FanHouse DrewGooden

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.

The two brawny power forwards pictured at right won't be wasting the time leading up to this summer's free agency languishing on a high lottery team. The excellent Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Oklahoma City agreed to waive cagey veteran Joe Smith in time to join a playoff team. Windhorst has sources that call the Cavaliers a lock as Smith's destination.

Drew Gooden, meanwhile, became a surprise addition to the buy-out list. Traded to the Kings a week-and-change ago, Gooden has played only one game in Royal Purple. But the rebuilding Kings have young talent in the frontcourt and no real need to, um, win. Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee first reported the possibility of a buy-out Saturday; it happened just an hour before the midnight Eastern deadline. San Antonio looks like a potential landing place.

But a team with no shot at either -- the Boston Celtics -- might be the biggest story out of the last-minute buy-outs.

(Warning: I'm a Kings fan, and I'm a little unstable right now.) The belle of this season's trade deadline ball has been, in the absence of Amare Stoudemire, Mr. John Salmons. Salmons is a fine little player, a 29-year-old jack-of-some-trades who can score and pass and defend.

Brad Miller ... well, you know about him. A highly skilled center who can't jump over a pancake (not that he'd want to) and carries a $12 million salary next season. Everyone wanted in on Salmons, while Miller's destinations seemed few. Idea! Why not package them together to make sure you lose the dud? Sacramento did just that today in swapping the pair for Chicago's Drew Gooden and Andres Nocioni.

It appears All-Star Weekend will come and go without an official Amar'e Stoudemire trade. That's probably for the best; it'd just be weird to see an All-Star starter playing for the wrong conference in his own town.

But the apparent stay on Stoudemire's Phoenix career for a few more days hasn't limited the rumors. The big, flashing arrow this weekend points toward Chicago, with four independent reports mentioning the basic parts and another quoting a Chicago reporter as telling Amar'e he's heading to the Windy City.

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?

The state of NBA hairdom is in a bit of flux these days. Boris Diaw's afro, Daniel Gibson's Batman symbol, DeShawn Stevenson's swangin' flat top ... these are all beauties in their own rite, for sure. But for the third straight season, it appears Drew Gooden will take the top award for most gully/abnormal look in the league.

Two years ago, it was the Neckstache aka the Hyphy Patch aka Flypaper for the Ladies. Last season, Gooden grew a medium-sized animal on his chin to battle Stevenson in a beard-growing contest. (Gooden shaved first and lost. Rumors cite that the massive beard was close to blocking out the sun and ending civilization.) Anyone who caught a glimpse of Drew's Bulls in the preseason or in the Tuesday opener knows he has debuted this thing, a tentacle piece that belongs in a sci-fi flick more than the League of Style.

SLAM's Lang Whitaker has the scoop on the inspiration of this look.

In a stunning development spotted by Dan Steinberg of the D.C. Sports Bog after being reported by SLAM in this month's issue, it has been learned that Drew Gooden has shaved his beard, thus conceding a bet made with Wizard DeShawn Stevenson last year.

Gooden looked strong early in the contest, with a bushy fullness far preferable to Stevenson's scraggy mess. But beauty is not an end, and apparently Drew just couldn't handle all that fur. It's too bad; media day -- with all its glorious photo ops -- is only a few months away.

Still, this loss of follicle madness barely registers in comparison to last summer's bombshell about the premature death of The Neckstache. Drew, please stop breaking our hearts.

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.

B-Ball, B-Fast is a weekdaily look at last night's NBA action from a fantasy perspective. Bookmark it and visit often.

Cup of Coffee
Ronald Murray got the starting nod for the Pacers last night. This is not shocking because he's been getting minutes. It is odd though, that a team in Indiana's position would rather give Flip run than let Travis Diener develop further; presumably this could also be a move to let Diener get more comfortable in the role he was used to. Or something. Regardless, Flip certainly has value as someone who will score points and pick up threes while hurting your percentages and not really giving you many assists from the PG position. If that's something you're interested in.

Hot Cakes
Z-Bo represent! Zach Randolph scored 21 points and pulled down 14 boards while starting at center against the Pacers on St. Patty's Day, showing us what he should have been doing all along in the Eastern Conference. Were it not for that stupid Eddy Curry and those meddling kids. Randolph's shooting percentage was looked about as appeasing as a Guinness at 6 a.m., but that should improve some as he takes more shots in the post. Still, he's going to have a nice run to close out the season for fantasy owners.

Josh Powell put up a double-double last night against the defenseless Al Jefferson, going for 10 points, 12 boards and two blocks. Powell is a low end center, obviously, but you could do worse around playoff time. Of course, beware the insanely high rate with which he picks up personal fouls as those aren't always "great" for court time. He should see plenty of run until Chris Kaman returns.

I didn't know that preserving the hairstyle of Damon Jones was a crusade worth taking up, but apparently it is. And not only is there a blog devoted to saving the man's mohawk, but it appears that in the short time the thing has been up, they might have actually succeeded.

Damon Jones had announced plans to shave off his Mohawk after this two-game road trip. But the style has caught on among basketball players and, apparently, fans. A group of fans started a blog aimed at getting Jones to save the 'do, at http://savedjsmohawk.blogspot.com/. Jones has heard about the site.

''Maybe I'll have to reconsider,'' Jones said. ''If enough fans feel that way, I don't want to disappoint them.''

All hail the power of the internet! The creators of the site aren't celebrating just yet, but this definitely sounds promising. I just have one question: where were these guys when we really needed them? You know, to save Drew Gooden's neckstache?