FanHouse AndrisBiedrins

The Warriors surprisingly took Stephen Curry at No. 7, leaving supposed heartthrob Jordan Hill on the board. (Hill went one pick later to New York.) Curry had refused to work out for Golden State during the workout season, and the hubbub followed that the Warriors would avoid a point guard to avoid angering Monta Ellis, who fancies himself a modern day Cousy.

But there's a twist: all evening, a rumor that Phoenix is working on sending Amar'e Stoudemire to Oakland for a package of the No. 7 (Curry), Andris Biedrins, Brandan Wright and Marco Bellineli, has circulated. Marcus Thompson of the Contra Costa Times reports that Golden State may already be working on a tentative extension agreement with Stoudemire, who will be a free agent in 2010. Stay tuned.

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.

Suddenly, Dallas' offense is clicking like a metronome. That bountiful output to (virtually) eliminate Phoenix on Sunday hardly shocked -- it was Phoenix -- but pitching two 60-point halves on Utah ... even away from Salt Lake ... name me impressed. The Mavs racked up 130 points. The Jazz, only 101.

Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry did the damage, with 31 and 21 points respectively. Deron Williams tried to shoot the Jazz back into it, but 5-14 from the field didn't quite cut it. Josh Howard is still struggling with consistency on offense, but seven steals always help. Always!

Jamal Crawford will be a spectator tonight, watching from the bench as the Warriors host the Bobcats. Is he injured? Not at all. Suspended? Hardly. Instead, he's the victim one of Don Nelson's whims.

Despite the fact that Golden State's backcourt is already short-handed -- Monta Ellis (ankle) has already missed one game and will likely miss several more -- Nelson decided that tonight is a good time to begin randomly benching veterans in order to give younger players more playing time. C.J. Watson is expected to start, and Anthony Morrow and Marco Bellinelli should see a few more minutes, as well.

Shaquille O'Neal is a distant second behind Yao Ming in All-Star voting among Western Conference centers, and there's virtually no chance that he'll catch him before the final results are revealed on January 22nd. But unlike last season, when Shaq's streak of 14 consecutive All-Star appearances came to an end largely because he was battling through injuries (and also because frankly, he just wasn't playing very well), the voters won't be able to keep him out of the game this time.

Shaq is having a resurgence of sorts, playing at a level we've not seen from him in years. Friday night against the Dallas Mavericks, for example, he was dominant from the very start, and put on a show that was reminiscent of his days in Los Angeles.

From the perspective of Cleveland and New Jersey, the Knicks went from Jean Grey to Dark Phoenix today. But we won't know if the Great Contract Sell-off of 2008 actually worked for roughly 586 days, so let's focus on the present: the weirdest team in the league just got more gonzo. Don Nelson already starts four two-guards, and now he's acquired Jamal Crawford. Does the trade make you tingle, Nellie?

"I'm stoked, is what I am."

Once Monta Ellis returns and Crawford suits up (the Warriors expect him to be ready Tuesday), I expect you'll be able to describe six of the top seven Warriors in minutes per game as two-guards. Corey Maggette currently mans the power forward position. Stephen Jackson has been alternately running point and sitting at small forward. Anthony Morrow has gotten two starts at the two-guard (with another expected tonight), and Kelenna Azubuike has been alongside him for more than a week.

In the Matt Steinmetz Examiner piece linked above, Nelson notes that Crawford will likely start at the one for now and will share the associated duties with Ellis. Crawford, Ellis, Jackson and Maggette figure to be your starters, with Morrow and Azubuike ready to jump in before the first true power forward or center (Brandan Wright and Ronny Turiaf are each under 18 minutes per game).

Nellieball is getting even more bizarre before our eyes. Andris Biedrins, I hope to ready to keep on rebounding.

H/T: Golden State of Mind

Chris Mullin is a rock. He is an island.

He is incredibly chill about losing his $66 million point-guard for 4 months.

As reported by the irreplaceable Tim Kawakami, Mullin told local reporters that though disheartened by the loss of Monta Ellis for the start of the season, he is not in panic mode. Kawakami reports that Mullin and Don Nelson are looking at their options, including inserting Marcus Williams as starter, or going to a bigger lineup with Stephen Jackson and Corey Maggette. Mullin also said he will be going to a long-scheduled meeting in Chicago with former Clipper Shaun Livingston. Livingston, as you may know, kind of has his own injury issues to work out, but Mullin says he's not in any rush because he "has enough ball-handlers, even without Ellis."

While the Warriors are archetypically comprised of big men that can run and score, they still need a central point guard, and preferably one with speed, to execute Don Nelson's offense. The idea of a Stephen Jackson-Corey Maggette-Brandon Wright/Anthony Randolph-Al Harrington- Andris Biedrins lineup is fascinating, though. It would be like a fleet of giraffes. Not going to frighten you in any respect, but you will stop and watch it for a while, just because it's so bizarre. My first thought when I heard about the Ellis injury, other than "Fate is cruel" was "They should look at Livingston." Livingston had a ton of talent and potential before his knee exploded like the Fourth of July, and he's worth taking a look at.

Hey, at least you can see the worst case coming in that scenario.

