FanHouse Jamaal Tinsley

After building a rising core of young players featuring Marc Gasol (arguably their best all-around player at this point), O.J. Mayo (arguably their best scoring player at this point) and Rudy Gay (arguably ... Rudy Gay), the Memphis Grizzlies followed that up by trading for the untradeable Zach Randolph, drafting the undraftable Hasheem Thabeet, and signing the unsignable Allen Iverson. It's pretty much been advanced anti-fan warfare against the seventeen fans they have left.

And the hits just keep on comin'.

In order for Mike D'Antoni to fully implement his vision, he needs a talented point guard -- and as a wise man jilted teenager once said, "Chris Duhon ain't getting it done." After watching the most talented free agent point guards either re-sign with their original teams (Jason Kidd, Mike Bibby) or commit elsewhere (Andre Miller), the Knicks are left to sift through the bargain bin.

On Wednesday, that entailed meeting with Jamaal Tinsley, who's so eager to reunite with Donnie Walsh, his former boss in Indiana, that he'd sign a one-year deal worth the veteran's minimum. The Knicks have also shown interest in the recently unretired Jason Williams, who'd also likely settle for a one-year deal, and Walsh has met with Allen Iverson's agent, although nothing is expected to come of that.

It's been 16 months since Jamaal Tinsley last took the court for the Indiana Pacers, but it wasn't until Wednesday that the two sides finally agreed to sever ties, coming to terms on a buyout that will make him an unrestricted free agent once he officially clears waivers later this week.

Tinsley spent the last year and a half in limbo, not quite suspended but simply unwelcome to participate in team activities, as Larry Bird desperately tried to repair his team's image by ridding the roster of malcontents and troublemakers. (Tinsley's brushes with the law include participating in a barroom brawl and being the target of drive-by shooters.)

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

After two putrid drafts, the NBA returned to form in 2001 -- but not right away. This draft will forever be known as the day Michael Jordan transformed from the greatest player on Earth to a below average general manager. With the No. 1 overall pick, Jordan held the fate of the Washington Wizards in the same hands that dunked on many of opponent, and he had a rich variety of players for which to don the savior of the franchise.

And he chose Kwame Brown. It really wasn't Kwame's fault. He was the victim of an amazing workout that impressed Jordan so much -- was this thing on video? -- that Air was convinced Brown would emerge as an All-Star. The brutal truth is that this prep player from Georgia faded into one of the biggest busts in draft history, hanging out in the same club as LaRue Martin, Joe Barry Carroll and Michael Olowokandi.

As strange as it seems, the Pacers are just two and a half games out of No. 8 seed in the East, and while I think the team's long-term future would be better served with the team missing the playoffs and taking their chances in the lottery, it's at least possible they'll be able to make a push in the remaining few weeks.

For one, Jermaine O'Neal, the franchise cornerstone who hasn't played since mid January, returned to practice on Thursday, even if only for a limited amount of time. From the Indy Star:

"He practiced, went full court, did some half-court stuff, but not a long period of time because we never go too long on game day," O'Brien said. "We went about 20 minutes live, hard, and he was probably out there for about 10 of those minutes. We'll see how he reacted and see if we can build on this."

Unfortunately it's not all good news: the team is starting to realize that Jamaal Tinsley, who hasn't played since early February, might not return before the end of the season. The team hasn't found a true replacement for his 8.4 assists per game, as no one else on the roster averages more than 3.4. Even so, the team has won five out of 10, which doesn't sound impressive until you realize that's actually been enough for them to make up ground on the three teams separating them from the last spot.

Seriously, why can't we just do things this way ...

It seems that Jamaal Tinsley and Marquis Daniels will at least avoid the nastiness of having to explain to a judge why they were involved in a bar fight, as they accepted diversion agreements on Monday morning, meaning that they will not have to appear in court to sort out the sordidness of this little affair.

Instead, they will have to complete 32 hours of community service each and apparently get involved in something called behavior modification training, which certainly must be less brainwashy and spooky than it actually sounds. They need to go two full calendar years without getting in any sort of legal trouble to avoid having the diversion decision backfire on them.

Diversion, different from a guilty plea, is similar to pleading 'no contest' in some states. Before Marion Superior Court Judge Lisa Borges, Tinsley and Daniels admitted only that there was probable cause for their indictments -- not that they were guilty as charged.

'We're very happy to go back to playing basketball,' said James Voyles, Tinsley's attorney, as they stepped onto an elevator with Daniels and his attorney, Ralph Staples. The players answered 'yes' to the judge's questions, but made no other comments inside or outside court.

If the players violate their diversion agreements, prosecutors said, the charges will be reinstated.

It's essentially like a PJC for a non-driving offense, if I'm reading this correctly. Now, many people would get upset that this could be another case of athletes skirting the law's ever shortening arm length, but I'm all for this type of punishment. What good does a trial do them? They would end up copping to some sort of plea bargain, which this basically amounts to, only now they don't have to waste taxpayers money. Oh right. This happened a while ago. Sigh. As Indy Cornrows said, "lawyers gotta get paid too". And don't forget the state probably didn't mind the extra publicity for the DA's office. Whatever. Let's move on.

