FanHouse JuwanHoward

When Denver jettisoned all-defense center Marcus Camby to Los Angeles for nothing more than cap space this summer, most figured the presence of several big-minute big men in Nuggets powder blue was at least a minor factor. Kenyon Martin nor Nene will be going anywhere soon; as Camby held solid trade value, it (almost) made sense to move him as a way of freeing up space for the others (and cash for owner Stan Kroenke).

But backup center Steven Hunter has been knocked out of play by recurring knee problems; George Karl believes Hunter may never play again. No Camby, no Hunter ... no Antonio McDyess. There's no one left behind K-Mart (who might miss a third straight game with a sprained wrist) and Nene but Cheikh Samb (more raw than steak tartare) and The Birdman, Chris Andersen (who has a broken rib and won't play until roughly Thanksgiving). The Nuggets aren't happy about it, writes Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News.

"We don't have no big men," the 6-foot-8 [Carmelo] Anthony said. "I was the big man (Tuesday at Charlotte when the small forward played some center). Why not (acquire another post player)? If there's somebody out there we can get, why not?"

Davidson's Stephen Curry was the obvious choice for the Most Outstanding Player from the Midwest region, so obvious that it would have been a travesty for anyone else to have received the honor.

But how often can you say that -- that a player from a losing team deserves the top individual honor? It turns out that it happens so rarely that the last player to win a regional most outstanding player award despite playing for a team that didn't reach the Final Four was Juwan Howard of Michigan in 1994.

Those of us who loved the Fab Five remember that 1994 Tournament well. Chris Webber left school after his sophomore year, leaving just four of the Fab Five to try to get Michigan to its third straight Final Four, and Howard was incredible in the four Tournament games. But Arkansas, the eventual national champion, was simply too good, and Michigan shot too poorly in the regional final.

The loss to Arkansas was Howard's last college game. The good news for Davidson fans is that Curry will be back. Perhaps next year he can win a Most Outstanding Player honor without being on the losing side.

Remember how the Mavericks went after Chris Webber earlier this summer? Well, they eventually settled for another former Fab Fiver, Juwan Howard, recently freed by the Timberwolves. It's not yet official -- there's still the technicality of passing through waivers -- but he should be signed and delivered sometime tomorrow. From the team's official site:

"Juwan was too big of an opportunity to pass up," president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson told mavs.com. "Juwan is a winner, he's a leader and he knows the Maverick way.

"He can swing from the '4' to '5,' so it gives us tremendous flexibility on the frontline."

Of course, it's not like the a title contender like the Mavs were flush with available roster spots: someone had to be let loose, and that someone was DJ Mbenga, the fourth-year center who missed most of last year recovering from a torn ACL. It's a tough break for Mbenga, but he is seven-foot tall, which leads me to believe he'll pack up his turntables and find gainful employment as a professional baller soon enough, whether it's on this side of the ocean or the other.

Juwan Howard's roller-coaster of meaninglessness rides on tonight. He got traded in June to play with Kevin Garnett. Then, KG got traded as Minnesota set the ray to 2011 and Juwan frowned. Now? He's close to becoming freed from the shackles of his multi-million dollar contract, according to (?!) Timberwolves.com's Mike Trudell (via Canis Hoopus by way of Ballhype).

Howard isn't just useless to a befuddlingly young team; he'll be useless to most teams in the league. Someone will surely give him another night in the corral; perhaps Miami, who now needs some power forward help behind Udonis Haslem, could party like it's 1996. And he'll give said team some ugly jump shots and maybe some crafty defense. But he's not a difference-maker in any way, shape or form... unless fellow free agents Jalen Rose and Chris Webber want to recreate some semblance of Fab Five-ishness in the CBA or something. (How sad is a world where the NBA will soon feature no Fab Five members? Jesus, we're all getting old.)

By the way, Trudell also reports Minnesota won't be asking Wayne Simien to pick up his jersey... um, because they aren't spending the $60 to make him one. (Bummer.) I have a feeling Simien's definitely getting another chance in the league immediately, if for nothing else than all the promise he showed in his Kansas days. (And the known sympathies for salmonella victims. Undercooked chicken is really the NBA's silent killer.)

