FanHouse FranciscoGarcia

Three prospects from basketball-crazed Israel -- Doron Shefer, Lior Eliyahu and Yotam Halperin -- have been drafted by NBA teams in the past. But all were second-round picks, and none of the three made the league. But Omri Casspi took a major step for Israeli basketball by making into the first round, where the Kings picked him at No. 23.

There had been fears Casspi would be selected by a team seeking to "stash" him in Europe for a year or two, keeping his salary off the books but preventing another team from grabbing the talented forward. That won't be the case with Sacramento. The Kings need a talent infusion now. After speaking with team officials, Casspi told media he would be in the NBA in 2009-10.

Casspi will be competing for minutes with Donté Greene, an electric forward acquired in last year's Ron Artest trade. Andres Nocioni seems to be the de facto starter at the position, but there have been suggestions he'll be traded this offseason. Francisco Garcia also spends some time at the three, and begins a five-year deal this season.

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.

The Rockets have the (gulp) No. 2 seed in the West right now, thanks to Luis Scola. The monster outplayed Tim Duncan (!) on Sunday, turning out 19 points, 17 rebounds, four assists and three steals. Scola's defense (with help from the overall outstanding Houston barricade) limited Big Fundamental to 8-of-22 shooting and just six rebounds.

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.

During the ABC pregame and halftime shows Sunday, the panel somehow argued that Tony Parker is underrated and should be mentioned in the same breaths as Chris Paul and Deron Williams. Later, it was decided that Williams is wildly overrated. I guess this makes Paul overrated, or something. I don't know. I'm confused.

All I know is that D-Will went off against the Raptors, offering up 25 points and nine assists. Sure, Parker also went big with 30 points and nine assists. But Parker had six turnovers. Williams offered just one.

Don't be surprised that the worst team in the league has also been the most active on the trade circuit this week. Sacramento continues its cost-cutting measures this morning, according to Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee. The Kings have sent Shelden Williams and Bobby Brown to Minnesota for the expiring contracts of Rashad McCants and Calvin Booth.

Brown is the only player in the deal with money owed in 2009-10, and it's a whopping $736,000 player option. But there is in fact a compelling storyline here: McCants and new teammate Francisco Garcia have an ongoing blood feud.

One thing the NBA has too many of: swingmen. The D-League is littered with shooting guards and small forwards good enough to play in the bigs, and you'll find most domestic players who end up taking a European payday fall in the swing positions. It is a bountiful position.

The Kings currently have one healthy non-rookie swingman. One. Francisco Garcia strained his calf in the preseason, and will be on the sidelines another week at least. Quincy Douby (a failed point guard, now an Eddie House-style two-guard) twisted his ankle early in camp and has only been back long enough to re-injure himself.

Most recently, Kevin Martin sprained his ankle hard in Sunday's win over Golden State, and he'll be out 7-10 days.

That leaves starting small forward John Salmons and the rawest rookie of them all, Donté Greene, as the only swing players left.

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Yesterday we had the overview; today we have the predictions. The Pacific Division appears to be no better than a two-team race, with a third team potentially in the mix, and the last two teams, well, finishing in last. Let's start things off in the cellar and work our way up, shall we?

The Los Angeles Clippers (again, regal) are going to have a tough go of it due to the enormous drop off in talent they have between their starting lineup and the players coming off the bench. In fact, if you want a visual of said drop off, go watch this, and pretend the guy jumping off the building is falling in the space between the talent of the Clippers' starting players and that of their bench players. And the parachute not opening represents the gigantic FAIL that the Clippers can expect this season anytime the bench takes the floor to try and hold onto a lead. It's not going to be pretty, folks.

Up north where the Golden State Warriors play, it won't be pretty either, at least for the first few months of the season. That's because their best player (apologies, Mr. Maggette) decided to engage in low-speed moped riding during the off-season (this still amazes me ... the moped = injury part), which will lead to his absence from the lineup, and an unavoidably bad start for the Warriors.

Via HoopsHype, Listin Diario reports Al Horford will play for his birth nation, the Dominican Republic, later this month in the Centrobasket tournament in Cancun. The top two finishers will be entered in the 2009 Tournament of the Americas; the top three teams not already entered in the 2010 World Championship pool get berths then.

Horford's Dominican roots were on display when he was drafted in 2007, as his father Tito waved the nation's flag as the Hawks selected Al with the #3 pick. The D.R. hasn't been relevant in international basketball ever, but Horford immediately makes the team a threat to win Centrobasket (take that, Najera!) and possibly place in the FIBA Americas '09.

