FanHouse OJMayo

Allen Iverson needs to lay low for a while.

After establishing himself as a potential Hall of Fame guard, with offensive skills never before seen in the league and establishing himself as a perennial winner who's only flaw was that he was surrounded by insufficient backup, the last year has done a lot to tarnish that reputation. After being traded to Detroit he was an outright disaster, unable to find his place in the offense or in the locker room. Meanwhile the guard he was traded for, Chauncey Billups, lead his team to the Conference Finals.

As a free agent this summer, Iverson needs to go somewhere quietly and rebuild his image, much the same way that his old coach Larry Brown has in Charlotte. But it might be another small market team Iverson ends up with. One that now features an... eclectic makeup of personalities.

Iverson might be headed South for the Winter.

It has not been a stellar year of headlines for Calvin Andrews of BDA. Earlier this year, after the O.J. Mayo-USC-Ronald Guillory story blew up, Andrews -- who allegedly paid Guillory to deliver Mayo to his client list -- was dropped by the Memphis guard and then suspended from agenting activities for a year by the NBA Players Association. This suspension is more of public slap on the wrist than anything -- rumors abound that Andrews is the real agent for top prospects including Hasheem Thabeet, who is listed as a BDA client. (The policing of the agents is a complete joke, in other words.)

But here's a karmic punishment that works: Carmelo Anthony, Andrews' top client by far, has reportedly dropped BDA to move over to CAA, the agency led by Leon Rose and attached to William Wesley.

On behalf of David Feherty, I'd like to apologize for the following column. It again takes shots at House Mis-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, not to mention her fellow victims of CIA subterfuge, Roger Clemens, Tim Floyd and Mine That Bird.

Who knew the CIA was plotting to overthrow the Preakness? You will after reading the latest installment of Week in Review.

Surprising no one, University of Memphis star Tyreke Evans will enter the NBA draft after one college season. Evans went into college looking for a rental, and Memphis -- under John Calipari -- served as a proper NBA training ground, featuring a pro-style offense and no expectations for top prospects to stay longer than a season. Ex-Memphis guard Derrick Rose certainly adjusted to NBA defenses rather well after a year with Calipari.

But while Rose definitely came to the Bulls as a pure point guard, Evans is a bit of a question mark: can he be a legitimate NBA point guard? With the league infatuated with purity in the backcourt, Evans will need to make his case during workout season that he can run a pro team against pro defenses.

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.

Miami has two options this summer. The Heat can continue to be a legitimate one-man band, or it can get hooked up with some shady underground biotechnician and clone Dwyane Wade. Your choice, Heat.

Wade went ballistic (again) with 42 points on 34 FGAs and 13 FTAs. He added four rebounds, four assists, four steals and a block. And only one turnover. I mention turnovers quite frequently in Doing Lines, but just to be sure you grok my spit: one turnover in (effectively) 45 offensive possessions Wade is personally responsible for is ... unreal. Those 3.4 turnovers a game might look like a lot. But account for how much of the offense rests on his shoulders and ... yeah. B-E-A-S-T.

The NBA finally decided to bring back the HORSE contest, and this one should be a fun way to start off the night's festivities. Join us as we wait for TNT to get through Inside the NBA and get to HORSE, which should start around 6:15 PM ET. Your 2009 TNT HORSE Contestants: Joe Johnson, OJ Mayo, Kevin Durant.

After last night's 46-point explosion from Durant in the Rookies-Sophomores Game, he has to be considered the favorite. Durant showed incredible range and versatility and is absolutely incredible to watch. Johnson and Mayo should be able to give Durant a very solid push, though. Join us at after the jump for a LiveBlog-O-Rama-Rama brought to you by your momma!

The NBA All Star Weekend's inaugural game of HORSE (a.k.a. GEICO) has its first set of contestants lined up. And, unlike the Dunk Contest in most years, this could be pretty freaking exciting: Kevin Durant, O.J. Mayo and Joe Johnson are the first three names who will compete on national television for bragging rights in the classic playground game.

Yes, you should be more excited than Nate Robinson after destroying 34 straight zoltars on World of Warcraft. (From Daily Thunder.)

Memphis' No. 4 in the vaunted 2007 draft, point guard Mike Conley, has been a bust by all measures. It's early of course, and point guards take a minute to mature. But Conley has lost his job to Kyle Lowry twice, and Lowry's headed toward a career as an Earl Watsonesque role player. Conley's been rumored as trade bait since he entered the NBA, but things have heated up now.

Every time I sit down to watch a Grizzlies game, I know I'll be getting one of two teams.

The Good Grizzlies are young, athletic, and hungry. They play defense with focus and intensity, they rebound, they rely on terrific plays from Rudy Gay slashing and OJ Mayo nailing jumpers, and Marc Gasol beasting around the interior. Their role players don't turn the ball over, and Hakim Warrick provides the spark off the bench while Marc Iavaroni manages good rotations and timely, effective timeouts.

The Bad Grizzlies make immature decisions, foolish passes, execute poorly, get freaked out on defense when a team comes right at them, fail to crash the boards and let Kyle Lowry shoot a lot.

Today was a Good Grizzlies day.

There's a lot to be said about the Grizzlies' 102-82 win over the Mavericks, which snapped a 13 game losing streak to the division "rivals." And a lot of it has to do with things like Jason Kidd, Erick Dampier, and Devean George, three of the starting five, combining for a whopping five points and six assists. There's surely a lot of negativity on the Mavs' plane tonight, but they should save some respect for the Grizzlies, who put out their most complete performance in several weeks.

And as has become the norm, O.J. Mayo was at the front of the charge.

FanHouse's NBA Guide gives you a daily look at all the games that matter ... and some that don't.

A second Fat Monday in a row for the lig, with eight games of varying intrigue on the docket.

HEADLINER
Denver at Atlanta, 7PM EST

The night's best match-up will be the first to tip-off with two teams who have far exceeded expectations this season. The Hawks find themselves as the fourth best team in the East, led by exhilarating playmaking from Joe Johnson, deft shot-making by Mike Bibby and continued interior excellence from Al Horford. Josh Smith (dampened) and Marvin Williams (rebuilt) make this a pretty killer starting five, all things considered.

The Nuggets remain right in the Western mix despite being written off as casualties of the Portland ascension during the summer. As we have been over, it's a whole lot of Nené and Chauncey Billups doing the trick, but don't forget about Carmelo Anthony, who has better rebound numbers than Kenyon Martin and has really stepped up the defensive intensity.