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 disappointments have appeared nearly across the board in Toronto. An undersold problem, though, has been the inability of one Jose Calderon to fully grasp his role as the full-time starter at point guard. Calderon has been good offensively ... but not as consistent as he had been sharing duties.
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.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
There's a lot going on with the Celtics these days. First, they acquire Mikki Moore to help solidify the middle. And then there are all the rumors about Boston acquiring Stephon Marbury. So what's the mood in the locker room? In this video, we talk to Paul Pierce about Marbury. Pierce admits Marbury is a "high risk, high reward" player whose reputation has been as a guy "who kills locker rooms." So does this worry Pierce? And how psyched is Moore to have gone from Sacramento to Boston?
As expected, the Celtics signed seven-footer Mikki Moore for the rest of the season on Tuesday. Depth has been an area of concern for the Celtics from the moment they turned over half of their roster to acquire Kevin Garnett two summers ago. And with Garnett sidelined for at least another couple of weeks, the Celtics are especially shallow up front -- Moore and Kendrick Perkins are the only available big men on the roster taller than 6-foot-9.
Of course, as Tom Ziller pointed out earlier this week, Moore doesn't exactly make the most of his height -- he's one of the worst rebounding big men in the league and hasn't averaged even a single block per 36 minutes the past five years. But that's a mere formality: he takes up space and he's a veteran, which was apparently the only criteria the C's had in mind.
The Kings bought out veteran tall dude Mikki Moore last Thursday, prompting Boston to practically wet itself. While Moore weighs his options (!), the Celtics have apparently put in a bid.
Art Thompson III of the Orange County Registersuggests that Moore could "duplicate or at least come close to providing the type of production that P.J. Brown supplied."
I like Mikki, and he's a great teammate. I will miss rooting for him more than any of the other five players the Kings traded or waived last week. But anyone expecting salvation in the form of this dude is in for great a surprise.
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.
NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.
* Kevin McHale: "I think some of the best lessons learned in life are earned. I know I had to work when I got a bike. I knew where that bike was every minute of the day. My kids, I gave them bikes. 'Where's your bike?' 'I don't know. It could be at my friend's house.' I was like, 'You're kidding me.' " -- Pioneer Press, via Ballerblogger
* "I like to call Rondo's rise to greatness A Series of Very Fortunate Events, and after poring through this tale, you will to." -- RealHoops Blog
* Former Celtics announcer Johnny Most calling a game in Detroit: "OH, THE YELLOW, GUTLESS WAY THEY DO THINGS HERE!" -- Basketbawful
* "San Antonio has a losing record against Milwaukee during the Tim Duncan era." 48 Minutes of Hell, via TrueHoop
* "There's how many people in the world, 10 billion?" [Mikki Moore] said. "And there's only 300 people in the NBA. Wouldn't you have enough pride to go out there and compete? (I'm) not even saying (how) you're getting paid to do it, that it's your job, that's your 9 to 5, (that) you get a check for this. You could be on the corner slinging dope or at KFC working a drive-thru or the post office. (I'm) not even saying that. Wouldn't you have enough pride to say, 'Well, I'm one of the 300 people who's in the NBA,' and go out there and compete for your recognition? That's how I feel about it." -- Sacramento Bee
Mikki Moore has a lot to offer the hotblooded fan: his story is one of incredible perseverance and self-sacrifice, his body is electric with passion, and he's generally hilarious -- from the soundbite to the guttural yelps of glee to the fantastic "Double M" celebration after a big play. (For months, local fans thought the hand signal to be a gang sign.)
But Mikki Moore is not an incredible basketball player at the NBA level. He runs well in transition, has a sharp 18-foot set shot and knows how to take a charge. And that's about it. Consistently, he ranks among the worst power forwards/centers in rebound rate. Moore had 46 blocks in 2,400 minutes last season. Spencer Hawes has nearly that many this season in a quarter of the minutes. Moore also has turnover problems (a lobster would catch the ball more frequently near the rim) and scores only on a rare putback or when he is ridiculously open at the elbow or baseline. Basically, he's Eddy Curry without the post presence or the bowl full of jelly.
