FanHouse BruceBowen

There was a lot of activity in the NBA this week, and we're not just talking about the draft. Some of the NBA's big names and better teams were in on it.

Here's a quick look at the trades that went down and what they mean:

The Deal: Phoenix sends Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland for Sasha Pavlovic, Ben Wallace, a second-round pick in 2010 and cash.

The Thinking: The Cavaliers get an aging O'Neal, with the hope that he can have a productive year playing alongside LeBron James. The only way this trade is a success is if the Cavaliers are the 2009-10 NBA champions. For the Suns, trading O'Neal means that they are beyond tinkering and are leaning toward turning over the personnel of a team that missed the playoffs last season.

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San Antonio needed a major infusion of offensive talent this season, and it appears the team has found it. Multiple league reports indicate the Spurs have traded for Milwaukee's Richard Jefferson, sending away only bit players Bruce Bowen (age 38), Kurt Thomas (age 36) and Fabricio Oberto (age 34), according to Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Jefferson has been in Wisconsin for one year, following last June's draft day trade which sent Yi Jianlian and others to New Jersey. Jefferson has always been a moderately efficient scorer, and he should provide some relief for Tony Parker and Tim Duncan in the Spurs starting line-up. He's not quite an ace defender, but he played hard for Scott Skiles last season and hasn't missed a game in two seasons.

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One question for the San Antonio Spurs: Now what?

Sure, it's possible the Spurs can put together a nice effort on their homecourt in Game 5 on Tuesday night and push their series against the Mavericks to a sixth game in Dallas.

And maybe the Spurs could even follow that up with an unlikely Game 6 win on the road and make their first-round series a seven-gamer.

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Exposed is a nasty little word in basketball and no one likes to be it or get called it.

Exposed is an especially harsh word in the NBA because pro players have spent most of their lives doing the exposing. But once we get into the playoffs, everyone is fair game – even the stars.

That's always one of the best parts of the postseason: Finding out which players rise, which players fall and which players are what they are.

Sometimes in the playoffs you find out your favorite player isn't quite as good as you thought he was or that guy you really liked in mid-January can't quite it get it done when the games turn meaningful.

A report from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, where the Spurs faced the Suns on January 29th.

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Shaquille O'Neal is having a resurgence this season. His scoring and rebounding averages are the highest they've been since his '05-'06 championship season with the Heat, and his play has earned him a trip back to the All-Star game, an honor he didn't receive a season ago.

Perhaps the most surprising of all of Shaq's improvements has come at the free throw line, where he's shooting a repectable .628 this season -- 10 points higher than his career average. So before the game against San Antonio, when Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich was asked if he would employ the hack-a-Shaq given O'Neal's improvement at the foul line, he gave a rather interesting answer.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.

* Troy Murphy: "I'm going to be an event planner - weddings, bar mitzvahs, everything like that. That's my passion. It is. I've just taken it up the last couple of years." -- South Bend Tribune, via Cornrows.

* "[Bruce] Bowen's style of play does not undermine the quality of the game; in fact, it takes basketball (and basketball fandom) to the peak of its dramatic heights." -- 48 Minutes of Hell.

* "[T]here's a reason that no one goes around quoting any of Christian Bale's lines from [The Dark Knight], a reason that [Heath] Ledger is posthumously up for an Oscar and was spoken of a nomination before his passing, a reason that when you think of that film, you think of the Joker. And it's the same reason kids love to dunk, that we like the fastbreak more than the halfcourt, and why Gilbert Arenas is on the All-Star ballot despite not playing a tick [...]" -- Hardwood Paroxysm.

* Amare Stoudemire: "Refs don't like me as much as the cops didn't like Tupac." -- Arizona Republic (last week).

* This week's NBA on TV announcing schedule, the first Basketball Jones of the New Year, and Getting to Know Robert Swift.

The nice thing about being anyone on the San Antonio Spurs is that, well, you can generally sling criticism around; it's not a characteristic trait of any particular player on that team, but after so many years of solid team play and, well, just winning, they've got some sturdier walls than most glass houses.

Hence Bruce Bowen's recent comments to the San Antonio Express about the Dallas Cowboys, his favorite football team. See, it appears that Bruce, like every single person in the free world except Jerry Jones and Wade Phillips, doesn't think the Cowboys really have good chemistry.