When you have a limited basketball skill-set, you can still carve a niche for yourself by playing with unbridled enthusiasm and energy. Mark Madsen is a poster boy for this method, but apparently it's not something he can just turn on and off like a switch. No, he attacks everything with surprising vigor, even his sightseeing trips in Turkey. From his blog:

The coolest [trip] to me was the Hagia Sophia Mosque. For one thousand years, it was actually the largest Christian Cathedral in the World. Then, it was taken over by the Ottoman Empire (I learned all of this from our guide today!) and converted into a Mosque. Today it is a museum! So it's been a Christian church three times (Replaced once then burned down a second time, finally rebuilt a third time), a mosque, and now it's museum! How cool is that! ... All of the Islamic and Christian influence can be seen in the building! Then we ventured down to a giant underground water tank (Cistern) that was like a mini reservoir to hold water for those many times when Istanbul was attacked and seiged over the centuries. It was awesome!!

I counted: that's seven exclamation points in the span of one paragraph (not to mention the title of his post is "Hello Again!!!!") -- I'm surprised not to see a random :) interjected here and there. (Realize, though, that I poke fun because I care. If I didn't find Madsen interesting enough to subscribe to his blog's RSS feed, I never would have noticed.)

In other news (and I fully admit this is more "newsworthy" and probably should have been the leading point of the post), Madsen describes how Juwan Howard has started to warm up to his younger teammates. Whereas one reporter noted that Howard seemed reluctant to interact with the young cubs at media day, Madsen says Howard is now one of the leaders on the team who talks with everyone "1 through 15" about how they can help the team. Three cheers for team unity!

Previously on FanHouse:
Timberwolves Living Large in Turkey
Juwan Snubs Young Wolves

As can be expected, new old Timberwolf Juwan Howard doesn't feel like a rebuilding period right now, thanks. HOOPSWORLD's Stephen Litel says Juwan was professional at Minny media day, but didn't exactly embrace the slew of kids running around.

Howard, who as expected was a professional by sitting down and answering the assembled media's questions for roughly ten minutes, did little else to show he was ready to mentor the Wolf Cubs. He seemed to stay away--either unconsciously or purposefully--from anyone wearing a jersey that was under the age of 30. Throughout the two-hour availability, the only teammates Howard was noticed to be speaking with were Theo Ratliff, Marko Jaric, Mark Blount and Trenton Hassell.

(By the way, Hassell got shipped to Dallas later Friday. Luckily for Juwan, Greg Buckner's older.) You almost understand Howard's misgivings -- he was living large between Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady last season before Daryl Morey swapped him north for Mike James. Now? No fans realistically see the playoffs on the near horizon, and most fans will be actively root for the Wolves to tank much of the season in order to give the kids plenty of burn and the hopper plenty of ping pong balls.

Litel has another scoop: Ricky Davis skipped media day with the flu. Even though he was fine two days previous. Are the veteran Wolves going to go on strike or something? That'd be kind-of awesome.

With Minnesota having traded away their rock Kevin Garnett, Juwan Howard is one veteran player who doesn't want to stick around while the team enters full rebuilding mode.

Juwan Howard, whom the Timberwolves acquired from Houston in the trade for Mike James, has been on the phone with the Wolves asking that he also be traded now that he won't get the opportunity to play with Kevin Garnett.

Glen Taylor, owner of the Timberwolves, says that he has no immediate plans to trade Howard.

This is the new reality for Minny and its fans: Since management has made it abundantly clear that they're going to re-build around a group of unproven youngsters, vets desperate for serious about getting a ring (which are specifically the type of players a franchise needs if it wants to contend in the NBA) won't want to be part of this experiment. In other words, things are going to get a lot tougher before they get any better in Minnesota, and the pressure is resting squarely on the youngins' shoulders.

Hey, no pressure Al Jefferson.