Horford will be joined by Sacramento firefly Francisco Garcia, who could very well play every position but center for the team. I'd expect former Manhattan University point guard Luis Flores to show up as well. Bucks survivor Charlie Villanueva has two Dominican parents, but I've never heard rumor of him joining the team. Get these guys together though, and that headline will only be 25% farcical.

(Speaking of farce: Yeah, I'm a little obsessed with Caribbean basketball. I dream of Samuel Dalembert and Quincy Douby reconstituting the Haitian national team and destroying Carlos Arroyo and Peter John Ramos in the 11th-place game of the 2012 London Olympics.)

We showed you J.R. Smith's unfortunate bonked windmill earlier and mentioned it loomed large in Denver's eventual 3-point loss to the Kings. There were, of course, other causes -- turnovers galore, a bad night for Allen Iverson, huge scoring nights for Kevin Martin, Francisco Garcia and Mikki Moore.

Whatever the impetus, the result has caused a ton of trepidation in Mile High City. From the Denver Post's game story, by Benjamin Hochman.

You have to be kidding. ... Saturday's loss was inexplicable and inexcusable. ... What an embarrassment.

That was the game story! Columnist Woody Paige, who is possibly the worst living American wordsmith, reacted to the loss by calling for just about everybody's head. (Seriously, unless he wrote that entire "column" on a BlackBerry while strung from his toes upside-down over a pool filled with barbed wire and salt, the Post has no excuse to employ that guy. Awful.)

All the stories from Denver focus on the fact the Kings were without Ron Artest and Brad Miller, two VIPs for the Kings. Of course, they neglect to realize Martin is probably the Kings' best player, and those fellows John Salmons and Garcia are pretty good too. To Hochman and Paige, this was a total shock. Pickaxe and Roll, a Nuggs blog, noted before the game it wasn't a gimme. Maybe the combination of this Kings win -- along with one last week over the Rockets -- will make media folks in future opponent cities prepare for possible defeat.

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
If you don't get the Bad Boys reference, I'm sorry. It appears my time has passed me by. Anywho, Kyle Lowry got the most run of the trio of young Memphis point guards last night, seeing 32 minutes and scoring 24 points with four assists and two steals. Javaris Crittenton had 30 minutes and scored 17 points with four assists and a steal, while Mike Conley, Jr., scored zero points (0 for six shooting) with one assist and a steal in 16 minutes. All of this is important, because for the rest of the season, the Grizzlies are essentially having a tryout for point guard. Whoever is playing well will keep getting the run. I love Conley, and he's legit, but I think people undervalue Lowry. Since it appears he's not going to have a tremendous leash, well, adjust accordingly.

Hot Cakes
Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes are both starters now (do these guys have dirt on a slew of NBA coaches?). Hughes put up eight points with five assists and two steals in 25 minutes while Gooden went nuts, albeit against Memphis, for 21 points and 14 rebounds. It's classic sell high on either guy, although they're certainly doing their best to spite LeBron James at this point.

Mike Miller has been out almost the equivalent of a week in NBA games for the Grizzlies, but is expected to return tonight. Consider holding him out one more game because back injuries = bad field goal percentage.

Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee checks up on the three-month-old hammer of Reggie Theus -- before this season, the coach instituted a midnight curfew on the eves of road games and banned cell phone usage on the team bus. Many expected a war, especially with a team rife with veterans and so-called difficult players. How are The Reggie Rules working?

"The rules are set in that, basically, if they do talk on the phone, they're quiet," said Theus, whose team finished its eight-day trip with a 3-2 record after its win in Milwaukee on Wednesday. "And if they do come in past 12 o'clock, then it (shouldn't be) past 1 o'clock. To me, if you come in after 1 o'clock, then I would consider that (an infraction)."

Theus did catch Francisco Garcia chatting it up in Spanish on the bus last week (nice camouflage there, Flaco); instead of a pimp slap or even a warning, Theus sent him a sternly-worded text message telling him to pipe down.

In fairness, The Reggie Rules looked ridiculous in October, but they seem to be working. Theus says guys are talking to each other on the bus and have stronger relationships -- it shows on the bench, where it seems the players actually get excited when another hits a big shot. Did that happen last year? Not much. You were more likely to get a story about Eric Musselman hitting the club with Ron Artest and Mike Bibby than you were to see seven Kings waving towels.