"It's very disappointing," Bowen said of Sunday's painful showing by his favorites, "but character wins out over talent any day, at least in my book. You can see how infectious certain characters can be down the end of the road."

Bowen declined to name which of the Cowboys characters he considered "infectious," but he made it clear he believed the Cowboys were doomed by self-centered players.

Well, Bowen might have declined, but allow me: Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens and Roy Williams (the receiver). Of course, Pacman was probably more of a distraction than a totally destructive locker room presence, but still, anyone who thought bringing him to the Cowboys would result in anything positive is running a fool's errand.

And while Bowen is getting a bit aggressive in calling out another sport's players, what are the Cowboys going to do? Tell him he's wrong? Because, um, he's not.

The nice thing about being anyone on the San Antonio Spurs is that, well, you can generally sling criticism around; it's not a characteristic trait of any particular player on that team, but after so many years of solid team play and, well, just winning, they've got some sturdier walls than most glass houses.

Hence Bruce Bowen's recent comments to the San Antonio Express about the Dallas Cowboys, his favorite football team. See, it appears that Bruce, like every single person in the free world except Jerry Jones and Wade Phillips, doesn't think the Cowboys really have good chemistry.

"It's very disappointing," Bowen said of Sunday's painful showing by his favorites, "but character wins out over talent any day, at least in my book. You can see how infectious certain characters can be down the end of the road."

Bowen declined to name which of the Cowboys characters he considered "infectious," but he made it clear he believed the Cowboys were doomed by self-centered players.

Well, Bowen might have declined, but allow me: Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens and Roy Williams (the receiver). Of course, Pacman was probably more of a distraction than a totally destructive locker room presence, but still, anyone who thought bringing him to the Cowboys would result in anything positive is running a fool's errand.

And while Bowen is getting a bit aggressive in calling out another sport's players, what are the Cowboys going to do? Tell him he's wrong? Because, um, he's not.

Via BallHype, SpursReport caught a great broadcasting moment during Friday's Houston-San Antonio match. Rockets analyst (and old gunner) Matt Bullard revealed what Brent Barry, a Spur teammate of Bruce Bowen for four years, thinks of The Rash.



There's not a player, coach or fan outside of San Antonio's sphere of connection who possibly thinks Bowen isn't a dirty player. Hearing it from someone who played a few hundred games alongside The Rash doesn't tell us anything new, but certainly defends the claims. We aren't all just bitter fans who refuse to recognize Bowen's supposed greatness. We're bitter fans who wish Bowen played for our team.

The Arizona Daily Star reports Hawk bench buddy Salim Stoudamire has signed a deal to join the Spurs (via SLAM). I know, I know ... even Roger Mason is bored by this news. But hear me out: Salim can help the Spurs a ton.

The Spurs have been a team which relies on three things on offense: the post play of Tim Duncan, the slashing ability of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, and potent three-point shooting from a cast of role players. Historically, two of the three most important of those three-bombing role players have been Robert Horry and Brent Barry. Horry retired (or "was forced to retire because no one wants to pay him," if you want to get semantic). Barry plays for the Rockets. Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley remain, but turn 57 and 55 respectively* this year. Ime Udoka and Matt Bonner sit in the sidecar, but Gregg Popovich showed only mild levels of faith in them last year.

The one constant with Stoudamire: dude can shoot. Let's ignore last season, when he only totaled 400 minutes. Look at all seasons, college and pro, when he actually got a shot. Here are his three-point shooting percentages: 45% as a college freshman, 44% as a sophomore, 42% as a junior, 50% as a senior, 38% as a rookie, 36% as a second-year player. The league average is 36%, and the Spurs are accustomed to shooting slightly higher. Salim helps that, yes?

While Mason shot beautifully last season in D.C., his record indicates middling success from long range. Stoudamire shot poorly last season, but his record indicates strong aptitude for the longball. S.A. has made a brilliant hedge here: if Mason can't shoot appropriately well, and Pop needs some bench firepower for the guard position -- Bonner and Udoka aren't guards -- there is an option. He may not quite become Barry for a New Age, but there's an opportunity to hit some big, big shots here. Great move for everyone involved.


* On further review, Bowen actually only turns 37. Finley turns 35.