Sacramento struggled mightily with Moore at the starting power forward position. Hawes has played amazing basketball, given expectations. Reggie Theus fears for his job, and his bosses have made youth development a priority. Moore is 33 years old. Hawes is 20. Theus benched Moore last week.
After tearing up the first few games of the season, including dropping an unstoppable 49 points on the Indiana Pacers, Amare Stoudemire has struggled a bit as of late. In his last two outings, he's had performances that were definitely sub-par: 11 points and nine boards against Houston, and just 12 points and five rebounds in last night's overtime win in Sacramento.
The reason for Amare's slowdown might just be more mental than physical. After the game against the Rockets, some of Stoudemire's comments would lead you to believe that he's less than impressed with some of the players that end up checking him on defense.
"You got Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes, Carl Landry ... I mean, Scola, it's his second year in the league," Stoudemire said. "Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry, you know ... they're okay players, but I definitely can dominate those guys early. Anytime. Nothing against them, they played well tonight."
Those were some long pauses between those statements from Amare, and you could tell that he was trying not to say anything too disrespectful when discussing his opponents. But it's clear he feels that there's no way those guys should be able to stop him, even though the players he mentioned are more than capable NBA defenders.
The season's a week old, so it's time to dust off the old Guillotine. The NBA Coaching Guillotine considers which coaches have the potential to be executed (figuratively) and why.
For all his big city swagger and wink-wink charm, Reggie Theus is in the most precarious of positions early on in his sophomore season at the helm of the Kings. Really, the Theus reality is a checklist of bad coaching mojo.
* He's losing. Disney on Ice sent Sacramento to start on the road. It hasn't gone well, with big-time blowouts in Miami (!) and Philadelphia, a solid loss in Orlando and a close defeat in Minnesota (!). I would argue that when it comes to midseason firings, winning percentage is the biggest cause. Theus is at a 0.00% winning percentage.
* There is disruption, not direction. No one has come out and blast Theus ... yet. Mikki Moore is blaming everyone. Kevin Martin seems flummoxed. Spencer Hawes, yanked with Moore 90 seconds into the third quarter against Philly after giving up an offensive rebound, seems super ticked any time he gets the hook. Bobby Jackson, one of the toughest, most resilient guys of this era, actually looks bored. Young teams are supposed to brim with hope, not suffer under the weight of absent expectations.
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 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.
There's a lot going on with the Celtics these days. First, they acquire Mikki Moore to help solidify the middle. And then there are all the rumors about Boston acquiring Stephon Marbury. So what's the mood in the locker room? In this video, we talk to Paul Pierce about Marbury. Pierce admits Marbury is a "high risk, high reward" player whose reputation has been as a guy "who kills locker rooms." So does this worry Pierce? And how psyched is Moore to have gone from Sacramento to Boston?
As expected, the Celtics signed seven-footer Mikki Moore for the rest of the season on Tuesday. Depth has been an area of concern for the Celtics from the moment they turned over half of their roster to acquire Kevin Garnett two summers ago. And with Garnett sidelined for at least another couple of weeks, the Celtics are especially shallow up front -- Moore and Kendrick Perkins are the only available big men on the roster taller than 6-foot-9. 
The Kings bought out veteran tall dude Mikki Moore last Thursday, prompting Boston to practically wet itself. While Moore weighs his options (!), the Celtics have apparently put in a bid. 
NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.
Mikki Moore has a lot to offer the hotblooded fan: his story is one of incredible perseverance and self-sacrifice, his body is electric with passion, and he's generally hilarious -- from the soundbite to the guttural yelps of glee to the fantastic "Double M" celebration after a big play. (For months, local fans thought the hand signal to be a gang sign.)
After tearing up the first few games of the season, including dropping an unstoppable 49 points on the Indiana Pacers, Amare Stoudemire has struggled a bit as of late. In his last two outings, he's had performances that were definitely sub-par: 11 points and nine boards against Houston, and just 12 points and five rebounds in last night's overtime win in Sacramento.
The season's a week old, so it's time to dust off the old Guillotine. The NBA Coaching Guillotine considers which coaches have the potential to be executed (figuratively) and why.
