FanHouse Jerome James

The 3 PM ET trade deadline in the NBA has come and gone, and while there were plenty of big names rumored to be on the move, few teams actually had the guts to pull the trigger. There were plenty of deals made, however, including one that might have one Eastern Conference team feeling like it's back in the title conversation. A wrap-up of today's events after the jump.

It's natural to expect Isiah Thomas to scramble any which way for excuses, especially during the All Star Break, when suddenly the daily game-to-game action slows down, everyone takes a deep breath, and suddenly starts really examining where teams stand heading into the "second half" of the season. And with that not-so-fun pressure vice closing in and the trading deadline glaring at an untradeable Knicks team ... well, don't act so shocked when you hear Eddy Curry land underneath the bus.

A year ago, Isiah Thomas thought Eddy Curry deserved to be an All-Star. A year later, as the NBA breaks for All-Star Weekend, Thomas suggested that Curry might already be a dinosaur.

Yesterday Matt Watson discussed the ridiculous fact that a couple of players buried deep on their respective teams' benches were asking to be traded. Jerome James of the Knicks and Devean George of the Mavericks both feel that they would actually receive playing time somewhere else, even though conventional wisdom says otherwise.

While James' motivation to do such a thing is unclear, George's is simple: he's playing out a one-year, $2.4M contract, and hopes to boost his value as a free agent this summer. And he can't do that while sitting on the bench. His recent plea for minutes and/or a trade was heard by team president Donnie Nelson, but it was also rejected.

"We wish we had 40 minutes for everybody," team president Donnie Nelson said. "But this is the price you pay for being a deep team. Devean's an important piece for us, and we're not actively seeking any sort of move. I know he's frustrated, and we empathize with him. But there's still a lot of season left, and we all know that anything can happen."

Translation: you're not going anywhere, dude. The reality is that George, while not exactly a stat sheet stuffer, has more value as a long and athletic defender coming off the bench than he does in terms of what any team would give Dallas for him in a trade. The squeaky wheel gets the grease though I guess, and George got himself greased up for 25 minutes in last night's win over the Magic. (Now there's a visual!) Although when Devin Harris and Jerry Stackhouse both return from injuries, I'm guessing Devean will go back to his rightful place on the bench.

Jerome James is officially disgruntled, albeit still polite and patient. He's only played two games this year, largely because of a foot injury but also because, well, he's not very good at the game of basketball. He's still living large on a five-year, $29 million mistake deal Isiah Thomas handed him three years ago, but he hopes to be traded to a team that will actually let him on the court. From Percy Allen of the Seattle Times:

"I'm hoping that either they use me or move me," James said. "I love Zeke [Thomas]. Zeke is by far my favorite coach. I had a great relationship with [Nate McMillan]. He's a great guy, but as far as relating to a guy, Zeke is by far my favorite coach. So I don't even want to go to him with this right now.

"I'm not trying to disrupt the team. I know I've been injured. ... I know he feels pressure to throw me out there, and I said, 'No, don't throw me out there. Don't change nothing.' I'm not looking to be moved right now. We can make a playoff push. But the summer is always there. Do it then. If they aren't going to use me, move me."

I have a feeling James' greatly over-estimates his tradeability (if it's not a word, it should be) -- if moving him were that simple, he'd already be long gone. In other news about unhappy scrubs, Devean George is hoping to get some more action on the court, even if that means being traded. Normally you'd think that 15-year vets would be content riding the end of the bench on a potential title run, but he already won three rings piggy-backing off Kobe and Shaq. He does have some trade value, but if he's moved, but prospective trade partners are probably more interested in his expiring contract than anything else.

It's always a good time when Isiah Thomas starts thinking about offseason moves, and if you believe the rumors, he's looking about the Pistons. As seen on Need4Sheed, the New York Daily News reports:

Isiah Thomas is in the market for a rugged power forward to play alongside Eddy Curry, and Thomas may look to revisit acquiring Wallace, the volatile Pistons veteran who fouled out and was ejected in the fourth quarter of Detroit's season-ending loss in Cleveland in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. There already is talk of the Pistons breaking up their team after losing four straight games to LeBron James and the Cavaliers. Wallace, who is signed through the 2009 season, is the most logical choice to be moved.

When Thomas first assumed control of the Knicks, he twice tried to trade for Wallace, who instead landed in Atlanta and then Detroit. Thomas never got over losing Wallace to his former teammate, Pistons GM Joe Dumars, and has told associates that Wallace would have made the Knicks a perennial playoff team.

Just to fan the flames, I'll add that Rasheed considered signing with the Knicks as a free agent following the 2004 season before eventually re-upping with Detroit. Two thoughts:

1) It's a bit silly to call Rasheed a "rugged power forward" -- his turnaround jumper on the block is potent, but he sadly spends much of his time on offense hanging out by the three-point line. That said, he's still an excellent post defender, which is Curry's main weakness, so I could see this happening.

2) Just what is Thomas thinking about giving up? If it's dead weight (albeit of the expiring contract variety) like Steve Francis, there's no chance Joe Dumars would pull the trigger. If it's Jamal Crawford and Channing Frye ... hmm, that could be interesting. And if Dumars can convince Thomas to put together any type of package involving rebounding machine David Lee, I probably wouldn't even care if Detroit got stuck with a couple of bad contracts like Quentin Richardson and/or Jerome James.