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

Andris Biedrins, jovial Latvian to the stars, offers an auspicious start to our ranking. Beans, as he's affectionately known by the more insane of Golden State's fans, registered only 10 points a contest last season, and just under 10 rebounds. But he's so much more than an almost double-double.

Biedrins doesn't miss baskets. His two seasons as a major rotation player -- at ages 20 and 21 -- he has hovered near the top of the league in True Shooting percentage and field goal percentage. Usually, Biedrins' shots are quick chippies near the hoop -- putbacks, flushes off guard penetration, vapid post moves resulting in bank lay-ins or swift slams. He has no jumper to speak of, and little in the way of silky maneuvers.

There's never a dull moment in the life cycle of an NBA franchise (unless you're the Bucks). Golden State has remade its roster this summer, letting Baron Davis spread his wings elsewhere while poaching Southlanders Corey Maggette and Ronny Turiaf. Andris Biedrins and Monta Ellis received weighty extensions. Things seem settled for now.

But here's Stephen Jackson, in the middle of August, posting in Port Arthur talking about needing a contract extension to remain happy with the direction of the time. Take it away, Marcus Thompson III of the Contra Costa Times:

"It's something I always think about," Jackson said from his basketball camp. "It's definitely something that has to be addressed because of what I do for this team and what I've done since I've been here, bringing this team from one of the bottom teams in the league to a playoff team, to a team that won 49 games. It's not what I want, it's what I deserve. "... I won't be comfortable going into this season knowing I have to play this whole season being the fifth highest-paid and not get an extension. I would not be happy."

Jackson's a fine player on the right team, and his contract is a bit underpriced. But it's not like GSW's scrubs are making more than him. Ellis and Biedrins are stars in the making, 22-year-olds with immediate production value and potential for excellence. Maggs is one of the best scorers in the league. Al Harrington is ... well okay, Al Harrington is overpaid. But that's not the fault of Chris Mullin, who had to take Harrington to get rid of Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy. (It's the fault of Chris Mullin, who signed Funleavy and Murph to those insane contracts in the first place.)

Jack hasn't been paying much attention to the Warriors of late if he thinks he -- a 30-year-old bottle rocket who has been great on winning teams and disastrous on losing, stagnant teams -- is getting an extension. Mullin snubbed Baron, Monta and Andris last summer! If there's no gun to his head (as there definitely was with Monta and Biedrins this summer), Mullin's not flinching. So if Jackson isn't getting an extension, and he acts as "uncomfortable" as he says he will be, there's only one other solution: trade him. Maybe it will work out for the best (the Ron Artest booby prize?) but I can't see how it results in making Jack more money next year.

Philadelphia really needed to keep Andre Iguodala at just about all costs, both in order to contend for a title and to avoid another season of "Willie Green, NBA starter." The money's high, but the 76ers hardly had better options. If Iguodala was planning on holding out for $80 million, well Molly just pay the man.

Of course, contracts don't get signed inside a vacuum. (That'd be awesome, though! I'd have a use for my astronaut pen.) In looking at the greater landscape, we can assess how much milk Philly got for its salt. The following graph shows each Class of '04 product whom signed a contract (this summer or last) in excess of $50 million. Average salary is shown in green. We descend from Dwight Howard at $15.8 million to Andris Biedrins at $10.5 million. The players' 2007-08 PER adjoins and is shown in (a pitiful approximation of) the players' team colors.



Iguodala received the second richest contract in this class. But based on 2007-08, four players who signed a smaller deal -- Al Jefferson, Kevin Martin, Josh Smith and Biedrins -- are as good as or better than Iguodala. In other words, the Sixers didn't get great value for Iguodala. Consider that Martin is a measure better and will make $11.5 million less over the next five years. Smith is two years younger than 'Dala, basically even on production today, and will make $10 million less over the next six years.

It's worth noting that the two best values among the Class of '04 elite -- Jefferson and Martin -- were signed last summer. So much for the unassailable power teams supposedly have in restricted free agency.

As the "rest of the world" catches up to the United States in the sport of basketball, it seems worth considering how other world events have impacted the global hoops scene. Namely, the end of Communist imperialism has split up a few would-be basketball powers.

Consider the former U.S.S.R., which includes present day nations Russia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, the Ukraine and more. Lithuania is among the best teams going into the Olympic hoops tournament. Russia is the reigning European champion, having beat Spain in Spain last summer. Here's a sample starting line-up for the mythical Team U.S.S.R.

Sarunas Jasikevicius: The top non-NBA point guard in the world.
Ramunas Siskauskas: The reigning Euroleague MVP.
Linas Kleiza: A top-flight scorer and rebounder from the forward position.
Andrei Kirilenko: The best Russian ever to play in the NBA.
Andris Biedrins: $63 million.

Off the bench: Zaza Pachulia, Darius Songaila, Viktor Khryapa, Martynas Andriuskevicius, Arvydas Macijauskas, maybe Zydrunas Ilgauskas, if he disobeys the Cavaliers. That's not a gold medal team perhaps. But it is sure good enough to make Team USA sweat.

Team Yugoslavia wouldn't be as potent, though a Beno-Sasha-Peja-Nenad-Darko squad actually looks pretty good.