FanHouse RenaldoBalkman

The Nuggets far exceeded expectations this season. The team ranked not as the squad most likely to scare the snot out of the Lakers, but as the old guard least likely to return to the postseason in the New World.

Chauncey Billups, Nene, Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony, George Karl, Chris Andersen, J.R. Smith and Joe Dumars changed that. The opening week trade for Mr. Big Shot completely transformed the spirit of the team, as did Karl's summer decision to focus on defense, even at the expense of his stars' allegiance. Everything else went right, for the most part.

But the franchise sit has payroll cuts to consummate, and little in the way of burgeoning youth to fill the holes. By trading the promise of cap space (in the convenient form of Allen Iverson) for Billups, the Nuggets trade a minor rebuild for contention. It worked -- the Nuggets were legit contenders. But what now? How can they possibly get better?

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.

Brett told you about Dwyane Wade's mystical Saturday afternoon dance -- 50 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists, four steals and two blocks against the Jazz. Just filthy.

If it seems like every day Lines is led by Wade or LeBron James ... well, it is. It's not our fault. Blame the defenses of the NBA, who refuse to stop these monsters.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

The Denver Nuggets are among the top teams in the West. Their success starts in the locker-room, where everyone gets along and chemistry is good. In this video, after the jump, the team's players share with us some of the nicknames they've given each other, including 730, Quack, Suite 200 and more.

Renaldo Balkman, who is known as "Kool," even shows us his one-of-a-kind tattoo.

"Things fall apart, the center cannot hold." -Yeats.

You know things have to change with the Knicks. New GM. New coach. New regime. There are going to be changes and they're going to come sooner, rather than later. If reports coming out of New York prove true today, though, it may be players other than those you suspect that are finding new zipcodes.

Instead of Stephon Marbury or the highly prized David Lee, Newsday reports that Renaldo Balkman is on the table, with an offer being discussed with Denver for Bobby Jones and Taurean Green.

The deal makes sense on both sides. The Nuggets need an upgrade for a backup 3 and some size in the frontcourt, Balkman makes little to no sense in Mike D'Antoni's system, and New York wants small contracts for movable assets. It's going to be these kinds of moves that allow the Knicks to set up the deals they really want to make, if you know what I'm saying. If you don't know what I'm saying, go to Google and type in "Zach Randolph."

Update: The trade's gone through! Get your Taurean Green jerseys while they last, Knicks fans! Somewhere, Marcel Mutoni is crying tears of joy.

It probably makes sense to ignore the Knicks faithful within Madison Square Garden on NBA Draft night -- I seem to remember some misplaced giddiness last year. But Donnie Walsh might be taking the idea too far if this rumor from Howard Beck of the New York Times has heat:

According to executives with two teams, the Knicks are discussing a swap of first-round picks with Portland. The Knicks would send the No. 6 pick, forward David Lee and another player to the Trail Blazers for the 13th and 27th picks and a player, possibly Steve Blake or Jarrett Jack.

Just imagine the outpouring of love when David Stern announces the Knicks have traded the coveted #6 pick for a late-lottery and late-first ... and sent David Lee out of town in the process! I imagine it'd be far worse than the infamous reaction for the Renaldo Balkman, which you can see below at around the 55-second mark.

Could Jason Kidd land with the Knicks? Hey, why not? It's no less implausible than a complex, three-team deal that involves one of the leading contenders in the West (Dallas) completely shaking up their roster on a whim.

Plus, Isiah Thomas is officially interested, and when he puts his blinders on to make a deal, it's worth a general manager's time to throw outlandish demands out there to see if Zeke will bite. From Marc Berman of the New York Post (via CSTB):

A day after saying he had "no superstars," Knick coach Isiah Thomas said he will ask the Nets what it would take to land the on-the-block Jason Kidd.

The Nets have been forever looking for a big center, and Eddy Curry could be involved in a potential deal, possibly along with Renaldo Balkman, whom the Nets like. [...]

"I think our business is to find out," Thomas said. "When players are on the market, you try to find out. You have to be interested. You have to look."

Earlier today Matt Watson showed you the vicious elbow that Renaldo Balkman threw to the face of Sasha Vujacic. Believe it or not, this wasn't called a flagrant foul at the time, but the league looked at the play today and dropped a one-game suspension on Renaldo for the needlessly violent act.

Balkman was assessed the foul for throwing an elbow that hit Vujacic in the jaw in the second quarter of the Lakers' 120-109 win Tuesday. Besides the suspension, Balkman was assessed a flagrant foul, penalty two, NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson said in a press release Wednesday.

So the league office saw that it was a flagrant two -- which would have resulted in an immediate ejection -- but the refs in the arena saw it as a run-of-the-mill offensive foul? Please. But this isn't the first time that Sasha has been the victim of violence on the court this season. In a blowout win over the Nuggets, Carmelo Anthony had had enough of Sasha, and went as far as to choke him near the end of the game. What is it about Sasha that drives the opposing team to violence?

That's Renaldo Balkman getting away with what probably should have been a flagrant foul on Sasha Vujacic last night. Vujacic was okay, which is good news considering by that point the Lakers had already lost Luke Walton to a hip pointer. (Awkward segue, I know, but I had to figure out some way to use that video ...)

With Trevor Ariza and Andrew Bynum already on the shelf, the Lakers can ill-afford another injury right now, not when they're about to kick off a marathon nine-game, 16-day road trip out East that includes three sets of back-to-back game. Walton's ailment doesn't appear to be too serious, but Phil Jackson indicated after the game that Walton will likely miss at least the next two games before hopefully returning on Sunday.

This trip could very well turn out to be a make-or-break portion of the season for the Lakers, especially considering they've only won two out of six games since Bynum went down. Their impending road trip will take them into the All-Star break, after which they'll return home for one game before playing three more on the road (well, two more: one of those roadies is against the Clippers). Given how competitive the West has been, they could easily drop from the No. 5 spot in the West to below the No. 8 seed before they return home.

Even though Allan Houston has been working out with the Nets, his agent has made no bones about the fact that, all things being equal, Houston would prefer to return to the Knicks. Trouble is, neither team seemed willing to pony up a guaranteed contract, which has been a sticking point for Houston before committing to either team. But, wait, maybe the Knicks have offered a guaranteed contract ... at least, that's what the Nets front office is hearing. From the New York Post:

The Nets have offered a non-guaranteed contract to Houston, but Nets president Rod Thorn said yesterday he has heard the Knicks have offered Houston guaranteed money. Should Houston get a guaranteed deal, the Nets likely would be out of the running.

The Knicks already have 17 guaranteed contracts on the roster, two over the regular-season limit, so signing Houston would mean dumping at least three players during the next four weeks before the start of the season. But the Knicks may feel like they have no other choice, not only because they need Houston's outside shooting but also because their rotation just got a bit shorter following the news of Renaldo Balkman's injury.

Balkman has been diagnosed with a stress fracture and cartilage damage in his right ankle and will miss all of training camp and possibly the first two weeks of the regular season. Houston certainly doesn't replace what Balkman brings to the table -- namely, rebounding and unbridled energy -- but his skills are useful and needed, nonetheless.

And besides, bringing back Houston, a popular figure among the MSG faithful, would be a pretty decent public relations moves -- at the very least, it'd preempt the embarrassing Isiah Thomas trial for at least a news cycle or two.

(via HOOPSWORLD)