have to include a draft pick (as MW, the 14th pick seems reasonable).

Of course, those timelines don't exactly match up. But it's not like the Warriors can't simply pick who Detroit wants and then make the trade for Big Shot and 'Sheed immediately following Baron's decision.

Now, there's puh-lenty of risk involved with that, namely that Baron doesn't opt out. But you would have to figure that Joe Dumars and Chris Mullin would have the particulars worked out ahead of time. Either that or Dumars just told him to hit up on the swell piece Tuesday if he didn't do anything crazy tomorrow. (Read: this smells like a dead end).