FanHouse Drew Gooden

OutSports.com reported Tuesday that Drew Gooden made homophobic remarks to two hecklin' Clippers fans after the Mavericks' Saturday game in Los Angeles. One of the Clippers fans happened to be actor Chris Wylde (pictured, far right), who has -- no joke -- appearances on a show named Heckle U to his credit. (The plot of Heckle U, according to IMDB? Two dudes change the course of basketball games by heckling the opposing teams into submission.)

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban reportedly emailed Wylde, saying the team would deal with Gooden. Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News reports that the NBA is currently investigating the matter, while ESPN's Tim MacMahon has an anonymous source who claims it wasn't Gooden who made the remark. (No word on whether that anonymous source is Gooden.)

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

It has become popular nowadays to take a movie or idea that was popular 20 years ago and revitalize it, tweaking it for a more modern touch, in order to attract both new and old audiences. It incorporates the base elements of the original and then features a modern "twist" in order to seem "hip."

In a lot of ways, that's the story of the 2009-10 Dallas Mavericks. They're not the same old Mavericks, but they're not the new Mavericks either.

There's always a fine line between unearthing a late-round sleeper and reaching on a hot name too soon, leaving proven talent left on the board. It happens every year, and in some cases can lead to an early stumble out of the gate. In other cases, however, taking a chance on a player with promise late in the draft might just improve your shot at winning your league. Just ask the guys who passed on Samuel Dalembert and Tyson Chandler and opted for Brook Lopez and Nene Hilario instead.

This is especially true when it comes to drafting centers, one of the thinner positions and one in which you are required to start two in most leagues. Based on the current average draft position (ADP), per Mock Draft Central (MDC) and Yahoo! (Y!), I will give you a list of five potential sleepers, or value picks.

WASHINGTON -- Gilbert Arenas may be eliminating the often outrageous, sometimes peculiar behavior that once added to his popularity, but the rest of his game is coming back just fine.

The explosiveness has returned.

The 28-29-point scoring average may be fading into history, along with the Agent Zero and the Hibachi personas, but a more valuable, more productive 20-point, 10-assist guy could be brewing inside him.

It's what the Washington Wizards need.

Now with his seventh NBA team, Drew Gooden has played a variety of roles in his much-traveled NBA career. He is about to have a new one -- starting center for a Western Conference contender, according to a radio report cited by DallasBasketball.com.

When Gooden was signed as a free agent this summer by the Dallas Mavericks, it was widely assumed that he was coming mostly to provide depth in the front court for a veteran team still hoping to make a final push before it starts to rebuild.

That just wasn't true, apparently.

The NBA has been in full-on arms race mode this summer, starting when Shaq packed his bags for "The Rock N' Roll Capital of the World." And it hasn't just been high-profile starters being snatched off the market by contenders. Teams are also focusing on depth as a way to gain an advantage. The Dallas Mavericks have been particularly active, re-signing Jason Kidd, acquiring Shawn Marion, and making a failed bid for Marcin Gortat. After the Magic surprisingly matched their offer for Gortat, it appeared the Mavericks had accepted fate and were content to head into the season as is.

Well, not so much. Saturday night Marc Stein (you may have heard his name once or twice) confirmed details of a one-year deal struck between the Mavericks and free agent forward Drew Gooden, which Gooden also confirmed via Twitter (it's so hot right now).

So what exactly does Gooden provide the Mavericks?

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

The 2002 NBA Draft is filled with what ifs. What if Jason Williams had decided not to jump on that motorcycle? What if DaJuan Wagner had been physically able to withstand the rigors of the NBA? What if NBA scouts weren't so enamored with European prospects?

This is a draft of major successes -- Amare Stoudemire, Yao Ming, Carlos Boozer -- and abject failures -- Marcus Haislip, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Frank Williams. And the 2002 class will be best known for not being the 2003 class, perhaps the best in league history. Yao was perhaps the most mysterious No. 1 pick of all time. Few knew more than he was 7-foot-6 and from China.

And what followed Yao was a bunch of question marks, kids who left school too early and unknown international players. The result was an uneven draft that will go down more for its misses than hits.

As expected, it didn't take the recently bought out Drew Gooden and Joe Smith long to find new teams -- by all accounts, the two power forwards each had unofficial agreements in place even before the NBA confirmed they cleared waivers.

When Suns' head coach Terry Porter mentioned before the season that he was considering resting Shaquille O'Neal at various times throughout the season, I took it as him saying it was something he may do occasionally. As it turns out though, it appears to be the rule rather than the exception so far, and (needlessly) doing so at this point in the season cost the team a game that would otherwise have been winnable last night in Chicago.

The Suns planned to give Shaq the night off in Indiana, when the team was playing the second game of a back-to-back, and the big fella had put in 24 strong minutes the night before in New Jersey. In fact, Shaq was dressed in a suit up until about 20 minutes before tip-off, but was called to action after starter Matt Barnes left the team to be with his fiancee, who was giving birth to a set of twins. O'Neal played less than 12 minutes though, and with Amare Stoudemire blowing up for 49 points, the team got by without him.

After a day off, the Suns traveled to Chicago, but decided to give Shaq a night of rest because they again were facing back-to-back games, and the thinking was that tonight's opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, would pose a bigger challenge in the paint than the Bulls. The Bucks have Andrew Bogut; the Bulls play Drew Gooden and Joakim Noah. But with the Suns already missing one of their starters, did they really need to give Shaq a night of rest, just six games into this young season?

Every now and again there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the L. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

When most people talk about the secret to the Hornets' success, they usually only mention Chris Paul, but that's a big mistake: David West is a huge, huge part of the equation, as he proved last night with an absolutely ridiculous performance, scoring 35 points with 16 boards, three steaks and a pair of blocks to lead N'awlins over the Pacers and into the No. 1 seed.

But of course, just when West does something to stand out from the crowd, Paul is there to overshadow him, scoring 31 points of his own with 14 assists, three steals and only one turnover. As if that assist to turnover rate wasn't impressive enough, also realize that Paul was the only player on the team to finish with more than one assist. Anyone who thinks the MVP discussion is limited to LeBron and Kobe simply hasn't been paying attention.

Others Receiving Votes:
Chris Andersen: He didn't score any points and he had two fouls to his lone block, but the simple fact that he got into the game means his return from drug addiction and comeback to the NBA is officially complete.

Drew Gooden: Yes, there were guys not wearing a Hornets jersey that I think deserve praise, like Gooden, who scored 31 points with 16 boards. Maybe he really is kind of awesome, or at the very least, not likely to get punched in the face.