You know that old saying that involves horses and mouths? Well, if you've been wondering just how long Jamaal Tinsley was going to be missing time on the court, Pacers fans, wonder no longer. Tinsley recently held his third annual winter coat drive and while signing autographs, didn't exactly tiptoe around any medical information, straight up telling a fan "three more weeks". (Via Indy Cornrows)

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
Andrew Bogut is white f'ing hot right now, folks. And honestly, it's been pretty underreported. His January line through 12 games? 18.2 points, 10.6 boards, 58 percent from the field, three dimes and 1.2 blocks per game. Beasty. Is it legit? Yes and no. Bogut is a great player, a pure passer and capable of putting up huge numbers. But this big? Right now? If I was getting the right piece for a title run back I'd move him.

Hot Cakes
How do you think Larry Bird felt when he saw that the Pacers' starting lineup last night was Jeff Foster, Mike Dunleavy, Danny Granger, Travis Diener and Kareem Rush? Um, right. But here's the thing -- every one of them has fantasy value depending on how long Jermaine O'Neal and Jamaal Tinsley (put on the inactive list yesterday) are out. Grab Diener for threes and dimes immediately, since he could be gold if Tinsley stays down. Foster is probably already taken but he's a great source of boards. Rush is an excellent source of scoring and might have locked up the two at this point. Granger and Dunleavy are obviously long gone but their value is mid-spike right now.

Mo Williams returned to the floor and only scored nine points but dished out nine helpers. As long as he's healthy you can keep starting him and ignoring Royal Ivey. This is a nice time for deeper leagues stocking up for the stretch to buy low on Charlie Bell though.

Mark Blount. WTF. 23 points against San Antonio? Deep leagues should have started selling midway through the third quarter. Shaquille O'Neal has said he isn't retiring and a motivated Shaq is a dangerous thing. Not as dangerous as relying on Mark Blount for fantasy purposes, but dangerous nonetheless.

The Clippers announced that Elton Brand is getting closer to running, etc; it's kind of a long shot with their playoff chances looking grim but if he's been dropped in your league, you need to hustle to the wire.

Depending on who you ask, Jamaal Tinsley may or may not have been suspended for last Wednesday's game against the Warriors. At the time, coach Jim O'Brien said Tinlsey sat out with an injured knee, but later several players claimed that Tinsley was actually being disciplined following "an incident during a film session" earlier in the week. So what really happened? On Thursday, O'Brien disputed rumors of a suspension, though not very convincingly. From Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star:

"As an NBA coach I have the ability and the right to deactivate any player I want," O'Brien said after practice Thursday. "I deactivated Jamaal and Ike (Diogu)."

If Tinsley was injured, he'd at least be expected to show up to the arena, right?

"Not if I tell him he doesn't have to show up for the game," O'Brien said, when asked why Tinsley wasn't there. "It's not the first time this year a player was deactivated that wasn't on the bench or here. That's totally up to the head coach. . . . What I told you (Wednesday) is the story I'm sticking with."

Yeah, "the story I'm sticking with" really sounds like the truth. It sounds to me like O'Brien deemed Tinsley's actions (whatever they were) worthy of punishment but tried to spare his team the glare of the media spotlight by staying mum on the subject. That's noble, I suppose, especially considering all the drama Tinsley has already been involved in this year. And it probably saves Tinsley a little bit of dough, since a suspension suggests a withheld game check, whereas being inactive doesn't.

Jamaal Tinsley sat out the Pacers' big comeback win over the Warriors last night (more on that in a minute) with what the team said was a sore left knee. It appears now though that it might have been something else that kept him from playing: a suspension.

Tinsley is said to have been suspended for an incident during a team film session the day before, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star.

Former Pacer and current Golden State forward Stephen Jackson, along with several people with knowledge of the situation, confirmed that Tinsley was suspended. The length of Tinsley's suspension is uncertain.

"It's an unfortunate situation he got suspended like that," Jackson said after the game. "He'll bounce back. Me and Jamaal have been through a lot."

If not for the fact that Stephen Jackson and Tinsley were former teammates, the Pacers may have been able to successfully bury this story. Well, at least the team didn't seem to be distracted by Tinsley's absence, or the fact that Jermaine O'Neal played only nine minutes due to a sore knee. The Pacers were able to score 46 (!) fourth quarter points to come back from a 14-point deficit to stun the Warriors.

The Pacers' roster is made up of guys like Mike Dunleavy and Kareem Rush, not Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. So to allow them 46 points in a single quarter -- especially the fourth -- is a complete embarrassment. Not surprisingly, once the Pacers had claimed the lead, Matt Barnes further embarrassed the Warriors by going flagrant foul on Dunleavy with about four minutes to play ... wow, we never saw that coming.